This paper is a part of a much larger project, very much in progress, whose aim is to apply a variety of concepts and methodologies elaborated in the humanities and social sciences over the last fifty years to the elucidation of an exceptionally complex, fascinating and relevant historical, cultural and social phenomenon, the assimilation of Central European Jews. In this paper I explore the relevance of Genette's theory of hypertextuality, which deals with imitation in literary texts, to assimilation seen as an imitative process