Trudy Gold
The Jews and Their First Encounters with the Tsars Catherine and Alexander
Summary
The lecture explores the historical journey of Jews under the tsars, focusing on 1772–1917. Following the dissolution of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, most Jews fell under the Tsarist Empire until 1917’s revolutions, reshaping geopolitics. Catherine the Great confined Jews to the Pale of Settlement, reflecting Russian Orthodox Church anti-Judaism despite Enlightenment ideals. Grigory Potemkin’s policies offered Jews in southern territories economic opportunities and religious autonomy, revealing a nuanced state-community dynamic. This period reveals complex interplays of power, religion, and socio-economics for Jewish communities in Russia.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
The one that William said was particularly cruel.
The French Revolution certainly disrupted the class system in France. You see, that was also about modernity, the rise of a middle class. You don’t have a revolution unless you’ve got an articulate middle class.
Not really, because the Russian Revolution, the Russians won. It didn’t disrupt the class system in the Habsburg Empire, either. It’s the revolution that destroys it. It’s the Russian Revolution that completely sweeps away the class system.