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The Jews in Poland and Russia, Vol Antony Polonsky. The Jews in Poland and Russia, vol. 1, 1350 to 1881. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2010. xiv + 534 pp. $59.50, cloth, ISBN 978-1-874774-64-8. Antony Polonsky. The Jews in Poland and Russia, vol. 2, 1350 to 1881. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2010. 492 pp. $59.50, cloth, ISBN 978-1-904113-83-6. Reviewed by Jeffrey Veidlinger Published on H-Judaic (February, 2011) Commissioned by Jason Kalman (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion) The frst two volumes of Antony Polonsky’s their attention on those parts of the world from magisterial The Jews in Poland and Russia trilogy which most American Jewry originates. The study provide a much-needed addition to the landscape of the Eastern European Jewish heritage is rapidly of Jewish historical studies. For generations, the becoming one of the most exciting felds in Jewish Eastern European Jewish experience has been studies. An outpouring of groundbreaking special‐ overshadowed in historical scholarship by the ex‐ ized studies of specific aspects of the Eastern Eu‐ perience of Jews living in German lands. Cold War ropean Jewish experience has transformed the politics was certainly a contributing factor: West‐ way that historians understand that civilization. ern ideological investments made serious scholar‐ In the last few years, there have been a few at‐ ship of the Eastern European Jewish experience tempts to synthesize this scholarship and to uncomfortable at times, and those who persisted present it to nonspecialists in an effort to publi‐ were thwarted by limited access to documents. In cize these fndings to broader readerships. The the last two decades or so, however, scholars of YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe the Jewish historical experience have focused (2008), for instance, produced an essential refer‐ H-Net Reviews ence work that drew on much of this scholarship. this tenuous relationship, showing how the dis‐ Polonsky has now completed an equally signifi‐ dain that often existed between the two commu‐ cant achievement in presenting the most modern nities--and not just by Christians directed against findings in a clear, readable, comprehensive sur‐ Jews, but the other way around as well--was bal‐ vey of the Jews in Poland and Russia. anced with economic security. It is ftting that Polonsky dedicates the volume In the second chapter, “Jewish Autonomous to Shimon Dubnov and Majer Balaban, the last Institutions,” Polonsky looks at the local kehillot two historians to have approached this type of (communities) and the larger Jewish Council of comprehensive scholarship with any success. Al‐ Four Lands. While modern antisemites often ac‐ though Dubnov and Balaban shared the goal of cused these communal organizations of function‐ strengthening Jewish identity by bringing the his‐ ing as “a state within a state,” Dubnov and others tory of their people to light, in many ways they have celebrated them as expressions of Jewish na‐ adopted opposite approaches. On the one hand, tional autonomy. Polonsky shows how the coun‐ Dubnov, who was predominantly an autodidact, cils interacted with Christian authorities, at times preferred monumental sweeping narratives. His reinforcing restrictions on Jewish activity im‐ ten-volume Weltgeschichte des Jüdischen volkes posed by the Sejm, including the issuing of edicts (World History of the Jewish People, 1925-29) and forbidding Jewish settlement in specific areas. his three-volume History of the Jews in Russia Polonsky ascribes some importance to the Council and Poland (1916-20) epitomize this approach; of Four Lands and the Council of Lithuania but they embody the grand narrative tradition in his‐ maintains that the “core of the system of Jewish tory that fueled national sentiment in the nine‐ self-government lay in the local kehillot.” He sees teenth and early twentieth centuries. Balaban’s communal self-government as “one important ele‐ strength, on the other hand, was his meticulous ment in the democratic tradition of the State of Is‐ eye for detail and professional historical training. rael” and “one of the most fundamental legacies His greatest contributions were small-scale stud‐ of the Jewish experience in Poland-Lithuania” ies of particular communities, studies that today (vol. 1, p. 67). Communal self-government was could even be called microhistories. Polonsky clearly an important legacy in the State of Israel, combines the best of both approaches: his narra‐ but the Polish Zionists who formulated that legacy tive is grand and his analysis is tight. were probably more likely to look for precedents One of Polonsky’s major strengths is his abili‐ of self-government in medieval Spain and Baby‐ ty to contextualize the story he tells within the lon than in their own lands. broader history of the Polish-Lithuanian Com‐ Polonsky’s study of the Polish-Lithuanian monwealth in the frst volume, and the Russian, Commonwealth period includes chapters on Jew‐ Prussian, and Austro-Hungarian Empires in the ish settlement patterns, differentiating between second volume. In this sense, Polonsky builds on the growing number of Jews living in private recent studies conducted by Moshe Rosman, Ger‐ towns under the protection of the Polish nobility shon Hundert, Adam Teller, ChaeRan Freeze, and and those living in royal towns. In the second vol‐ others who have mined Russian and Polish ume, he also devotes a chapter to “Jewish Spaces,” archival sources as well as Jewish narratives. demonstrating the variations in Jewish demo‐ These scholars have shown that in contrast to graphic, social, and cultural life across the vast ge‐ Dubnov’s perceptions, Jews were relatively secure ographic space of Poland and Russia. Since com‐ in their daily lives. In the frst chapter of the frst paratively few recent studies have focused on the volume, “Jews and Christians,” Polonsky details economic and demographic history of the Jews of 2 H-Net Reviews the region, these chapters are perhaps the most portunities for which subsequent generations familiar. The chapter on “Religious and Spiritual were to pay a high price” (vol. 1, p. 321). Life” shows the importance of the institution of In the fnal 120 pages of the frst volume as the rabbinate as well as the limitations of that po‐ well as the bulk of the second volume, Polonsky sition and the changing role of the cantorate. Fol‐ focuses on Jews in the tsarist empire. Here as lowing the 1648 Khmelnytsky rebellion, esoteric well, most of Polonsky’s concerns are with the and mystical thought fourished, culminating in state’s attitudes toward its Jewish population and the excitement that surrounded Shabbatai Zevi on the variety of Jewish political responses. Fol‐ and later Jacob Frank. Polonsky draws on the lowing Michael Stanislawski, John Klier, and oth‐ work of Ada Rapoport-Albert and Michael Silber er recent scholars, he sees Catherine and Nicholas to show that Hasidism was not a direct outgrowth I’s interference in Jewish life as being motivated of Sabbatianism, though. Like Rosman and most predominantly by integrationist ideology and other scholars of Hasidism, Polonsky links the ori‐ state modernization rather than Judeophobia. He gins of the movement to the spread of mystical agrees, as well, that state policies increased social preachers and kabbalists, who formed new power stratification and failed to modernize a large body centers within the kloyzn (prayer rooms) that of the Jewish population. The reforms also con‐ competed with the established synagogue for at‐ tributed to the impoverishment of much of the tention. The chapter on “Jewish Religious Life” in Jewish population. Only the reforms of Alexander the second volume provides in-depth discussion II, which reversed some of the most onerous re‐ of the nineteenth-century spread of Hasidism, strictions imposed by Nicholas I, led to some cir‐ particularly into Polish lands, a period often over‐ cles of integrationists based primarily in Odessa looked by those who focus primarily on the ori‐ and St. Petersburg. Polonsky concludes with ques‐ gins of the movement in Ukrainian lands. tioning the role of 1881 as a watershed moment, Following his discussion of the period of the noting that already in the 1860s and 1870s many Polish partitions, Polonsky appropriately divides integrationists were becoming disillusioned. Nev‐ the remainder of the frst volume and frst third ertheless, 1881 remains the point of division be‐ of the second volume along geographic lines. His tween the first and second volumes. study of the struggle for legal equality among the In the frst half of the second volume, Polon‐ Jews of Galicia is based overwhelmingly on the sky documents the tsarist government’s retreat excellent scholarship that Artur Eisenbach and from integrationist policies and its embrace of Balaban had conducted on this subject. The sec‐ outright discrimination and oppression in the pe‐ tions on the Kingdom of Poland focus on the less riod 1881-1914. These policies led in part to the in‐ successful struggle for legal emancipation waged creased poverty that plagued the Jewish masses, by the Jews there. Polonsky is eager to correct the although poverty remained endemic in the Gali‐ common misconception that equates the fate of cian territories that were incorporated into the the Jews of the Kingdom of Poland with those of more benevolent Austro-Hungarian Empire. The the Pale of Settlement. The opportunities for inte‐ second half of the second volume looks in detail at gration with Polish society in the Kingdom of the tremendous growth of creative activity and Poland were clearly better than the opportunities religious transformation that occurred during this for integration into Russian society in the Pale, period of repression. Polonsky’s original voice but the Polish integrationists had a much more and passion are reflected best in his chapters on difficult path after the 1863 uprising and subse‐ women, Jewish religious life, mass culture, and, in quent Russification.
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