Crimea in the Eyes of East European Karaite Immigrants of the Nineteenth Century: Between Images and Reality

ABSTRACT In the 19th century, the Crimean Peninsula became a focus of attraction for educated elites of Polish Karaites, who lived in conditions of poverty and economic competition with Rabbanite Jews in their homeland. The image of Crimea in their eyes was that of a “land of milk and honey” and a prominent center of Torah knowledge. However, a collision with reality soon forced some of these “Ashkenazic” Karaite immigrants to change their perception. Influenced by the new political and cultural agenda of Russian ruling circles that attributed to the peninsula a special political, cultural, and symbolic dimension, they now presented Crimea as the cradle of the Russian Karaites. Contributing to this new perception was the Jewish Haskalah movement, which provided Karaite leaders with historical knowledge, as well as tools and methods, to support their ahistorical claims. These factors significantly contributed to transforming the Jewish Karaite community into a separate nation.