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 Lwow 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
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