Haskalah and Hasidism in the Kingdom of Poland: A History of Conflict » (REV)

Wodzinski (Jewish Studies, U. of Wroclaw) re-reads the 200-year history of passionate conflict between those who followed the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, and those who sided with Hasidism in Poland, and finds previous treatments to contain stereotypes and misinterpretations of contexts sufficient to warrant a new interpretation. He describes the differences between the two schools of thought and the variants that developed around them, anti-Hasidic criticism in the last years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the growth of influence of the maskilim, or modernizers. He also describes how these debates fit in the context of the conflicts over identity, assimilation, and solidarity amongst Jewish and non- Jewish Poles in a time when Poland was conquered and carved up in the greater European power struggle of the time. He includes a well- chosen collection of primary documents. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR