SUMMARY:

In the article Denis Eoffe posits the problem of studying “Russian-Jewish” contacts, which is immediately connected to the problem of the antiquity of the Jewish presence in Rus’. Eoffe criticizes the historiographic tradition which denies the existence of Jewish history in pre-Petrine Russia and offers an impressive review of the world historical, archeological, and philological literature dedicated to diverse aspects of that problem. Eoffe believes that the anti-Judaic polemical tradition in Rus’ had to have sources in immediate observations of and communication with real Jews. In this vein, he offers a detailed critique of A. I. Pereswetoff-Murath’ recent book “A Grin without a Cat. Adversus Judaeous’ Texts in the Literature of Medieval Russia 988-1504". 2 vols. (Lund, 2002). Eoffe debates the author’s main thesis, which consists of a refutation of any imperative to study a real Jewish presence in Rus’ using analyses of the adversus Iudaeous texts. According to Eoffe, such an approach equals denying Jewish presence in Ancient Rus, as well as denying the need to study the role of Jews in ancient Russian cultural, political, and economic history. Eoffe also suggests a range of specific historiographical and methodological criticisms of Pereswetoff’s book. He specifically stresses that Pereswetoff-Murath “does not see any connection between Kievan Jewry of the 10-11th centuries and the subsequent “Russian Jews”. Eoffe argues that this newest research in fact continues an old historiographic tradition, which turns ancient Russian Jewry into a “figure of silence” or even a “simulacrum of hatred”.