OUR JEWISH ANCESTORS:
A PORTRAIT OF THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT

Edith Rogovin Frankel

DESCRIPTION: Most Jews in the United States are descendants of people whose origins were in the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement and, before that, the vast area of Poland-Lithuania. Who were these people, and what were their lives like? What is the cultural, religious and sociological heritage that today’s American Jews have received from them? This series of lectures will investigate some of the key attributes and developments of the Jewish communities of the Pale, beginning in the late 18th-Century and continuing throughout the 19th-Century, when the huge exodus to America and other countries began. Included in the course will be a study of the major trends in Jewish religious, cultural and political life, central to the modern history of Jews: the founding and development of Hasidism, the spread of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) throughout the empire, the birth of modern Yiddish literature and its origins, and the beginnings of Socialism and Zionism within the Russian-Jewish community. There will be some handouts and the use of PowerPoint.

FOUR LECTURES:

1. The Jews of Poland-Lithuania: Where did they come from and why did they come to Poland?
   
2. The shtetl: What was life like for Jews living in the Pale of Settlement in 19th-Century Russia?
   
3. Movements that developed among the Jews of the Russian empire: Hasidism, Haskalah, Zionism, the Socialist movement
   
4. The birth and flourishing of Yiddish literature in the 19th-Century: The world of Sholem Aleichem, and others

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Dr. edith R. Frankel is a native-born American who lived in Israel for many years. While in Jerusalem, she taught at the Hebrew University. Her BA is from Cornell University and her Ph.D. (from Columbia University) is in Comparative Government. For many years Frankel specialized in the Soviet Union with a particular interest in the inter-action between government and literary policy. She gradually moved towards Jewish history, specifically in the Russian Empire, as well as the Hapsburg Empire, and has taught many of these subjects. Dr. Frankel has published a number of books and articles in this field including, her book Old Lives and New: Soviet Immigrants in Israel and America. It is based on a series of interviews with new immigrants in both Israel and the U.S. both at the end of the 1970’s and again 25 years later. Dr. Frankel has also taught at Stanford University, Brown and Dartmouth. The website for her new book: www.oldlives.com.