Hostages and Nathan Hanover’s ‘The Abyss of Despair,’ With Adam Teller
Adam Teller joins us to uncover how Nathan Hanover’s ‘The Abyss of Despair’ reveals a remarkable 17th-century Jewish rescue network
Today on Jewish Studies Unscrolled, we explore Nathan Hanover’s 17th-century work The Abyss of Despair, or, in the original Hebrew, Yeven Metsulah. The text documents the Khmelnytsky Revolt of 1648, a catastrophic uprising that devastated Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. We’re joined by Adam Teller, historian and author of Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, to examine how Jews across Europe and the Middle East organized a remarkable rescue network to ransom hostages, despite the era’s limited communication tools. Drawing parallels to modern events, Adam Teller sheds new light on this often overlooked chapter of history, showing how The Abyss of Despair holds untapped insights into Jewish resilience and global solidarity.
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