This book is the result of an initiative of the center for studying Jewish culture and the Jewish museum called Peterburgskaia iudaika. It focuses on previously unexplored topics of Jewish history and culture, and includes descriptions of items from different museum collections, ethnographical expeditions, Jewish folklore, and modern art. This edition consists of three basic sections: the first section, «Collections» (kollektsii), is largely informative (it specifies some rare items stored in Russian museums); the second section, «Studies» (issledovaniia), describes academic research in different fields of Jewish studies; and the third section, «Archive» (arkhiv), deals with recently disclosed Jewish files from Russian local archives.
In the first section, Tatiana Emel’ianenko describes the collection of the Bukharian Jewish community exhibited in the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg. The historical introduction to the article is marred by superficial knowledge of the history of the Bukharian Jewish community – as one can conclude from the statement that the «religious and social culture of Jews did not differ from place to place and its special study seems to be irrelevant» (P. 11). The Jewish collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography, the result of the merging and reorganization of different ethnographical museums of the former USSR, now consists of 150 different items, mostly of religious and everyday character. The oldest item in the collection, is the «Traditional Garments of Turkestani Jews,» which dates back to 1872. The story of its acquisition is unknown. In fact, historically the status and privileges of the Jewish communities in Central Asia did differ from place to place and were dependent on the good will of local khans and emirs. After the conquest of Central Asia by the Russian Empire, the Central Asian Jews were granted the same rights as other local natives (inorodtsy). Originally, the entire collection donated by S. P. Preobrazhenskii consisted mainly of different religious items such as phylacteries, a small prayer shawl, torah scroll covers, blessings, mezuzahs, and some original photos that date back as far as the 1870s – 1880s.
Vladimir Dmitriev’s article is dedicated to the collection originating from Caucasus Jewish communities and exhibited in the Russian Museum of Ethnography. This collection was arranged after the reorganization of various ethnographical museums on the territory of the Russian Federation. Now in a single collection, it brings together items from different Jewish communities in the Caucasus (Mountain Jews, Caucasian Jews, and Georgian Jews). Special attention is focused on the Kuba Jewish collection arranged by Alexander Miller, who was the curator of the Ethnographical Department of the Russian Museum. The subject of his main research interest was hand-made rugs. This interest led him to Kuba, the center of the rug industry in the Eastern Caucasus and home to one of the most populous Jewish communities. Miller collected traditional men’s and women’s attire and religious articles, including a shofar (ram’s horn), mezuzah boxes, bowls for ritual hand-washing before meals, and silver pomegranates that decorated the Torah scroll. The Georgian part of the Caucasian collection includes traditional costumes of Georgian Jewish women with traditional silver jewelry (depicting fish) and rabbis’ garments. Also included are some photos, albeit of very poor quality, taken by Miller during his Kuba expedition in 1907.
The article written by Aiste Niunkaite-Raciuniene is devoted to the story of Solomon’s Throne, a unique example of Jewish handicraft from the collection of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum. Vilnius (Vil’no), known as the center of Torah and Talmudic studies since the seventeenth century, was the site of spiritual rivalry between the supporters of strict Orthodox Judaism and rising Hassidism. Numerous wooden details were difficult to identify as part of the Solomon’s Throne composition. The whole composition was done by Yacov Hait from the Jewish community of Kelmė on the threshold of World War II, which confirms the Hassidic origin of this masterpiece. The author recollected the words of the master upon completing his work, when he said that it would help the «Jewish people to see the true light at the end of its long exile» (P. 55) – the typically Hassidic belief in the coming of the Messiah and salvation of the Jewish people.
Benyamin Lukin’s contribution focuses on the role of An-sky (Shlomo Rappoport, 1863-1920), the famous Jewish writer and public figure, in establishing the museum of Jewish art and history in Russia. The article discusses two major visions of Jewishness as revealed in the debates around this museum project. The first one envisioned the complete assimilation of Jews into Russian society and its cultural values and denied the necessity to preserve the Jewish national culture. The other approach stated quite the opposite – it emphasized the urgent need to collect and preserve the cultural heritage of Russian Jewry. An-sky proposed to collect not only material objects of Jewish art similar to the rich Jewish collections in West European countries but also items of Jewish folklore that reflected the creative soul of the Jewish people and best illustrated Jewish identity (P. 61). He began collecting Jewish folklore in 1908 and during the first year of his work recorded more than 100 legends and fairytales in the Yiddish and Hebrew languages. This work also helped him to compare and contrast Jewish and Russian folklore. The results of his work were published in a number of articles in Evreiskaia starina (Jewish Antiquity), the official journal of the Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society. An-sky chose the Russian-language journals with a view to restraining assimilation tendencies among the Jewish intelligentsia and stimulating their interest in studying their own historical past. As a result of his ethnographic expedition to Jewish settlements in the southwestern region of the Russian Empire in 1912, An-sky concluded that it was important to complement the oral folklore tradition with objects of material art. He collected more than 200 items of Jewish art and took hundreds of photos of synagogues and their interiors, Jewish cemeteries, community buildings, and so on. A relatively small museum exposition was opened in the special building of the Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society on Vasil’evskii Island in St. Petersburg in 1914. The exposition received a mixed response from Jewish intelligentsia. Members of literary circles welcomed it as a step toward national rejuvenation, while on the contrary, to Zionists it represented nothing but the shadows of the gloomy past and old religious traditions. Despite the conflicting opinions, the exposition, fashioned as the «academy for studying Jewish folklore» (P. 89), continued to grow, and thousands of additional items were put on display in spring 1917. Soon after the Bolshevik revolution, the museum was closed, all the exhibits were moved to the basement, and the museum staff created no catalogues or descriptions.
