Russian-speaking Jews

This paper examines how Canadian Jewish intermarriage rates vary across time, gender, age cohort, and community size. It also compares the intermarriage rate for Canadian Jews with the rate for Canadian Catholics and Protestants (by far the two largest religious groups in Canada), and the Canadian Jewish rate with the corresponding rate in a few other countries. Finally, it examines factors affecting the likelihood  that children of religious intermarriage will be raised Jewish. The main  data source for this paper consists of custom tabulations from the 2021 Census of Canada.

Identity, multiculturalism and integration are inherently intertwined for immigrants as the creation of a new multicultural identity determines how successful an individual will be at integrating into a new environment. This paper investigates repeat migration and questions if and how different forms of migration impact the process identity integration. It examines the topic using a single case study, considering three stages of migrationforced, ideological and economic -and their different impacts upon identity. The paper considers the case study through the lens of the population group she represents at each stage of migration and the factors that impact their decision to migrate. Identity is a major issue only in the case of ideological migration, as in cases of forced and economic migration, the individual views adapting identity as a pivotal component for achieving success in the new reality, where improved quality of life is the ultimate goal of migration. In contrast, ideological migration to Israel poses a unique situation in which Jewish immigrants consider themselves to be returning home to an envisioned ideal; therefore, they often resist making the identity and lifestyle transformations necessary to meet the needs of their new reality in Israel.

The post-WW II Jewish migration from the Soviet Union (and also after its dissolution) is one of the largest in modern history. Altogether 2.75 million Soviet Jews left the USSR for Israel, the United States, Germany and elsewhere. The position of the Soviet state with respect to emigration was remarkably ambivalent: in some cases, it was allowed and even encouraged, in others, others; it was controlled and strongly limited. The Jewish emigration movement that arose in the late 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s-1980s became an example of resistance and activism within the authoritarian system, which increasingly alerted international attention. In one way or another, it affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and changed the appearance of many cities and towns within the Soviet Union and outside it.

In 1966, Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin stated that Soviet citizens had the right to emigrate for family reunification. This sparked the campaign for Soviet Jewish emigration movement, which adopted the slogan "Let My People Go." Yet, despite the biblical symbolism, there was a significant controversy about their final destination, with those opting for the West known as "drop-outs" (noshrim). There were intense debates between those Jewish Diaspora leaders, particularly in the United States, who stressed the democratic right of "freedom of choice," and the Israeli leadership. When the Soviets drastically reduced emigration in the 1980s, the drop-out phenomenon (neshira) was blamed. In 1983 Morris B. Abram became chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and reversed the accepted American Jewish approach. He developed a close friendship with Australian Jewish leader, Isi Leibler. Both men believed Soviet Jews should migrate to Israel. In the late 1980s, the United States ended the refugee status of Soviet Jews, reducing its financial support. As a result, one million Russians migrated to Israel in the 1990s. This article focuses on this global debate over neshira and illustrates the importance of cooperation between American and non-American actors in global Jewish politics.

for many centuries "to be a Jew" meant "to adhere Judaism". the situation began changing in the 19 th and especially in the 20 th century, when a secular Jewish identity emerged. In the former uSSr, Jewishness has been almost fully separated from Judaism and a Soviet variant of Jewish secular identity was based mainly on the principle of ethnic origins as well as on anti-Semitism. In modern russia, a crisis of the Jewish identity has its specifics and results in construction of different types of Jewish self-identification. the religious "renaissance" of the post-Soviet period, weakness of a communal Jewish life and ignorance of most ex-Soviet Jews in Jewish tradition allow russian Jews to choose between Judaism and christianity. * the presentation has been sponsored by the memorial foundation for Jewish culture.

In 1966, Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin stated that Soviet citizens had the right to emigrate for family reunification. This sparked the campaign for Soviet Jewish emigration movement, which adopted the slogan "Let My People Go." Yet, despite the biblical symbolism, there was a significant controversy about their final destination, with those opting for the West known as "drop-outs" (noshrim). There were intense debates between those Jewish Diaspora leaders, particularly in the United States, who stressed the democratic right of "freedom of choice," and the Israeli leadership. When the Soviets drastically reduced emigration in the 1980s, the drop-out phenomenon (neshira) was blamed. In 1983 Morris B. Abram became chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and reversed the accepted American Jewish approach. He developed a close friendship with Australian Jewish leader, Isi Leibler. Both men believed Soviet Jews should migrate to Israel. In the late 1980s, the United States ended the refugee status of Soviet Jews, reducing its financial support. As a result, one million Russians migrated to Israel in the 1990s. This article focuses on this global debate over neshira and illustrates the importance of cooperation between American and non-American actors in global Jewish politics.

