Help save Slavic studies in Israel!

Yuri Leving leving at GWU.EDU
Mon Jan 16 18:11:19 UTC 2006 

Very grieving news from the Israeli Slavic scholar… It is especially
shameful regarding the fact that there are over one million Russian
native speakers in Israel (every fifth in this country speaks Russian as
their native!) and up to this date the Hebrew University was the only
university with the Russian department in the Middle East.

As alumni of the Hebrew University, I believe that this will be a
critical strategic mistake and a hurtful blow to Israeli academia. The
department was initiated by non other than Sir Isaiah Berlin of the
Oxford University in the late 1960s, and since then it gathered the
leading Slavic scholars. Dr. Helena Tolstoy modestly passes over in
silence that she is the granddaughter of Alexei Tolstoy and the writer
Tatiana Tolstoy’s sister, a brilliant scholar and prosaic herself;
Professor Roman Timenchik is the world-famous authority on the Russian
Silver Age; Dr. Michael Weisskopf is the author of numerous books among
them on Gogol and Stalin, and there are many others.

The political instability in this region and constant budget cuts put
the Slavic studies to the bottom of the list of priorities. We need to
show our solidarity with Israeli scholars as it can happen to any Slavic
department – we are strong when we are together.

I am going to send a few lines in support of Tolstoy’s outcry to
Professors Magidor [hupres at cc.huji.ac.il] and John Gager
[gager at Princeton.EDU].

Yuri Leving 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yuri Leving, Ph.D. 
Assistant Professor of Russian
Department of Romance, German and Slavic Languages & Literatures 
Phillips Hall 509
801 22nd St., NW
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052


----- Original Message -----
From: Helena Tolstoy <tolstoy at MSCC.HUJI.AC.IL>
Date: Monday, January 16, 2006 12:01 pm
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Help save Slavic studies in Israel!
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU

> Save Slavic Studies in Israel!
> 
> Dear Colleagues and Friends! 
> 
> I am Helen Tolstoy, a literary scholar teaching Russian literature 
> at the
> Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As many others in Israel, I am deeply
> concerned about the fate of the University’s Slavic scholars. 
> 
> There are about 1.200.000 Israelis who came from the former Soviet 
> Union,most of them in the 1990s. Their mother tongue is Russian. 
> They constitute
> about one-fifth of the population of Israel. As a group they are 
> highlyeducated (60% with academic degrees) and envision higher 
> education for their
> children. 
> 
> There are about 60 chairs of Russian studies in the US and 24 in 
> Italy where
> there are no Russian-speaking population whereas in Israel with 
> over one
> million Russian native speakers there is but one small department 
> of Russian
> studies at the Hebrew University founded in the 1970s by a group of
> brilliant émigré Jewish-Russian scholars.  For twenty years it was 
> deniedany opportunity of growth. And, according to some 
> pronouncements on the part
> of the authorities, now it is doomed. 
> 
> For 30 years it has been presenting Russian classic literature to the
> Israeli students who have no command of Russian. Secondly, it has been
> instructing bilingual new repatriant students in Russian literature 
> andculture as part of their B.A., M.A., or post-graduate programs, 
> thusperforming an important social role of encouraging second- 
> generationrepatriant social mobility and also creating new Israeli 
> elite who would
> have roots in two cultures.
> 
> Our faculty is composed of several highly active first-rate 
> scholars who
> enjoy international fame. They are invited to teach at American and 
> Europeanuniversities and take part in international projects.  
> Among them are
> Professors Roman Timenchik, Moshe Taube, Michael Weisskopf, 
> Vladimir Hazan,
> Helen Tolstoy. 
> 
> In recent years our Russian department established itself as an 
> importantworld center of Russian studies. Here are the facts: the 
> journal, “Slavica
> Hierosolymitana” (1978-1988), became one of the best academic 
> periodicals in
> the world which united Israeli, major international Slavists, and, in
> defiance of the still working prohibitions, prominent Soviet 
> scholars.  The
> journal demonstrated a taste for innovation and great intellectual 
> daring.Its contributors are now the cream of international Slavic 
> studies.“Slavica” was followed by a series of collections of 
> articles “Jews and
> Slavs” (Vol. 16 is to appear soon). A number of our scholars 
> launched an
> international Russian-language journal “Solnechnoe Spletenie” (1998-
> 2004,www.plexus.org.il) which is a unique combination of a highbrow 
> academicpublication and an avant-garde literary project.
> 
> The international congresses organized by the department have 
> establishedHebrew University among the leaders of European Slavic 
> studies: April 2001.
> “Pilgrimage in Slavic Cultures” – 62 participants from 16 countries;
> December 2002. “Anti-Semitism and Filo-Semitism in Russian Culture” 
> – 79
> participants from 20 countries; May 2003. “Russian Symbolism” – 38 
> scholarsfrom 6 countries; December 2004. “The Russian Word in the 
> Land of Israel” –
> 40 scholars from 12 countries; April 2005. “Messianism in Slavic 
> and Jewish
> Cultures” – 80 scholars from 12 countries. 
> 
> Israel is a unique place where Eastern European expertise meets 
> Westernthinking. Israeli archives contain unique documents 
> pertaining to the
> cultural history of cosmopolitan Russian Jews, an extremely mobile 
> group,acting in Russia, Europe, Israel and the US.
> 
> To sum up: it would be a humanly devastating, socially insulting, and
> completely senseless blow, to teachers, students and to world 
> research in
> humanities, if the University destroys its Russian studies unit. 
> 
> I am turning to international Slavists for a clarification of the 
> status and
> rating of our scholars worldwide. Please help us! 
> 
> All is needed is to send an e-mail with some words of support to our
> President, to Chairman of the External Commission, with CC to me so 
> I could
> monitor the volume of your responses: 
> 
> To: Professor Menachem Magidor
> President, Hebrew University
> [hupres at cc.huji.ac.il]
> 
> To: Professor John Gager,
> Chairman of the External Commission for reform of HU
> [gager at Princeton.EDU]
> 
> With hopes of support,
> 
> Dr. Helen Tolstoy, 
> Lecturer in Russian literature, 
> Russian Studies, Hebrew University.  
> Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel.  
> Tel. 972-2-6232852 
> e-mail address: tolstoy at mscc.huji.ac.il
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of John Hope
> Sent: 13 January 2006 06:40
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: [SEELANGS] 
> 
> 
> Greetings, SEELANGTSY!
> 
> I'm looking to fill a couple of empty slots for a
> panel I'm putting together on Russian Orientalism,
> ideally with a focus on incidences of the adoption
> (playful, ironic, or otherwise) of an Eastern
> identity.  We're getting down to the wire, so if
> anyone is willing to present they should let me know
> ASAP and, ideally, forward me their CV.  Please reply
> off list.
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> John P. Hope
> University of Notre Dame
> 
> __________________________________________________
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