John Klier
John Doyle Klier, who died in September 2007 at the age of 62, was among the leading historians of Russian Jewry. Much beloved by his colleagues and students, he redefined the field starting with his dissertation “The Origins of the Jewish Minority Problem in Russia, 1772-1812,” completed in 1975 at the University of Illinois, under the direction of Ralph Fisher. Through the generosity of Klier’s family, the John Doyle Klier Scholar award has been established to commemorate his achievements and benefit his successors at Illinois.
John Klier’s work is foundational to contemporary understandings of Russian-Jewish history. Making a broader argument against the tearful conception of Jewish history, he emphasized the bureaucratic dimensions in the tsarist administration of Jewish populations. His first book, based on his Illinois dissertation, was a case in point. Surveying the situation following Poland’s partitions, Russia Gathers Her Jews: The Origins of the “Jewish Question” in Russia, 1772-1825 (1986) focused on the policies of Catherine the Great, her son Paul I, and her grandson Alexander I. In contrast to previous views, he showed that their policies toward the Empire’s newly acquired Jews were attempts to address the new minority problem based on the enlightened models of 18th-century Austria and Prussia.
Based on a decade of meticulous research,Klier’s next great book pursued the story into the latter half of the 19th century. Analyzing the entanglements of public opinion and official administrative policy, Imperial Russia’s Jewish Question, 1855-1881 (1995) centered on the rule of Alexander II. His assassination in 1881 was the trigger of the infamous pogroms of 1881/82. But as Klier showed, anti-Semitism had steadily risen throughout his rule, especially among imperial bureaucrats, various concessions to the Jews notwithstanding. As a result, 1881 appeared as much less of a turning point in Russian-Jewish history than previously accepted. Another major book, Southern Storms: Russians, Jews and the Crisis of 1881-82 (to be published posthumously), will shed further light on these seminal issues in European Jewish history.
Klier was a pioneer in many ways. He was almost alone when he turned to Russian-Jewish history in the 1970s and he was among the first to mine the newly opened archives when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. As an American scholar, he enjoyed a distinguished career in Great Britain, teaching for nearly 20 years at University College London. At the time of his death, he was the Sidney and Elizabeth Corob Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies there.
Most remarkably, perhaps, Klier was among the first non-Jewish scholars to make a career in Jewish Studies. Born into a Catholic family, he became fascinated with Jewish history at Illinois, dedicating his entire career to the subject. In the process, he became an exemplar not only of unparalleled scholarly excellence but of the highest form of inter-faith dialogue.
John Klier’s family wanted to honor this beautiful legacy by creating an award. The title of John Doyle Klier Scholar will be conferred on a graduate student in Jewish Studies at the University of Illinois. The prize is designed to facilitate the recipient’s research and will be awarded on the principles that guided Klier’s own career.
The first recipient will be announced at the conference "Jews in the East European Borderlands: Daily Life, Violence, and Memory," organized by Program in Jewish Culture and Society faculty members Eugene Avrutin and Harriet Murav and to be held in April 2009 at the University of Illinois. Like the award, the conference is dedicated to the memory of our student, colleague, and friend John Klier.