RE: [xmca] Kotik-Friedgut & Friedgut (2008). A man of his country andhis time -- Jewish influences on LSV's worldview

I read this article by Bella. What a wonderful and long time coming article. I have to admit I have always been puzzled as to why there was so little discussion of Vygotsky's Jewish heritage while discussing his work He reminds me so much of the stories I heard of my grandfather and great uncle and their cohort. They all become the barroom and coffee house intellectuals, talking philosophy with their glasses of tea and cubes of sugar between their teeth. Some came with more education than others. My grandfather came from the shtettle and only spoke Yiddish. My grandmother was more followed the middle European Jewish tradition, much like Vygotsky's family, but she wrote poetry in Yiddish because she believed it was a more expressive language. They all seemed to be secular humanists in their twenties. My grandfather and great uncle were socialists and belong to the Bund (though legend has it my grandfather more to meet emancipated women). A number of their lansmen became Bolsheviks, although they drifted away soon after Trotsky was chased from the party. There were no actual topics, no psychology, no philosophy - they just talked, Talmudic arguments. All but a few - such as Singer (who was actually from the pale I believe) would have to wait a generation for the public intellectuals to emerge. They would have to gain their intellectual satisfaction at the book Clubs at the Henry Street Settlement, or in the basement on a synagogue, or on the benches at the park.
 
I remember showing my mother the forward in Jim Wertch's book that described Vygotsky's life. My mother, without ever hearing his name before, was able to describe Vygotsky and many of the things he thought about to an amazing extent. He was of a kind. And really, that group on Ocean Parkway, down on the Lower East Side, the considered themselves not Russians, but members of the diaspora, even when some of them stopped believing in God. Almost all those men drifted to Roosevelt in the thirties, and then while some completely abandoned the concept of God after WWII it became the dominant force in the lives of others.
 
I often wonder what would have happened to Vygotsky if his family had decided to come to the United States after he was kept from being a teacher. Would he have found himself a pickler on the Lower East Side, expounding his ideas on Word and Thought to other men in cloth cups and caps over tea at the local sidewalk stand.
 
Anyway, thanks so much to Bella and her co-author for writing this.
 
Michael

________________________________

From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu on behalf of Shirley Franklin
Sent: Sat 6/21/2008 3:36 PM
To: Activity eXtended Mind Culture; bella kotik
Subject: Re: [xmca] Kotik-Friedgut & Friedgut (2008). A man of his country andhis time -- Jewish influences on LSV's worldview

Bella,

How brilliant that you have written this.

I keep finding myself in situations where I am talking about LSV as
an important revolutionary thinker and practitioner.

But as a Jew, but a a very Anglo-non-orthodox one, I have been
fascinated by my recent work in Jewish schools and noticing how the
traditions practised there are rather similar to some of those about
which he writes. I think his interactive thinking ideas are very
much rooted in Jewish tradition of sharing thinking between two
people about the Torah. It is interesting that this was so important
to Freud, another thinker rooted in Judaism.

So I will read your paper, and enthuse again afterwards!

Thanks for it

Shirley

On 20 Jun 2008, at 21:05, bella kotik wrote:

> I sent out it this morning, but here it is once more.Bella
>
> On 6/20/08, David Preiss <davidpreiss@uc.cl> wrote:
>>
>> Would love to have a copy too!
>> david
>>
>> On Jun 20, 2008, at 6:05 AM, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
>>
>> If you or anyone else has a pdf version, could you please post it?
>>> Thanks,Peter
>>>
>>> Peter Smagorinsky
>>> The University of Georgia
>>> 125 Aderhold Hall
>>> Athens, GA 30602
>>> smago@uga.edu/phone:706-542-4507
>>> http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/faculty/smagorinsky/index.html
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
>>> bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
>>> Behalf Of Anton Yasnitsky
>>> Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 1:08 AM
>>> To: mcole@weber.ucsd.edu; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>> Cc: 'Brenda Macevicz'; 'Vladimir Zinchenko'; 'Eugene Subbotsky'
>>> Subject: [xmca] Kotik-Friedgut & Friedgut (2008). A man of his
>>> country and
>>> his time -- Jewish influences on LSV's worldview
>>>
>>> Peter,
>>>
>>> haven't you seen an excellent most recent article -
>>>
>>> A MAN OF HIS COUNTRY AND HIS TIME:
>>> Jewish Influences on Lev Semionovich Vygotsky's
>>> World View by
>>> Bella Kotik-Friedgut, who by the way happens to be a member of
>>> xmca list
>>> and Theodore H. Friedgut -
>>>
>>> ?
>>>
>>> I guess you might find it interesting and, possibly--as some
>>> would put
>>> it--"personally meaningful" (whatever this means).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --- On Thu, 6/19/08, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>> n.b. My grandparents were from Vygotsky's home town of
>>>> Gomel and fled to the
>>>> US during the pogroms in 1913 and 1916, so I do have some
>>>> distant relation
>>>> to these forms of repression...
>>>>
>>>> Peter Smagorinsky
>>>> The University of Georgia
>>>> 125 Aderhold Hall
>>>> Athens, GA 30602
>>>> smago@uga.edu/phone:706-542-4507
>>>> http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/faculty/smagorinsky/index.html
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>> [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
>>>> Behalf Of Mike Cole
>>>> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:10 PM
>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>>> Cc: Brenda Macevicz; Vladimir Zinchenko; Eugene Subbotsky
>>>> Subject: Re: [xmca] Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin
>>>>
>>>> I think all should be interested in the chracterization of
>>>> contemporary
>>>> Russian develppmental
>>>> psychology. Very sobering and fits my observations The
>>>> division between
>>>> theory and
>>>> practice is Russia power's of reimplemeting the Regime
>>>> that was Vygotsky et
>>>> al's
>>>> life time experience in new clothing.
>>>>
>>>> It feels like a repitition, but where has the farce gone?
>>>>
>>>> mike
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 7:17 AM, Peter Smagorinsky
>>>> <smago@uga.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi, while searching for something else, I came across
>>>>>
>>>> an online version of
>>>>
>>>>> the Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.iaccp.org/bulletin/PDF/web02(1).pdf<http://
>>>> www.iaccp.org/bulletin
>>>> /PDF/web02%281%29.pdf>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I thought some of you might be interested either as
>>>>>
>>>> readers or
>>>>
>>>>> contributors.
>>>>> Peter
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
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>>
>> David Preiss, Ph.D.
>> Subdirector de Extensión y Comunicaciones
>> Escuela de Psicología
>> Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
>> Av Vicuña Mackenna - 4860
>> 7820436 Macul
>> Santiago, Chile
>>
>> Fono: 3544605
>> Fax: 3544844
>> e-mail: davidpreiss@uc.cl
>> web personal: http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>> web institucional: http://www.epuc.cl/profesores/dpreiss
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> xmca mailing list
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>
>
>
> --
> Sincerely yours Bella Kotik-Friedgut<LSVjewish
> factor.pdf>_______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
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