About the Book
Insiders and Outsiders: Dilemmas of East European Jewry examines problems of
Jewish cultural and political orientations, associations, and
self-identification within a broad framework. The contributors approach the
predicament of east European Jews in various settings: some focus primarily on
the Jews' inner development and outlook, while others discuss how elements of
the majority society viewed their presence. Scholars of history, art history,
and literature display originality and insight in illuminating the nuances and
intricacies of the Jewish ‘outsider’.
Following an overview by the distinguished intellectual historian
of German Jewry Steven Aschheim, who offers some comprehensive thoughts on the
insider/outsider dilemma in modern times and its relevance to eastern Europe,
the discussion evolves around three major themes: the cultural conundrum; modes
of acculturation, assimilation, and identity; and the minority’s inclusion in
or exclusion from the political agendas of certain east European societies. It
concludes with a focus on two remarkable cities―Czernowitz and Vilnius―where
the Jewish minority has often been conceived as being no less ‘inside’ than
other groups.
Contributors to the ‘cultural conundrum’ section deal with artists
and writers from Romania and Poland who have gained wide public and critical
attention over the years, including Reuven Rubin, Itzik Manger, Avot Yeshurun,
and Mihail Sebastian. Other essays discuss the work of a group of writers from
Poland, including Henryk Grynberg, Wilhelm Dichter, Joanna Olczak-Ronikier,
Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz, and Michal Glowinski, who reflected intensively on
their experiences as Jews in the Second World War and tried to integrate these
experiences into their often fractured identities. The complex personal
evolution of these figures shows the multi-layered influences on their
creativity and imagination, while underscoring the dilemmas they faced to find
points of meeting between their Jewish background and their national identity.
The section on modes of acculturation, assimilation, and identity
offers detailed analyses of the ways in which multi-ethnic and multi-national
situations demand that the ‘outsider’, consciously or unconsciously, develop
inner strategies to fashion a specific identity. Surveying such vibrant areas
as Czechoslovakia and Poland between the two world wars and the city of Lwów in
the late nineteenth century, three essays present some of the choices Jews made
in order to deal with the changing political and cultural context. Their
meditations on belonging and not-belonging―on
the constitution of identity and its fluidity, and on the formation, breakdown,
and reconfiguration of physical, mental, social, and geographical
borders―acquire a special relevance and urgency in these settings.
How did Jews as ‘outsiders’ configure their political allegiance in
eastern Europe? How prominent were they in the radical elements of the
communist movement in Russia? What tactics did they employ to safeguard their
future in such societies and what means did they employ to galvanize the
‘Jewish street’? These are some of the questions raised in the section on
society and politics, which delves into such problematic terrain as ‘Jewish
informers’, the ‘non-Jewish Jew’, and ‘Jewish politics’.
The concluding essays examine the
tensions, paradoxes, and ironies of the phenomenon of the Jewish outsider in
Czernowitz and Vilnius, two cities where, indeed, Jews were often construed to
be the true ‘insiders’.
