. Historiography About the Educational Activities of Jews in Dnipro Ukraine during the 19th – Early 20th centuries

The article deals with historiography about the cultural and educational development of Jews in Dnipro Ukraine during the 19th – early 20th centuries. The formation and functioning of a Jewish educational system in Volhynia during that period, the work of Zhytomyr Rabbinical School and Zhytomyr Jewish Teachers Institute, spiritual-cultural and education activities of Jews in Left-bank Ukraine, Right-bank Ukraine, South-East Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian Empire, and on Western Ukrainian lands of Austria-Hungary are reflected in the historical science. While appreciating the progress of Judaic studies, it should be noted that today this subject needs to be developed further. This is especially important for understanding the key issues of Ukraine’s History and World History. The analysis of a wide range of historical sources, especially archival materials, will contribute to the objective presentation of the history of Jewish community as unique historical and cultural phenomenon and an important part of the Culture of Ukraine. The ideological and political pressure of Soviet era has slowed down Judaic studies, fulfilment of their scientific and practical potential. In the late 1980s there has been an upsurge of interest in the Jewish history. Research studies of Independent Ukraine have contributed to introduction into the scientific activities of new historical sources, developing innovative projects and ideas, improving methodological approaches. The role of Jews in increasing European cultural influences on the Ukrainian lands is a perspective direction of the historical research. In the period of raising the national spirit of Jews during the 19th – early 20th centuries, the number of Jewish students from Ukraine who studied in European universities has increased. Attention needs to be shifted towards an important social function of ethnic research, the results of which foster establishing Ukrainian cultural environment based on tolerance, mutual respect, humanism and cross-cultural dialogue

The Zhitomir Rabbinical School: New Materials and Perspectives

This chapter examines the Zhitomir rabbinical school, one of the most controversial institutions in nineteenth-century Jewish life in the tsarist empire. It draws upon the documents of the rabbinical school in the State Archive of the Zhitomir Region. The objective here is to analyse state motivations in creating ‘rabbinical colleges’, the composition and profile of the student body, and the educational backgrounds and goals of its staff and teachers. Here, the internal life of such schools are examined from a new perspective. Indeed, the chapter shows in the case of Zhitomir, that one central reason for the failure of the rabbinical schools lay in the fact that within their walls the self-professed ‘leaders of the Jewish people’ were alienated from the very people they claimed to lead.

Sustaining the College (1875–1883)

This chapter discusses Isaac Mayer Wise’s attempts to keep his college in operation. In a sense, the Hebrew Union College, like Minhag America, was a vestige of a more comprehensive scheme. The all-embracing synod, which would legislate for American Judaism and authorize an official prayer-book as well as an official seminary for training rabbis, had been laid on one side. From time to time Wise still tried to raise the wind in its favour, but he found no support. The union, as established in 1873, was a deliberately circumscribed body, both as to the scope of its powers and as to the area of its membership. Wise’s presence was felt, but in the wings rather than the centre of the stage. The college itself, limited to the preparatory department of a rabbinical school, was only a first instalment of the comprehensive institution Wise had planned. If, as his critics charged, Wise was bent on becoming a ‘western pope’, being given the presidency of Hebrew Union College was hardly a coronation.

Paul and Rabbinic Exegesis

For some time scholars have recognised that Paul's exegesis of Scripture was influenced by rabbinic hermeneutics. As early as 1900 H. St. John Thackeray argued that Paul utilised rabbinic methods of interpretation to confute the Jews. In a number of cases, he wrote, particularly where the original sense of Scripture is not adhered to, ‘we may undoubtedly see the influence of his rabbinic training in the use to which the Old Testament is put and the inferences drawn from it.’ In 1911 H. Lietzmann described Paul's treatment of the desert sojourn in 1 Cor. 10.1–11 as ‘the Haggadic method’, implying a comparison with rabbinic method. Following this same line of argument A. F. Pukko in 1928 asserted that Paul utilised Hillel's seven principles of rabbinic exegesis. According to Pukko, ‘As an interpreter of the Old Testament Paul is above all a child of his time. The methods of interpretation and deduction which he learned in the Rabbinical school emerge frequently in his work.’