TESTING THE LIMITS. JUDEO-CHRISTIAN JOURNALISM OF CONVERTED JEWS AND ASSIMILATORS

The article covers some issues of Judeo-Christian relations as represented by the Russian-language journalism of converted Jews and assimilators. By studying the Conversion of a Jewish Legalist into Christianity Which Is Fascinating due to Its Typicality by Alexander Alexeev (Wulf Nakhlas) and ‘The Voice of Salvation’ Magazine Program (1884) by ‘Aizyk’ Kovner as well as his letters to Nikolay Leskov, the author shows how the journalists of both orientations test the established views of Jewishness and Christianity. Alexander Alexeev, a converted Jew, focuses his discourse about Jews on ancestry, while pushing religious affiliation to the periphery. Aizyk Kovner, an assimilator, wants to reform Judaism in such a way that in the eyes of Christians it appears to be part of the Christian continuum, but at the same time retains its traditional Jewish ethos. Both trends in journalism derive from the Jewish Question polemics and reply on expectations of the Russian audience. They are also a part of Jewish search for how to merge the old tradition with the fast-changing modern world. The marginal “tests of the pen” produced by 19th-century assimilators and converted Jews is yet another bridge between traditional Jewry and the secular Jewish-Russian culture and literature of the USSR era