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Under the Soviet regime, millions of zeks (prisoners) were
incarcerated in the forced labor camps, the Gulag. There many died
of starvation, disease, and exhaustion, and some were killed by
criminals and camp guards. In 1939, as the Nazis and Soviets
invaded Poland, many Polish citizens found themselves swept up by
the Soviet occupation and sent into the Gulag. One such victim was
Julius Margolin, a Pinsk-born Jewish philosopher and writer living
in Palestine who was in Poland on family matters. Margolin's
Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back offers a powerful,
first-person account of one of the most shocking chapters of the
violent twentieth century. Opening with the outbreak of World War
II in Poland, Margolin relates its devastating impact on the Jews
and his arrest and imprisonment in the Gulag system. During his
incarceration from 1940 to 1945, he nearly died from starvation and
overwork but was able to return to Western Europe and rejoin his
family in Palestine. With a philosopher's astute analysis of man
and society, as well as with humor, his memoir of flight,
entrapment, and survival details the choices and dilemmas faced by
an individual under extreme duress. Margolin's moving account
illuminates universal issues of human rights under a totalitarian
regime and ultimately the triumph of human dignity and decency.
This translation by Stefani Hoffman is the first English-language
edition of this classic work, originally written in Russian in 1947
and published in an abridged French version in 1949. Circulated in
a Russian samizdat version in the USSR, it exerted considerable
influence on the formation of the genre of Gulag memoirs and was
eagerly read by Soviet dissidents. Timothy Snyder's foreword and
Katherine Jolluck's introduction contextualize the creation of this
remarkable account of a Jewish world ravaged in the Stalinist
empire—and the life of the man who was determined to reveal the
horrors of the gulag camps and the plight of the zeks to the world.
Kosharovsky’s authoritative four-volume history of the Jewish
movement in the Soviet Union is now available in a condensed and
edited volume that makes this compelling insider’s account of
Soviet Jewish activism after Stalin available to a wider audience.
Originally published in Russian from 2008 to 2012, ""We Are Jews
Again"" chronicles the struggles of Jews who wanted nothing more
than the freedom to learn Hebrew, the ability to provide a Jewish
education for their children, and the right to immigrate to Israel.
Through dozens of interviews with former refuseniks and famous
activists, Kosharovsky provides a vivid and intimate view of the
Jewish movement and a detailed account of the persecution many
faced from Soviet authorities.
Highlighting the seminal role of German Jewish intellectuals and
ideologues in forming and transforming the modern Jewish world,
this volume analyzes the political roads taken by German Jewish
thinkers; the impact of the Holocaust on the Central and East
European Jewish intelligentsia; and the conundrum of modern Jewish
identity. Several of German Jewry's most outstanding figures such
as Scholem, Strauss, and Kohn are discussed. Inspired by Steven E.
Aschheim's work, several contributors focus on the fraught
relationship between German and East European Jews (the so-called
Ostjuden) and between German Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors.
More generally, this book examines how Central European Jewish
thinkers reacted to the terrible crises of the twentieth century-to
war, genocide, and the existential threat to the very existence of
the Jewish people. It is essential reading for those interested in
the triumphs and tragedies of modern European Jewry.
The 1905 Revolution in Russia ushered in an unprecedented (though
brief) period of social and political freedom in the Russian
Empire. This environment made possible the emergence of mass Jewish
politics and the flourishing of a new, modern Jewish culture
expressed in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian. Unfortunately, 1905 also
unleashed popular anti-Semitism in the shape of pogroms on a scale
previously unknown. Russian Jewry, by far the largest Jewish
community in the world at that time, faced fateful decisions.
Should the Jews strive to uphold Jewish national uniqueness either
in the context of the Russian Empire or by emigrating to
Palestine/the Land of Israel, or should they identify with and
merge into the general revolutionary or liberal movements in their
country of birth? What direction should Jewish culture and social
organizations take within the context of democratization and
modernization? In what language or languages should this culture be
expressed? How should Jews abroad react to the revolutionary crisis
and to the dilemmas of their coreligionists? The thought-provoking
essays in this volume shed new light on these issues while placing
them in the larger context of the historical, social, and cultural
developments within the Russian Empire. The authors, representing
various disciplines, emphasize both the highly varied Jewish
responses to the great crisis and the degree to which these
responses shared certain vital characteristics.
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
Kosharovsky's authoritative four-volume history of the Jewish
movement in the Soviet Union is now available in a condensed and
edited volume that makes this compelling insider's account of
Soviet Jewish activism after Stalin available to a wider audience.
Originally published in Russian from 2008 to 2012, ""We Are Jews
Again"" chronicles the struggles of Jews who wanted nothing more
than the freedom to learn Hebrew, the ability to provide a Jewish
education for their children, and the right to immigrate to Israel.
Through dozens of interviews with former refuseniks and famous
activists, Kosharovsky provides a vivid and intimate view of the
Jewish movement and a detailed account of the persecution many
faced from Soviet authorities.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the question of
'whither Russia?' has been the source of ceaseless speculation both
at home and abroad. In search of answers, twelve highly qualified
scholars examine the complex interplay between continuity and
change that has marked developments in Russia under the leadership
first of Boris Yeltsin and now of Vladimir Putin. Analsying the
recent past, they also peer into the country's future. In his
introduction to the volume Peter Rutland asks whether we are
witnessing the gradual entrenchment of parliamentary democracy, the
slow return to autocracy or mere political stagnation.
Restructuring Post-Communist Russia poses the fundamental questions
while providing the information and analysis needed to give the (at
least, preliminary) answers.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the question of
'whither Russia?' has been the source of ceaseless speculation both
at home and abroad. In search of answers, twelve highly qualified
scholars examine the complex interplay between continuity and
change that has marked developments in Russia under the leadership
first of Boris Yeltsin and now of Vladimir Putin. Analsying the
recent past, they also peer into the country's future. In his
introduction to the volume Peter Rutland asks whether we are
witnessing the gradual entrenchment of parliamentary democracy, the
slow return to autocracy or mere political stagnation.
Restructuring Post-Communist Russia poses the fundamental questions
while providing the information and analysis needed to give the (at
least, preliminary) answers.
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