Everyday Jewish Life in Imperial Russia
Select Documents, 1772–1914

ChaeRan Y. Freeze, ed.; Jay M. Harris, ed.

2013 • 648 pp.

$40.00 Paperback, 978-1-61168-455-1
$95.00 Hardcover, 978-1-61168-454-4
$39.99 Ebook, 978-1-61168-456-8

Everyday Jewish Life in Imperial Russia


Select Documents, 1772–1914

ChaeRan Y. Freeze, ed.; Jay M. Harris, ed.

An astounding compilation of primary source documents dealing with all aspects of Jewish daily life in the Russian empire

This bEveryday Lifeook makes accessible—for the first time in English—declassified archival documents from the former Soviet Union, rabbinic sources, as well as previously untranslated memoirs, illuminating everyday Jewish life as the site of interaction and negotiation among neighbors, society, and the Russian state, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to World War I. Focusing on religion, family, health, sexuality, work, and politics, these documents provide an intimate portrait of the rich diversity of Jewish life. By personalizing collective experience through individual life stories—reflecting not only the typical but also the extraordinary—these sources reveal the tensions and ruptures in a vanished society. An introductory survey of Russian Jewish history from the Polish partitions (1772–1795) to World War I, along with prefatory remarks, textual annotations, and a bibliography of suggested readings, combine to provide a new perspective on the history of the Jews of Russia.

CHAERAN Y. FREEZE is associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. She is the author of Jewish Marriage and Divorce in Imperial Russia.

JAY M. HARRIS is Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies and dean of undergraduate education at Harvard University.

This book can be purchased directly through the University Press of New England.