Memoirs of Jewish life in the east European shtetl often recall the hekdesh (town poorhouse) and its residents: beggars, madmen and madwomen, disabled people, and poor orphans. Stepchildren of the Shtetl tells the story of these marginalized figures from the dawn of modernity to the eve of the Holocaust. Combining archival research with analysis of literary, cultural, and religious texts, Natan M. Meir recovers the lived experience of Jewish society's outcasts and reveals the central role that they came to play in the drama of modernization. Those on the margins were often made to bear the burden of the nation as a whole, whether as scapegoats in moments of crisis or as symbols of degeneration, ripe for transformation by reformers, philanthropists, and nationalists. Shining a light into the darkest corners of Jewish society in eastern Europe—from the often squalid poorhouse of the shtetl to the slums and insane asylums of Warsaw and Odessa, from the conscription of poor orphans during the reign of Nicholas I to the cholera wedding, a magical ritual in which an epidemic was halted by marrying outcasts to each other in the town cemetery—Stepchildren of the Shtetl reconsiders the place of the lowliest members of an already stigmatized minority.
Populated by urbane Jewish merchants and professionals as well as new arrivals from the shtetl, imperial Kiev was acclaimed for its opportunities for education, culture, employment, and entrepreneurship but cursed for the often pitiless persecution of its Jews. Kiev, Jewish Metropolis limns the history of Kiev Jewry from the official readmission of Jews to the city in 1859 to the outbreak of World War I. It explores the Jewish community's politics, its leadership struggles, socioeconomic and demographic shifts, religious and cultural sensibilities, and relations with the city's Christian population. Drawing on archival documents, the local press, memoirs, and belles lettres, Natan M. Meir shows Kiev's Jews at work, at leisure, in the synagogue, and engaged in the activities of myriad Jewish organizations and philanthropies.
Memoirs of Jewish life in the east European shtetl often recall the hekdesh (town poorhouse) and its residents: beggars, madmen and madwomen, disabled people, and poor orphans. Stepchildren of the Shtetl tells the story of these marginalized figures from the dawn of modernity to the eve of the Holocaust. Combining archival research with analysis of literary, cultural, and religious texts, Natan M. Meir recovers the lived experience of Jewish society's outcasts and reveals the central role that they came to play in the drama of modernization. Those on the margins were often made to bear the burden of the nation as a whole, whether as scapegoats in moments of crisis or as symbols of degeneration, ripe for transformation by reformers, philanthropists, and nationalists. Shining a light into the darkest corners of Jewish society in eastern Europe—from the often squalid poorhouse of the shtetl to the slums and insane asylums of Warsaw and Odessa, from the conscription of poor orphans during the reign of Nicholas I to the cholera wedding, a magical ritual in which an epidemic was halted by marrying outcasts to each other in the town cemetery—Stepchildren of the Shtetl reconsiders the place of the lowliest members of an already stigmatized minority.
The readmission of some categories of Jews into Kiev in 1859 brought about a rapid rise of the Jewish community in the city. Kiev had a symbolical significance as "the mother of the Russian cities" and was an important religious center, so the massive migration of Jews in it provoked anxiety among the Christians. The authorities and to some extent voluntary associations of Kiev tried to maintain a segregation between the Jews and non-Jews; while attacking Jews for their "isolation", they opposed also Jewish cultural assimilation. Describes the pogrom of 1881 and the bloody pogrom of October 1905. Argues that the pogroms of 1881 in Kiev and elsewhere took place mainly in the areas of new Jewish settlement. The pogromists in Kiev called not so much to "beat the Jews" as to expel them from the city. Dismisses the view that the perpetrators of the pogrom were vagabond workers from central Russia: the role of the locals in the riot was significant. The 1905 pogrom was a by-product of the revolution, in which many Jews took part. The authorities not only were reluctant to stop it (as it was also in 1881), but even encouraged the rioters for violence. Christian neighbors nearly always refused to hide or to protect Jews. Dozens were killed in what the nationalists regarded as a symbolic reconquest of Kiev from "seditionist Jews". Describes also the Beilis case in Kiev, which can be regarded that an anti-Jewish campaign launched by the all-Russian right rather than by Kiev antisemites. The pogroms shattered the hopes of most Jews for peaceful coexistence with non-Jews, but did not stop the Jewish migration to Kiev and their acculturation.
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