The Rebellion of the Daughters: Jewish Women Runaways in Habsburg Galicia

Rachel Manekin

Published by Princeton University Press 2020

The Rebellion of the Daughters

Jewish Women Runaways in Habsburg Galicia

Rachel Manekin

Volume 1 in the series Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691207094

Overview
Contents

About this book

An in-depth exploration of the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox homes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

The Rebellion of the Daughters investigates the flight of young Jewish women from their Orthodox, mostly Hasidic, homes in Western Galicia (now Poland) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In extreme cases, hundreds of these women sought refuge in a Kraków convent, where many converted to Catholicism. Those who stayed home often remained Jewish in name only.

Relying on a wealth of archival documents, including court testimonies, letters, diaries, and press reports, Rachel Manekin reconstructs the stories of three Jewish women runaways and reveals their struggles and innermost convictions. Unlike Orthodox Jewish boys, who attended traditional schools where only Jewish subjects were taught (“cheders”), Orthodox Jewish girls were sent to Polish primary schools. When the time came for them to marry, many young women rebelled against the marriages arranged by their parents, with some wishing to pursue secondary and university education. After World War I, the crisis of the rebellious daughters in Kraków spurred the introduction of formal religious education for young Orthodox Jewish women in Poland, which later developed into a worldwide educational movement. Manekin chronicles the belated Orthodox response and argues that these educational innovations not only kept Orthodox Jewish women within the fold but also foreclosed their opportunities for higher education.

Exploring the estrangement of young Jewish women from traditional Judaism in Habsburg Galicia at the turn of the twentieth century, The Rebellion of the Daughters brings to light a forgotten yet significant episode in Eastern European history.

Author / Editor information

Rachel Manekin is associate professor of Jewish studies at the University of Maryland. She is the author of The Jews of Galicia and the Austrian Constitution: The Beginning of Modern Jewish Politics.

Reviews

"Well-researched and compelling, The Rebellion of the Daughters is one of the few books to elucidate the lives of Jewish women in Galicia and contributes to our understanding of the relationship among Jews, the state, and the Catholic church."—ChaeRan Freeze, Brandeis University

"Using an impressive range of primary sources, The Rebellion of the Daughters fills an important gap in the scholarship on Eastern European Jewry."—Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Note on Transliteration and Terminology Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Origins of the “Daughters’ Question” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2 Religious Ardor: Michalina Araten and Her Embrace of Catholicism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
3 Romantic Love: Debora Lewkowicz and Her Flight from the Village Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
4 Intellectual Passion: Anna Kluger and Her Struggle for Higher Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
5 Rebellious Daughters and the Literary Imagination: From Jacob Wassermann to S. Y. Agnon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
6 Bringing the Daughters Back: A New Model of Female Orthodox Jewish Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Appendix: In Their Own Words Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271