Description
Book SynopsisThe book argues that Jews were not a people apart but were culturally integrated in Russian society. In their diasporic cultural creations Russia’s Jews employed the general themes of artists under tsars and Soviets, but they modified these themes to fit their own needs. The result was a hybrid, Russian-Jewish culture, unique and dynamic. Few today consider that Jewish Eastern Europe, the “old world”, was in fact a power incubator of modern Jewish consciousness. Brian Horowitz, a well-known scholar of Russian Jewry, presents essays on Jewish education (the heder), historiography, literature and Jewish philosophy that intersect with contemporary interests on the big questions of Jewish life. The book lets us grasp the meaning of secular Judaism and gives models from the past in order to stimulate ideas for the present.
Trade Review"This book is a comprehensive analysis of Russian-Jewish tradition, Jewish intellectuals, historians, writers and educational institutions in the late nineteenth and and early twentieth centuries. It is a well-written reference book for specialists and academics on Russian-Jewish history." - International Journal of Russian Studies, 7.1 (2018)Table of Contents
- Introduction, William Craft Brumfield
- Part I: Russian-Jewish Historians and Historiography
- 1. The Return of the Ḥeder among Russian-Jewish Education Experts, 1840–1917
- 2. ‘Building a Fragile Edifice’: A History of Russian-Jewish Historical Institutions, 1860–1914
- 3. Myths and Counter-Myths about Odessa’s Jewish Intelligentsia during the Late Tsarist Period
- 4. Saul Borovoi’s Survival: An Odessa Tale about a Jewish Historian in Soviet Times
- 5. The Ideological Challenges of S. M. Dubnov in Emigration: Autonomism and Zionism, Europe and Palestine
- Part II: Russian–Jewish Intelligentsia’s Cultural Vibrancy
- 6. Semyon An-sky—Dialogic Writer
- 7. Russian-Jewish Writers Face Pogroms, 1880–1914
- 8. M. O. Gershenzon, Alexander Pushkin, the Bible, and the Flaws of Jewish Nationalism
- 9. Battling for Self-Definition in Soviet Literature: Boris Eikhenbaum’s Jewish Question
- 10. Vladimir Jabotinsky and the Mystique of 1905
- 11. Vladimir Jabotinsky and Violence
- Part III: Jewish Heritage in Russian Perception
- 12. Vladimir Solov’ev and the Jews: A View from Today
- 13. Fear and Stereotyping: Vasily Rozanov and Jewish Menace
