The Karaites of Galicia: An Ethnoreligious Minority Among the Ashkenazim, the Turks, and the Slavs, 1772-1945

481 Pages·2009·5.86 MB·English

by  Mikhail Kizilov

The Karaites of Galicia
Studia Judaeoslavica
Edited by
Alexander Kulik
(The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
VOLUME 1
Chais Center for Jewish Studies in R ussian
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Karaites of Galicia
An Ethnoreligious Minority among the Ashkenazim,
the Turks, and the Slavs
1772–1945
by
Mikhail Kizilov
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Karaites of Galicia : an ethnoreligious minority among the Ashkenazim, the
Turks, and the Slavs, 1772-1945 / Edited by Mikhail Kizilov.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-90-04-16602-8 (alk. paper)
1. Karaites—Galicia (Poland and Ukraine)—History. I. Kizilov, Mikhail, 1974- II.
Title.
BM185.K38 2008
296.8’1–dc22
2008035819
ISSN 1876-6153
ISBN 978 90 04 16602 8
© Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations .................................................................. ix
List of Illustrations ...................................................................... xi
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... xv
Chapter One Introduction to the Study and the History of
Karaism ................................................................................... 1
1.1. The Topicality of Studying the Galician Karaites as a
Vanishing Ethnic Minority ............................................. 1
1.2. Literature Survey ............................................................ 13
1.3. Methodological Difficulties, Sources, and Objectives of
the Study ......................................................................... 19
1.4. The System of Transliteration ....................................... 28
1.5. Outline of the History of the Galician Karaite
Community Prior to 1772 .............................................. 30
Chapter Two The Karaites in Austrian Galicia: The
Community as Seen from Outside ......................................... 55
2.1. The Karaites and Toleranzpolitik .................................. 55
2.2. The Karaites as the “Exemplary Jews” of Austria ....... 71
2.3. The Karaites and the Royal Family of Austria ............ 81
Chapter Three The Karaites in Austrian Galicia, Their
History and Culture: The Community as Seen from
Within ..................................................................................... 89
3.1. Halicz .............................................................................. 89
3.2. Kukizów .......................................................................... 123
3.3. Lwów-Lemberg and Its Role in the Life of the Galician
Karaites from 1772 to 1918 ........................................... 131
Chapter Four The Galician Karaites, Their Language,
Customs, and Traditions: The Community as Seen from
an Ethnographic Perspective .................................................. 133
4.1. Religio-Ethnographic Customs and Traditions ............. 133
4.2. Karaim, a Turko-Judeo-Slavic Language: History,
Literature, and Folklore .................................................. 154
vi contents
4.3. The Crimean Karaites and Their Impact on the
Religious and Everyday Life of the Galician
Community ..................................................................... 180
Chapter Five The Karaites and Their Neighbours:
Relations with the Christian Population and with the
Rabbanite Jews ....................................................................... 191
5.1. The Karaites and the Slavic Population (Poles and
Ruthenians) ..................................................................... 191
5.2. The Karaites and the Talmudic Jews ............................ 202
Chapter Six Karaites in Polish Galicia between the Two
World Wars ............................................................................. 235
6.1. General State of the Community after World War I ... 235
6.2. Interwar (cid:198)azzanim, Isaac Abrahamowicz, and the
Conflicts of the 1920s and Early 1930s ........................ 250
6.3. The Karaites and Their Ethnic Neighbours ................. 257
Chapter Seven Khazar Theory vs. Racial Anthropology:
Interwar Turkicization of the Galician Karaites and Its
Outcome during World War II .............................................. 265
7.1. Seraja Szapszał’s Visit to Halicz in 1929 ...................... 265
7.2. Seraja Szapszał’s Reformist Activity of the 1930s ........ 268
7.3. The Visit of Corrado Gini’s Anthropological
Expedition and Its Impact on the Development
of Szapszał’s Turkic Theory .......................................... 277
7.4. Implementation of Szapszał’s Turkic Doctrine in
Halicz and Its Outcome ................................................. 287
7.5. The Karaites of Halicz during the Second World War
and the Holocaust .......................................................... 294
Chapter Eight The Galician Karaites after 1945 ................... 303
8.1. Decline of the Galician Community after the Second
World War ...................................................................... 303
8.2. The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Last of the
Galician Mohicans ......................................................... 314
8.3. The Galician Karaite Community and Its Cultural
Heritage Today ............................................................... 318
contents vii
Conclusion The Historical Fate, the Past, and the Future
of the Karaite Community in Eastern Europe ..................... 323
Glossary ....................................................................................... 343
Bibliography ................................................................................ 345
Appendices .................................................................................. 377
Index ........................................................................................... 409
Plates ............................................................................................ 417

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Institutions and Printed Materials
AAN Archiwum Akt Nowych, Warsaw
ADB Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
AGAD Archiwum G(cid:220)ówne Akt Dawnych, Warsaw
AN PAN Archiwum Nauki PAN i PAU, Kraków
AOH Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Bod Bodleian library, Oxford
DAIFO Derzhavnyi arkhiv Ivano-Frankivs’koï oblasti,
Ivano-Frankivs’k
EJ Encyclopaedia Judaica
HK Hofkanzlei (Vienna, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv,
Staats-Archiv des Innern und der Justiz)
HR Hofreisen (Vienna, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv)
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
KA Karaj Awazy (Łuck, 1931–1938)
KJ Karaite Judaism. A Guide to Its History and Literary Sources.
Edited by Meira Polliack (Leiden: Brill, 2003)
KRF Fahn, Reuven. Kitvei Reuven Fahn. Vol. 1: Sefer ha-Qera(cid:120)im
(Lwów, 1929)
KRPS Karaimsko-russko-pol’skii slovar’ (Moscow, 1974)
KV Karaimskie Vesti (Moscow, 1994–2003)
KZh Karaimskaia Zhizn’ (Moscow, 1911–1912)
MS LMAB Manuscript Division of the Lietuvos Moksl’
Akademijos Biblioteka, Vilnius (Wilno)
MKIK Muzei karaïms’koï istoriï ta kul’tury, Halicz (Halych)
MWRiOP Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświ\cenia
Publicznego, Warsaw
MK Myśl Karaimska (Wilno-Wroc(cid:220)aw, 1924–1947)
NLR National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg
PO Przegl[d Orientalistyczny (Warsaw, 1949–)
PTF Philologiae Turcicae Fundamentae. Edited by Jean Deny, K.
Gronbech, H. Schneel, and Z. Velidi Togan. Vols. 1–2
(Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1959–1965)
RO Rocznik Orientalistyczny (Warsaw)