In his article, Boris Haimovich focuses on the semantics of the «hare motif» on Jewish tombstones. According to the dietary laws of Judaism, hare is considered an «impure» animal, and eating its meat is thus prohibited. With this in mind, it is very difficult to explain the depiction of three hares running around in a circle as a decoration on Jewish tombstones. The author states that local craftsmen preferred to rely on images of species from the local fauna instead of the image of three fish, the best-known symbol of the Purim holiday and the month of Nisan in Judaism. (It should be noted that the hare and other animals in the Jewish religious calendar are symbols of the month of Adar that precedes Nisan.) The author concludes that the «hare motif» usually appeared on the tombstones of Jews who died in the months of Adar and Nisan. The motif was common in Podolia, Galicia, and Byelorussia, the regions of Hassidic Jewish communities known for their adherence to mysticism and Kabbala.
The article by Alla Sokolova represents a solid example of field research. In modern Jewish tradition, Jews have demonstrated a creative approach to celebrating the main Jewish holidays: Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Sukkoth, Passover and Shavuot. During the Sukkoth holiday, a temporary construction is to be built outside the house in accordance with the rules outlined in the Talmudic tractate «Sukkah,» and the family spends eight days of the holiday there. However, in the eighteenth century in urban Jewish communities this outer construction was replaced by the decoration of ceiling and walls of one of the rooms to resemble the traditional Sukkah. The whole family spent eight days of the holiday and invited guests. Similarities can be found in Jewish communities in Germany, Ukraine (Podolia), and Moldova.
Alexander L’vov’s contribution centers on a subject that has long been ignored by Israeli historians. Religious sects of Subbotniks (Saturday keepers) and zhidovstvuiushchie (Judaizers) were widespread in Russia during the second part of the nineteenth century and especially after the Land Reform of 1861. When high expectations of the illiterate peasant population were not fulfilled, different rumors and Messianic sects spread to almost every province of the Russian Empire. Moreover, the growing number of peasants, mostly from Voronezh and Astrakhan’ provinces, decided to move to the Holy Land. Although this topic is yet to be explored thoroughly by Russian and Israeli historians, according to the author, during the 1880s, hundreds of Russian peasants moved to Palestine (Pp. 146-147).
Elena Razumovskaia looks into the origin of the song «Gerchiki-evreichiki» («Ger» means the convert to Judaism) that was popular among the Subbotniks of the Jalilabad region of Azerbaijan. The song used numerals to demonstrate the gist of their religious faith and is very similar to the song Ehad, Mi Yiodea, which explains the basic principles of the Judaic faith and is also an important part of the traditional Passover celebration. The author suggests that Ehad, Mi Yiodea was not included in the Passover Hagadah before the end of the sixteenth – beginning of the seventeenth centuries (P. 156) and probably was borrowed from outside (for example, from German, Czech, Ukrainian, or Byelorussian folklore). A comparative analysis of twenty-three texts belonging to different religions and cultures reveals the cultural interactions between Jewish and other religious traditions. The use of numerals as symbols of secret meaning can also be found in wedding, funeral, and lullaby songs (P. 158).
The «archival» section of the book contains three contributions focused on the activity of Jewish public voluntary organizations. The essay by Vera Knorring describes the efforts of the Vil’na branch of the OPE (Society for the Promotion of Education among Jews in Russia) to found a museum for educational purposes. This museum was to have had a permanent exposition to serve as a continuing education program for Jewish educators, and a temporary, mobile one, to be loaned to Jewish schools in the province. Based on the two archival documents cited in the article, it is very difficult to understand why the official authorities hindered the museum’s establishment.
Alina Orlova’s article is devoted to the activity of the EOPKh (Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Arts), which was founded in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in 1915. Among the founding fathers of the society were M. Vinaver, I. Brodskii, An-sky, M. Sirkin, and A. Lahovskii. The basic aim of the society was material support for talented Jewish artists and encouragement of Jewish youth to study plastic arts such as sculpture, painting, mosaic, and so on. The society provided scholarships for Jewish artists from the peripheral provinces of Russia. Its activity came to an end in May 1919. Among the documents cited are numerous applications by young Jews, requests for material help, and various documents pertaining to the organization of public lectures and expositions.
Alexander Rogachevskii’s essay turns to archival materials on the Jewish communities of Orenburg gubernia in the Pale of Settlement. His essay is based on data from the private collection of the famous folklore researcher Semen Ponomarev (1865-1889), whose archive was donated to the Russian Imperial Geographic Society in 1890.
It is also worth mentioning that a separate chapter of the book describes thirteen different exhibitions organized by the Peterburgskaia iudaika in 2000-2003. The book thus has merit as a reference guide for scholars doing research in the fields of Jewish ethnography, history, and cultural studies.