Pogrom

So shattering were the aftereffects of Kishinev, the rampage

that broke out in late-Tsarist Russia in April 1903,

that one historian remarked that it was “nothing less

than a prototype for the Holocaust itself.” In three days of violence,

49 Jews were killed and 600 raped or wounded, while

more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were ransacked

and destroyed. Recounted in lurid detail by newspapers

throughout the Western world, and covered sensationally

by America’s Hearst press, the pre-Easter attacks seized the

imagination of an international public, quickly becoming the

prototype for what would become known as a “pogrom,” and

providing the impetus for efforts as varied as The Protocols of

the Elders of Zion and the NAACP. Using new evidence culled

from Russia, Israel, and Europe, distinguished historian Steven

J. Zipperstein’s wide-ranging book brings historical insight and

clarity to a much-misunderstood event that would do so much

to transform twentieth-century Jewish life and beyond.