Ante Starčević i Židovi (prema pisanju lista Sloboda)
ANTE STARČEVIĆ AND THE JEWS, BASED ON THE ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN SLOBODA NEWSPAPER

Summary/Abstract: The article presents Ante Starčević’s views on Jews. The author uses the Party of Rights newspaper Sloboda (1878 - 1886) articles as a source. Starčević did not write directly about the Jews, but he mentioned them in his analysis of the international affairs and particularly in connection with the growing antisemitism in other countries (Germany, Russia, Hungary, Austria). The analysis clearly shows that Starčević was against religious, racial or social antisemitsm. He attacked antisemitism in Germany and Hungary and he thought it was motivated by poor morale and attempt to plunder the Jewish property. At the same time Starčević had a positive opinion about Russia and therefore thought that anti-Jewish manifestations in that country present a lesser moral evil because they were not motivated by plunder of Jewish property. Antisemitism was not widespread in Croatia, although it did appear during the movement against the Hungarians in 1883. Starčević thought that antisemitism in Croatia is spread by Hungarian agents. Concerning the Tisza-Eszlar trial Starčević opinion was that the whole affair had been misplaced. Instead to concentrate on Ester Solymosi as a victim, the trial tried to find out whether she had been a victim of a ritual murder. Starčević thought that the accusation for ritual murder is meaningless. He thought that the whole trial has been conducted inadequatly and for this reason he was against the sentence that freed the accussed. Starčević blamed the whole system for such outcome but he also fiercly blamed Jews because he thought they have used bribe to influence the court opinion. The author concludes that Starčević, despite some of his heavy accussations against Jews, cannot be described as a persistant antisemite.

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