Integracja Żydów w wielokulturowej Odessie – literacki obraz w powieści Żabotyńskiego Piatero [Pięcioro]

Abstract

Among many talents of Vladimir/Ze’ev Jabotinsky there was writing creative fiction of which the novel The Five, published in 1936, constitutes a prime example. Set in Odessa at the turn of the century, the novel narrates lives of the Milgrom family, fairly affluent, Russian speaking Jews. Five of the Milgrom children represent various ways in which Jewish integration fails to succeed, shown against the background of cosmopolitan and multicultural Odessa. The city is described with nostalgia by the narrator who is clearly Jabotinsky’s alter ego. Various nations live together in Odessa, but integration takes place at skin-level. Tragic fates of the Milgrom children further question the possibility of successful multicultural coexistence in the city, though this vision might have been a conscious ploy of the author, aimed at strengthening the Zionist message, which was Jabotinsky’s main political goal at the time of the writing and publishing the novel.