Lehigh University is offering as its core course, East European Jewish Civilization in the Modern Era, 1750s-1939
East European Jewish Civilization in the Modern Era, 1750s-1939
Professor Joanna Michlic
East
European Jewry created the world to which most American Jews and a half
of all Israeli Jews trace their origin. This course surveys, within the
context of European history as a whole, the unique civilization that
Jews built in the lands of Eastern Europe. It will focus on the vast
changes in Jewish life resulting from the encounter of the Jewish
communities
of the areas, particularly of the Polish territories and Russia, with
modernity. It will investigate the political, social and cultural
history of these communities since the middle of the eighteenth century
until the Second World War (1939-1945). The investigation will also
include the discussion of mutual relations between the Jewish
communities and the dominant nations of the region. Throughout the
course various primary sources in English translation, secondary source
reading, maps And samples of visual arts will be distributed and
discussed.
On the eve of the Second World War, Poland
contained the largest Jewish community in Europe, with a population of
nearly three and a half million. The third largest community numbering
nearly three million was in the Soviet Union. These two communities
constituted fascinating and unique centers of the Jewish world. This
was the world,
which ‘gave birth’ to political, intellectual and
cultural movements that had a huge impact on the Jewish history as a
whole in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most of the principal
trends of modern Jewish thought, Zionism, Territorialism and
specifically Jewish forms of socialism (Bundism), had their origin in
Eastern Europe.
Zionism and Jewish autonomist socialism as two
major forms of modern Jewish selfidentification crystallized and
developed by the late nineteenth century. At the time, the
traditionalist communities both Mitnagdic and Hasidic also sought to
develop strategies to cope with the challenges of modernity. As a
result modernized versions of traditional
orthodoxy developed a
significant following. Simultaneously, a significant minority within
the Jewish community was also attracted to revolutionary socialism with
its vision of a new world in which the old divisions of Jew and gentile
would be subsumed by the creation of a new socialist humanity. These
new ideologies went along with the
emergence of Yiddish as a
literary language and the development of modern Hebrew. In turn, the
latter development was extremely important in terms of the emergence of
secular Jewish culture in its both high and low forms.
The
beginning of the twentieth century marked further changes in the
history of East European Jewry. The end of the First World War
(1914-1918) saw a fundamental reordering of the territorial and
political framework of East-Central Europe. The Jews of the area were
now divided between the newly reborn Polish state, where they were
guaranteed their rights both as individuals and as a community, but
where they faced difficult political and social problems and the Soviet
Union, which adopted a new form of radical assimilationism in its
Jewish policy, giving the Jews everything as individuals, but
destroying all vestiges of Jewish communal autonomy, except for the
closely controlled socialist Yiddish culture. Despite facing major
social, cultural and economic difficulties,
the Jewish communities
of Poland and Soviet Union continued to thrive in inter-war period. The
vibrant world of East European Jewish civilization was only brutally
interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, which saw the
murder of the large majority of the Jews of the area.
Topics:
1. Introduction: Archeology of a “Ruined World”.
Where
is Eastern Europe? Why did the Jews go there? What developments took
place from the origins of the Jewish settlements in the region until
the beginning of the eighteenth century?
Required readings:
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Earth is the Lord's (entire book).
Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania, Introduction, Chapters 1-2.
Jew in the Medieval World, "The Shulkhan Aruk," "The Council of Four Lands and the Lithuanian Council," pp. 200-11.
Recommended reading:
M.J. Rosman, "Jewish Perceptions of Insecurity and Powerlessness in 16th-18th Century Poland," Polin 1 (1986): 19-27.
2.
Jewish Cultural and Religious Life on the Eve of Modernity: Hasidism
and its Opponents the Mitnagdim, and the Rise of the Haskalah Movement.
Where, how and why did Hasidism develop? Who were its critics? What
were the major features of the development of the Haskalah movement in
the region? And who were the main representatives of the movement?
