Home for the Homeless? The Hekdesh in Eastern Europe

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natan M. Meir
Keyword(s):  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
East European ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Jewish Hospital ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
Polish Jews ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Structural Poverty ◽  
Social Marginality

This chapter examines the hekdesh, one of the grimmest institutions in East European Jewish society. The hekdesh, or Jewish hospital-cum-poorhouse, is a somewhat elusive historical phenomenon but also a useful venue for analyzing traditional forms of Jewish charity in the Russian Empire as well as the dynamics of social marginality among Russian and Polish Jews. The chapter first considers an important characteristic of Jewish charity—the tendency to distinguish between conjunctural poverty and structural poverty—before discussing the hekdesh as an institution. In particular, it describes efforts to transform the hekdesh into a true medical institution and its incarnation in the late nineteenth century as a place for beggars and other cast-offs of society, with only a nominal connection to caring for the sick. It also explains how the hekdesh may have served to perpetuate the problem of begging and vagrancy.

Ḥeder Study, Knowledge of Torah, and the Maintenance of Social Stratification

2010 ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
East European ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
Popular Image ◽  
Standard Framework

This chapter focuses on education in east European Jewish society. On one hand, education was highly regarded by all Jews; learnedness was one of the critical qualities for membership in the elite and lifelong study was one of the most visible features of that society. However, while in many societies education is a means for mobility, traditional east European Jewish society was highly stratified and stable, with little intergenerational social mobility. The key to understanding this situation was the ḥeder, the traditional Jewish elementary school in eastern Europe. The first level of ḥeder study was devoted to learning the mechanics of reading Hebrew. The next level is ḥumash ḥeder, in which students studied each week the portion of the Torah which was to be read the coming sabbath in the synagogue. When a child was able to read the Torah, he was ready to move up to a Talmud ḥeder. For generations up until the late nineteenth century, the standard framework for advanced talmudic study had been study in the beit midrash, or communal study and prayer hall. Ultimately, the ḥeder system contributed to the balance and stability of Jewish society. It was a conservative tool, even though the popular image was that the educational system was open and every Jewish child could become a talmudic scholar.

The Controversy over Sheḥitah and the Struggle between Hasidim and Mitnagedim

2010 ◽  
pp. 342-356
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Central Element ◽  
East European ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
European Jewish

This chapter assesses the controversy over the knives used in sheḥitah, or slaughtering of animals. In east European Jewish society, meat was a central element of the diet, and the observance of the kosher laws was one of the most obvious ways in which Jews were distinguished from non-Jews. Moreover, a rigorous observance of these laws was one of the ways in which individual Jews demonstrated their piety. The quality of the ḥalaf, or knife used for sheḥitah, is one of the key elements in determining whether meat is kosher or not. During the early days of the hasidic movement, a dispute over the type of knife that should be used — specifically a demand that slaughtering knives be sharpened or ‘polished’ in a special way — played a major role in the struggle between the hasidim and their opponents, particularly the mitnagedim. The decline of this dispute contributed to the establishment of a degree of peace, or at least coexistence, between the groups.

Strategy and Ruse in the Haskalah of Mendel Lefin of Satanow

2001 ◽  
pp. 86-102
Author(s):  
Nancy Sinkoff
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Social Criticism ◽  
East European ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
European Jewish

This chapter focuses on Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow, a fascinating maskil, who was a link between the German and the east European Haskalah. Because he often wrote in Yiddish, he has usually been seen as a populist who advanced the maskilim's criticism of east European Jewish life and culture. He attacked the intoxication with mysticism, became involved in the literary battle against hasidism, and proposed the maskilim as leaders who could heal the ills of Jewish society. In contrast to the view of Lefin as a populist, which was rooted in earlier scholarship's nationalist bias, the chapter notes his sophisticated use of literary strategies aimed at different audiences according to the language of the text. It illustrates these strategies in an analysis of a text written for his fellow Jews; an adaptation and translation of a travel story in the New World meant as a tool of social criticism and anti-hasidic polemics; and also in a text written for a wider audience, an anonymous French memorandum that Lefin submitted to the Polish Sejm in 1791.

