For Whom Do I Toil?: Judah Leib Gordon and the Crisis of Russian Jewry by Michael Stanislawski (Assistant Professor of History on the Miller Endowment, Assistant Professor of History on the Miller Endowment, Columbia University)
This is the first full-length biography, in any language, of Judah Leib Gordon, one of the pivotal intellectual and cultural figures in Russian Jewry, and the most important Hebrew poet of the nineteenth century. Setting Gordon's life and work amidst the political, cultural, and religious upheavals of his society, Stanislawski attempts to counter traditional stereotypical readings of Eastern European Jewish history. Judah Leib Gordon's personal story is a fascinating drama that both symbolizes and summarizes the cultural and political challenges facing Russian Jewry at a crucial time in history, challenges that remain pertinent and controversial today.