Storm in the Community: Yiddish Polemical Pamphlets of Amsterdam Jewry, 1797-1798
"A group of enlightened Jews in Amsterdam, small but exceptionally energetic, decided in the summer of 1797 to publish a periodical with the title Diskurs (Discourse). It was clearly inspired by the expanded freedom of the press in the Republic of the Netherlands and by the satirical and often vulgar Spectatorial writings currently popular. The first in the series of Diskursn appeared one week before the elections to the second National Assembly on August 1, 1797. Thus it served as an...
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"A group of enlightened Jews in Amsterdam, small but exceptionally energetic, decided in the summer of 1797 to publish a periodical with the title Diskurs (Discourse). It was clearly inspired by the expanded freedom of the press in the Republic of the Netherlands and by the satirical and often vulgar Spectatorial writings currently popular. The first in the series of Diskursn appeared one week before the elections to the second National Assembly on August 1, 1797. Thus it served as an informative and propagandistic vehicle through which the anonymous publishers, members of the naye kille (new community), could persuade the Jews of Amsterdam to choose the party of progress and enlightenment. In that context, the author or authors also inveighed strongly against the alleged abuses in the alte kille (the established community) and those they held responsible - the parnosim (board of directors) and their officials." The Diskursn fun di naye un di alte kille are a rare phenomenon, not just in the history of Jewish communities in the period of emancipation, but in the histories of Yiddish literature and satirical/polemical periodicals as well. This is the first ever bilingual edition of a major portion of these fascinating documents - indeed the first time any of them have been published in English translation. A lengthy introduction and five appendices help the reader understand and appreciate these colorful Dutch Jews and their often impassioned arguments.
