1929: Mapping the Jewish World

Published by New York University Press 2013

1929

Mapping the Jewish World

Edited by: Hasia R. Diner and Gennady Estraikh

Volume 13 in the series Goldstein-Goren Series in American Jewish History

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814720202.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner of the 2013 National Jewish Book Award, Anthologies and Collections

The year 1929 represents a major turning point in interwar Jewish society, proving to be a year when Jews, regardless of where they lived, saw themselves affected by developments that took place around the world, as the crises endured by other Jews became part of the transnational Jewish consciousness. In the United States, the stock market crash brought lasting economic, social, and ideological changes to the Jewish community and limited its ability to support humanitarian and nationalist projects in other countries. In Palestine, the anti-Jewish riots in Hebron and other towns underscored the vulnerability of the Zionist enterprise and ignited heated discussions among various Jewish political groups about the wisdom of establishing a Jewish state on its historical site. At the same time, in the Soviet Union, the consolidation of power in the hands of Stalin created a much more dogmatic climate in the international Communist movement, including its Jewish branches.

Featuring a sparkling array of scholars of Jewish history, 1929 surveys the Jewish world in one year offering clear examples of the transnational connections which linked Jews to each other—from politics, diplomacy, and philanthropy to literature, culture, and the fate of Yiddish—regardless of where they lived. Taken together, the essays in 1929 argue that, whether American, Soviet, German, Polish, or Palestinian, Jews throughout the world lived in a global context.

Author / Editor information

Diner Hasia R. :

Hasia R. Diner is Professor Emerita at the Departments of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History. She is the former series editor for our Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish History. Among her many books are Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962, and Immigration: An American History, with Carl Bon Tempo.Estraikh Gennady :

Gennady Estraikh is Professor of Yiddish Studies, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.Hasia R. Diner (Editor)
Hasia R. Diner is Professor Emerita at the Departments of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History. She is the former series editor for our Goldstein-Goren series in American Jewish History. Among her many books are Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962, and Immigration: An American History, with Carl Bon Tempo.

Gennady Estraikh (Editor)
Gennady Estraikh is Professor of Yiddish Studies, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.

Reviews

The books greatest success lies not only in elevating the importance of 1929 as a turning point in Jewish history, but also in problematizing the very notion of periodization. Furthermore, the collections focus on this particular year manages to successfully upset several paradigms dominating the study of modern Jewish history and literature. This volume will prove a welcome addition to surveys of modern Jewish history

Derek Penslar,University of Oxford and University of Toronto:
This wide-ranging and innovative collection of essays presents the distinct features of the interwar period in Jewish history throughout the world. Using the year 1929 as a focal point, the volume's essays depict the transition from the tumultuous, yet often hopeful, 1920s to the dire straits of the 1930s. This is a splendid overview of the demographic, political and cultural ferment of the era.

Henry L. Feingold:
Anthologies are notoriously difficult to evaluate because they are disparate. Withal, the interesting material presented in these articles more than compensates for the inability of some contributors to march under the assigned 1929 banner.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Hasia R. Diner and Gennady Estraikh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Global Ties
1. Living Locally, Organizing Nationally, and Thinking Globally The View from the United States Hasia R. Diner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. Jewish Diplomacy at a Crossroads David Engel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. The Stalinist “Great Break” in Yiddishland Gennady Estraikh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
4. Permanent Transit Jewish Migration during the Interwar Period Tobias Brinkmann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
5. Polish Jewry, American Jewish Immigrant Philanthropy, and the Crisis of 1929 Rebecca Kobrin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
6. Jewish American Philanthropy and the Crisis of 1929 The Case of OZE-TOZ and the JDC Rakefet Zalashik Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
7. Territorialism and the ICOR “American Commission of Scientists and Experts” to the Soviet Far East Henry Srebrnik Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Part II: Local Stories
8. From Universal Values to Cultural Representations Avner Ben-Zaken Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
9. The Struggle over Yiddish in Postimmigrant America Eric L. Goldstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
10. When the Local Trumps the Global The Jewish World of São Paulo, Brazil, 1924–1940 Jeffrey Lesser Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Part III: Literature
11. Patterning a New Life American Jewish Literature in 1929 Gabriella Safran Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
12. David Vogel Married Life 1929 Glenda Abramson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
13. Radical Conservatism Bashevis’s Dismissal of Modernism Joseph Sherman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
14. Desire, Destiny, and Death Fantasy and Reality in Soviet Yiddish Literature around 1929 Mikhail Krutikov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: August 12, 2013
ISBN: 9781479878253