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At the turn of the twentieth century, over forty percent of the world's Jews lived within the Russian Empire, almost all in the Pale of Settlement. From the Baltic to the Black Sea, the Jews of the Pale created a distinctive way of life little known beyond its borders. This led the historian Simon Dubnow to label the territory a Jewish "Dark Continent."Just before World War I, a socialist revolutionary and aspiring ethnographer named An-sky pledged to explore the Pale. He dreamed of leading an ethnographic expedition that would produce an archive-what he called an Oral Torah of the common people rather than the rabbinic elite-which would preserve Jewish traditions and transform them into the seeds of a modern Jewish culture. Between 1912 and 1914, An-sky and his team collected jokes, recorded songs, took thousands of photographs, and created a massive ethnographic questionnaire. Consisting of 2,087 questions in Yiddish-exploring the gamut of Jewish folk beliefs and traditions, from everyday activities to spiritual exercises to marital intimacies-the Jewish Ethnographic Program constitutes an invaluable portrait of Eastern European Jewish life on the brink of destruction.Nathaniel Deutsch offers the first complete translation of the questionnaire, as well as the riveting story of An-sky's almost messianic efforts to create a Jewish ethnography in an era of revolutionary change. An-sky's project was halted by World War I, and within a few years the Pale of Settlement would no longer exist. These survey questions revive and reveal shtetl life in all its wonder and complexity.

Jews --- Hebrews --- Israelites --- Jewish people --- Jewry --- Judaic people --- Judaists --- Ethnology --- Religious adherents --- Semites --- Judaism --- An-Ski, S., --- Ansky, S., --- An-Ski, --- Ansky, Shloime, --- Ski, S. An-, --- An-Sḳi, Sh. --- An-Sky, --- An-skiĭ, Semen, --- An-sky, Semyon, --- Ansky, Shlomo, --- אמ־סקי, ש. --- אנ־סקי, ס. --- אנ־סקי, ש. --- אנ־סקי, ש. א. --- אנ־סקי, ש. א., --- אנ־סקי, ש., --- אנסקי, ש. --- אנסקי, ש., --- Sinani, --- Rapaporṭ, Sh. --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Russia --- Ukraine --- Social life and customs. --- Ethnic relations. --- Geschichte 1912-1914.

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S. An-sky was by the time of the First World War a well-known writer, a longtime revolutionary, and an ethnographer who pioneered the collection of Jewish folklore in Russia's Pale of Settlement. In 1915, An-sky took on the assignment of providing aid and relief to Jewish civilians trapped under Russian military occupation in Galicia. As he made his way through the shtetls there, close to the Austrian frontlines, he kept a diary of his encounters and impressions, written in Russian. His diary entries present a detailed reflection of his daily experiences. He describes conversations with wounded soldiers in hospitals, fellow Russian and Jewish aid workers, Russian military and civilian authorities, and Jewish civilians in Galicia and parts of the Pale. Although most of his diaries were lost, two fragments survived and are preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art. Translated and annotated here by Polly Zavadivker, these fragments convey An-sky's vivid firsthand descriptions of civilian and military life in wartime. He recorded the brutality and violence against the civilian population, the complexities of interethnic relations, the practices and limitations of philanthropy and medical care, Russification policies, and antisemitism. In the late 1910s, An-sky used his diaries as raw material for a lengthy memoir in Yiddish published under the title The Destruction of Galicia.

World War, 1914-1918 --- Jews --- European War, 1914-1918 --- First World War, 1914-1918 --- Great War, 1914-1918 --- World War 1, 1914-1918 --- World War I, 1914-1918 --- World War One, 1914-1918 --- WW I (World War, 1914-1918) --- WWI (World War, 1914-1918) --- History, Modern --- Hebrews --- Israelites --- Jewish people --- Jewry --- Judaic people --- Judaists --- Ethnology --- Religious adherents --- Semites --- Judaism --- An-Ski, S., --- Ansky, S., --- An-Ski, --- Ansky, Shloime, --- Ski, S. An-, --- An-Sḳi, Sh. --- An-Sky, --- An-skiĭ, Semen, --- An-sky, Semyon, --- Ansky, Shlomo, --- אמ־סקי, ש. --- אנ־סקי, ס. --- אנ־סקי, ש. --- אנ־סקי, ש. א. --- אנ־סקי, ש. א., --- אנ־סקי, ש., --- אנסקי, ש. --- אנסקי, ש., --- Sinani, --- Rapaporṭ, Sh. --- An-Ski, S., - 1863-1920

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Yiddish literature

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Yiddish literature