Russian Idea—Jewish Presence: Essays on Russian-Jewish Intellectual Life

Brian Horowitz

Open Access Published by Academic Studies Press 2013

Russian Idea—Jewish Presence

Essays on Russian-Jewish Intellectual Life

Brian Horowitz
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618116895

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Russian Idea—Jewish Presence, Professor Brian Horowitz follows the career tracks of Jewish intellectuals who, having fallen in love with Russian culture, were unceremoniously repulsed. Horowitz relays the paradoxes of a synthetic Jewish and Russian self-consciousness in order to correct critics who have always considered Russians and Jews as polar opposites, enemies, and incompatible. In fact, the best Russian-Jewish intellectuals—Semyon Dubnov, Maxim Vinaver, Mikhail Gershenzon, and a number of Zionist writers and thinkers—were actually inspired by Russian culture and attempted to develop a sui generis Jewish creativity in three languages on Russian soil.

Author / Editor information

Brian Horowitz (PhD University of California, Berkeley) is the Sizeler Family Chair Professor in Jewish Studies at Tulane University. He is the author of such books as Jewish Philanthropy and Enlightenment in Late-Tsarist Russia (2009) and Empire Jews (2009). He has won numerous awards, including a fellowship at the Frankel Center at the University of Michigan, an Alexander Von Humboldt grant, a Fulbright, an IREX grant, and a Yad Hanadiv grant to study with Ezra Mendelsohn and the late Jonathan Frankel at the Hebrew University.

Reviews

Shaul Stampfer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem:
“If there is still a need for an antidote to the Fiddler on the Roof image of Russian Jewry, then this is it. Horowitz opens up the vibrant world of thought and literary creativity among Russian Jews of the pre-Soviet period to the contemporary reader. These fascinating figures were sophisticated thinkers and writers who grappled creatively with many of the issues that occupy many today—but in ways that are often unexpected. This Russian Jewish intellectual milieu is a relatively unexplored territory for many, but Horowitz is a knowledgeable and reliable guide and leads the readers to a very stimulating and thought-provoking intellectual experience.”

Jeffrey Veidlinger, Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan:
“Immersed in the traditions of the Russian Intelligentsia, Horowitz’s writings span across the fields of philosophy, literature, and history. In clear and penetrating prose, Professor Horowitz demonstrates once again the importance of liberal ideas among Russian Jewish intellectuals in the revolutionary era.”

Antony Polonsky, Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Brandeis University:
“This fascinating and wide-ranging collection of essays provides a remarkable insight into the preoccupations of Jews in the Tsarist Empire at the turn of the nineteenth century and of the broader intellectual climate of the time. It is essential reading for all those interested in how Jews reacted to the worsening political climate in Russia in the decades before the Bolshevik revolution.”

Rosalind Latiner Raby, California State University at Northridge:
“The narratives found in the book celebrate Jewish culture but in doing so also question issues of social and political assimilation and ultimately of the role of Russian Jews in a changing society and world. Russian Idea—Jewish Presence is effective for graduate level as well as for undergraduate students. In that alternate perspectives are a focus of all scholars, the insightful discussions offered by this book are ones that scholars of various fields should include in their own personal libraries. It is precisely the diverse range of narratives that help explain philosophical differences in a way that is accessible to those not familiar with this era of history, nor with the various philosophical discourses of those times.”

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	1
Contents Open Access Download PDF	7
List of Illustrations Open Access Download PDF	9
Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	10
Note on transliteration Open Access Download PDF	12
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	13
I. Varieties of Russian-Jewish History: Liberals, Zionists, and Diaspora Nationalists
1. The Russian Roots of Semyon Dubnov’s Life and Thought Open Access Download PDF	17
2. Maxim Vinaver and the First Russian State Duma Open Access Download PDF	37
3. What Is “Russian” in Russian Zionism? Synthetic Zionism and the Fate of Avram Idel’son Open Access Download PDF	54
4. An Innovative Agent of an Alternative Jewish Politics: The Odessa Branch of the Society for the Promotion of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia Open Access Download PDF	72
5. Politics and National Self-Projection: The Image of Jewish Masses in Russian-Jewish Historiography, 1860-1914 Open Access Download PDF	87
6. “Both Crisis and Continuity”: A Reinterpretation of Late-Tsarist Russian Jewry Open Access Download PDF	105
7. Crystallizing Memory: Russian-Jewish Intelligentsia Abroad and Forms of Self-Projection Open Access Download PDF	124
II. M. O. Gershenzon and the Intellectual Life of Russia’s Silver Age
8. M. O. Gershenzon — Metaphysical Historian of Russia’s Silver Age: Part 1 Open Access Download PDF	141
9. M. O. Gershenzon — Metaphysical Historian of Russia’s Silver Age: Part 2 Open Access Download PDF	171
10. “…To Break Free of Centuries-Old Complications, of the Abominable Fetters of Social and Abstract Ideas”: M. O. Gershenzon’s Side in the Correspondence Across a Room Open Access Download PDF	198
11. Unity and Disunity in Landmarks (Vekhi): The Rivalry between Pyotr Struve and Mikhail Gershenzon Open Access Download PDF	213
12. M. O. Gershenzon and Georges Florovsky: Metaphysical Philosophers of Russian History Open Access Download PDF	229
13. From the Annals of the Literary Life of Russia’s Silver Age: The Tempestuous Relationship of S. A. Vengerov and M. O. Gershenzon Open Access Download PDF	239
14. M. O. Gershenzon, the Intellectual Circle, and the Perception of Leader in Russia’s Silver-Age Culture Open Access Download PDF	258
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	275
Appendix A: Jewish Monuments in Russia at the Turn of the 20th Century (From the William Brumfield Collection) Open Access Download PDF	288
Appendix B: Rare Photographs of Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon and his Family Open Access Download PDF	294
Index Open Access Download PDF	301

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 270

eBook

Published: December 17, 2017
ISBN: 9781618116895