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Reappraisals and New Studies of the Modern Jewish Experience the Brill Reference Library of Judaism Reappraisals and New Studies of the Modern Jewish Experience The Brill Reference Library of Judaism Editors Alan J. Avery-Peck (College of the Holy Cross) William Scott Green (University of Miami) Editorial Board Herbert Basser (Queen’s University) Bruce D. Chilton (Bard College) José Faur (Netanya College) Neil Gillman (Jewish Theological Seminary of America) Mayer I. Gruber (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Ithamar Gruenweld (Tel Aviv University) Arkady Kovelman (Moscow State University) David Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary of America) Baruch A. Levine (New York University) Jacob Neusner (Bard College) Maren Niehoff (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Gary G. Porton (University of Illinois) Aviezer Ravitzky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Dov Schwartz (Bar Ilan University) Günter Stemberger (University of Vienna) Michael E. Stone (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Elliot Wolfson (New York University) VOLUME 44 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/brla Photo of Robert M. Seltzer (Photo: Melanie Einzig) Reappraisals and New Studies of the Modern Jewish Experience Essays in Honor of Robert M. Seltzer Edited by Brian M. Smollett and Christian Wiese LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover: Painting, Pierre Jacquemon, untitled; collection of Robert and Cheryl Seltzer. Photo: Melanie Einzig Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reappraisals and new studies of the modern Jewish experience : essays in honor of Robert M. Seltzer / edited by Brian Smollett and Christian Wiese. pages cm. — (The Brill reference library of Judaism ; 44) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-28463-0 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28466-1 (e-book) 1. Judaism— History. 2. Jews—History. 3. Jews—Europe, Eastern. 4. Jews—United States—Identity. 5. Judaism— United States. 6. Seltzer, Robert M. I. Smollett, Brian M., editor. BM160.R43 2014 909’.0492407—dc23 2014032776 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see http://www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1571-5000 isbn 978-90-04-28463-0 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-28466-1 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Acknowledgements ix List of Contributors x Robert M. Seltzer: Scholar and Teacher 1 Brian M. Smollett Introduction: Jewish Identities in the Modern Period 5 Christian Wiese part 1 Jewish Life and Modern Questions in Russia and Eastern Europe Language Acquisition as a Criterion of Modernization among East Central European Jews: The Case of Dov Ber Birkenthal of Bolechów 13 Gershon David Hundert Mikhah Yosef Berdichevsky and Shimon Dubnow: A Distant Regard and Appreciation 29 William Cutter Saul Borovoi’s Survival: An Odessa Tale about a Jewish Historian in Soviet Times 46 Brian Horowitz Defying Authority in the Pale: The Making of Soviet Jewish Rituals and the Emergence of Folk Legitimacy 62 Elissa Bemporad vi Contents part 2 Jewish Thought and Questions of Identity Pride and Pedigree: The Development of the Myth of Sephardic Aristocratic Lineage 85 Jane S. Gerber Joshua Hezekiah Decordova and a Rabbinic Counter-Enlightenment from Colonial Jamaica 104 Stanley Mirvis Merchant Colonies: Resettlement in Italy, France, Holland, and England, 1550–1700 123 David Sorkin From Combat to Convergence: The Relationship between Heinrich Graetz and Abraham Geiger 145 Michael A. Meyer Kaplan and Personality 162 Mel Scult How Much Eastern Europe in American Jewish Thought? The Case of Jacob B. Agus 180 Zach Mann Diaspora, Jewishness, and Difference in Isaiah Berlin’s Thought 207 Arie M. Dubnov Martin Buber and the Impact of World War I on the Prague Zionists Shmuel H. Bergman, Robert Weltsch, and Hans Kohn 235 Christian Wiese The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Vision in the Life and Thought of Hans Kohn 268 Brian M. Smollett Contents vii part 3 Jewish Religion and Politics in America How the Bible Expelled Religion from the American Schoolroom: The Causes and Consequences of Bible Wars in Nineteenth-Century American Schools 289 Stephan F. Brumberg Lay and Rabbinic Conflict in Mid-Nineteenth Century American Jewry 304 Bruce L. Ruben An International Solution for an International Problem: The JDC and the AJC in the 1930s 328 Naomi W. Cohen Stephen S. Wise and Golda Meir: Zionism, Israel, and American Power in the Twentieth Century 356 Mark A. Raider “We Must Build Anew”: Ideological Perspectives of the First Generation of Students to Attend Stephen S. Wise’s Jewish Institute of Religion 388 Shirley Idelson A Judaism for Moderns: Reflections on Contemporary Challenges 412 Sanford