Cornell University Professor of History Olga Litvak delivered a riveting lecture on what is widely considered to be the first Jewish autobiography: Moshe Leib Lilienblum’s seminal work of Jewish narrative writing, The Errors of Youth (1876). Countering this general consensus, Dr. Litvak explained why she considers the text an antibiography – a book mimicking an autobiography in order to parody the genre and/or ideas of the protagonist. Through an analysis of the book’s Hebrew and German translations, the author’s life and beliefs, and a contrasting of Jewish and Western notions of the individual and collective, Dr. Litvak claimed that The Errors of Youth was a book written to critique the demands of Western liberal states on Jews – namely that they dissolve their collective Jewish belonging, identity, and governance in order to become subjective, individual citizens of a secular state. By parodying the genre of autobiography, Dr. Litvak explained that Lilienblum was following the Rabbinic tradition of distrusting individual testimony, thereby rejecting liberal notions of the individual over a Jewish understanding of the collective. 

To find out more about Dr. Litvak and this lecture, click here. Interested in upcoming Jewish Studies events? Click here.