Insiders and Outsiders

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 Lwów 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’.

Steven E. Aschheim, Vigevani Chair of European Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; director of the Franz Rosenzweig Research Centre for German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History
Karen Auerbach, Applied Research Scholar, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
Richard I. Cohen, Paulette and Claude Kelman Chair in French Jewry Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Jonathan Frankel, late Saveli and Tamara Grinberg Professor Emeritus, Department of Russian and Slavic Studies and the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Stefani Hoffman, former director of the Mayrock Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Research, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Zvi Jagendorf, Professor Emeritus of English and Theatre, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hillel J. Kieval, Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought, and Chair of the Department of History, Washington University, St Louis
Rachel Manekin, assistant professor of Jewish history, University of Maryland
Amitai Mendelsohn, curator of Israeli art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Joanna B. Michlic, Director, Project on Families, Children, and the Holocaust, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University
Antony Polonsky, Albert Abramson Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
David Rechter, University Research Lecturer in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford; Research Fellow in Modern Jewish History, St Antony’s College, Oxford
Scott Ury, postdoctoral fellow, Department of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University
Leon Volovici, formerly head of research and board member, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ruth R. Wisse, Harvard College Professor, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature, and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Mordechai Zalkin, associate professor, Department of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

‘This volume, thanks to the high quality and diversity of its offerings, is clearly a major contribution to east European Jewish studies and to the larger fields of Jewish history and cultural studies.’
Natan Meir, H-Judaic

‘Intellectual provocations and controversial and new interpretations are very important, especially if they come together with solid scholarship. This is the case of the book under review, which is a must read for everybody interested in the assimilation of east European Jews.’
Piotr Wróbel, H-Judaic

‘All authors present well-grounded conclusions with regard to the specific problems they analyse and suggest that by using a methodological approach like that of “outsiders” and “insiders” it is possible to widen the scope of research on identity change and provide a fresh look at conflcts possibly based on individual choices, their contexts, and consequences. Thus, the articles in this book, each in their way, convincingly prove the viability and multi-functionality of this methodological apprach in research on modern east European Jewish culture and history.’
Jurgita Siauciunaite-Verbickiene, Judaica