A Jewish century.(Book review)

Publication: Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought

Publication Date: 22-JUN-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 American Jewish Congress

The Jewish Century. By YURI SLEZKINE. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Yuri Slezkine, a professor of Russian history at the University of California at Berkeley, while planning a study of the inhabitants of a famous building that housed a segment of the Soviet political elite in the 1930s, came to be struck by the percentage of Jews among the eminent tenants. It became clear to him that Jews played an extraordinary role in Soviet life, and that they were represented in every part of the Soviet elite way out of proportion to their numbers in the population. He realized that Jewish achievement in the recent past has not been limited to Russia, but that Jews were the paradigmatic representatives of modernity everywhere. He set out to find an explanation of this remarkable sociological-cultural phenomenon. (1)

This book has received much praise, and also some sharp criticisms. But admirers and hostile critics have agreed that Slezkine is a remarkably erudite scholar who can demonstrate his points by finding examples far outside of his field of Russian history. He is also a graceful writer whose chapters are a pleasure to read. The reader's response to this work will largely depend on to what extent he or she is attracted to posing large questions and making broad and bold generalizations. We know that such generalizations can be attacked, and exceptions that do not support them can be found. Also, some critics find stereotyping a group of people, in this instance Jews, in itself obnoxious. (2)

In a famous distinction made by Isaiah Berlin, between the "hedgehog" and the "fox," i.e., a thinker who is in search of one fundamental truth versus another with many small ideas, Slezkine belongs to the hedgehog category. His explanation of both Jewish achievement and also hatred of Jews is based on a juxtaposition that he sets up in his first chapter. In his presentation there are two types of groups of humanity or peoples: the Apollonians and the Mercurians. The Apollonians are stationary, they cultivate the land, field armies, most of them make their living by physical labor, and they value...

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