Defying the Binary: Relationships Between Jews and Non-Jews

Abstract

R. Schainker's thorough research demonstrates, Ivan Bondarev was one of almost one hundred thousand converts from Judaism to Christianity in Imperial Russia during the nineteenth century. He abandoned his faith in 1867 while serving as a soldier in the Russian Army. After being discharged from the military, he settled in the Bialystok region. Due to a medical impairment, he had difficulty eking out a living and establishing permanent residency. He drifted from one job to another and constantly relocated. His social life was similarly restless and volatile. Bondarev socialized with Jews and non-Jews, and although-as a Christian-he never went to a synagogue, he kept tzizit and a Jewish prayer book in his pocket. 1 There seemed to be no religious or ethnic boundaries that Bondarev did not cross.Bondarev lacked distinguishing features that would have allowed others to categorize him as unequivocally Jewish or non-Jewish. One could also say that he shared so many traits with people comprising his immediate social environment that differences between them receded beyond recognition. Bondarev defied the numerous laws, decrees, and ordinances issued by religious and state authorities to keep Jews and non-Jews separate and distinguishable. He was, in other words, similar to all of them. This similarity proved to be highly troublesome to officials, because it called into question normative rules. It also caused confusion among ordinary people, because it posed a radical challenge to how they conceived of their social environment. People usually comprehend their surroundings through binary categorizations. 2 According to some scholars, such as the late Harvard evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, the disposition toward bifurcating classifications "may lie deep within the architecture of the human mind." 3 Dichotomous reasoning thus seems to be an anthropological constant that is difficult, if not impossible, to discard. 4 In keeping with this tendency, the absence of classificatory traits allowing for binary categorizations (often) confounds people's sense of order.Thinking in dichotomous terms resonates in the works of historians, particularly in the case of historiographical work on the Jewish past, as well. We

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“…1 If one is of the opinion that non-Jews are not the proper topic of consideration of Jewish communal institutions, the fact that Jews most often, historically, lived as neighbors to non-Jews should be noted. 2 Furthermore, the relationships between Jews and non-Jews have been a topic of much discussion throughout the development of Jewish religious, legal, and ethical literature. 3 This paper takes the assumption that Jewish people cannot avoid some involvement with their non-Jewish neighbors, and, whether for better or for worse, that involvement should be considered normatively.…”