Beyond the Bima: Transformations of the Rabbinate in Eastern Ashkenas

Lecture by Nathan Kahn in association with the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies

This talk focuses upon the reconfiguration of rabbinical authority in Eastern Ashkenas during the last third of the nineteenth century through the action of several key figures. The period of study, 1865–1902, was characterized by great permutations in the world at large, Jewish society and culture, and in the realm of Jewish religious observance. Traditional rabbinical authority, long based on scholarship, was under threat from several areas, including governmental intervention, reform movements and urbanization. The growing prominence of the press transformed the Jewish public sphere, offering new opportunities and mobility to a Jewish society whose observance had previously been dominant. The resultant pressures upon the rabbinate challenged the office to retain communal integrity and required new platforms to preserve relevance. Nathan Kahn assesses the attempts of leading rabbinical figures to maintain a leadership position within Jewish society via other means.