A Biography of a Person and a Book
A Biography of a Person and a Book
This introductory chapter provides an overview of Pauline Wengeroff and her Memoirs of a Grandmother: Scenes from the Cultural History of the Jews of Russia in the Nineteenth Century. Wengeroff's two volumes are extraordinary on many grounds. As their full title proclaims, she writes the history of an era in Jewish experience, coupling her story and that of her family with that of Russian Jewry in the time of its transition from tradition to modernity. In Memoirs, Wengeroff gives a rich depiction of traditional Jewish society in Russia with a particular focus on the religious practices and piety of women. She tells a dramatic tale of the dissolution of traditionalism in this society from the perspective of women, marriage, and families. Indeed, she argues for the cultural power of women, though not as a feminist. Focusing on Wengeroff's adolescent and adult life, this book traces how Memoirs of a Grandmother came to be in the form in which it is found.
Keywords: Pauline Wengeroff, Jewish experience, Russian Jewry, Jewish tradition, Jewish modernity, Jewish society, Jewish women, traditionalism, Memoirs of a Grandmother
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