New Books Network Rethinking Kishinev: How a Riot Changed 20th Century Jewish History
Apr 2, 2026
Steve Zipperstein, Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford, reconsiders the 1903 Kishinev pogrom and its global reverberations. He traces how location, press coverage, and dubious documents amplified its reach. The talk probes networks, relief campaigns, and the contested origins of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
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Media Networks Made Kishinev International News
- New media networks and publishers magnified Kishinev into an international story through relief campaigns and front‑page coverage.
- The Yiddish Forward and Hearst ran continuous coverage and fundraising that made Kishinev a Western public cause.
Question Myths By Tracing Local Contingencies
- Reevaluate widely accepted historical myths by probing local contingencies and overlooked actors.
- Zipperstein shows how chance location, local organizers, and mediators like Bernstein‑Kogan reshaped Kishinev's global legacy.
Bernstein‑Kogan's Overnight Relief Drive
- Yakov Bernstein‑Kogan personally collected enormous relief funds overnight, using his Zionist press contacts to smuggle news across the Romanian border.
- He raised roughly 1.5 million rubles in pledges and sent 1,500 rubles of telegrams to the Western press from Yassi.