For Hebrew and Yiddish terms 1 have followed the system of The New Encyclopedia of Judaism (1989). For Russian terms, and extended passages, all the translations are my own unless otherwise stated. I have used the British Standard (BGN) system for transliterating Russian names of individuals and the names of streets and other city places. In the case of individual scholars published in English, I have reproduced their names in English exactly as they appear in these publications. In the case of local informants, many of their names have been changed here in order to protect individuals' privacy. Where informants have also published under their own name and expressed the desire to use their real name, I have followed their wishes, For all others, alternative names have been substituted. American spelling, punctuation and date conventions (month/day/year) are used throughout this thesis and it broadly follows the guidelines of the American Anthropological Association Style Guide 2009 (www.aaanet.org/publications/stvle guide.pdf). Research Themes This thesis explores the lived experiences and present-day orientations of Jewish residents of Odessa. It is as much a study of their shared efforts to construct, negotiate and question a meaningful sense of togetherness-otherwise known as "community"-as it is about the individual trajectories of Jewish Odessans challenged 1A round skullcap worn by observant Jewish men. See the Glossary In Appendix 2 for a full list of important Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish and Hebrew terms and expressions used in this thesis.

The blood-and-soil concept relates to nationalism tied to land that is tied to specific bloodlines—meaning reconsideration of national membership on the basis of ethnicity. Soil affiliation implies objective criteria of national membership, related to birthplace or residence and associated with providing roots (homeland attachments, friends, marriage, children, or citizenship). The idea of blood and soil is about rejecting a soil claim in those with different, “wrong,” blood. As part of national purification, blood-and-soil nationalism emerges as a political process using the “blood” concept as a mechanism to restrict national membership—to reconsider the soil benefits by not making them accessible to everybody. In this work I will use the term “blood and soil'” to stress the exclusive nature of Soviet Russian ethnonationalism in relation to Jews as its number one target and to show the controversy surrounding Soviet membership.

In a country where the Jewish culture had been literally annihilated on Stalins Orders, oralfolk humor became the only available form of Jewish self-expression, repladng such materials äs Journals, books, radio and TV programs, films, and theater. Especially fruitful for Jewish humorous folklore was the exodus ofJewsfrom the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. In the absence of any formal organization aimed at representing Jewish interests, oral humor itselftook on some ofthefunctions normally performed by the members of a structured Community. U sing the model suggested by William Martineau (1972), I analyze the social functions of the Jewish jokes of the period in three structural settings: (1) those totally within a specific group; (2) those in an intergroup Situation, however focusing on the internal structure ofone group; and (3) those in an intergroup Situation focusing on the interaction and relationship between the two groups. As a result ofmy analysis, I establish the ways in which Russian Jewish humor of the exodus has assisted the Jewish ingroup in controlling the behavior of its members, helping them to survive in a hostile environment. These jokes have also taken pari in prompting conflicts already present in the ingroup so t hat the conflicts are brought to the fore of the ingroup's collective consciousness where ways ofsolving them can be suggested. In a great many instances, the Jewish ingroup resorted to jokes to increase morale and solidify the group during the trying times of major decision making concerning the ingroup's future. Russian Jewish humor, äs part of the whole phenomenon of East European Jewish humor, is considered by many researchers to be the

