The present article studies the thematic ways in which Jewish childhood was represented in Russian Jewish art and visual media from the 1850s to the 1930s. During this period, Russian Jewry was undergoing important transformations. It saw the establishment of a traditional model of religious life, a subsequent process of modernization and acculturation, and finally the education of the “New Jew” as part of post-Revolutionary secular culture, as well as the seeding of extreme forms of radicalization that would develop in the Soviet era. Jewish art and visual media were always a documentary means of representing collective ideals, key among which was the value associated with Jewish children’s future. The images preserved in art, photography, and print show how diligent study for boys and young men was extolled in traditional communities; this resulted in the formation of an intellectual elite that served as a bulwark of religious and spiritual self-consciousness against outside cultural influences. Along with historical-statistical studies and memoirs, these images recreate a psycho-emotional and social background for the traditional model of children’s education. On the one hand, this model perpetuated the lifestyle and values established over the centuries, yet on the other, it sparked charges of anachronism and fanaticism, which intensified the antagonism of Russian society toward its Jewish minority. The same model proved to be extremely influential for the Jewish masses; it came by its iconic visual representation in various “Cheder” compositions and portraits of the “Talmudist Iluy.” Both types of works brought out the value of religious education. Later artistic depictions demonstrated that upon passing through the grinder of the Soviet atheist system, this model inspired the zeal that Jews had for secular education and the prospect of their children’s being granted equal opportunity, resulting in the loss of their ethno-cultural identity in the new Soviet reality.

本文研究了从1850年代到1930年代在俄罗斯犹太艺术和视觉媒体中代表犹太童年的主题方式。在此期间，俄罗斯犹太人经历了重要的变革。它看到了传统的宗教生活模式的建立，随后的现代化和适应化过程，最后是对“新犹太人”的教育，作为革命后世俗文化的一部分，以及极端激进形式的萌芽。将在苏联时代发展。犹太艺术和视觉媒体始终是代表集体理想的记录手段，其中关键是与犹太儿童未来有关的价值。保存在艺术，摄影和印刷品中的图像显示了传统社区对男孩和年轻人的勤奋学习是多么的热烈。这导致了知识精英的形成，成为抵制外部文化影响的宗教和精神自我意识的堡垒。这些图像连同历史统计研究和回忆录一起，为传统的儿童教育模式重塑了心理，情感和社会背景。一方面，这种模式延续了几个世纪以来确立的生活方式和价值观，另一方面，它引发了过时主义和狂热主义的指责，加剧了俄罗斯社会对其犹太少数群体的敌对情绪。事实证明，同样的模式对犹太群众具有极大的影响力。它以各种“ Cheder”构图和“ Talmudist Iluy”肖像的标志性视觉表现而来。两种类型的作品都彰显了宗教教育的价值。