Contacts and conflicts: on the relationship between Russian Judaizers and Jews from the 19th to the early 20th centuries

Abstract

The research focuses on the issue of the relationship between Russian Judaizers and Jews from the 19th to the early 20th century. The first decades of the 19th century witness the relatively stable and intensive interest to rabbinical Judaism displayed by Subbotniks. New materials discovered by the author not long ago in the Russian archives make it possible to date the origin of the gers movement back to the 1820-s, while the traditional view has been that it appeared in the middle of the 19th century. Rapid development of contacts between followers of ‘Mosaic Law’ and Ashkenazi Jews resulted in the beginning of acculturation in some Judaizers groups. The attempts of a number of Subbotniks to adopt the rabbinic tradition boosted the evolution of their religious and cultural practices as well as identity. At the same time that did not exclude conflicts between two worlds. The attitude of ‘Russian Israelies’ to Jews varied from hostile distancing to full identification. But both contacts and conflicts reveal the exceptional dependence of the sectarians on the Jewish communities of Russia.