Länder unterscheiden sich nicht nur in ihrer ökonomischen Stärke und politischen Macht, sondern auch in dem Ansehen bzw. dem ihnen zugeschriebenem symbolischen Kapital. Mit Bezugnahme auf die Literatur zu symbolischen Grenzziehungsprozessen untersuchen wir, in welchem Maße sich in einer multinational zusammengesetzten Schule die nationale Herkunft der Schüler auf die symbolischen Grenzen zwischen den Schülergruppen auswirkt. Empirische Grundlage der Untersuchung bilden qualitative Gruppeninterviews mit Schülerinnen einer Europäischen Schule in Brüssel. Wir können zeigen, dass symbolische Grenzziehungsprozesse in zwei Schritten erfolgen. Zunächst klassifizieren die Schülerinnen ihre Mitschülerinnen anhand jugendspezifischer Kategorien. Dazu gehören (a) ein spezifischer jugendkultureller Lebensstil, (b) gute Schulleistungen ohne Überambition, (c) kosmopolitische Werthaltungen und schließlich (d) die Zugehörigkeit zu einer dominanten Sprachengruppe. Diese Primärkategorisierungen werden...

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European just in name because we live on this continent? I think these are tremendously important questions and how they are answered should directly impact the delivering of services to Jewish communities across Europe. It should directly affect the work of pan-European Jewish organisations, especially the European Council of Jewish Communities and it also affects the question whether or not we can or should speak with 'one voice' as we were exhorted to do so, even by a couple of speakers last night. Now fortunately we are in a better position than ever before to provide answers to these kinds of questions. The report in your packs will be used to focus on in this session. We have a growing mass of data dealing with Jewish identity. This report is a result of an initiative taken jointly by the JDC and Hanadiv Charitable Foundation. It gathers all the existing data on Jewish identity and Jewish demography in Europe and analyses it in order to reach some conclusions about identity across Europe. A fellow in European Jewish demography, David Graham, who was appointed at the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, was asked to undertake this study and he has, I believe, reached some fascinating information, considerations and conclusions. I hope you all read this from cover to cover. There will be a test on it later. If we want to build a new Jewish life in the new Europe, we need a new language for the new situation. On the one hand we need a new political language. Last night was in many ways a very inspiring and a very uplifting experience, but for me there was too much of the old language around … anti-Semitism, threats to the survival of Israel, Holocaust victim-hood. It is not these things alone which define who we are today. I for one, anyway, take issue with some of the assumptions of which statements were made yesterday about anti-Semitism and our relationship with Israel. We need to speak in a new way about our role in Europe, about what an open Jewish world can contribute to the European future, not about what Europe owes us. Similarly we need a new language to discuss the data on Jewish life that takes into account the fact that Jewish life is not a numbers game, that technology, globalisation, the quest for meaning and spirituality, the richness of secularity, the beauty of diversity, that all these things have turned the assumptions we normally make upside down. So let's turn now to the speakers.

In diesem Working Paper wird Bezug genommen auf eine Diskussion, die seit dem russischen Angriffskrieg auf die Ukraine auch im russophonen Berlin geführt wird: Wie umgehen mit der Muttersprache Russisch, die nun vor allem als Sprache des Aggressors angesehen wird?

Grundlage des Textes sind zwei Interviews, die die Autorin im Abstand von einem halben Jahr mit zwei in Berlin lebenden Jüdinnen führte. Beide Frauen kamen im Kindesalter als Kontingentflüchtlinge mit ihren Familien nach Deutschland, die eine aus Moskau, die andere aus Odesa. Beide Frauen sprechen in ihren Herkunftsfamilien Russisch. In den Gesprächen berichten sie von ihren Erfahrungen mit dem Gebrauch der russischen Sprache seit Kriegsbeginn, sowohl was das Sprechen im öffentlichen Raum angeht als auch ihr eigenes Verhältnis zur Muttersprache. Ihre Reflexionen machen deutlich, wie verschränkt Sprache, Politik und Identität sind.

