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The Karaite Community in Interwar Poland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Warren Green
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Extract

The Karaites are a schismatic Jewish sect which severed itself from the Babylonian Jewish community in the eighth century of the Common Era. The Karaites contended that the Rabbinites, the adherents to the Rabbinic tradition of Judaism, had perverted the Torah (Pentateuch) by superseding it with the Talmud (the compendium of the oral tradition of Jewish law). As a result of this theological argument, the Karaites adopted a fundamentalist approach to scriptural exegesis. The two groups differed in such areas as: observance of religious laws, the order of prayers, dietary laws and determining the dates of Jewish holidays.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 14 , Issue 1-2 , Spring-Fall 1986 , pp. 101 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities (USSR and East Europe) Inc. 

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References

1. For more details on the tenets of Karaism, refer to Philip Birnbaum, Karaite Studies (New York: Hermon Press, 1971); Leon Nemoy, The Karaite Anthology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952); Szymon Szyszman, Le Karaiïsme (Lausanne: Editions l'Age d'Homme, 1980) and Ananiasz Zająckowski, Karaims in Poland (Warsaw: Pánstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1961).Google Scholar

2. For more information on the history of the Karaite settlement in Eastern Europe refer to Balaban, Meir, “Lekorot HaKaraim bePolin,” HaTekufah, part I, Vol. XVI, 1916, part II, Vol. XXI, 1921 and part III, Vol. XXV, 1925, or its Polish translation, “Karaici w Polsce,” in No we Zycie, Vol. I, 1924; and Vol. II, 1924, Julius Brutzkus, “Di Obshtamung fun di Karaimer in Lite un Polin,” YIVO Bleter, January-February 1938; and Jacob Mann, Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature, Vol. II, (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1935).Google Scholar

3. According to the Italian researcher Corrado Gini, the following is the breakdown of the post-Russian Revolution Crimean Karaite emigration: Constantinople-42, Syria-1, Egypt-7, Romania-46, Bulgaria-35, Yugoslavia-4, Italy-4, France-268, Germany-8, New York-23 and Switzerland-9. Gini, Corrado, “I Caraimi di Polonia e di Lituania,” Genus, Vol. XIV, 1936, p. 28.Google Scholar

4. The publication of Myşl Karaismka in Wroclaw, 1946-1947, reflected the Karaite's westward migration to Poland after the Soviet takeover of Lithuania and the eastern portion of Poland. After the appearance of two issues, the magazine ceased publication. The magazine however reappeared in 1948 retitled, Prźegląd Orientalistyczny (“Journal of Orientalia”), a journal devoted to Turkic, Asiatic and African studies.Google Scholar

5. Radioff, Wilhem, “Bericht über eine Reise zu den Karaimen der westlichen Gouvenments,” Bulletin de l'Académie Imperiales des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg, XXXII, 1888; Jan Grzegorzewski, “Caraimica. Jezyk Lach-Karaitów,” Rocznik Oríentalistyczny, Vol. I and II, 1916-1918; Viktor Filonenko, “ ’Atalar sozy‘ Karaimskije poslovicy i pogovorki,” Izvestija Tavriceskogo Obsucuestva Istorii, Archeologii i Etnografii, Vol. III (60), 1929; and Bernhard Munkácsi, “Karäîsch — tatarische Hymnen aus Polen,” Keleti Szemle, Vol. X, 1909. Modern studies on the Karaite language include: Omeljan Pritsak, “Das Karaimische,” Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta, Vol. I (Wiesbaden, 1959), K. Musaev, Grammatika Karaimskogo Iazyka, Fonetika i Morfologiya (Moscow: Izdatelstvo “Nauka”, 1964); N. Baskakov, Slownik Karaimko-Rosyjsko-Polski (Moscow: Wydawnictwo “Russkij Jazyk”, 1974) as well as the assorted studies by the two Polish Karaite Turkologists, Wodzimierz Zajączkowski (Jagiellonian University) and Aleksander Dubiński (University of Warsaw).Google Scholar

6. Moreau, Abel, “En Pologne a Troki, Chez le Hachan des Karaimes,” Revue Bleue June 6, 1936, p. 392.Google Scholar

7. Cohen, Israel, Vilna (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1943), p. 463–467.Google Scholar

8. Zajączkowski, Ananiasz, Karaimi na Wolyniu (Równe: 1933); Abraham Szyszman, Osadnictwo karaimskie na ziemiach wielkiego Ksiestẃa Litewskiego (Vilna: 1936); and Abraham Firkowicz, O Karaimach w Polsce (Troki: 1938).Google Scholar

9. , Balaban, Lekorot HaKaraim.”Google Scholar

10. , Brutzkus, “Di Obshtamung.”Google Scholar

11. , Gini, “I Caraimi.”Google Scholar

12. Magino, Carlo, “I Caraimi,” La Difesa della Razza Vol. II, 1939-40.Google Scholar

13. Maurach, Reinhart, “Die Karaimen in der russische Judengesetzgebung,” Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde Vol. X, #2-3, 1939.Google Scholar

14. Seraphim, Peter Heinz, Das Judentum im osteuropaischen Raum (Essen: Essener Verlagsanstalt, 1938), p. 281.Google Scholar

15. , Yivo, Archives, 'New York, Berlin Collection, Occ E, 3 Box-100, letter dated 5 January 1939.Google Scholar

16. For further information on the fate of the Karaites during the Second World War, refer to: Friedman, Philip, “The Karaites Under Nazi Rule,” in Max Beloff's On the Tracks of Tyranny (London: Mitchell, Valentine, 1960) and Warren Green, “The Nazi Racial Policy Towards the Karaites,” So viet Jewish Affairs, Vol. VII, #2, 1978 and “The Fate of the Crimean Jewish Communities: Ashkenazim, Krimchaks and Karaites,” Jewish Social Studies, Vol. XLVI, #2, Spring 1984.Google Scholar