Jewish Rights, National Rights provides a completely new interpretation of the origins of Jewish nationalism in Russia. It argues that Jewish nationalism, and Jewish politics generally, developed in a changing legal environment where the idea that nations had rights was beginning to take hold, and centered on the demand for Jewish autonomy in Eastern Europe. Drawing on numerous archives and libraries in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel, Simon Rabinovitch carefully reconstructs the political movement for Jewish autonomy, its personalities, institutions, and cultural projects. He explains how Jewish autonomy was realized following the February Revolution of 1917, and for the first time assesses voting patterns in November 1917 to determine the extent of public support for Jewish nationalism at the height of the Russian revolutionary period.

Jewish autonomy imagined and remembered -- Jewish autonomy and Europe's changing legal landscape -- Revolution, nationality politics, and the legal claim to Jewish autonomy, 1905-7 -- Jewish culture and autonomy in reform and retrenchment, 1907-14 -- Jewish refugees, autonomy, and transnational politics in World War I, 1914-17 -- The Jewish autonomist movement and the revolutions of 1917 -- Independent states and unfulfilled expectations -- Conclusion : the fate of Jewish autonomism.