European just in name because we live on this continent? I think these are tremendously important questions and how they are answered should directly impact the delivering of services to Jewish communities across Europe. It should directly affect the work of pan-European Jewish organisations, especially the European Council of Jewish Communities and it also affects the question whether or not we can or should speak with 'one voice' as we were exhorted to do so, even by a couple of speakers last night. Now fortunately we are in a better position than ever before to provide answers to these kinds of questions. The report in your packs will be used to focus on in this session. We have a growing mass of data dealing with Jewish identity. This report is a result of an initiative taken jointly by the JDC and Hanadiv Charitable Foundation. It gathers all the existing data on Jewish identity and Jewish demography in Europe and analyses it in order to reach some conclusions about identity across Europe. A fellow in European Jewish demography, David Graham, who was appointed at the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, was asked to undertake this study and he has, I believe, reached some fascinating information, considerations and conclusions. I hope you all read this from cover to cover. There will be a test on it later. If we want to build a new Jewish life in the new Europe, we need a new language for the new situation. On the one hand we need a new political language. Last night was in many ways a very inspiring and a very uplifting experience, but for me there was too much of the old language around … anti-Semitism, threats to the survival of Israel, Holocaust victim-hood. It is not these things alone which define who we are today. I for one, anyway, take issue with some of the assumptions of which statements were made yesterday about anti-Semitism and our relationship with Israel. We need to speak in a new way about our role in Europe, about what an open Jewish world can contribute to the European future, not about what Europe owes us. Similarly we need a new language to discuss the data on Jewish life that takes into account the fact that Jewish life is not a numbers game, that technology, globalisation, the quest for meaning and spirituality, the richness of secularity, the beauty of diversity, that all these things have turned the assumptions we normally make upside down. So let's turn now to the speakers.

The Government of the District of Columbia has certified an amendment of the Articles of Incorporation of the National Council for Soviet and East European Research changing the name of the Corporation to THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR EURASIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARCH, effective on June 9, 1997. Grants, contracts and all other legal engagements of and with the Corporation made under its former name are unaffected and remain in force unless/until modified in writing by the parties thereto.

For the purpose of our discussion it is better to refrain from rigid, unequivocal, and limiting definitions of the term ''Jewish culture" There is general-agreement, .at least among the convenors of the sym posium, about the pluralistic and multilingual nature of contemporary Jewish culture as embracing the totality of social, spiritual, aesthetic, and artistic values possessing Jewish elements and affinities. This totality extefads to both the religious .and the secular sphere in all their mani-'festations, be it creativity in any language, even non-Jewish, or in any other medium of communicatidn by Jews and> for Jews. The e:tistence and strengthening of Jewish culture in all its various manifestations is our common concern, and this despite the different approaches' and trends which prefer one sphere or 'one medium over anothef withifi the sum total of its components. In addition it can be said that the pre occupation with this or that area within the broad orbit, as indicated now,*makes it possible to view Jewish culture in all its manifold aspects, with an eye to the development of each of its constituents as a value in itself. All this applies, of course, not only to the Jewish culture in the Soviet Union, but wherever Jews happen to live, be it in the Soviet Union, America, or Israel. Basically it cannot be supposed that there exists any fundamental difference regarding aspirations in the sphere of Jewish culture in any of the Jewish centers of the world. There may be differences in emphasis and outlook here and there, which must be seen.as develop ing on two principal levels: (a) greater emphasis on the one or the other aspect of Jewish-culture in preference to another; (b) assessments of the prospects for the existence, development, and well-being of Jewish culture in a given country, taking into account political limitations and the coercive authority of the state. With regard to the differences of outlook existing on the first level, it is only proper to state that they are not specific to the problems of Jewish culture in the Soviet Union. These differences are a natural

The socio-demographic transformation of the Jews in Russia in the post-Soviet period was analyzed in this article. The significant topics explored are the increase of mixed marriage among the Russian Jewish population, as well as the rising prominence of Hebrew and the demise of Yiddish, changes in adult Jews’ educational attainments by area, and the differentiation in the attained levels of higher education between Jewish females and males. The analysis based on Moscow data shows that Jews remaining in Russia underwent a dramatic labor transformation (changes of profession and branch of economic activity). These labor transformations were caused by the post-Soviet transition to the new capitalist economy, and they were analogous to those experienced by ex-Soviet migrants in Israel.

Migration in the Soviet Successor States * This paper analyzes the migration behavior of ethnic groups in the former Soviet Union (FSU) from 1989 to 1999. The two main migration movements have been return migration of ethnic groups to their titular nation and migration of all ethnic groups to the Russian Federation. Using factor analysis, we are able to disentangle the effects of economic wealth, growth, and political reforms on migration behavior. Ethnic sorting is found to be the major determinant of migration, which can explain both return migration and migration to Russia. The emigration behavior of Jews and ethnic Germans is found to be very similar to the migration behavior of ethnic groups migrating within the FSU.

