Separating historical fact from fantasy, an acclaimed historian retells the story of Kishinev, a riot that transformed the course of twentieth-century Jewish history. So shattering were the aftereffects of Kishinev, the rampage that broke out in late-Tsarist Russia in April 1903, that one historian remarked that it was "nothing less than a prototype for the Holocaust itself." In three days of violence, 49 Jews were killed and 600 raped or wounded, while more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were ransacked and destroyed. Recounted in lurid detail by newspapers throughout the Western world, and covered sensationally by America's Hearst press, the pre-Easter attacks seized the imagination of an international public, quickly becoming the prototype for what would become known as a 'pogrom,' and providing the impetus for efforts as varied as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the NAACP. Using new evidence culled from Russia, Israel, and Europe, distinguished historian Steven J. Zipperstein's wide-ranging book brings historical insight and clarity to a much-misunderstood event that would do so much to transform twentieth-century Jewish life and beyond.

"In a world where everyone is inventing a self, curating a feed and performing a fantasy of life, what does it mean to be a person? In his grandly entertaining debut memoir, playwright David Adjmi explores how human beings create themselves, and how artists make their lives into art.."--Publisher's description.

Discusses a variety of feminist issues. Ch. 15 (pp. 375-410), "Holocaust Consciousness, " discusses attitudes of American Jews to the Holocaust. Many of them obsess and agonize about it, but do not try to analyze how and why it happened. After the war, American Jews harbored a rescue fantasy, refusing to face the fact that their government, and especially President Roosevelt, had obstructed efforts to save European Jews. From the 1960s, they have blamed their own leaders for inaction. Deplores the fact that the Holocaust is often the focus of Jewish identity in the U.S. Advocates analyzing the causes of the Holocaust and the changing conditions (e.g. economic upheaval, social desperation) that could have allowed a criminal party to attain power. Discusses the rise in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the 1990s. Claims that the cause of antisemitism lies in the patriarchal nature of society: pogroms and the Holocaust are examples of male violence against powerless humans, the Jews, who are seen as a personification of female values (nonviolence, compassion, altruism, cooperation) and a threat to patriarchal structures. Pp. 249-253 deal with the JAP stereotype.

"Through the local children's imaginative fantasy of a pretend war, tells the story of the day-to-day survival of Jews in Porto Alegre, Brazil, during World War II. The first novel by Brazilian-Jewish author Moacyr Scliar; translated by David William Foster"--Provided by publisher.

In a world of relentless and often violent change, what does it take for a culture to survive? Steven Weitzman addresses this question by exploring the "arts of cultural persistence"--the tactics that cultures employ to sustain themselves in the face of intractable realities. Surviving Sacrilege focuses on a famously resilient culture caught between two disruptive acts of sacrilege: ancient Judaism between the destruction of the First Temple (by the Babylonians) in 586 B.C. and the destruction of the Second Temple (by the Romans) in 70 C.E. Throughout this period Jews faced the challenge of preserving their religious traditions in a world largely out of their control--a world ruled first by the Persians, then by the Hellenistic Seleucid Kingdom, and finally by the Roman Empire. Their struggle to answer this challenge yields insight into the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and creativity of a distinctive period in Jewish history, but one with broad implications for the study of religious and cultural survival. Detecting something tenaciously self-preserving at the core of the imagination, Weitzman argues that its expression in storytelling, fantasy, imitation, metaphor, and magic allows a culture's survival instinct to maneuver within, beyond, and even against the limits of reality.