The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature argues that the institution of the yeshiva and its ideals of Jewish textual study played a seminal role in the resurgence of Hebrew literature in modern times. Departing from the conventional interpretation of the origins of Hebrew literature in secular culture, Marina Zilbergerts points to the practices and metaphysics of Talmud study as its essential animating forces. Focusing on the early works and personal histories of founding figures of Hebrew literature, from Moshe Leib Lilienblum to Chaim Nachman Bialik, The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature reveals the lasting engagement of modern Jewish letters with the hallowed tradition of rabbinic learning.

Marina Zilbergerts' profile page

Marina Zilbergerts is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Literature and Thought at the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This is her first book.

Marina Zilbergerts's The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature undertakes an ambitious task: to chart anew the emergence of modern He- brew literature in Russia during the second half of the nineteenth century. Hebrew literature was informed, the author suggests, by three main forces: the Jewish Haskalah; Russian intellectual trends of the time; and elite rabbinic culture.

Zilbergerts's readings of modern Hebrew pioneers like Lilienblum and Bialik are as elegant as some of the modern Hebrew texts she analyzes. Her writing is clear and concise, and the book is never bogged down by polemics with secondary literature or unnecessary references to primary sources.

Jewish Review of Books