Medial verbreitete Vorstellungen von Obdachlosigkeit folgen oft holzschnittartigen Simplifizierungen. Als Spiegel existenzieller Not sind sie das Andere bürgerlicher Wohnideale. Werden die Orte des Wohnens als Bühnen alltäglicher Choreographien des Lebens betrachtet, rücken auch Obdachlose als Wohnende in den Fokus, wenn auch nur im Format einer minimalistisch-existenziellen Schrumpfform. Lebenspraktisch erweist sich ihr spezielles Semi-Wohnen als erzwungene Übung des Lebens mit dem Wenigsten. Aber es ist gerade der Blick auf die obdachlose Existenz, in dem sich das Wohnen im Allgemeinen so scharf kontrastiertallzumal unter der Bedingung global kippender ökologischer Großsysteme. Mit anderen Worten: Was macht aus der (theoretischen) Perspektive der Obdachlosigkeit das Wesen des Wohnens aus? Die nicht nur aktuelle, sondern andauernde Unterausstattung mit dem Nötigsten provoziert die Frage nach den Bedürfnissen derer, die nach bürgerlichen Normen wohnen, streben sie doch nach immer "besseren" und exklusiveren Häusern und Wohnungen. Nur in raren Ausnahmesituationen akzeptieren sie die Beschränkung oder den Verzicht auf Gewohntes zugunsten verbesserter Aussichten auf ein behagendes Wohnen auch in der Zukunft. Angesichts einer weltumspannenden Krise im Mensch

W rezultacie przyłączenia do ZSRS w 1939 r. wschodnich terytoriów II Rzeczypospolitej, a także ucieczek polskiej ludności żydowskiej na tereny znajdujące się pod okupacją państwa sowieckiego, na terenie ZSRS pojawiła się nowa, spora grupa osób żydowskiego pochodzenia. Ludność ta, w przeciwieństwie do Żydów zamieszkujących obszary sowieckie jeszcze w okresie przedwojennym, nie doświadczyła stalinowskiej polityki wynaradawiania w tak dużym stopniu, dlatego też zachowała ona silne wspomnienia związane z żydowską kulturą oraz ideologią syjonistyczną. To z kolei uczyniło z niej źródło inspiracji dla odkrywającej swą tożsamości żydowskiej społeczności rosyjskojęzycznej, zarówno w okresie istnienia ZSRS, jak i już po jego rozpadzie w 1991 r.
Celem pracy jest analiza opublikowanych w wydaniu internetowym tygodnika „Jewriejskij Mir” wspomnień i sylwetki Mojżesza Rubinfelda. Był on polskim Żydem, pochodzącym z miejscowości Rybotycze, który po wybuchu II wojny światowej przedostał się na tereny kontrolowane przez państwo sowieckie. W wywiadzie z publicystą gazety, Arje (Leonidem) Judasinem, Rubinfeld poruszył kwestie istotne dla współczesnych Żydów rosyjskojęzycznych, takie jak życie na terytorium II Rzeczypospolitej i ZSRS, problem antysemityzmu, pamięć o Zagładzie czy też emigrację rosyjskojęzycznej ludności żydowskiej na Zachód. Dodatkowo, jego wspomnienia zestawiono tu z wybranymi losami innych uciekinierów – Wiktora Grajewskiego oraz Jakuba Bermana. Pozwala to ocenić rolę, jaką jego przeżycia mogą pełnić w narracji historycznej rosyjskojęzycznych mediów żydowskich. Ponadto analiza ta przybliża odpowiedź na pytanie, jakie postawy wspomnienia te mogą kształtować wśród dawnych sowieckich Żydów i ich potomków.

