Russian Idea}}}Jewish Presence Essays on Russian-Jewish Intellectual Life [Hardcover]

In Russian IdeaJewish Presence, Professor Brian Horowitz follows the career tracks of Jewish intellectuals who, having fallen in love with Russian culture, were unceremoniously repulsed. Horowitz relays the paradoxes of a synthetic Jewish and Russian self-consciousness in order to correct critics who have always considered Russians and Jews as polar opposites, enemies, and incompatible. In fact, the best Russian-Jewish intellectualsSemyon Dubnov, Maxim Vinaver, Mikhail Gershenzon, and a number of Zionist writers and thinkerswere actually inspired by Russian culture and attempted to develop a sui generis Jewish creativity in three languages on Russian soil.If there is still a need for an antidote to the Fiddler on the Roof image of Russian Jewry, then this is it. Horowitz opens up the vibrant world of thought and literary creativity among Russian Jews of the pre-Soviet period to the contemporary reader. These fascinating figures were sophisticated thinkers and writers who grappled creatively with many of the issues that occupy many todaybut in ways that are often unexpected. This Russian Jewish intellectual milieu is a relatively unexplored territory for many, but Horowitz is a knowledgeable and reliable guide and leads the readers to a very stimulating and thought-provoking intellectual experience.Brian Horowitz (PhD University of California, Berkeley) is the Sizeler Family Chair Professor in Jewish Studies at Tulane University. He is the author of such books as Jewish Philanthropy and Enlightenment in Late-Tsarist Russia (2009) and Empire Jews (2009). He has won numerous awards, including a fellowship at the Frankel Center at the University of Michigan, an Alexander Von Humboldt grant, a Fulbright, an IREX grant, and a Yad Hanadiv grant to study with Ezra Mendelsohn and the late Jonathan Frankel at the Hebrew University.Immersed in the traditions of the Russian Intelligentsia, Horowitzs writings span across the fields of philosophy, literature, and history.l#