Jewish Intellectuals in Odessa in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Nationalist Theories of Ahad Ha'am and Simon Dubnov1

1978 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-123
Author(s):  
Alexander Orbach
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
East European ◽  
Cultural Centers ◽  
The North ◽  
Religious Piety ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Russian Empire

From the end of the eighteenth century until the Revolution of 1917, the Jewish communities of Vilna (Vilnius), Odessa, and Warsaw stood out as the prominent intellectual and cultural centers of Russian and Polish Jewry. In the period immediately following the Partitions of Poland, the preeminence of the northern region and Vilna, its major city, was acknowledged by all. Characterized by the rich Talmudical tradition associated with Elijah ben Solomon (1720-1797), the famous Gaon [Sage] of Vilna, and his disciples, Vilna signified then, and to a great extent continues today to signify, the values of intensive traditional learning combined with deep religious piety. In fact, in the literature on Russian Jewry, Vilna is often referred to as the Jerusalem of the North, indicating its special character and place in the history of East European Jewry. However, while Vilna symbolized the traditional world, over the course of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community of Russia was moving in a different direction. The political, economic, social and especially demographic forces of the modern period significantly altered the basic character of the Jewish community of the Russian Empire.

Early Life (1884–1905)

1999 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Marc B. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Years ◽  
East European ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
European Jewish

This chapter describes the early years of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg's (1884–1966) life amid the backdrop of the final decades of the nineteenth century. Within this milieu, the Jews in Russia, Poland, and Lithuania were coming to grips with a number of new movements and philosophies. Although the apostles of Jewish enlightenment (Haskalah), through their propagation of new ideals, had some influence in bringing about a modernization and acculturation, there were other important factors which were independent of Haskalah, although often indirectly nourished by it. It was into this east European Jewish society in transition that Weinberg was born in 1884, in Ciechanowiec, Poland. From there, the chapter describes Weinberg's early childhood and schooling. The latter in particular occurred during a controversy over the musar movement, founded upon the ideologies of Rabbi Israel Salanter.

Between Marginalization, Demonization, and Nostalgia

2005 ◽  
pp. 249-256
Author(s):  
Marcin Wodziński
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
East European ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
General Studies

This concluding chapter explains that the development of the attitude of the Haskalah to hasidism in the Congress Kingdom is important to understanding the history of Jewish society, not only in this part of Poland but in the whole of eastern Europe. The example of the Kingdom of Poland demonstrates that the struggle with the hasidic movement was not an obsession inherent to the entire east European Haskalah and an essential element of its ideology, but rather that it was the result of a confluence of many factors of an ideological and social, internal and external, nature. The breakthrough in attitudes towards hasidism associated with Eliezer Zweifel's views advocating reconciliation with the hasidic movement gains a completely new meaning in the context of similar declarations by Polish integrationists in the early 1860s. However, the significance of this breakthrough lies not so much in where it first occurred historically as in its usefulness as an analogy from which to draw lessons about the wider process taking place in modernizing Jewish circles in the Russian empire and the Kingdom of Poland. The similarities and differences in attitudes towards hasidism may be treated as a convenient starting point for more general studies of the Haskalah and hasidism in eastern Europe, the factors shaping them, and the characteristics that resulted from them. The chapter then summarises this book's findings.

Introduction

2010 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Family Formation ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
East European ◽  
The Past ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
European Jewish

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the author's collection of articles which all deal with aspects of east European Jewish life in the modern period. This was a time of transition from a society in which tradition was a key force to one in which models of the past no longer significantly determined behaviour and thought. This shift took place rapidly and under conditions that were not obviously conducive to a quick and smooth transition, and the consequences are still very evident today. The chapter explains thar divided into three sections, the book studies the workings of Jewish communities, particularly east European Jewish society. The first section deals with family formation, family reformation, and family maintenance. The second section deals with education. Finally, the last section deals with the rabbinate — not with specific rabbis but with the institution.

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