Karaite Separatism in Nineteenth-Century Russia
Joseph Solomon Lutski's Epistle of Israel's Deliverance
by Philip E Miller
When the Karaites successfully dissociated themselves from the Rabbanite Russian Jews with the creation of the Karaite Religious Consistory in 1837, the result was a schism within Judaism unprecedented since the rise of Christianity. This book sets this event in the context of the history of the Russian Karaites from their origins to the present.
When the Karaites successfully dissociated themselves from the Rabbanite Russian Jews with the creation of the Karaite Religious Consistory in 1837, the result was a schism within Judaism unprecedented since the rise of Christianity. Philip E. Miller sets this event in the context of the history of the Russian Karaites from their origins to the present, focusing on economic and political concerns that led to the schism. The Karaites’ separatism shielded them from the horrific fates suffered by the Rabbanites under the tsars, under Hitler, and under Stalin, but it ultimately led to their nearly complete assimilation and disappearance as a people. The central character in Miller’s study is Simchah Babovich, a Crimean Karaite whose wealth and prominence enabled him to curry favor with the imperial Russian government. In 1827, Babovich traveled to St. Petersburg on behalf of the Karaite community and petitioned the tsar for exemption from military conscription legislation that applied to all Jews in the realm. Accompanying him on the journey was Joseph Solomon ben Moses Lutski, the leading Karaite religious scholar of Evpatoriia. Lutski’s chronicle of the mission, the Iggeret teshu’at Yisrael (Epistle of Israel’s Deliverance), is reprinted here as an annotated Hebrew text with English translation. In colorful detail, the Iggeret records the delegation’s travel adventures, their activities as guests and tourists in the imperial capital, the swift granting of Babovich’s request, and the Karaites’ euphoric reaction when the successful petitioners arrived back home in Evpatoriia.
- By (author) Philip E Miller
Other Titles in this Series
Modernism and Cultural Transfer
Gabriel Preil and the Tradition of Jewish Literary Bilingualism
Volume 10
My Dear Daughter
Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-Century Poland
Volume 33
Similar Books
Linguistic and Media Studies Perspectives on Research into Social and Political Polarisation
The Case of Poland
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
Jüdische Musikerziehung im Preußen des 19. Jahrhunderts
Gesangunterricht an jüdischen Reformschulen als Facette bürgerlicher Akkulturation
Volume 21
Massekhet Shevuʿot
Text, Translation, and Commentary. A Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud. Volume IV/6.
Paul and Sacrifice in Corinth
Rethinking Paul's Views on Gentile Cults in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10
Volume 623
Revelation and Conflict in John 7 and 8
Historical, Literary, and Theological Readings from the Colloquium Ioanneum 2023 in Vienna
Tactical and Strategic Insights from the Russo-Ukrainian War
Western Security and Defence in the 21st Century
The Black Sea: Hub of Peoples and Cultures (8th Century BC–5th/6th Century AD)
Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities (Thessaloniki, 26–30 September 2022)
The Co-production of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Artefacts, Rituals, Communities, Narratives, Doctrines, Concepts
Volume 1
