Rethinking Kishinev: How a Riot Changed 20th-Century Jewish History

Kishinev’s 1903 pogrom was the first event in Russian Jewish life to receive international attention. The riot, leaving 49 dead in an obscure border town, dominated the headlines of the western press for weeks, intruded on US-Russian relations, and had an impact on an astonishing array of institutions, such as the nascent Jewish army in Palestine, and the NAACP. It most likely also influenced the first version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Why did it have such impact, and why did it become a prism through which Russian Jewish history has been defined?

On Monday, January 6, at 7:00 pm, Dr. Steven Zipperstein will discuss this watershed event in the keynote address of the YIVO-Bard Winter Program on Ashkenazi Civilization, a three-week roadtrip of East European Jewish life, consisting of eight afternoon and evening classes from January 6-23.

Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University, is the inaugural Jacob Kronhill Visiting Scholar in Eastern European Jewish Studies at YIVO, for the Spring 2014 semester. Dr. Zipperstein will be leading a graduate seminar on Jewish historiography, and will teach a public evening course, Jews and the Russian Revolution. This course meets over 6 Mondays, beginning April 28, from 7:00-8:30pm.