“My Good Italian Friends”: Vida Scudder and Boston's Circolo Italo-Americano

The Circolo Italo-Americano, a Progressive-era group of educated Italian immigrants and affluent Bostonians, was founded by settlement movement pioneer Vida Dutton Scudder to integrate Italians into American life through “friendly personal contacts,” social events, and educational opportunities. The Circolo included Italian leadership and focused on immigrants’ contributions, not on “assimilation.”

‘The Hope of Pessimism’

This chapter reads George Gissing’s Thyrza (1887) and Mary (Mrs Humphry) Ward’s Robert Elsmere (1888) in relation to the settlement movement of the 1880s. The chapter turns to the idealist philosophy of Green, which provided one of the most philosophically advanced articulations of welfarist thinking in this period. Echoing Green, Ward suggests that the success of her protagonist’s reformist plans depends on the workers’ ability to see them as integral to their personal flourishing: instead of appearing as an alien imposition on workers’ lives, these new institutions are shown to depend on entgegenkommende Lebensformen, i.e. forms of social life which lend substance to but also retain a degree of independence from the institutional structures that support them. Thyrza, by contrast, critically interrogates the belief that institutions can create social harmony from above—a scepticism which continues to haunt later engagements with state action in works by Carpenter, Wells, and Forster.

West and East in Ashkenaz in the Time of Judah he-Ḥasid

The present study interprets and frames a long-standing question concerning Judah he-Ḥasid’s motivations in migrating to Regensburg against the social and geographical contexts of the Jews of Ashkenaz. By examining the use of Hebrew geographic terminology during the High Middle Ages (Loter, Ashkenaz, Ashkelonia), the article demonstrates that twelfth-century Jews perceived and were engaged in contemporary political and territorial processes of the surrounding kingdom. The Hebrew terms describe the cultural tripartite division of the German kingdom (Regnum Teutonicum) in Lotharingia, the five duchies of the earlier tribes (Saxony, Franconia, Thuringia, Swabia, and Bavaria), and the still Slavic territories of the East. These imperial territories were settled and Christianized by mostly German migrants from the west of the kingdom from the eleventh century onwards. Comparable developments are evident in the movement and expansion of Jewish settlement in the German Kingdom. After many Jewish communities were founded in the Ashkenazic heartlands, beginning in cities on the Rhine, Main, and the Danube, i.e., in the territories of the five duchies (Ashkenaz), Jewish settlers founded new communities and settlements in the still Slavic areas (Ashkelonia), beyond the Elbe and Saale rivers, as part of the German settlement movement. Judah he-Ḥasid’s family’s migration is part of this development. With his relocation to Regensburg, he lived on the border of the Ashkenazic heartland (Old/West Ashkenaz) and the new Ashkenazic settlement areas in Ashkelonia (New/Eastern Ashkenaz). In Regensburg he became one of the central spiritual and halakhic authorities for the communities of the eastern neighboring territories. Through his work Judah he-Ḥasid opened the way to an “Ashkenazation” of the Jewish communities in eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

The HaZor'im Organization: Religious Pioneers in the Lower Galilee between 1937–1947

The HaZor’im settlement in the Lower Galilee, associated with the HaPo’el HaMizraḥi movement, was founded by religious pioneers from Europe. This article demonstrates that members of the HaZor’im organization were unable to fully realize their dream of combining the study of Torah with working the soil in the Land of Israel – “Torah and Labor” – that they had envisioned when they were on the training farm in Europe. Much has been written about the pioneering settlements of the secular labor movement, but there has been relatively little research about the pioneering religious settlements. This article seeks to address that lacuna by answering questions such as why the HaZor’im group was a dominant one throughout the Land of Israel. How could they realistically expect to create a viable settlement movement in Israel without faith in the righteousness of their choices and lacking social cohesion based on pioneering-religious ideology? The story of HaZor’im illustrates the worldview of religious Zionism during the British Mandate. The members were pioneers of the fifth Aliyah who faced social, economic, and religious difficulties. They collaborated in formulating and writing their ideological views, as well as in shaping a coherent work program for their activities on the land. The group began their venture in the Land of Israel in a labor camp near Rishon LeZion, then settled in the Galilee on land they received from other settlers. This study examines the difficulties they faced and shows how their conceptual world was expressed in practice.

