Michael Weisskopf

The Veil of Moses: Jewish Themes in Russian Literature of the Romantic Era Michael Weisskopf

Jacket Description/Back: "The Veil of Moses" describes the creation of Russian romantic literary stereotypes which shaped the opinion of the Russian public on the Jews. These stereotypes in turn generated long-lasting habits of dealing with Jews and Jewish themes in Russian culture and politics. This volume introduces a formidable corpus of previously neglected evidence into the scholarship, namely, journalism and second- and third-rank prose. Journalism, influenced by more humane Western attitudes, reflected changes and presented a more objective picture of the Jews. It was the romantic prose, full of mythology and appealing to dark instincts that created the most odious anti-semitic clich s. Biographical Note: Mikhail Weisskopf, Ph. D.(summa cum laude), Hebrew University, is lecturer at that university. He is the author of five monographs on Russian literature. His sixth, "A Demiurge in Love: Metaphysics and Eros of Russian Romanticism" is now available in Moscow. Table of Contents: Preface to the English Edition Acknowledgements Translator s Preface Author s Preface Introduction to the English Edition Chapter One: The Religious-Historical Context Chapter Two: A Look at Foreign Jewry: The Adoption of Western Models Chapter Three: The Magic of Kabbalah and the Aesthetics of the Old Testament Chapter Four: Russia as the New Israel Chapter Five: The Ideological and Social Background of the Jewish Image Chapter Six: Encounters with Judaism and the Jews: Amendments to Real Impressions Chapter Seven: Literary Templates Chapter Eight: The Journalistic Campaign of 1838 and its Repercussions Chapter Nine: Baptism or Repatriation? Chapter Ten: A People without a Homeland: The Jews in Russia in the 1840s Epilogue: The Further Evolution of the Jewish Theme"

Contributor Bio:  Weisskopf, Michael Susan Schmidt and Michael Weisskopf, both award-winning investigative reporters, worked togethr at the Washington Post for several years until Weisskopf's move to Time in 1997. Schmidt broke the Lewinsky story in the Post in January 1998 and piled up scoops o every front. Weisskopf cowrot Time's 1998 Man of the Year story on Starr and is the coauthor(with David Maraniss) of Tell Newt to Shut Up.