Jeffrey Veidlinger is Associate Professor of History, Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in Jewish Studies, and Associate Director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington. He is author of The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (IUP, 2001) and co-director of the Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories.

"... a deeply engaging and insightful book ..."—Slavic Review, Vol.70.2 Summer 2011"By posing questions that have never been debated previously about Jews in the Russian Empire, Professor Veidlinger has produced a book that transforms our perspective on Jewish civil society in the critical moments at the end of tsarism.September 2009"—Brian Horowitz, Tulane University"This book provides a sense of the dynamism of Jewish cultural life, broadly defined, in what was the world's largest Jewish community whose descendants established American Jewry.Winter 5770/2009"—Jewish Book World / Jewish Book Council"Based on research in five languages ina wide range of published sources and on material located in four major archival collections, the book succeeds admirably in depicting the emergence into 'modernity' of the largest Jewish community in the world . . . Veidlinger is to be congratulated for having produced a compelling and important study on a cultural development that transformed East European Jewry and that has been crucial in the history of world Jewry over the past century.Vol. 115. 1 Feb. 2010"—Abraham Ascher, Graduate Center, City University of New York"... a fascinating and exhaustively researched account ... a major contribution to the rich and burgeoning scholarship on Jewish society in late imperial Russia.55.1 Spring 2011"—Slavic and East European Journal"In all, Jewish Public Culture is rich, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written; it presents new data and compelling analysis to show how the new Jewish public culture flourished in the late tsarist Russia. The book is an important contribution to both Slavic and Jewish studies, and a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on Russian Jewish history and culture."—Russian Review"In exploring how Jewish public culture was created and experienced throughout the Russian Empire, Veidlinger's book breaks new ground in a number of ways. . . [H]e argues for the importance of performers, both professional and amateur, in a historical record that has typically favored intellectuals and political activists.1002.3 Summer 2012"—Jewish Quarterly Review"This wonderful, thoroughly researched, and well-crafted study convincingly argues that fundamental changes in the ways that Jewish activists and intellectuals viewed the intersection between culture and community transformed the very experience of daily life and the nature of community for early twentieth-century Jews in the Russian Empire."—Religious Studies Review"This ambitious study offers a new perspective on the construction, ethos, and dynamics of a burgeoning Jewish public sphere following the Revolution of 1905."—Chai-Ran Freeze, Brandeis University

• AcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction: Jewish Public Culture1. The Jews of this World2. Libraries: From the Study Hall to the Public Library3. Reading: From Sacred Duty to Leisure Time4. Literary Societies: The Culture of Language and the Language of Culture5. Cultural Performance: The People of the Book and the Spoken Word6. Theater: The Professionalization of Performance7. Musical and Dramatic Societies: Amateur Performers and Audiences8. The Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society: Collecting the Jewish Past9. Public History: Imagining Russian JewsConclusion: and They GatheredNotesBibliographyIndex

Jeffrey Veidlinger is Associate Professor of History, Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in Jewish Studies, and Associate Director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington. He is author of The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (IUP, 2001) and co-director of the Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories.

"... a deeply engaging and insightful book ..."—Slavic Review, Vol.70.2 Summer 2011"By posing questions that have never been debated previously about Jews in the Russian Empire, Professor Veidlinger has produced a book that transforms our perspective on Jewish civil society in the critical moments at the end of tsarism.September 2009"—Brian Horowitz, Tulane University"This book provides a sense of the dynamism of Jewish cultural life, broadly defined, in what was the world's largest Jewish community whose descendants established American Jewry.Winter 5770/2009"—Jewish Book World / Jewish Book Council"Based on research in five languages ina wide range of published sources and on material located in four major archival collections, the book succeeds admirably in depicting the emergence into 'modernity' of the largest Jewish community in the world . . . Veidlinger is to be congratulated for having produced a compelling and important study on a cultural development that transformed East European Jewry and that has been crucial in the history of world Jewry over the past century.Vol. 115. 1 Feb. 2010"—Abraham Ascher, Graduate Center, City University of New York"... a fascinating and exhaustively researched account ... a major contribution to the rich and burgeoning scholarship on Jewish society in late imperial Russia.55.1 Spring 2011"—Slavic and East European Journal"In all, Jewish Public Culture is rich, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written; it presents new data and compelling analysis to show how the new Jewish public culture flourished in the late tsarist Russia. The book is an important contribution to both Slavic and Jewish studies, and a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on Russian Jewish history and culture."—Russian Review"In exploring how Jewish public culture was created and experienced throughout the Russian Empire, Veidlinger's book breaks new ground in a number of ways. . . [H]e argues for the importance of performers, both professional and amateur, in a historical record that has typically favored intellectuals and political activists.1002.3 Summer 2012"—Jewish Quarterly Review"This wonderful, thoroughly researched, and well-crafted study convincingly argues that fundamental changes in the ways that Jewish activists and intellectuals viewed the intersection between culture and community transformed the very experience of daily life and the nature of community for early twentieth-century Jews in the Russian Empire."—Religious Studies Review"This ambitious study offers a new perspective on the construction, ethos, and dynamics of a burgeoning Jewish public sphere following the Revolution of 1905."—Chai-Ran Freeze, Brandeis University

• AcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction: Jewish Public Culture1. The Jews of this World2. Libraries: From the Study Hall to the Public Library3. Reading: From Sacred Duty to Leisure Time4. Literary Societies: The Culture of Language and the Language of Culture5. Cultural Performance: The People of the Book and the Spoken Word6. Theater: The Professionalization of Performance7. Musical and Dramatic Societies: Amateur Performers and Audiences8. The Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society: Collecting the Jewish Past9. Public History: Imagining Russian JewsConclusion: and They GatheredNotesBibliographyIndex

Jeffrey Veidlinger is Associate Professor of History, Alvin H. Rosenfeld Chair in Jewish Studies, and Associate Director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington. He is author of The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage (IUP, 2001) and co-director of the Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories.

"... a deeply engaging and insightful book ..."—Slavic Review, Vol.70.2 Summer 2011"By posing questions that have never been debated previously about Jews in the Russian Empire, Professor Veidlinger has produced a book that transforms our perspective on Jewish civil society in the critical moments at the end of tsarism.September 2009"—Brian Horowitz, Tulane University"This book provides a sense of the dynamism of Jewish cultural life, broadly defined, in what was the world's largest Jewish community whose descendants established American Jewry.Winter 5770/2009"—Jewish Book World / Jewish Book Council"Based on research in five languages ina wide range of published sources and on material located in four major archival collections, the book succeeds admirably in depicting the emergence into 'modernity' of the largest Jewish community in the world . . . Veidlinger is to be congratulated for having produced a compelling and important study on a cultural development that transformed East European Jewry and that has been crucial in the history of world Jewry over the past century.Vol. 115. 1 Feb. 2010"—Abraham Ascher, Graduate Center, City University of New York"... a fascinating and exhaustively researched account ... a major contribution to the rich and burgeoning scholarship on Jewish society in late imperial Russia.55.1 Spring 2011"—Slavic and East European Journal"In all, Jewish Public Culture is rich, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written; it presents new data and compelling analysis to show how the new Jewish public culture flourished in the late tsarist Russia. The book is an important contribution to both Slavic and Jewish studies, and a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on Russian Jewish history and culture."—Russian Review"In exploring how Jewish public culture was created and experienced throughout the Russian Empire, Veidlinger's book breaks new ground in a number of ways. . . [H]e argues for the importance of performers, both professional and amateur, in a historical record that has typically favored intellectuals and political activists.1002.3 Summer 2012"—Jewish Quarterly Review"This wonderful, thoroughly researched, and well-crafted study convincingly argues that fundamental changes in the ways that Jewish activists and intellectuals viewed the intersection between culture and community transformed the very experience of daily life and the nature of community for early twentieth-century Jews in the Russian Empire."—Religious Studies Review"This ambitious study offers a new perspective on the construction, ethos, and dynamics of a burgeoning Jewish public sphere following the Revolution of 1905."—Chai-Ran Freeze, Brandeis University

• AcknowledgmentsA Note on TransliterationIntroduction: Jewish Public Culture1. The Jews of this World2. Libraries: From the Study Hall to the Public Library3. Reading: From Sacred Duty to Leisure Time4. Literary Societies: The Culture of Language and the Language of Culture5. Cultural Performance: The People of the Book and the Spoken Word6. Theater: The Professionalization of Performance7. Musical and Dramatic Societies: Amateur Performers and Audiences8. The Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society: Collecting the Jewish Past9. Public History: Imagining Russian JewsConclusion: and They GatheredNotesBibliographyIndex