The Galitsyaners: (Re)discovering Jewish Galicia

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Negative references to the Galitsianer as cunning, unlearned, coarse, or a religious fanatic are still heard in the early twenty-first century. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, in addition to its nineteenth-century Hasidic, rabbinic, and maskilic celebrities, Galicia produced countless Zionist and socialist leaders as well as a cadre of literary and academic stars in the twentieth century, most notably the noble laureate S. Y. Agnon. Galicia – the portion of the old Polish empire ruled by Austria from 1772 to 1918 – was the cradle of much of modern Jewish civilization. This talk will survey the history of this community and its place in the East European Jewish experience.

ABOUT THIS SPEAKER: Joshua Shanes received his B.A. from the University of Illinois in 1993, his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin in 2002, and spent time in between studying in Israel. Professor Shanes’s research interests focus on Central and East European Jewry in the 19th and 20th centuries, specifically turn-of-the-century Galicia and the rise of Zionism as a counter-movement to the traditional Jewish establishment. Dr. Shanes became the Associate Director of Jewish Studies in Fall 2017.