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Starting around 1840, French Jews began to reach out in new ways to
Jews elsewhere, especially in North Africa and the Middle East. In
describing these activities, they spoke of feelings of solidarite
and a mission to bring civilisation to Jews everywhere, a language
more meaningful in the French public arena than in Jewish
tradition. Far from a remnant of ancient feelings, Jewish
solidarity is a modern phenomenon with roots in its inventors'
integration into French political culture. Why did acculturation
inspire elite French Jews to affirm their Jewishness through
international aid? What did their actions mean in the French public
sphere, and how did they transform Jewish identity? In a book that
speaks to French historians and Jewish historians alike, Sacred
Bonds of Solidarity explores the historical roots of Jewish
international aid and the language of "solidarity" that accompanied
it. In using this language, French Jews redefined Jewish identity
in lasting ways. At the same time, they helped shape state
secularism and the "civilizing mission" in French foreign and
colonial policy.
Born into poverty in Russian Poland in 1911, Zosa Szajkowski
(Shy-KOV-ski) was a self-made man who managed to make a life for
himself as an intellectual, first as a journalist in 1930s Paris,
and then, after a harrowing escape to New York in 1941, as a
scholar. Although he never taught at a university or even earned a
PhD, Szajkowski became one of the world's foremost experts on the
history of the Jews in modern France, publishing in Yiddish,
English, and Hebrew. His work opened up new ways of thinking about
Jewish emancipation, economic and social modernization, and the
rise of modern anti-Semitism. But beneath Szajkowski's scholarly
success lay a shameful secret. In the aftermath of the Holocaust,
the scholar stole tens of thousands of archival documents related
to French Jewish history from public archives and private synagogue
collections in France and moved them, illicitly, to New York.
There, he used them as the basis for his pathbreaking articles.
Eventually, he sold them, piecemeal, to American and Israeli
research libraries, where they still remain today. Why did this
respectable historian become an archive thief? And why did
librarians in the United States and Israel buy these materials from
him, turning a blind eye to the signs of ownership they bore? These
are the questions that motivate this gripping tale. Throughout, it
is clear that all involved-perpetrator, victims, and buyers-saw
what Szajkowski was doing through the prism of the Holocaust. The
buyers shared a desire to save these precious remnants of the
European Jewish past, left behind on a continent where six million
Jews had just been killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. The
scholars who read Szajkowski's studies, based largely on the
documents he had stolen, saw the treasures as offering an
unparalleled window into the history that led to that catastrophe.
And the Jewish caretakers of many of the institutions Szajkowski
robbed in France saw the losses as a sign of their difficulties
reconstructing their community after the Holocaust, when the
balance of power in the Jewish world was shifting away from Europe
to new centers in America and Israel. Based on painstaking
research, Lisa Leff reconstructs Szajkowski's story in all its
ambiguity by taking us backstage at the archives, revealing the
powerful ideological, economic and scientific forces that made
Holocaust-era Jewish scholars care more deeply than ever before
about preserving the remnants of their past.
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Colonialism and the Jews (Hardcover)
Ethan B Katz, Lisa Moses Leff, Maud S. Mandel; Contributions by Colette Zytnicki, Daniel J. Schroeter, …
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R2,315
R2,159
Discovery Miles 21 590
Save R156 (7%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The lively essays collected here explore colonial history, culture,
and thought as it intersects with Jewish studies. Connecting the
Jewish experience with colonialism to mobility and exchange,
diaspora, internationalism, racial discrimination, and Zionism, the
volume presents the work of Jewish historians who recognize the
challenge that colonialism brings to their work and sheds light on
the diverse topics that reflect the myriad ways that Jews engaged
with empire in modern times. Taken together, these essays reveal
the interpretive power of the "Imperial Turn" and present a
rethinking of the history of Jews in colonial societies in light of
postcolonial critiques and destabilized categories of analysis. A
provocative discussion forum about Zionism as colonialism is also
included.
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Colonialism and the Jews (Paperback)
Ethan B Katz, Lisa Moses Leff, Maud S. Mandel; Contributions by Colette Zytnicki, Daniel J. Schroeter, …
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R999
Discovery Miles 9 990
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
The lively essays collected here explore colonial history, culture,
and thought as it intersects with Jewish studies. Connecting the
Jewish experience with colonialism to mobility and exchange,
diaspora, internationalism, racial discrimination, and Zionism, the
volume presents the work of Jewish historians who recognize the
challenge that colonialism brings to their work and sheds light on
the diverse topics that reflect the myriad ways that Jews engaged
with empire in modern times. Taken together, these essays reveal
the interpretive power of the "Imperial Turn" and present a
rethinking of the history of Jews in colonial societies in light of
postcolonial critiques and destabilized categories of analysis. A
provocative discussion forum about Zionism as colonialism is also
included.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Jewish historian Zosa
Szajkowski stole tens of thousands of archival documents related to
French Jewish history from public archives and collections in
France and moved them, illicitly, to New York. Why did this
respectable historian become a thief? And why did librarians in the
United States and Israel accept these materials from him, turning a
blind eye to the signs of ownership they bore? With her
award-winning book, The Archive Thief, Lisa Moses Leff reconstructs
Szajkowski's gripping story in all its ambiguity. Born into poverty
in Russian Poland in 1911, Szajkowski was a self-made man who
managed to make a life for himself as an intellectual, first as a
journalist in 1930s Paris, and then, after a harrowing escape to
New York in 1941, as a scholar. Although he never taught at a
university or even earned a PhD, Szajkowski became one of the
world's foremost experts on the history of the Jews in modern
France, publishing in Yiddish, English, and Hebrew. His work opened
up new ways of thinking about Jewish emancipation, economic and
social modernization, and the rise of modern anti-Semitism. But
beneath Szajkowski's scholarly accomplishments lay his shameful
secret: his pathbreaking articles were based upon documents that he
moved illicitly to New York. Eventually, he sold these documents,
piecemeal, to American and Israeli research libraries where they
still remain. Leff takes us into the backstage of the archives,
revealing the powerful ideological, economic, and psychological
forces that made Holocaust-era Jewish scholars care more deeply
than ever before about preserving the remnants of their past. As
Leff shows, it is only when we understand the issues at the heart
of his story, in all their ambiguity and complexity, that we can
begin to address the larger questions of the rightful ownership of
Jewish archives, as well as other contested archives, that are
still at issue today.
Many books have been written about the history, secrets, and design
of Disneyland, but this guide looks at the California landmark from
a different angle. It explores the little known ghost stories and
strange folklore surrounding this famous tourist destination, and
offers new insights into this beloved theme park.
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