Full Description
Moshe Rosman's revolutionary approach has become a cornerstone of Polish Jewish historiography. Challenging conventions, he asserts that the 'marriage of convenience' between the Jews and the Polish--Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dynamic relationship that, though punctuated by crisis and persecution, developed into a saga of overall achievement and stability.
With that fundamental message this book forges a thematic survey of Jewish history in early modern Poland. These essays, written by Rosman over the course of a distinguished career, have all been updated and enhanced with new detail and nuanced arguments, taking account not only of new archival material and research but also of the ongoing evolution of the author's own knowledge and perspectives. Some appear here in English for the first time.
The volume's structure highlights key topics for understanding the Polish Jewish past: relations between Jews and other Poles; Jewish communal life; Polish Jewish women; and hasidism. One section analyses how this past has been presented in both scholarly and popular modes. The essays are crafted to place them in dialogue with each other. Analytical introductions weigh their significance in the light of modern and postmodern Jewish and Polish historiography. An extensive general introduction sets the context of the history portrayed here, while a thoughtful conclusion elucidates the larger motifs that emerge.
Contents
Introduction
PART I HISTORIOGRAPHY
Introduction
1. A New Scholarly Foundation: The Historiography of Polish Jewry Since 1945
2. The Verdict of Israeli Historiography on Hasidism
3. POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the New Polish Jewish Metahistory
PART II JEWS AND OTHER POLES
Introduction
4. Jewish Perceptions of Persecution and Powerlessness in the Commonwealth
5. A Minority Views the Majority: Jewish Attitudes Towards the Commonwealth and Interaction with Poles
6. Dubno in the Wake of Khmelnytsky
7. The Question of the Jews in the Constitution of the Third of May
PART III THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Introduction
8. Jewish Autonomy in Poland and the Polish Regime
9. The Authority of the Council of Four Lands Outside Poland--Lithuania
10. The Indebtedness of the Lublin Kahal in the Eighteenth Century
11. Everyday Violence in Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth
12. The Image of Poland as a Torah Centre after 1648
PART IV WOMEN
Introduction
13. History of Jewish Women in the Commonwealth I: An Assessment
14. History of Jewish Women in the Commonwealth II: From Facilitation to Participation
15. A Proto-Feminist Demand to Increase Jewish Women's Religious Capital: Leah Horowitz's Tkhine Imohos
PART V HASIDISM
Introduction
16. The Rise of Hasidism
17. Międzybóż and Rabbi Yisra'el Ba'al Shem Tov
18. Stories that Changed History: The Unique Career of Shivḥei habesht
19. Hasidism as a Modern Phenomenon
Conclusion: Theme Decoding
