Was the Traditional East European Jewish Family in the Recent Past Patriarchal?

2018 ◽  
pp. 121-142
Keyword(s):  
Recent Past ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
East European ◽  
European Jewish

Was the Traditional East European Jewish Family in the Recent Past Patriarchal?

2010 ◽  
pp. 121-142
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
East European ◽  
The Family ◽  
Male Head ◽  
Minor Children ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries ◽  
Male Authority ◽  
Jewish Families

This chapter assesses whether the traditional Jewish family in eastern Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was patriarchal. In traditional east European Jewish families, authority over children was not monopolized by fathers; mothers also had a great deal of authority over minor children. Fathers often spent more hours a day out of the house than did mothers, and often they had to work far from their homes. As such, mothers usually determined what went on at home, and even when this was in accordance with their husbands' wishes, it does not imply that it was under their husbands' authority. Perhaps the greatest potential for paternal authority can be found in the marital patterns of their children. Meanwhile, in the area of relations between the male head of the family and his wife in traditional east European Jewish families, male authority could not be taken for granted and male heads of families could not simply force wives to do their bidding. The chapter then defines patriarchy, arguing that the dynamics of the traditional Jewish families in eastern Europe complicate the utility of the term.

Love and Family

2010 ◽  
pp. 26-55
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
East European ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Marriage Formation ◽  
Broad Subject ◽  
European Jewish

This chapter examines the subject of love and the family within east European Jewish life. In the nineteenth century, almost every aspect of Jewish life was transformed in one way or another. The structures of Jewish family life in eastern Europe and the place of love and affection in these frameworks were no exceptions. However, to a greater degree than many today realize, there was also a great deal of continuity between what was accepted in traditional Ashkenazi Jewish family life and in the lives of their descendants. In some cases, the attention given to atypical lives of famous and exceptional individuals has led to a skewed picture of the past. Similarly, superficial views of traditional family dynamics have created a distorted picture of what life was like in traditional east European Jewish society. Looking at love and family life in their fullness and as part of the general social environment is one of the best ways to correct these errors and to arrive at a balanced view of realities and developments. Because marriage and love within the context of family life is a very broad subject, the chapter focuses on four major topics: courtship and marriage formation; marital roles and expectations; parenthood; and remarriage.

Freud and Archeology: the Freudian Metaphor

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-169
Author(s):  
Eszter Kárpáti
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Family ◽  
East European ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
First Time

AbstractI was brought up in an East European Jewish family where jokes and anecdotes are necessary elements of every conversation. I must have been around seven years old when I heard my aunt telling a joke to my mother about two funny-named men, Sisyphus and Oedipus. I was a "perceptive kid" - as my grandmother used to call me - who normally understood jokes, even those which I was not supposed to. This one, however, made no sense to me. I could have just given up upon it, but those names fascinated me: Sisyphus and Oedipushad never heard of them before. So I asked my mother who these two people were and if she would explain the joke to me. As it soon turned out, it was one of those "nicht vor dem Kind"1 jokes, playing on Freudian connotations. However, I was used to the openness-policy of my father, so I expected an honest explanation. My mother had no difficulties in explaining the story of Sisyphus: a child of that age can easily relate to someone who tries to achieve something that is seemingly impossible to do. But how can anyone explain the story of Oedipus to a seven-year-old? That was the first time I heard the name Oedipus. It is only now, many years later, that I finally understand Oedipus' story, too.

Eros and Enlightenment: Love Against Marriage in the East European Jewish Enlightenment

2004 ◽  
pp. 49-67
Author(s):  
David Biale
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Early Marriage ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
East European ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
The 19Th Century

This chapter details how the nascent Eastern European Jewish Enlightenment or Haskalah turned its sights on the Jewish family as part and parcel of its attack on the medieval practices of the Jews. In the period from the early part of the 19th century to about 1870, the Haskalah was a tiny movement, persecuted by the Jewish communal authorities. Yet it was during these years, perhaps even as a result of persecution, that the maskilim or disciples of the Haskalah evolved the fundamental arguments of their movement. While the maskilim shamelessly borrowed their ideas often word for word from the European Enlightenment, they integrated them into a peculiarly Jewish framework, that is, into their own reality. The chapter focuses on the conjunction between ideology and identity in the early Haskalah, for what is most interesting in the thought of this movement is not so much the ideas themselves but how they resonated against the problems of Jewish adolescence: early marriage and the teen years spent in the house of one's in-laws.

Scientific Welfare and Lonely Old People: The Development of Old-Age Homes

2010 ◽  
pp. 86-101
Author(s):  
Shaul Stampfer
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Homes For The Aged ◽  
Jewish Family ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
East European ◽  
Perceived Need ◽  
The Social ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
Old Age Homes

This chapter traces the historical development of Jewish old-age homes to examine the place of the elderly in the Jewish family, along with broader issues of communal organization. Traditionally, the social welfare needs of the indigent or the ill in east European Jewish communities were attended to directly in their homes. However, a number of changes in the conditions of Jewish life made old-age homes increasingly necessary. In many respects, the interest in homes for the aged was actually indicative of an increased sense of responsibility of the Jewish community vis-à-vis the elderly. The Jewish family per se was not weakening; rather, organized communities now undertook to supply services that were once left to individuals. The perceived need for homes for the aged reflected not only the increasing number of elderly, but also much higher expectations for their support. Not surprisingly, this process took place in different places at different times, depending on the course of modernization and local conditions. Despite the limited success of homes for the aged in serving a wide population, many did provide an impressive service.

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.

Profiles of a Lost World. Memoirs of East European Jewish Life before World War II

2001 ◽  
Vol 92 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 247
Author(s):  
Ezra Mendelsohn ◽  
Hirsz Abramowicz
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
World War ◽  
East European ◽  
European Jewish

Economic Opportunities and Some Pilgrims' Progress: Jewish Immigrants from Eastern Europe in the U.S., 1890–1914

1978 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arcadius Kahan
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
East European ◽  
Economic Opportunities ◽  
Economic Progress ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Proper Perspective ◽  
Original Habitat ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
European Jewish ◽  
The U.S

The purpose of the following essay is to evaluate the existing economic opportunities for Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and to indicate the pace of their economic progress during the period 1890–1914. This purpose can best be achieved by viewing the mass migration of these European Jews in the proper perspective, that is, in terms of the dynamics of their situation at the places of original habitat; second, by differentiating successive cohorts of immigrants in terms of their skill composition, literacy, and degree of experienced urbanization, all elements important for the adaptability to and utilization of existing economic opportunities; third, by analyzing the structure of the U.S. industries that provided employment opportunities to the East European Jewish immigrants; fourth, by assuming the income level and standard of living of the native-born labor force as the yardstick for measuring the economic progress of the immigrants. Such an approach may broaden our understanding of the mechanism of adjustment that enabled the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe both to take advantage of existing economic opportunities and to create new ones.

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