Required Readings:
Shmuel
Ettinger, “The Hasidic Movement - Reality and Ideals,” and Gershom
Scholem, “Devekut, or Communion with God,” in Gershon Hundert, ed.,
Essential Papers on Hasidism, pp. 226-43, 275-98.
Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania, Chapters 8-9 and Afterword
Life Is With People, pp. 166-88.
Lucy Dawidowicz, The Golden Tradition, Early Hasidism, pp. 5-27 (Introduction) and pp. 93-110.
Jew in the Modern World, Maimon, Excommunication, Baruch of Bobruisk, Volozhin Yeshivah, pp. 387-95.
Recommended readings:
In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov (translated by Ben-Amos and Mintz), pp. 7-23.
David Fishman, Russia’s First Modern Jews. The Jews of Shklov, pp. 7-27.
3.
The Consequences of the End of the First Polish Republic (the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) (1795): Russia ‘Came’ and ‘Gathered’
Her Jews.
What were the consequences for the Jewish communities of
the final partition of the First Polish Republic in 1795? What were the
Russian Policies towards Jews in the first half of the nineteenth
century? What was the character of the Jewish life in the Pale of
Settlement?
Required Readings:
Daniel Beauvois,
“Polish-Jewish Relations in the Territories Annexed by the Russian
Empire in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” in Chimon Abramsky
et al, eds., The Jews in Poland, pp. 78-90.
Michael Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews, pp. 13-48.
Jew in the Modern World (Pale of Settlement) p. 379.
Recommended Reading:
John D. Klier, Russia Gathers Her Jews: The Origins of the Jewish Question in Russia, 1772-1825, Introduction and Chapters 1-2.
Richard Pipes, “Catherine II and the Jews: The Origins of the Pale of Settlement,” Soviet Jewish Affairs, 5, 1975 pp. 3-20.
4. The Problem of Emancipation in Imperial Russia.
How was the Emancipation program conceptualized in Imperial Russia? Who were the forerunners of the Emancipation?
Required Readings:
Louis Greenberg, The Jews of Russia, Vol. 1 pp. 73-100.
Hans
Rogger, “The Question of Jewish Emancipation: Russia in the Mirror of
Europe,” in: Jewish Policies and Right-Wing Policies on Imperial
Russia, pp. 1-24.
Recommended reading:
Benjamin Nathans, Beyond the Pale. The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia, Introduction and Chapter 1.
5. Demographic, Social, Cultural and Economic Changes in the Community.
What major social, cultural and economic developments took place in the second half of the nineteenth century?
Required readings:
Salo. W. Baron, The Russian Jew under Tsars and Soviets, pp. 63-98.
Stephen Corrain, Warsaw before the First World War, pp. 21-38.
Eli Lederhendler, The Road to Modern Jewish Politics, pp. 111-53.
Shaul
Stampfer, “Gender Differentiation and Education of the Jewish Woman in
Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe,” Polin 7, 1992, pp. 63-87.
Recommended readings:
Steven Zipperstein, The Jews of Odessa, pp. 96-113.
Zofia Borzyminska, “Government-Sponsored Schools for Jews in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864-1870,” Gal-Ed 13, 1993, pp. 27-38.
6.
The Year 1881 and Its Aftermath: The ‘Jewish Question’ in the Late
Imperial Russia and in the Russian partitioned Polish Territory.
What
were the causes and the dynamics of the anti-Jewish violence of 1881?
Who orchestrated the violence? What was the impact of the events of
1881 on the Jewish communities?
Required readings:
Michael
I. Aronson, “The Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Russia in 1881,” in J. D. Klier
and S. Lambroza, eds., Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian
History, pp. 44-57.
Hans Rogger, “The Jewish Policy of Late
Tsarism: A Reappraisal,” in: Jewish Policies and Right Wing Policies in
Imperial Russia, pp. 25-39.
Stephen Corrsin, Warsaw before the First World War, pp. 78-106.
