Trapped in Time – Early Modern Court Jew, Early Maskil or Outsider? Yehuda Leyb Nevakhovich and his Historiographical Treatise
Trapped in Time – Early Modern Court Jew, Early Maskil or Outsider? Yehuda Leyb Nevakhovich and his Historiographical Treatise

Summary/Abstract: Yehuda Leyb Nevakhovich (1776-1831) seems to be almost forgotten in current research on Jewishliterature and culture in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, among his contemporaries, he enjoyed a remarkable successin the realm of cultural production, and to some extent in the realm of imperial Russian society. Entangledbetween Hebrew, Russian, and European literatures, the scope of Nevakovich’s writing encompasses occasionalpoetry, emancipation treatises, and historical dramas. His understanding of literature was wide, interlacing thefields of literature, history and historiography. In his historiographical treatise “Remarks on a Review” (1806),the review being written by a German historian, Nevakhovich reflects on the state of Russian historiography anddiscusses the position of historiography and its meaning for the formation of a national discourse. He presentsa polemic in favour of Russian scholarship that in its verve and gesture does not rank behind his emancipationtreatise “Lamentation of the Daughter of Yehuda” (1803). With this treatise, he leaves the circle of Jewish intellectualsworking in Hebrew. He now sees his place of speech primarily as one that is anchored in Russianimperial culture and attempts to install himself at this European interface as mediator. In his cosmopolitan mindset Nevakhovich was not acknowledged by later generations of Jewish thinkers and did not leave notable tracesin the Jewish literature being created since the middle of the 19th century in Eastern Europe.

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