Steven J Zipperstein

The maskilic nationalists close to Ginzberg meanwhile were enjoying a shortlived prominence because of the publication of their long-awaited Der Yidisher Veker. The volume was ambitious and impressive: it drew on the most talented Yiddish writers of the period—Abraham Goldfaden, Sholem Aleichem, Eliakum Zunzer, and Abraham Ber Gottlober, along with lesser-known talents with a local reputation in Odessa and nearby Kherson.

Der Yidisher Veker and later, in 1890, Kaveret.

Lilienblum’s position on cultural nationalism was, however, equivocal, and though he never altogether dismissed the importance of a cultural transformation of Jewry, he insisted that the task take a backseat to the socioeconomic reconstruction of Jewish Palestine.