Ragins Writings of Robert M. Seltzer 427 Roberta S. Newman Index 434 Acknowledgements The editors have acquired several debts over the years that it took to put this volume together. First and foremost, we owe thanks to Bob’s family and friends for keeping this volume a secret. Bob’s wife Cheryl was particularly helpful and supportive each step of the way. Bob’s friend, and former student, Leonard Petlakh, raised funds that were absolutely vital for the timely completion of this book. We would especially like to thank Dr. Igor Branovan and the American Forum of Russian Jewry for their generosity. Aviva Arad’s excellent copyediting made the process of revising the contri- butions much more efficient and timely. Stanley Mirvis also provided much needed last minute help in editing and formatting some of the articles. Some colleagues of Bob’s do not appear in the volume, but gave advice or assistance at different stages of the project. Special thanks are due to Eddie Schecter. List of Contributors Elissa Bemporad is the Jerry and William Ungar Professor of Eastern European Jewish History and the Holocaust and assistant professor of history at Queens College, The City University of New York. She is the author of Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk (2013), winner of the National Jewish Book Award and of the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History. The Russian translation is forthcoming with rosspen in the series History of Stalinism. Dr. Bemporad is currently working on a new book project, tentatively entitled “The Politics of Blood: The Ritual Murder Accusation in the Soviet Union and Poland,” which explores the ritual murder accusation within the context of the social, economic and gender relations between the Jews and their neighbors in the Soviet Union and Poland in the twentieth century. She is also co-editor of Conzeniana, a series in Yiddish culture and literature, published by Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome. Stephan F. Brumberg is Professor of Educational History and Leadership at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He has taught and conducted research in Hong Kong, Nigeria, Venezuela and Colombia and served as University Director of Teacher Education for cuny and Senior Assistant to the nyc Schools Chancellor. At Brooklyn College he headed the Educational Leadership Program. He is the author of Going to America, Going to School: The Jewish Immigrant Public School Encounter in Turn-of-the-Century New York City (1986) and of many education related book chapters, articles, and encyclopedia essays. He is currently at work on a study of religious conflict in nineteenth-century America and the ways in which these conflicts shaped American education. Naomi W. Cohen is Professor Emerita at the City University of New York. She has served on the faculties of Hunter College, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Columbia University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She is the author of several books in the field of American Jewish history including Not Free to Desist: The American Jewish Committee, 1906–1966 (1972); The Year After the Riots: American Responses to the Palestine Crisis of 1929–1930 (1988); and The Americanization of Zionism, 1897–1948 (2003). She earned her doctorate at Columbia University. List Of Contributors xi William Cutter is Steinberg Emeritus Professor of Human Relations at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he held the Paul and Trudy Steinberg Chair in Human Relations, and was Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature and Education. He has taught at huc-jir since 1965, and has served in several administrative capacities throughout his academic career. He is founder of the huc’s Rhea Hirsch School of Education, the muse program of the Skirball Museum, and the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health. He also was the founding director of the Louchheim School of Jewish Studies. Dr. Cutter has written nearly 200 articles on literary theory, Modern Hebrew Literature, Educational Theory, and health and healing as part of Jewish experience. His most recent publication is Midrash and Medicine (2010). He is also the editor of Healing and the Jewish Imagination: Spiritual and Practical Perspectives on Judaism and Health (2007), and History and Literature: Essays in Honor of Arnold Band (2002). Arie M. Dubnov is a Senior Lecturer at the School of History and the Department of General History at the University of Haifa, Israel. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a past George L. Mosse Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and prior to his arrival to Haifa had served for four years as an Acting Assistant Professor at Stanford University’s Department of History.
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