Gershon D. Hundert

Gershon HundertProfessor

Leanor Segal Professor of Jewish Studies

Area of Interest:

Jews in Poland (1000 - 2000)

Education:

B.A.(Columbia University), M.A.(Ohio State University), Ph.D.(Columbia University) 

Publications:

Books:

Gershon David Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity, University of California Press, 2004 (Paperback, 2006) 286 + xx pp. In Lithuanian: Žydų Bendruomenė Lenkijos Ir Lietuvos Teritorijoje XVIII Amžiuje, Vilnius, Eugrimas Publishing House, 2006, 304pp. In Polish: Żydzi w Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów w XVIII wieku, Warsaw, Cykłady Press, 2007, 352 pp. In Hebrew: Ge’ulah ketanah ume`at kavod: Hahevrah hayehudit bePolin-Lita bame’ah hashemoneh-esreh. Jerusalem, Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 2008, 302 pp.

Gershon David Hundert, The Jews in a Polish Private Town: The Case of Opatow in the Eighteenth Century. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Gershon David Hundert, Gershon Bacon, The Jews in Poland and Russia: Bibliographical Essays. Indiana University Press, 1984.

Books Edited:

Gershon David Hundert, Jonatan Meir, Dimitry Shumsky (eds.), Am ve`olam: Shai leYisrael Bartal [Festschrift for Professor Israel Bartal], Jerusalem: Merkaz Shazar, 2019.

Gershon David Hundert, Editor in Chief, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, 2 vols., New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2008. www.yivoencyclopedia.org launched 2010

Gershon David Hundert (ed.), Jews in Early Modern Poland. [Polin, Volume 10] Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Vallentine Mitchell, 1997.

Gershon David Hundert, Antony Polonsky, Israel Bartal, Magdalena Opalski, Jerzy Tomaszewski (eds.), Jews, Poles, Socialists: The Failure of an Ideal [Polin, Volume 9]. Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Vallentine Mitchell, 1996.

Gershon David Hundert (ed.), Essential Papers on Hasidism: Origins to Present. New York University Press, 1991.

Gershon David Hundert, Ronald S. Aigen (eds.), Community and the Individual Jew: Essays in Honor of Lavy M. Becker. Montreal, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Press, 1986.

Articles (Since 1998):

A Spiritual Portrait of R. Abraham Alexander ha-Kohen of Kalisk. From Tiberias with Love: A Collection of Tiberean Hasidism. Volume 2: “R. Abraham ha-Kohen of Kalisk,” ed. Aubrey Glazer and Nehemiah Polen. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020, 3-66.

The Frames of Reference of an Eighteenth-Century Jewish Galician Merchant (Based on the Writings of Dov Ber Birkenthal). The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: History, Memory, Legacy, ed. Andrzej Chwalba and Krzysztof Zamorski. London: Routledge, 2020, 275-291.

On the Study of Communal Record Books as Reflected in the Pages of the Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research. A Commitment to Scholarship: The American Academy for Jewish Research, 1920-2020, ed. David Sorkin. American Academy for Jewish Research, 2020, 192-204.

The Transition from Commonwealth to Empire: The Case of Galicia. Making History Jewish: The Dialectics of Jewish History in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Studies in Honor of Professor Israel Bartal. Edited by Pawel Maciejko and Scott Ury. Brill, 2020, 21-29.

Leibush the Lawless and His Border Tavern. Connecting Histories: Jews and Their Others in Early Modern Europe, ed. Francesca Bregoli and David Ruderman. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, 171-186, 279-284.

Haḥush haḥazuti shel soḥer yayin yehudi ben hame'ah hashemoneh esreh migalitsiyah [The Visual World of a Jewish Galician Wine Merchant of the Eighteenth Century]. Temunat avar: Shai leYeraḥmiel Kohen [Picturing the Past: Essays in Honor of Richard I. Cohen], ed. Ezra Mendelsohn, Eli Lederhendler. Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 2017, 273-287.

Language Acquisition as a Criterion of Modernization among East Central European Jews. Reappraisals and New Studies of the Modern Jewish Experience, ed. Brian Smolett and Christian Wiese., Leiden, New York: Brill, 2014, pp. 13-28.

Poland until the Late 18th Century. Oxford Bibliographies Online: Jewish Studies, ed. David Biale. New York: Oxford University Press, September 4, 2012 (pp. 45).

Mining an Unusual Ego Text (or Two). Early Modern Workshop: Jewish History Resources. Volume 8: Egodocuments: Revelation of the Self in the Early Modern Period. 2011

Drohobycz: City of Mystics and Artists. Bruno Schulz: New Readings, New Meanings, edited by Stanisław Latek. Montréal and Cracow: Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada/Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2009 [published 2010], 21-27.

The Introduction to Divre Binah by Dov Ber of Bolechów: An Unexamined Source for the History of Jews in the Lwów Region in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century. AJS Review 33:2 (2009), 225-269.

