Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History / UCR Palm Desert Campus

Steven J. Zipperstein will discuss his book Pogrom, which tells the story of a riot that transformed the course of twentieth-century Jewish history. He will be joined in conversation by UCR Maimonides Chair of Jewish Studies Michael Alexander in presenting The Mark & Pamela Rubin Lecture in Hate, Genocide, and Ethnic Cleansing.

Over several days in April of 1903, 49 Jews were killed, 600 were raped or wounded, and more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were ransacked and destroyed during three days of violence in the town of Kishinev. So shattering were the aftereffects of this rampage, that one historian remarked that it was “nothing less than a prototype for the Holocaust itself.”

Recounted in lurid detail by newspapers throughout the Western world, and covered sensationally by America’s Hearst press, the pre-Easter attacks seized the imagination of an international public, quickly becoming the prototype for what would become known as a “pogrom,” and providing the impetus for efforts as varied as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the formation of the NAACP. Using new evidence culled from Russia, Israel, and Europe, Zipperstein brings historical insight and clarity to a much-misunderstood event.

Steven J. Zipperstein is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. He is the author and editor of ten books, including Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing and Philip Roth: Stung by Life.

Download the book and come with questions!: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1shINqJQzuDxV322WQMwal4FWcJiU-Y8B/view?usp=sharing