Benyomen Moss: An Unchosen People

This week on The Yiddish Voice / דאָס ייִדישע קול, we featured an in-depth conversation with historian Benyomen Moss (Kenneth B. Moss), the Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Jewish History at the University of Chicago. He spoke with Sholem Beinfeld, professor emeritus at Washington University, St. Louis, about his book An Unchosen People: Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland (Harvard University Press, 2021). We reached Moss in Chicago via Zoom on Jan. 19, 2025.

What future did Poland's Jews imagine for themselves in the years between the world wars? As antisemitism intensified and liberalism faltered, some Polish Jews sought new ways to understand their community’s place in an increasingly hostile world. Moss explores how these Jewish thinkers grappled with diasporic vulnerability, the forces of nationalism, Zionism’s promises, and the difficult political choices ahead.

Moss, an acclaimed historian of modern Jewish thought, is also the author of Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2009) and co-editor of From Europe’s East to the Middle East (2023). His work has been recognized with prestigious fellowships and awards, including the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

Related links:

• Publisher page for Unchosen People: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674245105

• Review of Unchosen People in Forverts (March, 2022), in Yiddish, by Mikhail Krutikov: https://forward.com/yiddish/483574/did-prewar-jewish-socialists-believe-that-jews-had-a-future-in-poland/

• Kenneth Moss page at U. of Chicago: https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/Kenneth-Moss

• Music for Tu Bishvat

  • Victor Berezinsky: Tu Bishvat
  • Henry Carrey: Tu Beshvat (Music and Lyrics by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman)

• Intro instrumental music: DEM HELFANDS TANTS, an instrumental track from the CD Jeff Warschauer: The Singing Waltz

Air date: February 12, 2025