Between social mission and social reform: the Settlement House Movement in Germany, 1900–30

This chapter provides an overview of the development and characteristics of the German settlement movement and traces both the currents of social reform as well as the actors to which they were linked. Using the example of the Soziale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berlin-Ost (social working group Berlin-East) in particular, it will be shown that the social missionary approach of the German Settlement House Movement is due especially to its anchoring in the bourgeois youth movement and its strong Protestant character. Furthermore, the chapter sheds light on the area of social research in the Berlin settlement house which helped to establish further professional networks. This creates a picture of a historical variant of community work that is both independent and unique in an international context, and in which fundamental theological-ethical positions as well as certain currents of social reform, social research and social work converged in a specific way.

The English settlements, the Poor Man’s Lawyer and social work, circa 1890–1939

The settlement movement in England brought about and worked in tandem with other reformist movements: such as the spread of ‘poor man’s lawyer’ services. The provision of these free legal advice clinics was a means of usefully applying the legal skills of residents at male-led settlements, as well as creating a form of social work that was acceptable for upper- and middle-class men to do. Settlement provision of legal advice also closely intersected with the social work they undertook, from direct interventions in helping needy families, to training social workers in aspects of law, as well as to seeing legal advice as a key element in community development.

Practices of Educational Volunteerism in History and Today

Статья посвящена анализу феномена педагогического волонтерства в историческом опыте и современном социокультурном контексте. Целью является изучение исторического развития практик и направлений педагогического волонтерства. Исследование обусловлено наличием трех противоречий, которые характерны для педагогического волонтерства: популярность и недостаточная изученность, большие возможности и отсутствие научно выверенных методов реализации, историческая преемственность и новизна. Основные методы исследования: теоретический и сопоставительный анализ, исторический метод, анализ публицистических материалов. C опорой на теоретические исследования и практические материалы было отслежено историческое развитие педагогического волонтерства, раскрыты его отличительные особенности от других видов социальных практик. Эти особенности иллюстрируют три критерия: волонтерский, педагогический, институциональный. На основе критериев делается вывод, что первые волонтерские педагогические практики получили распространение в деятельности движения «Сетлемент» в США. В статье дан обзор пяти основных направлений педагогического волонтерства в отечественном и зарубежном опыте: наставничество, репетиторство, духовно-просветительское направление, образовательное волонтерство, социально-развивающая деятельность с детьми, оказавшимися в трудной жизненной ситуации. Также были уточнены и обоснованы для использования понятия «педагогическое волонтерство», «волонтер-педагог». The article analyzes the phenomenon of educational volunteerism against the historical background and in the modern socio-cultural context. The aim of the article is to analyze the evolution of various practices and trends of educational volunteerism. The research focuses on three contradictions characteristic of educational volunteering: popularity vs. insufficient investigation, great opportunities vs. lack of developed implementation methodology, deep historical roots vs. novelty. The article employs the following methods of research: theoretical and comparative analysis, historical method, analysis of publicistic materials. The analysis of theoretical research and practical materials enables the author of the article to trace the historical development of educational volunteerism, to investigate its peculiar features that make it different form other social practices. These peculiarities illustrate three criteria: volunteering, educational and institutional. Relying on the criteria, the author concludes that the first practices of educational volunteerism were employed by the adherents of the Settlement movement in the USA. The article analyzes five major trends of pedagogical volunteerism in Russia and abroad: mentoring, guidance, tutorship, spiritual enlightenment, socio-educational support for children in difficult life situations. The article also substantiates such notions as educational volunteerism and teaching volunteers.

‘Twenty girls in my attic’: Spatial and Spiritual Conversion in L. T. Meade’s A Princess of the Gutter

This chapter examines L.T. Meade’s A Princess of the Gutter (1895). This novel integrates generic conventions of romance and realism in order to engage in contemporary debates about the settlement movement for its juvenile audience. In its representation of the protagonist’s experience living and working in various forms of settlement housing in London’s East End, the novel explores the degree to which a commitment to religious philosophy was necessary to effect meaningful social change.