From Kahal to Party: 18th-20th Century Jewish Society in Eastern Europe
Prof. Israel Bartal
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Course Description
The students will get familiar with the political, social, economic, and cultural history of the Jewish people in Eastern and Central Europe from the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772-1793) to the 20th century interwar period. They will acquire a deeper knowledge of the various issues related to the Jewish communities in this period with a special emphasis on the impact of modernity on social life and the emergence of modern Jewish politics. Selected primary sources (in English translation) will be read and discussed in class.
Course schedule
1. Tue., January 10- Thurs., January 12, 2017
Introduction: The Emergence of Jewish Eastern Europe
Reading: Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe , pp. 157-168, 180- 183; Bartal, "The Establishment of East European Jewry", [Cambridge History, 7, 2016, attached], Frankel, "Assimilation and the Jews", pp. 276-310
2. Tue., January 17- Thurs., January 19, 2017
Jewish Autonomy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 16 th - 18 th Centuries
Reading: Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe , pp. 14-22; Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania , pp. 79-98
Primary Source: Report of the Resolutions of the Council of the Four Lands of Poland, March-July 1739 (Hundert, Jews in Poland - Lithuania, pp. 96-98
3. Tue., January 24 –Thurs., 26, 2017
The Partitions of Poland (1772-1793)
Reading: Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe , pp. 23-37; Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania, pp. 211-231.
4. Tue., January 31, -February 2, 2017 Galicia: Reforms and Revolution (1772-1867)
Reading: Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe , pp. 70-81, 124-133; Manekin; "Taking it to the Streets", pp. 215-227; Shanes, Diaspora Nationalism , pp. 16-45; Silber, "From Tolerated Alien", pp. 9-36
Primary Source: Edict of Tolerance for the Jews of Galicia (May 7, 1789) / Joseph II, Mendes-Flohr & Reinharz , pp. 46-49
5. Tue., February 7- Thurs., February 9, 2017
The Russian Empire: The Pale and Beyond (1772-1856)
Reading: Klier, Russia Gathers her Jews, pp. 116-143; Levitats, The Jewish community in Russia, 1772-1844 , pp. 20-41; Petrovsky's-Stern, The Golden Age Shtetl, pp. 213-241
Primary Source : Statutes Concerning the Organization of Jews (December 9, 1804), Mendes-Flohr & Reinharz, pp. 350-352.
6. Tue., February 14-Thurs., February 16, 2017
Kahal and Hevra : The Latest Phase
Reading: Levitats, The Jewish community in Russia 1844-1914 , pp. 5-84;
Primary Source: "List of Manuscripts", Levitats, The Jewish community in Russia, 1772-1844 , p. 273
7. Tue., February 21 – Thurs., February 23, 2017
The Great Reforms: The Road to 1881
Reading: Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe , pp. 90-111; Nathans, Beyond the Pale, pp. 45-79
Primary Source: Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews, Program, Mendes-Flohr & Reinharz, pp. 379-380
8. Tue., February 28- Thurs., March 2, 2017
Traditionalism, Hasidism, Haskalah: Social and Political Aspects
Reading: Dynner, Men of Silk , pp.57-116; Ettinger, "Hasidism and the Kahal", pp. 63-75; Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I , pp. 49-96
Primary Source: A Jewish Program for Russification, Mendes- Flohr & Reinharz, p. 359-360
9. Tue., March 7 –Thurs., March 9, 2017
The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics (1882-1914)
Reading: Frankel, Prophecy and Politics , pp.49-133; Lederhendler, The Road to Modern Jewish Politics , pp. 111-153
Primary Source: The Bund, decisions on the Nationality Question, 1903-1905, Mendes-Flohr & Reinharz, pp. 399-402
10. Tue., March 14 –Thurs., March 16, 2017
Political Parties: Nationalism, Radicalism, Jewish Orthodoxy
Reading: Bartal, "Response to Modernity", pp. 13-24; Brown, "Orthodox Judaism", pp. 311-333
Primary Source: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, A Letter (1880), Herzberg, The Zionist Idea , p.159-165; Leo Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation, Herzberg, The Zionist Idea , pp. 179-192
11. Tue., March 21- March 23, 2017
Emigration and Politics
Reading: Frankel, Prophecy and Politics , pp. 134-170
Primary Source: Ber Borochov, Our Platform (1906), Herzberg, The Zionist Idea , pp. 360-366
12. Tue., March 28- Thurs., March 30, 2017
1914: The End of Imperial Europe
Reading: Frankel, "The Paradoxical Politics", pp. 131-153; Rozenblit, Reconstructing a National Identity , pp. 14-58, 128-161.
Primary Source: Emancipation by the March Revolution (April 2, 1917); Yevsektsiya, The Liquidation of Bourgeois Jewish institutions, Mendes-Flohr & Reinharz, pp. 411-415
Bibliography
Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881 , Philadelphia 2005 Israel Bartal, " Responses to Modernity: Haskalah, Orthodoxy, and Mationalism in Eastern Europe”, in: Zionism and Religion , eds. S. Almog, J. Reinharz, A. Shapira, Hanover and London 1998, pp. 13-24
Benjamin Brown, "Orthodox Judaism", in: Jacob Neusner, Alan J. Avery-Peck (eds.), The Blackwell Companion of Judaism , 2000, pp. 311-333
Shmuel Ettinger, "Hasidism and the Kahal in Eastern Europe", in: Rapoport-Albert, Ada (ed.), Hassidism Reappraised, London 1996, pp. 63-75
Jonathan Frankel, "The Paradoxical Politics of Marginality: Thoughts on the Jewish Situation during the Years 1914-1921", in: id., Crisis, Revolution, and Russian Jews , New York, 209, pp. 131-153
Arthur Herzberg (ed.), The Zionist Idea , Philadelphia 1997
Gershon D. Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century, Berkeley/ Los Angeles 2004
Eli Lederhendler, The Road to Modern Jewish Politics, New York 1989
Isaac Levitats, The Jewish Community in Russia, 1772-1844 , New York 1943
Isaac Levitats, The Jewish Community in Russia, 1844-1917 , Jerusalem 1981
The Jew in the modern world : a documentary history / compiled and edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jehuda Reinharz, Oxford University Press, 2011
Benjamin Nathans, Beyond the Pale , the Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia , Berkley, Los-Angeles, London, 2002
Marsha L. Rozenblit, Reconstructing a National Identity , the Jews of Habsburg Austria During World War I , New York 2001
Michael Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews , Philadelphia 1983