Confessions of the shtetl : converts from Judaism in imperial Russia, 1817-1906 / Ellie R. Schainker.

By:

Schainker, Ellie R, 1978- [author.]

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Stanford studies in Jewish history and culturePublisher: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2016Description: 1 online resourceContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9781503600249
1503600246

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Confessions of the shtetl.DDC classification:

248.2/46600947 23

LOC classification:

BV2620 .S335 2016eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction : converts and confessions -- The genesis of confessional choice -- The missionizing marketplace -- Shtetls, taverns, and baptisms -- From vodka to violence -- Relapsed converts and tales of Marranism -- Jewish Christian sects in southern Russia -- Epilogue : converts on the cultural map.

Summary: Confessions of the Shtetl explores Jewish conversions to a variety of Christian confessions in nineteenth-century imperial Russia. The book analyzes the surprisingly restrained policy of the Russian state and Orthodox Church toward conversion of Jews which highlights the meaning and management of toleration and religious diversity in imperial Russia more broadly. The book also offers a micro-level sociocultural history of converts, focusing on their motivations and post-baptism trajectories, and on relationships with Christians forged prior to baptism that facilitated religious transfers. It explores the responses of local Jewish and Christian families, communities, and authorities to this extreme form of boundary crossing, highlighting the various measures at the Jewish community's disposal to contest apostasy. Finally, the book offers a cultural history of Jewish and Russian/Christian public discourses surrounding conversion and the questions it raised, ranging from the grounds of religious toleration to the nature of Jews themselves. Overall, the argument is that the Jewish encounter with imperial Russia was a genuinely religious drama with a diverse, attractive, and aggressive Christianity. The book unsettles the vision of Jews in the Pale of Settlement as a ghettoized community and analyzes the spatial, social, and cultural ties between Jews and Christians. Drawing on previously untapped archival files, the mass circulation press, novels, and memoirs, the book argues that baptism did not constitute a total break with Jewishness or the Jewish community and that conversion marked the start of a complicated experiment with new forms of identity and belonging.

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Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Confessions of the Shtetl explores Jewish conversions to a variety of Christian confessions in nineteenth-century imperial Russia. The book analyzes the surprisingly restrained policy of the Russian state and Orthodox Church toward conversion of Jews which highlights the meaning and management of toleration and religious diversity in imperial Russia more broadly. The book also offers a micro-level sociocultural history of converts, focusing on their motivations and post-baptism trajectories, and on relationships with Christians forged prior to baptism that facilitated religious transfers. It explores the responses of local Jewish and Christian families, communities, and authorities to this extreme form of boundary crossing, highlighting the various measures at the Jewish community's disposal to contest apostasy. Finally, the book offers a cultural history of Jewish and Russian/Christian public discourses surrounding conversion and the questions it raised, ranging from the grounds of religious toleration to the nature of Jews themselves. Overall, the argument is that the Jewish encounter with imperial Russia was a genuinely religious drama with a diverse, attractive, and aggressive Christianity. The book unsettles the vision of Jews in the Pale of Settlement as a ghettoized community and analyzes the spatial, social, and cultural ties between Jews and Christians. Drawing on previously untapped archival files, the mass circulation press, novels, and memoirs, the book argues that baptism did not constitute a total break with Jewishness or the Jewish community and that conversion marked the start of a complicated experiment with new forms of identity and belonging.

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