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Chapter 2 Pacifism and Aggression in Shimon An-sky's Spiritual Evolution The zigzag trajectory of Shimon An-sky's life has propelled scholars to view him as plagued with paradoxes. One cause for this perception is his shifts in ideology. Before 1905 he defended armed revolution, then turned to pacifism and folklore studies, and then returned to support revolution. It can be shown, however, that these apparent swings, rather than signs of eccentric indecision , reflected An-sky's coordination with mainstream thinking in Russian and Russian-Jewish society. In particular, An-sky was deeply affected by the Revolution of 1905 and the ideological changes that occurred following it. His literary works, civic activism, and folklore expeditions all reflect the rejection of revolution that became part of the general Weltanschauung of Russian society after 1905. Similarly, An-sky's change to support revolution and militancy during World War I and in 1917 also links him with a society that was equally infected by a sharp turn toward aggression.! Finally, his turn to folklore reflects a Jewish sensibility that was engaged in increasing degrees with the Jewish past and the culture of the Jewish people, as opposed to its elite. Despite the external changes in his life, a persistent feature of An-sky's works is the striving for utopia. An-sky's work in the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR) and his Jewish ethnographical studies were paradoxically motivated by a single fundamental desire to transform the world. Even when he rejected revolution as the most effective means to achieve utopia, An-sky proposed cultural projects that nevertheless encouraged the struggle for change. In fact, although his folklore studies may seem apolitical, in his treatment he did not just describe (as would a scholar), but attempted to give the Jews a new Torah. This new Torah was supposed to bring about a reconciliation of Orthodox and secular Jews and transform Jewish society2 Another characteristic of An-sky's life and works, especially after 1905, is his attempt to bring Russians and Jews closer together. He claimed that their ! R. N . Ettinger, Rozn Nikolnevl1n Ettinser Uerusalem, 1980), 21. 2 As the historian and critic Israel Tsinberg [Zinberg] put it, An-sky felt that "everything on which until now Judaism rested -religion, Torah, Talmud - has fallen, is destroyed . And now we, Jewish writers, try to create something new that, exclusive of religion, would unite the people into a single whole." Tsinberg, "5. An-sky," Evreisknin el1tsiklopediin, 2: 618. PACIFISM AND AGGRESSION IN SHIMON AN-SKY'S SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION 37 political interests and spiritual origins paralleled one another's and they were both"chosen" peoples. Trying to synthesize elements from the Jewish and Russian traditions, An-sky wrote stories, practiced journalism, and engaged in political projects that benefited both Russians and Jews. To understand An-sky's unique synthesis of Russian and Jewish elements , I use as a key marker An-sky's famous essay "Jewish Folk Art" ("Evreiskoe narodnoe tvorchestvo," 1908)3 This article was not only one of the most innovative and weighty of all his contributions to a modern conception of Ashkenazi Jewish culture, but also represented a pivotal moment in An-sky's evolution. Paradoxically, "Jewish Folk Art" provides unlikely support for the claim that An-sky sought a Russian-Jewish synthesis, since in that essay he drew a vivid distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish cultures. An-sky argued that, as opposed to Christian nations that had their origins in paganism and subsequently praised military prowess, the Jews were different . Their folklore, he contended, reflected the spiritual origins of Jewish culture . Established on the grounds of ethical monotheism, the Jewish religion encouraged the Jewish people to disregard, even scorn military might. According to An-sky, the Jews were exceptional as compared with all other nations, because they possessed exclusively spiritual values. Concentrating on Torah, Jews devoted their lives to study, moral contemplation, and theological inquiry. In theory, they ignored the external aspects of life and mined the riches of their own internal depths, which found tangible form in folk creations : legends, plays, songs, jokes, and religious artifacts. In "Jewish Folk Art" An-sky offered more than merely an expression in modern form of ideas that traditional Jews had been saying about themselves for centuries. Rather, by viewing the life of shtet! Judaism as the source of Jewish creativity, An-sky expressed some important tenets of Diaspora Jewish nationalism . Traditional Jews were not fanatics, inclined to isolation, ignorance, and poverty, but...

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