CONTRIBUTORS: Steven E. Aschheim, Karen Auerbach, Richard
I. Cohen, Jonathan Frankel, Stefani Hoffman, Zvi Jagendorf, Hillel J. Kieval,
Rachel Manekin, Amitai Mendelsohn, Joanna B. Michlic, Antony Polonsky, David
Rechter, Scott Ury, Leon Volovici, Ruth R. Wisse, Mordechai Zalkin
Table of Contents:
Note on Transliteration
Reflections on Insiders and Outsiders: A General Introduction - Steven E. Aschheim
PART I: INSIDER/OUTSIDER: THE CULTURAL CONUNDRUM
1 The Project of Jewish Culture and its Boundaries---Insiders and Outsiders - Richard I. Cohen
2 Gott fun Avrohom: Itzik Manger and Avot Yeshurun Look Homewards - Zvi Jagendorf
3 Agony and Resurrection: The Figure of Jesus in the Work of Reuven Rubin - Amitai Mendelsohn
4 Mihail Sebastian: A Jewish Writer and his (Antisemitic) Master - Leon Volovici
5 Insiders/Outsiders: Poles and Jews in Recent Polish Jewish Fiction and Autobiography - Karen Auerbach and Antony Polonsky
PART II: ACCULTURATION, ASSIMILATION, AND IDENTITY
6 Negotiating Czechoslovakia: The Challenges of Jewish Citizenship in a Multiethnic Nation-State - Hillel J. Kieval
7 The Debate over Assimilation in Late Nineteenth-Century - Lwow Rachel Manekin
8 The Culture of Ethno-Nationalism and the Identity of Jews in Inter-War Poland: Some Responses to 'the Aces of Purebred Race' - Joanna B. Michlic
PART III: INCLUSION/EXCLUSION: SOCIETY AND POLITICS
9 Urban Society, Popular Culture, Participatory Politics: On the Culture of Modern Jewish Politics in Congress Poland - Scott Ury
10 The 'Non-Jewish Jews' Revisited: Solzhenitsyn and the Issue of National Guilt - Jonathan Frankel
11 The Jewish Informer as Extortionist and Idealist - Ruth R. Wisse
PART IV. TWO CITIES AND TALES OF BELONGING
12 A Jewish El Dorado? Myth and Politics in Habsburg Czernowitz - David Rechter
13 Wilno/Vilnius/Vilne: Whose City Is It Anyway? - Mordechai Zalkin
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the Author :
Richard I. Cohen is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has co-curated two major art-historical exhibitions, one in New York (From Court Jews to the Rothschilds) and one in Paris (Le Juif Errant: Un Témoin du Temps). He is the author of Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe, which was the recipient of the Arnold Wischnitzer Prize for the best book in Jewish history (1999), and has edited and co-edited over fifteen books, many focusing on aspects of Jewish art and history. Two of his co-edited works are published by the Littman Library: The Jewish Contribution to Civilization: Reassessing an Idea (2007), and Insiders and Outsiders: Dilemmas of East European Jewry (2010). Jonathan Frankel was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies and the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862–1917 marked a turning point in modern Jewish historiography and was awarded a number of prestigious prizes. He is the author of 'The Damascus Affair: ‘Ritual Murder’, Politics, and the Jews in 1840', and the editor of many books, including several volumes of 'Studies in Contemporary Jewry'. He has also published numerous works on modern Jewish politics, with an emphasis on the emergence of Jewish nationalism, the history of the Jews in tsarist and Soviet Russia, and Jewish historiography. An edition of his essays will be published shortly. Stefani Hoffman is the former director of the Mayrock Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is currently involved in freelance research, editing, and translation on topics related to Russian Jewish history and society. She is co-editor, with Ezra Mendelsohn, of 'The Revolution of 1905 and Russia’s Jews' and, with Yitzhak Brudny and Jonathan Frankel, of 'Restructuring Post-Communist Russia'.
Review :
'Intellectual provocations and controversial and new interpretations are very important, especially if they come together with solid scholarship. This is the case of the book under review, which is a must read for everybody interested in the assimilation of east European Jews.' Piotr Wróbel, H-Judaic
'This volume, thanks to the high quality and diversity of its offerings, is clearly a major contribution to east European Jewish studies and to the larger fields of Jewish history and cultural studies.' Natan Meir, H-Judaic
'All authors present well-grounded conclusions with regard to the specific problems they analyse and suggest that by using a methodological approach like that of “outsiders” and “insiders” it is possible to widen the scope of research on identity change and provide a fresh look at conflcts possibly based on individual choices, their contexts, and consequences. Thus, the articles in this book, each in their way, convincingly prove the viability and multi-functionality of this methodological apprach in research on modern east European Jewish culture and history.' Jurgita Siauciunaite-Verbickiene, Judaica
