Glagolev Lazerson (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: g. First edition. Lg 8vo. Two titles bound together in quarter cloth over brown decorative paper-covered boards. No. 1: Glagolev, A.A. Drevneevreiskaia Blagotvoritel'nost' [Ancient Hebrew Philanthropy]. Kiev: I.I. Gorbunov, 1903. 83pp. White wrappers with black titling. Academic speech, originally printed in the journal "Trudy Kievskoi Dukhovnoi Academii [The Works of the Kiev Divinity Academy]," No. 1, 1903. Scholarly account of philanthropy among the Hebrews of the Biblical period, replete with citations and references to the Old Testament (Torah, Prophets, Writings), Jewish halakhic texts (Mishna, Talmud), as well as medieval commentaries, especially Maimonides. The text is written by Alexander Alexandrovich Glagolev, important Russian Orthodox church leader in Kiev at the beginning of the 20th century. A talented Biblical scholar, Glagolev continually argued against anti-Semitic attacks on the credibility of the Old Testament, and in this early work, while a Docent at the Kiev Divinity Academy, Glagolev expounds on and defends the notion of charity in Jewish texts. While Glagolev on numerous occasions acted against the pogroms in Kiev, and served as a scholarly witness denouncing the blood libel allegations of the infamous Beilis case, Glagolev was nevertheless a devout Christian, and in this treatise argues that the Christian notion of charity is superior to the Jewish one. He concludes his treatise in the following fashion: "The cause of the failed state of post-Biblical Jewish philanthropy [Glagolev here cites articles in an 1898 issue of the Voskhod magazine] stems from the evil root of the two-faced spiritual direction of Jewry. Damnation looming over the unfortunate Jewish people lies in that in their lives and in their faiths they combine a deep burning desire for godliness with a wild greed for material posessions. Presently, the Jewish people are swayed mostly by this second desire." No. 2: M. Y. Lazerson. K Mezhdunarodnoi Postanovke Evreiiskago Voprosa [Towards an International Exposition of the Jewish Question]. St. Petersburg: St. Peterburg University Press, 1917. 94pp. Paper wrappers with black titling on front. A scholarly treatment of 'the Jewish question," with ample citations, references, and appended documents, written by Maksim (Matisyahu) Yakovlevich Lazerson, privat-Docent of St. Petersburg University. Lazerson was a lawyer, journalist, and sociologist, particularly concerned with human rights in Russia. In the preface to his treatise, dedicated to his brother Moshe, Lazerson states that "because the present work was completed prior to the Russian revolution of 1917. presented in the publications of the Jewish Historical-Ethnographical Society, in the months of January and February of 1917," the work is no longer accurate, because the new edicts have released the Jewish people from their pariah status and granted them a citizenship with equal rights. Also due to the growing influence of workers throughout Europe, a general international understanding of peoplehood is changing, making it easier for the Jewish people to be accepted as a community with equal rights throughout the various nations of the world. Lazerson's account is a sociological one, where he attempts to make sense of the peculiar nature of the Jewish people. ".The Jewish people are not some sort of mystical truth, but their peculiar existence does mean that the usual methods of the study of the Jewish question must be shifted away from physical, bodily definitions." Instead, Lazerson wants to develop new methods, which will account for the Jewish people's sense of "a national consciousness, a national conscience, and a self-determination." Original wrappers and interiors of both titles yellowed, but clean. Rebound boards heavily bumped, scuffed, and chipped, 6" along bottom corner of front board detatched, but present. Spine signatures intact. 2nd volume browned and brittle. Overall, boards in poor, but original wrappers and interior in very good condition.