Making Jews Modern: The Yiddish and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires

by Sarah Abrevaya Stein

"An engaging and thought-provoking analysis, . . . a pioneering foray into a new field of study, 'Jews and Empires in History.'" ―Slavic Review

On the eve of the 20th century, Jews in the Russian and Ottoman empires were caught up in the major cultural and social transformations that constituted modernity for Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewries. What did it mean to be Jewish and Russian, Jewish and Ottoman, Jewish and modern? To answer these questions, Sarah Abrevaya Stein explores the texts most widely consumed by Jewish popular newspapers in Yiddish and Ladino. This skillful comparative study yields new perspectives on the role of print culture in imagining national and transnational communities and the diverse ways in which modernity was envisioned under the rule of empire.

Genres: Judaism, Jewish

328 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2003

About the author

Sarah Abrevaya Stein is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, as well as Professor of History and the Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at UCLA. Learn more about her award-winning books and upcoming speaking engagements at sarahastein.com, or join the conversation @sarahastein. Sarah is the author or editor of nine books, including Family Papers: a Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century, Extraterritorial Dreams: European Citizenship, Sephardi Jews, and the Ottoman Twentieth Century and Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce. The recipient of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two National Jewish Book Awards, Sarah lives with her family in Santa Monica, CA.