Jew in the Modern World: 380 (May Laws), 408-09 (pogroms), 412-13 (Beilis trial), 413, 17 (Levin, emigration, Baron de Hirsch).
Recommended reading:
Michael I. Aronson Troubled Waters: The Origins of the 1881 Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Russia, Introduction and Chapters 1-3.
7. The Rise of Modern Jewish National Consciousness: the Zionist Ideology and Movement.
Under what circumstances did modern Jewish national consciousness emerge?
What were the major characteristics of the Zionist movement? What major trends in Zionist ideology can we differentiate?
Required readings:
Salo Baron, Russian Jew, Chapter 9.
Golden Tradition, 232-42 (Dubnow).
Shlomo Avineri, "Zionism as a Revolution," in The Making of Modern Zionism, 3-13.
Ezra Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics, pp. 3-36;
Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea, pp. 148-53, 168-77, 181-98, 262-69, 355-60.
Leon Pinsker, “Auto-Emancipation,” in: Arthur Hertzberg, The Zionist Idea, 178-98.
Jew in the Modern World: 532-45 (Bilu, Herzl, Protestrabbiner, Basle Program, Ahad Ha-Am, Rabinowitz)
Recommended reading:
Simon Dubnow, Nationalism and History (ed. K. S. Pinson) pp. 155-81.
Yosef
Salmon, "The Emergence of a Jewish Nationalist Consciousness in Europe
during the 1860s and 1870s, "AJS Review 16, 1991, pp. 107-32.
Steven J. Zipperstein, Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha’am and the Origins of Zionism, Introduction and Chapters 1-2.
8. The Rise of Jewish Socialism.
What
were the major centers of the Jewish socialist movement? Who were the
key socialist leaders and what was their vision of the Jewish community
and its place in the world?
Required readings:
Ezra Mendelsohn, “The Jewish Proletariat,” in: Class Struggle in the Pale, 1-26.
Jew in the Modern World: 419-23 (Bund), 428-32 (Lenin, Stalin), 425-28 (Shohat)
Golden Tradition: 405-422 (Axelrod, Zhitlovsky), 435-447 (Grosser, Trotsky).
Moshe Mishkinsky, The Jewish Society Through the Ages, pp. 284-96.
Chaim
Zhitlovsky (sic), “What is the Jewish Secular Culture?” in: Great
Yiddish Writers of the Twentieth Century, (selected and translated by
Joseph Leftwich), pp. 91-98.
Recommended readings:
Jonathan
Frankel, Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian
Jews, 1862- 1917. Introduction and Chapters 1-3.
Henry J. Tobias, The Jewish Bund in Russia, Introduction.
9. The Impact of Modernity on Jewish Traditional Religious Life: Orthodoxy Renewed.
What
was the impact of modernity on traditional patterns of religious life?
What was the outcome of the fusion of modern Jewish politics with
traditional Judaism?
Required readings:
Golden Tradition: 69-89, 195-206.
Jew in the Modern World: 552-54 (Borochov), 547-48 (Nordau), 423-24, 555-56
(Helsingfors Program).
Jew in the Modern World: 394-400 (Volozhin, Musar, Reines), 546 (Mizrahi), 565-66
(Agudat Israel)
10. The Emergence of a New Jewish Secular Culture: High and Low.
What
impact did modernity have on Jewish culture? Who were the founding
fathers of secular Jewish literature? What were the major patterns of
its development?
Jew in the Modern World: 400-05 (Rabinowich, Levinsohn, Smolenskin, Mendele),424
(Czernowitz conference).
Jew in the Modern World: 386 (Gordon, “For Whom Do I Toil?”), 410-11 (Bialik, “The City of Slaughter”).
Golden Tradition: 273-80 (Mendele), 286-304 (Peretz).
Sholem Aleichem, “On Account of a Hat,” “A Passover Expropriation,” in: The Best of Sholom Aleichem, 103-10, 122-28.
