Testing the limits. Judeo-Christian journalism of converted Jews and assimilators
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-2-33-42
Abstract
The article covers some issues of Judeo-Christian relations as represented by the Russian-language journalism of converted Jews and assimilators. By studying the Conversion of a Jewish Legalist into Christianity Which Is Fascinating due to Its Typicality by Alexander Alexeev (Wulf Nakhlas) and ‘The Voice of Salvation’ Magazine Program (1884) by ‘Aizyk’ Kovner as well as his letters to Nikolay Leskov, the author shows how the journalists of both orientations test the established views of Jewishness and Christianity. Alexander Alexeev, a converted Jew, focuses his discourse about Jews on ancestry, while pushing religious affiliation to the periphery. Aizyk Kovner, an assimilator, wants to reform Judaism in such a way that in the eyes of Christians it appears to be part of the Christian continuum, but at the same time retains its traditional Jewish ethos. Both trends in journalism derive from the Jewish Question polemics and reply on expectations of the Russian audience. They are also a part of Jewish search for how to merge the old tradition with the fast-changing modern world. The marginal “tests of the pen” produced by 19th-century assimilators and converted Jews is yet another bridge between traditional Jewry and the secular Jewish-Russian culture and literature of the USSR era.
About the Author
Georgii S. Prokhorov
State University of Social Studies and Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Georgii S. Prokhorov, Dr. of Sci. (Philology), associate professor
30, Zelenaya St., Kolomna, 140410
References
1. Cohn, H. (2000), The Trial and Death of Jesus, Konecky & Konecky, Old Saybrook, USA.
2. Gerasimova, V.A. (2014), “Converted Jews in Russian Empire as a research subject. Sources, issues, perspectives”, in Trudy po evreiskoi istorii i kul’ture: Materialy XXI Mezhdunarodnoi ezhegodnoi konferentsii po iudaike [Works on Jewish history and culture. Proceedings of the 21st International Annual Conference on Jewish Studies], Sefer, Moscow, Russia, pp. 209–220. (Akademicheskaya seriya)
3. Gerasimova, V.A. (2010), “ ‘Own’ and ‘alien’. Converted Jews in Russia in 18th century”, RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. “Philosophy. Sociology. Art Studies” Series, vol. 58, no. 15, pp. 139–146.
4. Jeremias, J. (1985), The Parables of Jesus, MacMillan Publishing, New York, USA.
5. Kalik, J. (2017), “Jewish presence in Russia of 16–18th centuries”, in Bartal, J., ed., Istoriya evreiskogo naroda v Rossii. [The history of Jewish people in Russia], vol. 1, Gesharim, Moscow, Russia, Jerusalem, Israel, pp. 321–339.
6. Petrova, G.V. (2021), “Modernist manifesto magazine and its readers (Concerning the history of aesthetic communication in Russia)”, Russkaya literatura, no. 2, pp. 14–25.
7. Prokhorov, G.S. (2022), “Dostoevsky in life and works of Arkadii Kovner: Private and public”, Dostoevskii i mirovaya kul’tura: Peterburgskii al’manakh, no. 40, pp. 73–94.
8. Prokhorov, G.S. (2020), “A Jewish family in 19th century memoirs. New Russian Christians of Jewish descent”, in Belova, O., ed., Sem’ia i semeinye tsennosti v slavianskoi i evreiskoi kul’turnoi traditsii [Family and family values in the Slavic and Jewish cultural traditions], Institut slavianovedeniya RAN, Sefer, Moscow, Russia, pp. 107–121.
9. Prokhorov, G.S. (2021), “Jewishness after Jewry. Remnants of Jewish identity in memoirs of converted Jews in Russia of the late 19th century in light of current experience”, in Khanin, Z., Chernin, V. and Gol’d, M., eds., Ezhegodnik evreiskogo evro-aziatskogo kongressa «Evrei Evropy i Azii: Sostoyanie, perspektivy, nasledie [Yearbook of the Jewish Euro-Asian Congress. Jews of Europe and Asia. Current state, perspectives, heritage. Collected scientific and journalistic articles], vol. 3, Evreiskii universitet Ierusalima, Herzliya, Israel, pp. 399–412.
10. Shteinberg, A.Z. (1994), “Dostoevsky and the Jewry”, in Russkie emigranty o Dostoevskom [Russian emigrants on Dostoevsky], Andreev i synov’ya, Saint Petersburg, Russia, pp. 111–125.
Review
For citations:
Prokhorov G.S. Testing the limits. Judeo-Christian journalism of converted Jews and assimilators. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2025;(2):33-42. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-2-33-42
Views:
14
Email this article 