The mass migration of East European Jews and their resettlement in cities throughout Europe, the United States, Argentina, the Middle East and Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries not only transformed the demographic and cultural centers of world Jewry, it also reshaped Jews' understanding and performance of their diasporic identities. Rebecca Kobrin's study of the dispersal of Jews from one city in Poland-Bialystok-demonstrates how the act of migration set in motion a wide range of transformations that led the migrants to imagine themselves as exiles not only from the mythic Land of Israel but most immediately from their east European homeland. Kobrin explores the organizations, institutions, newspapers, and philanthropies that the Bialystokers created around the world and that reshaped their perceptions of exile and diaspora.

Finalist, 2010 National Jewish Book Awards, American Jewish StudiesSelected for list of Essential Readings in American Jewish History, American Jewish Historical Society, 2010

About the Author

Rebecca Kobrin is Assistant Professor of Jewish History at Columbia University. She is author (with Adam Shear) of an exhibition catalog, From Written to Printed Text: The Transmission of Jewish Tradition.

Reviews

. . . fascinating from first page to last.

-- Sir Martin Gilbert

This is a stimulating, pathbreaking book, and it is a pleasure to read.

* Jewish History *

Carefully researched and clearly written, this book offers a rich picture of a transnational Jewish community. Kobrin's novel approach to the study of Jewish history is significant for scholars committed to understanding the complex threads that wove together the early twentieth-century Jewish world.

* American Historical Review *

[T]his illuminating case study sheds useful comparative and conceptual light, first and foremost on the notions of transnationalism and colonialism and the relationship between homeland and diaspora.

* Austrian History Yearbook *

Rebecca Kobrin is to be commended for her stimulating and thought-provoking study.

* Shofar *

This thoughtful, strikingly original work of scholarship possesses the added value of being readable (and, one hopes, appreciated) by an audience beyond specialists in the field. . . . In sum, this book's contribution to Russian, east European, American, and 'diapora' studies is truly extraordinary. Vol. 70.3, Fall 2011

* Slavic Review *

Kobrin's wide-ranging analysis draws on huge and impressive variety of sources and many of the scholarly debates that her work relates to are very well explained . . . [This book] is a rare contribution to contemporary debates about migration

* H-Judaic *

. . . fascinating from first page to last.leave per JBR

-- Sir Martin Gilbert

This well-researched and innovative study is both an account of the history of Jewish Bialystok and of the way its diaspora was mobilized to support Jewish life in the town from abroad. . . . It . . . provides a new way of examining the relation between East European Jewish emigrants and the lands from which they set out to make new lives elsewhere. Vol. 70.2, April 2011

* The Russian Review *

Kobrin's well-written, well-researched book [provides] a valuable resource for scholars and students alike. . . . Recommended.

* Choice *

This excellent study very forcefully and convincingly shows that 'many early twentieth-century East European immigrant Jews saw the pain of exile not only in relation to ancient Zion but in reference to East Europe', demostrating that 'Jews have always harbored a complex web of longings for many real and imagined homelands'.Autumn 2013

* Journal of Jewish Studies *

In addition to original and illuminating research, Jewish Bialystock and Its Diaspora is to be commended for its lucid style of writing. Kobrin knows how to tell a story, arousing the reader's curiosity from the very first page.

* Studies in Contemporary Jewry *

This ambitious study is rigorous and highly impressive in its scope and methodology . . . There is no doubt that Jewish Bialystok and its Diaspora is a field-shaping study, which crosses quite a few disciplinary borders marked by Jewish history, diaspora and migration studies and transnational communication, as well as memory and identity studies.12.1 2013

* Journal of Modern Jewish Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253221766
Author Rebecca Kobrin
Format Paperback
Page Count 380
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 27mm