Identité et pratiques. Le cas des judaïsants russes

Abstract

Identity and practices: The case of Russian Judaisers Subbotnikiy a religious movement among Russians, came into being in the central Russia during the 18th-century and still exists. It differs from other iconoclastic movements (Dukhobors and Molokans) owing both to its exclusive adherence to the Old Testament and to its Jewish religious practices and interest in the literature of Russian Judaism. This simultaneous reference to two different principles - to the Old Testament and to the authority of Jewish oral traditions - led to tensions in this movement, which split between "Karaïm-Subbotniki" and "Talmudist-Geres". A dispute in the late 1990s in the Jewish community in Volgograd is studied that involved new tendencies in Judaism: on the one hand, the representatives of Israeli cultural organizations and later of someone sent by the Lubavitch Hasids; and on the other hand, the traditions of Subbotniki, who, till quite recently, formed this community's core. This analysis distinguishes two ideal types of communities: "textual" communities (a term borrowed from Brian Stock) and "personified" communities.