Re(de)fining Modernity in Jewish History. Rethinking European Jewish History, edited by Jeremy Cohen & Moshe Rosman, London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008, 133-145.

Die Wucht des Wissens: Die YIVO-Enzyklopädie der osteuropäischen Juden. Osteuropa 58, no. 8-10 (2008), 83-95. English version: “The Impact of Knowledge: The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe,” Osteuropa: Impulses for Europe, Tradition and Modernity in East European Jewry, ed. Manfred Sapper, Volker Weichsel, Anna Lipphardt, (Berlin, 2008), 75-87.

Identity Formation in the Early Modern Polish Commonwealth. Citizenship and Identity in a Multinational Commonwealth: Poland-Lithuania in Context, 1550-1772, ed. Karin Friedrich, Barbara Pendzich. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2009, 131-147.

Bandits in Bolechów: Eighteenth-Century Jewish Memoirs in Context. Jewish History 22 (December, 2008), 373–385.

The Importance of Demography and Patterns of Settlement for an Understanding of the Jewish Experience in East-Central Europe. The Shtetl: New Evaluations, ed. Steven T. Katz. New York: NYU Press, 2007, 29-38.

Hakehillah bePolin bame'ah ha18: Aspektim shonim. Kehal Yisra'el: Hashilton ha`atsmi hayehudi ledorotav. Volume 3: Ha`et hahadashah, edited by Yisrael Bartal. Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2004, 43-52.

Jewish Popular Spirituality in the Eighteenth Century. Polin 15 (2002), 93-103. Appeared first in a Polish version: W poszukiwaniu duchowości ludowej w XVIII wieku. Duchowość Żydowska w Polsce, ed. Michał Galas. Cracow: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, 2000, 69-80.

New Perspectives on the Beginnings of Hasidism. Hunter College Jewish Social Studies Program: Occasional Papers in Jewish History and Thought, No. 17. New York, 2002 (pp. 14).

The Love of Learning among Polish Jews. Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period, ed. Lawrence Fine. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001, 215-226.

Hahistoriografiyah shel Krakuv hayehudit, Kroke-Kazimierz-Cracow: Mehkarim betoledot yehudei Krakuv, ed. Elchanan Reiner. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2001, 15-27.

The Library of the Study Hall in Volozhin 1762: Some notes on the basis of a newly discovered manuscript. Jewish History 14, no. 2 (2000), 225-244.

A Reconsideration of Jewish Modernity. Schöpferische Momente des europäischen Judentums in der frühen Neuzeit, ed. Michael Graetz. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 2000, 321-332.

Jewish Life in Eastern Europe. Carved Memories: Heritage in Stone from the Russian Jewish Pale, David Goberman, Robert Pinsky, Gershon Hundert. New York: Rizzoli, 2000, 27-43.

Eighteenth-Century Polish Jewry: Demographic and Genealogical Problems. Avotaynu: the International Review of Jewish Genealogy, vol. 15, no. 4 (1999), 9-14.

Some Thoughts on Beginning a Study of Jews in Early Modern Poland. The Jews in Poland, Volume 2. Edited by Slawomir Kapralski. Cracow: Judaica Foundation, 1999, 101-110.

The Library of the Study Hall in Volozhin. The Gaon of Vilnius and the Annals of Jewish Culture, ed. Israel Lempertas. Vilnius, Vilnius University Publishing House, 1998, 247-256.

On the Problem of Agency in 18th-Century Jewish Society. Scripta Hierosolymitana (Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) 38 (1998), 82-89.

Bibliography of Polish Jewish Studies 1995. Polin 11 (1998), 391-412.

Awards, Grants, Prizes (Since 1998):

2014-  President, American Academy for Jewish Research

2014-2017 Grant (with Israel Bartal and Shlomo Berger): £100,000 from the Rothschild Foundation (Europe). For the project: Recovering the Records of European Jewish Autonomy”

2013-2015  Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ($64,198) “Recovering the Records of European Jewish Autonomy  1500-1800”

2012-2015 Insight Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ($80,332) “Experiencing Change: A Galician Jewish Wine Merchant in  the Eighteenth-Century”

2011 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of the Arts and Humanities

2009 For Gershon Hundert, editor in chief, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, 2 vols., Yale University Press, 2008:
- Association of Jewish Libraries Judaica Reference Award for 2008
- Finalist/Honorable Mention, Association of American Publishers 2008 PROSE Award
- Honorable mention, 2008 Dartmouth Medal, American Library Association

2007-08 Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

2006 I. J. Segal Prize for the best non-fiction book on a Jewish theme by a Canadian, for Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity, University of California Press, 2004

2006 Appointed a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research

2005 Oscar Halecki Polish and East Central European History Award, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America (for Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity, University of California Press, 2004)

2005 Gerard Weinstock Visiting Professor, Harvard University

2004-2006 Research Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

June, 2003 Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa), Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Philadelphia, PA

Spring, 1998 Professor Bernard Choseed Memorial Fellow, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York City

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