Studies in East European Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSEPH WEISS
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Mysticism ◽  
East European ◽  
European Jewish

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.

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.

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.

The Jewish Liturgical Music Printing Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-136
Author(s):  
Edwin Seroussi
Keyword(s):  
Liturgical Music ◽  
East European ◽  
Music Printing ◽  
Jewish Music ◽  
European Jewish

Orality is the hallmark of all Jewish music cultures, and most especially of their liturgical music. Orality is not simply a technique of music mnemonics and transmission among Jews through the generations; it became, as Judit Frigyesi puts it, an aesthetical ideal, and this principle applies not only to the East European Jewish traditions studied by her but to all Jewish traditions....

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