Olga Litvak – författare

"Olga Litvak has written a book of astonishing originality and intellectual force. . . . In vivid prose, she takes the reader on a journey through the Russian-Jewish literary imagination." —Benjamin NathansRussian Jews were first conscripted into the Imperial Russian army during the reign of Nicholas I in an effort to integrate them into the population of the Russian Empire. Conscripted minors were to serve, in practical terms, for life. Although this system was abandoned by his successor, the conscription experience remained traumatic in the popular memory and gave rise to a large and continuing literature that often depicted Jewish soldiers as heroes. This imaginative and intellectually ambitious book traces the conscription theme in novels and stories by some of the best-known Russian Jewish writers such as Osip Rabinovich, Judah-Leib Gordon, and Mendele Mokher Seforim, as well as by relatively unknown writers.Published with the generous support of the Koret Foundation.

Commonly translated as the “Jewish Enlightenment,” the Haskalah propelled Jews into modern life. Olga Litvak argues that the idea of a Jewish modernity, championed by adherents of this movement, did not originate in Western Europe’s age of reason. Litvak contends that the Haskalah spearheaded a Jewish religious revival, better understood against the background of Eastern European Romanticism.Based on imaginative and historically grounded readings of primary sources, Litvak presents a compelling case for rethinking the relationship between the Haskalah and the experience of political and social emancipation. Most importantly, she challenges the prevailing view that the Haskalah provided the philosophical mainspring for Jewish liberalism.In Litvak’s ambitious interpretation, nineteenth-century Eastern European intellectuals emerge as the authors of a Jewish Romantic revolution. Fueled by contradictory longings both for community and for personal freedom, the poets and scholars associated with the Haskalah questioned the moral costs of civic equality and the achievement of middle-class status. In the nineteenth century, their conservative approach to culture as the cure for the spiritual ills of the modern individual provided a powerful argument for the development of Jewish nationalism. Today, their ideas are equally resonant in contemporary debates about the ramifications of secularization for the future of Judaism.

Commonly translated as the “Jewish Enlightenment,” the Haskalah propelled Jews into modern life. Olga Litvak argues that the idea of a Jewish modernity, championed by adherents of this movement, did not originate in Western Europe’s age of reason. Litvak contends that the Haskalah spearheaded a Jewish religious revival, better understood against the background of Eastern European Romanticism.Based on imaginative and historically grounded readings of primary sources, Litvak presents a compelling case for rethinking the relationship between the Haskalah and the experience of political and social emancipation. Most importantly, she challenges the prevailing view that the Haskalah provided the philosophical mainspring for Jewish liberalism.In Litvak’s ambitious interpretation, nineteenth-century Eastern European intellectuals emerge as the authors of a Jewish Romantic revolution. Fueled by contradictory longings both for community and for personal freedom, the poets and scholars associated with the Haskalah questioned the moral costs of civic equality and the achievement of middle-class status. In the nineteenth century, their conservative approach to culture as the cure for the spiritual ills of the modern individual provided a powerful argument for the development of Jewish nationalism. Today, their ideas are equally resonant in contemporary debates about the ramifications of secularization for the future of Judaism.

This translation of M.L. Lilienblum's Errors of Youth (1876) and its short sequel, Way of Return (1899), bridges a critical gap in modern Hebrew literature and Jewish intellectual history, and, for the first time, makes the entirety of these seminal texts available in English. Framed as autobiography, but written with fictionalized flair and keen irony, Errors of Youth follows the travails of its hapless, self-centered narrator from traditional Jewish upbringing to modern life in Odessa. Unconventional and absorbing, the text offers striking insight into Jewish life in Eastern Europe, and a compelling Jewish critique of modernity. It is both a transformative experiment in Hebrew novel-writing, and an essential text in the history of Jewish nationalism in Russia. Lilienblum's contribution to modern Jewish culture has often been overlooked, but his influence resonates across the twentieth century in the work of Philip Roth and S.Y. Agnon.This edition undertakes to restore Lilienblum's masterwork to its proper place in the history of Jewish thought and imagination. Olga Litvak's translation expertly maintains the poeticism and parodic intent of the originals, while her introduction and annotations elucidate how Lilienblum wrote in nuanced conversation with classical Jewish sources. Situating Lilienblum's work in historical and literary context, Litvak also showcases its contemporary relevance. Enabling a new generation of readers to appreciate the bracing quality of Lilienblum's prose, his powers of invention, and his consummate understanding of modern Jewish society, this edition brings a forgotten classic to life.