I. L. Peretz, “Three Gifts,” in: Selected Stories, 41-48.
Recommended reading:
Dan Miron, A Traveler Disguised: The Rise of Modern Yiddish Fiction in the Nineteenth Century, Chapters 1-2.
Ruth R. Wisse, The Modern Jewish Canon, Introduction
11. The Impact of the First World War (1914-1918) and the Russian Revolution
(1917)
How
did the First World War affect the Jewish community living on the
partitioned Polish territories? What impact did the Russian Revolution
of 1917 have on the Jews of Russia? What was the role of the Jews in
the Russian Revolution?
Required Readings:
S. W. Baron, The Russian Jew under the Tsars and Soviets, pp. 156-86;
Pawel Korzec, "Antisemitism in Poland," in J. A. Rishman, ed., Studies on Polish Jewry,
pp. 29-52;
P. R. Mendes-Flohr and J. Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World (2nd ed.) pp.
428-36.
Jew in the Modern World: 432-36 (Emancipation, Yevsektsiya), 439-40 (Red Army)
Recommended readings:
Isaac Babel, "Gedali," "My First Goose," "The Rabbi," "The Cemetery in Kozin,"
"Prishchepa" in Complete Works, 227-38, 259-61 (xerox)
12. Jews in Reborn Poland between 1918-1939: “Interwar Poland: Good for the Jews or Bad for the Jews?”
Required readings:
Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars, pp. 1-8, 11-84.
Jew in the Modern World: 437-38 (Minorities Treaty), 440-42 (Polish Constitution), 582
(Balfour Declaration), 442-46 (Gruenbaum), 577-79 (Ha-Shomer Ha-Zair), 598-99
(Hakhsharah).
Yisrael Gutman, “Polish Antisemitism Between the Wars: An Overview,” in: The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars
Samuel Kassow, "Community and Identity in the Interwar Shtetl." in The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars
Recommended readings:
Antony Polonsky, The Little Dictators: The History of Eastern Europe since 1918, pp.
26-43;
Ezra
Mendelsohn, “Interwar Poland: Good for the Jews or Bad for the Jews?”
in: Chimen Abramsky, Maciej Jachimczyk, Antony Polonsky (eds.), The
Jews in Poland, Oxford,
1986, pp. 130-139;
Ezra Mendelsohn “Jewish Historiography on Polish Jewry in the Interwar Period,”
Polin, 8, pp. 3-13.
13. A Trilingual Jewish Culture in Interwar Poland.
Mendelsohn, Jews of East Central Europe, 63-68.
Golden Tradition: 206-13 (Schenirer, Prager)
Chone Shmeruk, "Hebrew-Yiddish-Polish: A Trilingual Jewish Culture," in The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars
Jerzy
Ficowski, Regions of the Heresy, Bruno Schulz. A Biographical Portrait,
New York, London, W. W. Norton and Company, 2003, Chapters 2, 10- 12.
Recommended readings:
Eugenia
Prokop-Janiec, Polish-Jewish Literature in the Interwar Years,
Syracuse, New York, Syracuse University Pres, 2003, 108-161.
14. Jews in Soviet Russia (1917-1921) and the Soviet Union 1921-41.
What
was the character of Jewish life in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union?
What challenges did Jews face under the communist regime?
Required Readings:
Benjamin Pinkus, The Jews of the Soviet Union, pp. 49-137;
Irving Howe, Eliezer Greenberg (eds.), A Treasury of Yiddish Poetry, New York, 1969.
Section “Yiddish Poets in the Soviet Union”, pp. 171-197.
Salo Baron, Russian Jew, Chapters 12-14.
Jew in the Modern World: 446-48 (Birobidzhan).
Recommended readings:
Nora Levin, The Jews in the Soviet Union since 1917, New York University Press, 1988, volume 1, chapters 1 and 2.
Zvi Gitelman, Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU,
Princeton, 1972, esp. pp. 321-442.
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