The Great War against Eastern European Jewry, 1914-1920

The book is focused on the conditions of Russian Jews during the First World WAr. The research is entirely based on a solid documentary study, consisting of the documents of the Joint Distribution Committee and references to many historiographic works. Rather than dealing with the military aspects of war, the book focuses on the political consequences, and in particular on the economic and social changes that the conflict generated. The Jewish communities experienced a personal tragedy within the general tragedy of war, as they were particularly “damaged”, not only by violence and persecutions—suffering from the pogroms of Cossacks and local populations—but also by the evacuations and expulsions ordered by the military.

Il libro analizza le condizioni degli ebrei russi durante la prima guerra mondiale e il periodo delle rivoluzioni in Russia grazie a una solida base documentaria fornita dagli archivi del Joint Distribution Committee. Oltre all'opera di assistenza, comunque, si cerca di approfondire le problematiche connesse alla guerra, come la violenza e le normi anti-ebraiche, la questione dei rifugiati e i pogrom successivi alla conclusione del conflitto.