Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America

1. The World of the Brivnshteler

1 ENCOUNTERING MODERNITY The age of the brivnshteler was an age of modernization, which some Russian Jews pursued, some resisted, and most accommodated to one degree or another. The brivnshteler served as an agent of change, guiding Jewish readers in their adaption of new social, cultural, and economic realities. It was also a reflection of change, encompassing within its pages almost the full range of Jewish responses to modernization. The earliest Russian brivnshtelers appeared against a backdrop of political and social fragmentation. In the early nineteenth century, the authority wielded by the rabbinate was under attack, as the spread of Ha­ sidism gave rise to a competing religious establishment. The cohesion of Jewish communities was further broken by the military draft insti­ tuted by Nicholas I. With no good way out, community leaders used the children of the poor to fulfill conscription quotas dodged by the rich through influence and bribes. The kahal—the autonomous Jewish community council—continued to run local communities even after being formally outlawed in 1844,1 but its authority over individuals was considerably weakened. Another challenge to the religious elite served as a forceful instru­ ment of modernity. The Haskalah—the Jewish Enlightenment—was a reformist rethinking of Jewish intellectual and community life that started in Berlin and reached Russia in the early nineteenth century. Pro­ ponents of the Haskalah, maskilim, drew from the ideas of the European Enlightenment,aswellasfromHebrewtranslationsof medievalandRen­ aissance works of philosophy, science, and history. The self­appointed on e The World of the Brivnshteler 2 Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl teachers of their nation, they became, in the formulation of Olga Litvak, a Jewish intelligentsia—“the bearers of a modern Jewish metaphysics and the founders of a new Romantic religion.”2 As implacable opponents of Hasidism but critics of complete secularization, maskilim pursued a modernizing agenda that included spiritual and cultural renewal as well as the social and economic integration of Jews into the broader society. While most remained religiously observant, they espoused ideas that the Jewish establishment considered subversive. The story of the maskilim intersects with that of the brivnshteler because of the Haskalah’s emphasis on the acquisition of non­Jewish languages (initially German) and its interest in broadening the scope of Jewish education. The first authors of brivnshtelers were maskilim. But these early Jewish intellectuals were also fundamental in reforming the institutions and subject matter of Jewish schooling more broadly. In the 1840s, when the intentions of the imperial government could be interpreted generously, some maskilim bypassed Jewish channels of in­ fluence to cooperate directly with Russian authorities. They shared with Russian government officials the idea that Jews should be transformed intoproductivesubjectsof themodernstateandsaweducationasthekey to promoting acculturation. Traditionally minded Jews, seeing the same linkage, did what they could to resist. A law of 1844 mandating the establishment of government schools for Jews was followed, over the next few years, by the opening of special­ ized primary and secondary schools under the control of the Ministry of Education. Fearing that this largely secular education would cause Jewishreligiousidentitytofatallyunravel,Jewishcommunitiesreplicated their response to the military draft and filled the schools with orphans and the children of the poor.3 But the unexpected success of the educa­ tional recruits led some prosperous parents to change their minds. The draft deferment that accompanied enrollment was a strong incentive, but so were practical benefits of secular study.4 To get a sense of what secular schools looked like from the point of view of a maskil, we can turn to an 1865 brivnshteler by Hirsh Lion Dor. Through the medium of a model letter, Lion Dor is ecstatic in his praise of the new curriculum, which he sees as the foundation for Jew­ ish renewal, self­respect, and prosperity under an enlightened imperial government: 3 The World of the Brivnshteler Day in and day out, in the schools which opened in Vilna a few years ago, young children blaze ahead in skill, in languages, in the sciences, which was unheard of until our age. Before, no one could write or do arithme­ tic or open their mouths in any language. They were the laughingstocks of other nations. Now, however, everyone possesses the greatest sophis­ tication. There are finally very skilled men, in Russian, German, French, and other languages; in arithmetic . . . like the greatest mathematicians. It is lovely to behold and beautiful to hear. . . . Their livelihood is taken care of. They will never know need...