The Russian Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917-1937

456 Pages·2012·8.286 MB·English

by  Jorg Shulte, Olga Tabachnikova, Peter Wagstaff, (editors)

The Russian Jewish Diaspora and
European Culture, 1917–1937
IJS STUDIES IN JUDAICA
Conference Proceedings
of the Institute of Jewish Studies,
University College London
Series Editors
Markham J. Geller
François Guesnet
Ada Rapoport-Albert
VOLUME 13
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ijs
The Russian Jewish Diaspora
and European Culture,
1917–1937
Edited by
Jörg Schulte
Olga Tabachnikova
Peter Wagstaff
LEIDEN • bOSTON
2012
These volumes are based on the international conference series of the Institute of Jewish Studies,
University College London. Issues are thematic, 250–450 pages in length, in English, plus at
most two papers in one other language per volume.
Volumes focus on significant themes relating to Jewish civilisation, and bring together from
different countries, often for the first time, eminent scholars working in the same or allied fields
of research.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Russian Jewish diaspora and European culture, 1917–1937 / edited by Jörg Schulte,
Olga Tabachnikova, Peter Wagstaff.
p. cm. — ( IJS studies in Judaica ; v. 13)
ISbN 978-90-04-22714-9 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Jews, Russian—Europe—Intellectual
life—20th century—Congresses. 2. Jews—Russia—Intellectual life—20th century—
Congresses. 3. Russia—Ethnic relations. I. Schulte, Jörg. II. Tabachnikova, Olga, 1967–
III. Wagstaff, Peter.
DS134.82.R86 2012
305.892’40409041—dc23
2011052552
ISSN 1570-1581
ISbN 978 90 04 22714 9 (hardback)
ISbN 978 90 04 22713 2 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke brill NV incorporates the imprints brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
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Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ...................................................................... ix
Preface and Acknowledgements ................................................. xi
Peter Wagstaff
Russian-Jewish Cultural Retention in Early Twentieth Century
Western Europe: Contexts and Theoretical Implications ..... 1
François Guesnet
PART ONE
RUSSIAN JEWISH TRANSLATORS AND WRITERS
Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell in bialik’s Translation ............................. 11
Anat Feinberg
bialik’s Translation of Don Quixote (1912/1923) ........................ 25
Marianna Prigozhina
Vogel and the City ..................................................................... 37
Glenda Abramson
Marginalia of the Hebrew Renaissance: The Enrichment of
Literary Hebrew through Calques of Russian Phrases in
the Works of Elisheva and Leah Goldberg ........................... 55
Zoya Kopelman
PART TWO
INTERPRETATIONS OF PAST AND PRESENT OF
JEWISH CULTURE
Russian-Jewish Ideas in German Dress: Elias bickerman on the
Hellenizing Reformers of Jewish Antiquity ........................... 73
Albert I. Baumgarten
vi contents
Nahum Slouschz (1871–1966) and His Contribution to the
Hebrew Renaissance .............................................................. 109
Jörg Schulte
Cultural Anxieties of Russian-Jewish Émigrés: Max Eitingon
and Lev Shestov ..................................................................... 127
Olga Tabachnikova
Pinas Rutenberg and Vladimir burtsev: Some Unknown
Aspects of the Connection between Palestine and the
Russian Emigration in Europe ............................................... 147
Vladimir Khazan
An Enclave in Time? Russian-Jewish berlin Revisited ............. 179
Olaf Terpitz
bergelson, benjamin and berlin: Justice Deferred .................... 201
Harriet Murav
PART THREE
NEW SOURCES ON RUSSIAN JEWISH INFLUENCES
IN MUSIC, ART AND PUbLISHING
If Moscow Were Paris: Russia, the Soviet Union and
birobidzhan As Points of Reference in the Yiddish Press
of Paris .................................................................................... 221
Agnieszka W. Wierzcholska
Der Einfluss der jüdischen kulturellen Renaissance in
Osteuropa auf das Musikleben in Wien (1919–1938) ........... 237
Jascha Nemtsov
The Graphic Work of Issachar ber Ryback (1897–1935):
An Outstanding Example of Children’s book Art ................ 279
Serge-Aljosja Stommels and Albert Lemmens
contents vii
‘A beautiful Lie’—Zhar Ptitsa (The Firebird): Sustaining
Jour nalistic Activity and Showcasing Russia in 1920s
berlin ....................................................................................... 301
Susanne Marten-Finnis
The Absence of a Jewish Russian Legacy in France:
ben-Ami’s Testimony and the Schwartzbard Affair ............. 327
Boris Czerny
Ideology and Identity: El Lissitzky in berlin ............................. 339
Christina Lodder
PART FOUR
REPOSITORIES OF THE RUSSIAN JEWISH DIASPORA
Simon Dubnow and the Question of Jewish Emigration in the
Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century .................... 367
Viktor Kel’ner
‘Immortalizing the Crime in History . . .’: The Activities of the
Ostjüdisches Historisches Archiv (Kiev—Berlin—Paris,
1920–1940) .............................................................................. 373
Efim Melamed
From a Russian-Jewish Philanthropic Organization to the
‘Glorious Institute of World Jewry’: Activities of the World
ORT Union in the 1920s–1940s ........................................... 387
Alexander Ivanov
Vladimir (Zeev) Jabotinsky and His Recently Discovered
Works: Problems of Attribution and Analysis ....................... 417
Leonid Katsis
Index of Names .......................................................................... 437

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover illustration for Miriam Margolin, Mayselekh far kleynike
kinderlekh, III ............................................................................. 297
Cover illustration for Leib Kvitko, Foyglen ................................. 297
Plate 6 from Issachar Ryback, Shtetl. Mayn khoyever heym,
a gedenknish ............................................................................... 298
Plate 26 from Issachar Ryback, Shtetl. Mayn khoyever heym,
a gedenknish ............................................................................... 298
‘Paysanne aux épis’, plate 5 from Issachar Ryback, Sur les
champs juifs de l’Ukraine ............................................................. 299
bakst, The Firebird as Female Figure ....................................... 305
bilibin, Scene from a Russian Fairy Tale .................................. 309
Kustodiev, Life in the Russian Province ................................... 310
Somov, burlesque ....................................................................... 311
Larionov, Fairground Scene ....................................................... 312
bakst, Scene from Thamar .......................................................... 317
bakst, Scene from Shéhérazade ..................................................... 318
Chagall, Over the Town ............................................................ 319
El Lissitzky, Cover for Mani Leib, A Mischievous Boy
(Yingl Tsingl Khvat) ................................................................... 341
El Lissitzky, Proun 99, 1923 ........................................................ 342
El Lissitzky, Installation for the Pressa Exhibition, 1928,
Cologne ................................................................................... 343
El Lissitzky, Composition ............................................................... 352
El Lissitzky, Cover for Mani Leib, A Mischievous Boy
(Yingl Tsingl Khvat) ................................................................... 357
El Lissitzky, ‘The Passenger Ticket’, Illustration for Ilya
Ehrenburg, Six Tales with Easy Endings (Shest’ povestei o legkikh
kontsakh) .................................................................................... 360
El Lissitzky, The Constructor (Self-Portrait), 1924 ........................... 362