The Empire of Darkness: Why Jewish Women Became Radicals in Russia and Beyond

Deborah Hertz UCSD History ?The Empire of Darkness: Why Jewish Women Became Radicals in Russia and Beyond During the last decades of the nineteenth century Jewish women living in the Pale of Settlement in Russia faced many obstacles when they sought education, love, and fulfillment in work and the wider political stage. In this lecture I bring to life a circle of women who chose a left-wing and even terrorist way of life, and made history when they wrote manifestos, organized strikes, and hurled bombs at the czarist officials. We can understand these women better when we also consider the paths these women did not choose, including the business wife role, Zionism, the secularist-socialist Bundist party, and the emergent secular feminist movement.

Location: Literature Bldg, deCerteau Room, UCSD

Price: Free

Information: (858) 534-0999