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"Stepchildren of the Shtetl considers marginal peoples in East European Jewish society and culture--the disabled, mentally ill, and indigent--and how stereotypes and self-perceptions of Jewish marginality have in turn shaped modern Jewish culture, society, and politics"--
List of contents
Introduction
1. Jewish Marginal People in Premodern Europe
2. Blind Beggars and Orphan Recruits: The Russian State, the Kahal, and Marginal Jews in the Early Nineteenth Century
3. A Pile of Dust and Rubble": Poorhouses, Real and Imaginary
4. The Cholera Wedding
5. A "Republic of Beggars"? Charity, Jewish Backwardness, and the Specter of the Jewish Idler
6. Madness and the Mad: From Family Burden to National Affliction
7. "We Singing Jews, We Jews Possessed": The Jewish Outcast as National Icon
Epilogue
Conclusion: Jewish Intersectionality at the European Fin-de-Siècle
About the author
Natan M. Meir is the Lorry I. Lokey Professor of Judaic Studies at Portland State University.
Summary
"Stepchildren of the Shtetl considers marginal peoples in East European Jewish society and culture--the disabled, mentally ill, and indigent--and how stereotypes and self-perceptions of Jewish marginality have in turn shaped modern Jewish culture, society, and politics"--
