THE RISE OF MODERN JEWISH POLITICS
IN EASTERN EUROPE
CEU 2002
Professor John D. Klier
SYLLABUS
Description
The events surrounding the anti-Jewish riots, or pogroms, which erupted against the
Jews in the Russian Empire between 1881-2 have widely been seen as a turning point
in modern Jewish history. Indeed, the Jewish responses to the pogroms, it is argued,
gave rise to modern Jewish politics, especially in the form of Zionism and Jewish
varieties of socialism. While this picture has been modified somewhat--scholarship
has demonstrated the growth of forms of Jewish nationalism well before the pogroms,
and also that not all Jews abandoned either traditional responses to crises or liberal
beliefs in democratic change--these assumptions still dominate the historical
literature.
The course will explore the historiography of the rise of modern Jewish politics,
focussing on responses to the crisis of 1881-2. It will also explore a number of recent
revisionist studies--some of then not yet published--which raise serious questions
about the validity of aspects the dominant interpretation. The Jews of Eastern Europe
will serve as the focus of this study. The political traditions and activities which
characterised the Jews of Poland-Lithuania before the first partition of 1772, and
which they brought into their respective new states, will be examined. With this
background, the crisis of 1881-2 and its aftermath, will be reconsidered. The course
will conclude with an examination of the various forms of Jewish politics in Eastern
Europe after 1881-2.
This class will meet daily on 18-22 and 25-29 March. The value of the class is two
units. The class will consist of lectures and class discussions over assigned readings.
Outline of Lectures and Readings
1. The crisis of 1991-2
The Jews had been targets of violence before in modern Europe (the Hep! Hep! Riots
in Germany in 1817; the anti-Jewish pogrom in Odessa in 1871). European Jewish
leaders had acted before when Jewish communities were perceived to be under threat
(the drafting of Russian Jews in 1827; the Damascus Affair [a Blood Libel
accusation] in 1840). What made the events of 1881-2 so different and decisive?
2. The Tradition of Jewish Politics
Was there such a thing as 'Jewish politics' before the modern area (i.e., were the Jews
capable of autonomous political activity that was not completely dependent upon the
goodwill of their 'host nation') or were they truly powerless? What was the true
significance of the rabbinic formula dina demalkhuta dina (i.e., 'the law of the king is
the law [for the Jews]). Did Jewish political activity ever go beyond high level
intercession and petitioning, shtadlanut?
3. Jewish Politics before and during 1881-2
Were Jews capable to independent political activity after the partitions of Poland.
The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Poland as test cases. The kahal under
Russian rule. Efforts at Jewish reform: the Statute of 1804; military service for the
Jews in 1827; the Vilna Commission (1866-69). Did the maskilim have a political
role? The Society for the Spread of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia. The
Jewish press. The Gintsburg Circle.
4. Jewish Politics after 1881-2: Zionism
Proto-Zionism in the wake of 1881-2. Settlement schemes. BILU. Hoveve Tsion
(The Lovers of Zion). Pinsker's Autoemancipation! The Odessa Committee. Herzl
and East European Jewry. Spiritual Zionism.
5. Jewish Politics after 1881-2: Socialism
Was their a particular 'Jewish' element to Russian socialism, as suggested by Erich
Haberer? What was the role of Jews in the Russian revolutionary movement? Why
did a specifically Jewish form of Social Democracy arise, in the form of the Bund?
Were Jewish revolutionaries "non-Jewish Jews," as Isaac Deutscher claimed?
6. Modern Jewish Politics Reconsidered
How 'modern' were modern Jewish politics? Did Jews bring a messianic element to
socialism. What was the connection of Zionism to the traditional Jewish religious
concepts of exile and return?
Bibliography
Bauer, Y. The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness. University of Toronto Press;
Toronto, 1979.
Biale, David. 'Modern Jewish Ideologies and the Historiography of Jewish Politics,'
Studies in Contemporary Jewry. Vol. X Oxford University Press; New York and
Oxford, 1994. Pp. 3-16.
__________. Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History. Schocken Books; New
York, 1987.
Deutscher, I. The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays. Oxford University Press;
Oxford, 1968.
Frankel, Jonathan, 'Crisis as a Factor in Modern Jewish Politics: 1840 and 1881-82,"
in I. Reinharz, ed., Living with Antisemitism. University Press of New England;
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__________. 'The Paradoxical Politics of Marginality, 1914-1921,' Studies in
Contemporary Jewry. Vol. IV. Oxford University Press; New York and Oxford,
1988. Pp. 3-21.
__________. Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews,
1862-1917. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, 1981.
Haberer, Erich. Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia. Cambridge
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Klier, John. Imperial Russia's Jewish Question, 1885-1881. Cambridge University
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Workers Movement in Tsarist Russia. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge,
1970.
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Meyers, J. "The Messianic Idea and Zionist Ideologies." Vol. VII. Studies in
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Rogger, Hans. Jewish Policies and Right-Wing Politics in Imperial Russia.
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Stanislawski, Michael. Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews: The Transformation of Jewish
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1983.
__________. Zionism and the Fin de Siècle: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism
from Nordau to Jabotinsky. University of California Press; Berkeley, 2001.
Tobias, Henry J. The Jewish Bund in Russia: From Its Origins to 1905. Stanford
University Press; Stanford, 1972.
Vital, David. A People Apart. The nJews in Europe, 1789-1939. Oxford University
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Wolin, R. "Reflections on Jewish Secular Messianism." ." Vol. VII. Studies in
Contemporary Jewry. Oxford University Press, 1991. Pp. 186-96.
Zipperstein, Steven. Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha'am and the Origins of Zionism.
Halban: London, 1993.