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Karaite Separatism in Nineteenth
Century Russia
Joseph Solomon Lutski's 'Epistle of Israel's Deliverance'

Phillip E. Miller		 This study contains two interrelated parts. In Part One, Miller surveys the history of the Russian Karaites, examines theories about their origins, and discusses their fate from the late 18th century until the present. Focusing on the events which led to the creation of the Karaite Religious Consistory in 1837, Miller shows how the Karaites, motivated by economic and political concerns, successfully dissociated themselves from the Rabbinate Russian Jews. This separatism "resulted in a schism within Judaism unprecedented since the rise of Christianity."
The central character in Miller's study is Simhah Babovich who in 1827 traveled to St. Petersburg on behalf of the Karaite community to petition the tsar. Accompanying him on the journey was Joseph Solomon ben Moses Lutski, whose chronicle of the mission, the Iggeret teshu'at Yisrael is reprinted here in Part Two as an annotated Hebrew text with English translation.		 Part One: Introduction
1. The Beginnings of Separatism
2. Solomon Babovich and the 1795 Mission to St. Petersburg / The Karaite Calendar Controversy
3. Simhah Babovich and the Crisis of 1827
4. Babovich the "Deliverer"
5. The Iggeret teshu'at Yisrael and Joseph Solomon Lutski
6. Epilogue: From Separate Identity to Assimilation

Part Two: The Epistle of Israel's Deliverance
 
Published by the Hebrew Union College Press

$49.95s cloth / ISBN 0-87820-415-6

252 pages
Monograph no. 16

1993