In a small room in the Copley Plaza Hotel here, llya Dvorkin held forth in Russian-accented Hebrew on Nachman Krochmal.
Dvorkin, rector of the Petersburg Jewish University in St. Petersburg, broke little new ground in understanding the work of Krochmal, the 19th century Jewish philosopher and a father of modern Jewish studies.
But his central point was nonetheless revolutionary: The Jews of Russia are acting out Krochmal’s belief that the Jewish people have within them the seeds for their own periodic renewal.
Dvorkin was here to participate in the recent gathering of the Association of Jewish Studies.
Like his American counterparts, he believes that academic Jewish studies hold key to Jewish revival.
"What the United States has – synagogues and community – is dead in Russia. There is only source for the Jewish community in Russia: schools and universities," he said.
At Dvorkin’s Petersburg Jewish University, 300 students study Jewish history, Hebrew and other Semitic languages in both full-time and part-time programs, leading to a bachelor’s degree.
The university also has a yeshiva-style beit midrash and Teacher’s College program.
His is one of a handful of programs in the former Soviet Union that offer university level Jewish studies.
At the University of Moscow, 200 students study philology, psychology and Near East history under a faculty of specialists recruited from other schools.
"They are specialists in their fields," said Michael Greenberg, President of the university. "They’re trying to give Jewish knowledge to their students. But many are far from Jewish education. We’re trying to teach our teachers Jewish subjects, to show them what Jewish subjects are," said Greenberg.
Greenberg, a former underground Jewish activist in Russia, now makes his home in the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the West Bank.
This retooling of Russian academics to teach Jewish studies will be a main feature of an upcoming conference. In early February, 150 academics with an interest in Judaic studies will gather in Moscow for a conference sponsored by the International Center for they Study of Jewish Civilization.
New York-based Touro College has also opened a Moscow affiliate, where more than 400 students study courses ranging from basic Judaism to advanced Talmud.
And at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, 49 students study in a program called Project judaica. The program is sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
This program brings American and Israeli professors to Moscow to teach, and advanced students – currently 19 – to the United States or Israel for advanced studies.
Late last year, students from Project Judaica and the Moscow Jewish University formed the first Russian association of Jewish students in Jewish studies.
"Project Judaica has a relatively small enrollment, but it really prepares scholars and people who will teach Judaica on the college level," said Misha Krutikov, a scholar associated with the program now studying for his doctorate in Yiddish literature at JTS.
The Jewish universities, which offer bachelor degrees, "are basically community colleges and will train educators and social workers," he said.
Krutikov’s career typifies the indirect route that brought Russian Jews into Jewish studies after the collapse of communism.
He had worked for nine years as a computer programmer after earning a degree in mathematics from Moscow State University. His interests led him to work at Sovietische Heimland, the Yiddish journal launched by the Soviet Writer’s Union in 1961.
The Russian Jewish population is highly talented, highly educated and used to a high level of culture. If they’re interested in Jewish things, Jewish consciousness, we must provide them with Jewish culture on the same high level," said Jerry Hochbaum, executive vice president of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.
The American-based Memorial Foundation sponsors advanced studies for around 20 Russian Jewish academics, among them Dvorkin.
"You don’t create institutions without people. Dvorkin is very dedicated. He built the Petersburg Jewish University with his own hands. What’s important is to deepen his knowledge so he can be more effective," said Hochbaum.
"Your can’t have a Jewish community cultural infrastructure without having a cultural and intellectual leadership," he said.
Lawernce Schiffman, professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, who taught in the program for a month last semester, had high praise for his students.
"They really do serious work," he said.
Was their academic research on the same level as their Israeli and American peers?
"Even if not, they’re still starting out," said Schiffman.
Much of the current academic Jewish research in Russia is devoted to primary research: unearthing and locating materials lost during the decades of Soviet rule.
These includes documents filed in archives and libraries when Jewish studies were illegal, and the remnants of Jewish communities destroyed by the Nazis and the Soviets.
Dmitriy Elyashevitch, associate professor and dean of research at the Petersburg Jewish University, impressed his American colleagues when he described some of his discoveries in Central Asian archives.
These includes a Judeo-Persian/Russian dictionary, a volume previously unknown.
Dvorkin described the research among the vanished shtetls of the former Soviet Union as "contemporary archaeology."
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
