"An engaging and thought-provoking analysis, . . . a pioneering foray into a new field of study, 'Jews and Empires in History.'" -Slavic Review

On the eve of the 20th century, Jews in the Russian and Ottoman empires were caught up in the major cultural and social transformations that constituted modernity for Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewries. What did it mean to be Jewish and Russian, Jewish and Ottoman, Jewish and modern? To answer these questions, Sarah Abrevaya Stein explores the texts most widely consumed by Jewish readers: popular newspapers in Yiddish and Ladino. This skillful comparative study yields new perspectives on the role of print culture in imagining national and transnational communities and the diverse ways in which modernity was envisioned under the rule of empire.

Analyzes how the Jewish popular press in the Russian and Ottoman empires helped construct modern Jewish identities

About the Author

Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington.

Reviews

Making Jews Modern is a major contribution to an understanding of modern Jewish history.Oct. 2010

* Slavonic and East European Review *

Scholars of Russian history will be especially interested in [Stein's] analysis of the cartoons related to the 1905-7 Revolution, but they should not overlook the model for comparative history presented in this startlingly original work.

* The Russian Review *

[B]y adopting a comparative approach to two major Jewish communities that are rarely studied together-despite their proximity to one another-Stein makes an important contribution to Jewish historiography.

* AJS Review *

Making Jews Modern, in itself an engaging and thought-provoking analysis of the everyday progress of Jewish communities toward modernization under the uneasy conditions of the two most conservative European empires, may be regarded as a pioneering foray into a new field of study, 'Jews and Empires in History.'

* Slavic Review *

Stein's careful study of two newspapers, and the communities that supported them, provides a new and important model for further scholarship on making Jews modern.

* Canadian Slavonic Papers *

[This] work raises a host of important issues regarding two Jewish communities [Russian and Ottoman]in the throes of modernization, seen from a rare comparative perspective.

* Journal of Interdisiplinary History *

. . . a detailed yet very readable and thought-provoking comparative study based on rich primary documentation and numerous studies . . . . Stein provides a rare opportunity for students and scholars of Jewish society in the Russian or the Ottoman empires to gain better understanding of parallel developments in the other society that might at times sharpen the characteristics of their own case study.Vol. 41 2009

-- Rachel Simon * Princeton University Library *

In this beautifully conceived, meticulously documented, and intriguing comparative study, Sarah Abrevaya Stein examines the role of the vernacular press as a medium of Jewish modernization in the Tsarist and Ottoman Empires during the latter decades of the nineteeth century and the first decade of the twentieth.Fall 2005

* SHOFAR *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253218933
Author Sarah Abrevaya Stein
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 567g