Use these questions to help you through the readings. Write a one-to-two page (2 pages double-spaced tops) essay based on some aspects of these readings, and be prepared to discuss the readings and your reactions to them in class. Be sure to include comments on all the readings in your essay.
Shmuel Ettinger, "Jewish Participation in the Settlement of Ukraine"
What was the Jewish role the settlement of Ukraine? Were the Jews getting involved in a dangerous enterprise, and if so, how and why?
What attracted or drove Jews to Ukraine?
What was the Jewish relationship over time to the magnates? burghers? Cossacks?
Jaroslav Pelenski, "The Cossack insurrections in Jewish-Ukrainian Relations"
According to Pelenski, is it easy to untangle the story of the Cossacks' war of independence and their attacks on the Jews by reading modern Jewish historiography? 17th century Jewish chronicles?
Are the figures for the Jewish victims of the massacres straight forward? Why would Jewish sources exaggerate these numbers? How does Pelenski arrive at his estimates? What do you think of his method?
What was the impact of the Holocaust on thinking about the Khmelnytsky massacres and Haidamaks? Is there a difference between the Holocaust and these much earlier events, and if so, what is it?
What role can this 17th century history play in contemporary politics?
Is Pelenski arguing that the Jews were singled out by the Cossacks?
**consult map 52 to get a sense of the chronological and geographic extent of the false messiah phenomenon
Locate Smyrna on map 52, and trace Shabbetai Zevi's approximate itinerary on map 46
"A Christian Eye-Witness Account of Shabbetai Zevi", From Jacob Frank's "Words of the Master"
How did the rabbis ("Hakams"), Zevi, and Zevi's followers get along in Smyrna? in Constantinople?
From this account, what was Sh. Zevi's impact on the Jewish world once he began his collaboration with Nathan of Gaza?
Did the Sultan, ("Grand Signior") take Zevi seriously?
How did Zevi's Jewish followers deal with his conversion to Islam?
Are there similarities between Shabbetai Zevi and Jacob Frank? Differences?
Does Frank remind you of any present-day personages?