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Photographing the Jewish Nation

Pictures from S. An-sky's Ethnographic Expeditions

Edited by Eugene M. Avrutin

From 1912 to 1914, S. An-sky and the photographer Solomon Iudovin gathered materials and took photographs of Jewish daily life in pre-Revolutionary Russia’s Pale of Settlement. Photographing the Jewish Nation offers English-language readers their first look at over 170 extraordinary, recently rediscovered photographs from their expeditions. The pictures provide visual texture—in remarkable detail—that rarely appears in written sources. This volume includes a critical introduction and five chapters that document all aspects of Jewish life inside the Pale, including work, education, and religious and cultural traditions.

Paper: $35
ISBN-13: 9781611686838
Pages: 228 | Size: 8 in. x 10 in.
Date Published: October 1, 2009
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About the Author

Eugene M. Avrutin

Eugene M. Avrutin is the Tobor Family Endowed Professor of Modern European Jewish History and is the Director of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society at the University of Illinois. He is the author and co-editor of several award-winning books, including Jews and the Imperial State: Identification Politics in Tsarist Russia (Cornell University Press, 2010) and The Velizh Affair: Blood Libel in a Russian Town (Oxford University Press, 2018). Avrutin has published …