Kabbalist-Fakir or Telepathist-Rabbi? Introducing East European Jewish Occultism

• In Event: Magic, Dreams, and Occultism in East European Jewish Culture

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of modern occult practitioners in early-twentieth-century Eastern European Jewish society. Ashkenazi Jews had traditionally sought out the services of healers and magicians such as ba’ale shem, znakhers and opshprekherin, occupations with close parallels in neighboring Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian folk cultures, yet the wide-scale migration of Eastern European Jews to cities at the turn of the century and increased exposure to western European culture saw these traditional practitioners give way to a new cadre of consultants who styled themselves in the mode of modern occultism. These Jewish occult practitioners—men and women who offered services such as fortune-telling, personality analysis, and healing, together with performative aspects—differed from their traditional predecessors in two key respects, namely the adoption of modern scientific language and orientalist imagery. Jewish mediums, telepathists, and psycho-graphologists, not to mention Ashkenazi fakirs and maharajas, presented themselves as experts in both Kabbalah and contemporary occult sciences, blending traditional Jewish esotericism with the latest European fashions. By examining memoir accounts, as well as advertisements and contemporary reports from Yiddish, Polish, and German Jewish daily presses, this paper offers a preliminary view of early-twentieth-century Eastern European Jewish occult practitioners and the Jews who availed themselves of their services.

Author

• Sam Glauber-Zimra