Западные евреи? Восточные евреи? Аккультурация как парадигма сравнительной истории евреев в Германии и Восточной Европе

Abstract

SUMMARY: Since the 19 th century the Jews of Western and Eastern Europe have been perceived as different and opposite types, which represented a dynamic development of modernization and assimilation in the first case, and stagnation in the second. However, during the last two decades the overall perception of the historical development of Jewish minorities has changed. Historians are now emphasizing that German Jews did not entirely assimilate into the German culture but rather formed a specific version of it by combining features of traditional Jewish culture and traits of the host culture they lived in (they developed a German-Jewish culture). Recently, historians have demonstrated how particular groups of Jews in East Central and Eastern Europe underwent a similar development. Moreover, the institutions of Jewish autonomy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth are viewed in a new perspective, and historians point to the resemblance of Jewish and Polish institutions. Discussing new research and the complexities of cultural development in various parts of Eastern Europe, the author suggests a comparative approach in the study of Eastern and Western Jewry, focusing on the processes of acculturation by these minorities in their respective settings. This discussion implies a reconsideration of the predominant paradigm of the study of Jewish experiences in Eastern and Western Europe, which sees these experiences as belonging to different and opposing histories.