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Jewish Intellectuals in Odessa in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Nationalist Theories of Ahad Ha'am and Simon Dubnov1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Alexander Orbach
Alexander Orbach*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Extract

From the end of the eighteenth century until the Revolution of 1917, the Jewish communities of Vilna (Vilnius), Odessa, and Warsaw stood out as the prominent intellectual and cultural centers of Russian and Polish Jewry. In the period immediately following the Partitions of Poland, the preeminence of the northern region and Vilna, its major city, was acknowledged by all. Characterized by the rich Talmudical tradition associated with Elijah ben Solomon (1720-1797), the famous Gaon [Sage] of Vilna, and his disciples, Vilna signified then, and to a great extent continues today to signify, the values of intensive traditional learning combined with deep religious piety. In fact, in the literature on Russian Jewry, Vilna is often referred to as the Jerusalem of the North, indicating its special character and place in the history of East European Jewry. However, while Vilna symbolized the traditional world, over the course of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community of Russia was moving in a different direction. The political, economic, social and especially demographic forces of the modern period significantly altered the basic character of the Jewish community of the Russian Empire.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Fall 1978 , pp. 109 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the Study of Nationalities of Eastern Europe, 1978 

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References

Notes

1. I am thankful for a Faculty Research Grant from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, which enabled me to complete the work on this paper.Google Scholar

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25. Hebrew, In, ‘al parashat derakhim. The major essays from this collection have been translated into English by Leon Simon, and they are available in his edition of Selected Essays of A had Ha'am (New York: Atheneum), 1970) The Complete works of Ahad Ha'am are available in a Hebrew-language edition published by Dvir Press, Tel Aviv, 1968.Google Scholar

26. Kol kitve Ahad Ha'am [Complete Works] (Tel Aviv: Dvir Press, 1968), pp. 11–16. An English translation of this essay appeared in an edition by Hans Kohn under the title Nationalism and the Jewish Ethic (New York: Herzl Press, 1962). This quote is taken from that edition, p. 41.Google Scholar

27. Selected Essays of Ahad Ha'am, trans. and ed. Leon Simon (New York: Atheneum, 1970), pp. 259–269.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., pp. 139–158.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., pp. 256–258.Google Scholar

30. Volume 1 of Chaim Tchernowitz's Masekhet zikhronot sketches the personalities who made up the Jewish intelligentsia of Odessa. That volume if entitled Ḥakhme Odessa [The Sages of Odessa] (New York: Jubilee Committee, 1945).Google Scholar

31. Dubnov, S.M., Pis'ma o starom i novom evreistve (St. Petersburg: Obshchestvennaia pol'za, 1907). An English language edition has been prepared by Koppel S. Pinson under the title Nationalism and History (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1958).Google Scholar

32. Dubnov, , Nationalism, p. 79.Google Scholar

33. Ibid., p. 80.Google Scholar

34. Ibid., pp. 336-53, esp. 341-43.Google Scholar

35. Dubnov, S.M., Weltgeschichte des judischen volkes, 10 vols., (Berlin: Judischer Verlag, 1925-1929).Google Scholar

36. Dubnov, Letter #IV, (Autonomism, The Basis of the National Program)Google Scholar

37. Dubnov, Letter #II, (The Jews as a Spiritual Nationality in the Midst of the Other Nations).Google Scholar

38. Dubnov, Letters VII and VIII, (The Jewish Nationality Now and in the Future, and the Affirmation of the Diaspora).Google Scholar

39. See Goren, Arthur A., New York Jews and the Quest for Community (New York: Columbia University Press), 1970), p. 124.Google Scholar

40. Janowsky, Oscar J., The Jews and Minority Rights, 1898–1918 (New York: Columbia University Press), 1933).Google Scholar