In this paper we shall study the incidence of mixed marriage in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and the role of demographic peculiarities of the Jewish marriage market in the spread of mixed marriage. Special attention will be devoted to the offspring of mixed couples and their ethnic affiliation. The relatively high proportion of non-Jews in the aliyah movement from the FSU as a consequence of mixed marriage will also be examined. Between 1989 and 2002, more than 1,500,000 ex-Soviet Jews and their relatives emigrated to countries outside the FSU. Most of this movement (about 940,000 people, or 62%) was directed toward Israel, and the rest was divided mostly between the United States and Germany. It is important to take note of the Soviet official system of ethnic classification. The ethnicity of every Soviet citizen was written in his or her internal passport once he or she reached age sixteen. Anyone with two Jewish parents had no choice but to be registered as being Jewish, in many cases without wanting to. Soviet authorities, contrary to their proclaimed goal of assimilation, actually preserved Soviet Jewry by labeling Jews on the individual level (Gitelman, 1992). Only the offspring of mixed marriages could choose the ethnicity of one or the other parent, and most of these preferred the ethnicity of the non-Jewish parent. The group of persons eligible for immigration to Israel (aliyah) according to the Israeli Law of Return is rather large; it includes Jews, their children and grandchildren, and all respective spouses. The Israeli definition of who is a Jew is  Paper presented at the round-table discussion on intermarriage (marriage between Jews and non-Jews) at Brandeis University (December 17-18, 2003) [Revised as of July 26, 2005].

This paper is based mainly on the results of the post-war Soviet censuses concerning respondents’ native language and second language. The statistical data on Yiddish were studied for the former union republics of the USSR and their capitals. For Belorussia, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the data were also studied for their different regions. In the 1994 Russian microcensus, a question on the primary language of conversation at home was asked for the first time, and the respective data concerning Yiddish in the city of Moscow and Birobidzhan (“Jewish”) oblast were analyzed.

The population of the Russian Federation in the 1990s has reached the stage of steady decrease. However, already for a long time the Jews in Russia have demonstrated rapid population decline, and study of this decline and its components can shed more light on demographic history and the prospect of demographic development in the country.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become a vital part of everyday life. The emphasis in CMC investigation is on the globalizing nature of the Internet, while its localizing role as the meeting place of dispersed communities has not been sufficiently researched. Defining ...

With this book Fialkova and Yelenevskaya add yet another entry to their continued study of how émigrés from the former Soviet Union make sense of their lives in new surroundings. As in their other books, the authors use the interviews that they conducted with project participants and online discussion forums where Russian-speaking newcomers share experiences and advice. In the last two chapters of the book they add a new dimension and work primarily with published sources. One of these chapters discusses literary works written by émigrés while the other analyzes jokes and cartoons printed in newspapers and circulated online. The authors begin by giving a history of their collaborative efforts, describing how they met and how they became a team. They also speak briefly about their methodology and about studies of the immigrant experience written by other scholars. This introduction is followed by a chapter on place. Here we learn the history of immigrant settlement in Israel. We read the immigrants' own accounts of progressively improved living conditions: they describe how they started with very modest quarters and gradually became homeowners and landlords. As in other studies by these two authors, most of the chapter is devoted to quotations. Respondents discuss their preferences, with the young typically wanting to live in large cities, while families gravitate toward smaller towns. Fialkova and Yelenevskaya's interviewees talk of their perceptions of various types of neighbors, both Israeli and Arabic. They complain about lack of transportation and Jewish restrictions on holy day travel. Some cities that might otherwise be attractive are made less so by their proximity to the border and the accompanying potential for missile strikes and the authors' sources discuss the fears of people living in such cites and their ways of coping. The chapter on legal anthropology is my favorite. Fialkova and Yelenevskaya do their typical descriptions of people dealing with unfamiliar systems and approaches to life and provide ample quotations where new immigrants describe their experience with Israeli courts. But they also add the extra dimension of describing and analyzing ideas of justice that Jews arriving from the former Soviet Union developed in their earlier country of residence. As the authors explain, in the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union, there was the law, meaning the formal legal system that no one really respected or trusted, and there was also justice, a kind of moral given which all good people were expected to recognize and uphold. It is the desire for justice that drives many of the people whose stories are quoted in this book and they tell of pursuing litigation to achieve justice, even at great personal cost. Needless to say, sometimes their efforts are successful and sometimes not. But in many instances their dealings with the Israeli legal system are complicated by expectations of certain behaviors from fellow post-Soviet immigrants, expectations that are not always met. Holidays are the subject of the next chapter. Immigrants have mixed feelings. They are delighted that the Jewish holidays, which had to be marked surreptitiously in the Soviet world, can be celebrated openly in Israel. Yet many miss holidays that were important in their former homeland but are not part of Israeli culture. These include the celebration of New Years, the Soviet, non-religious version of Christmas, and holidays of historical importance, such as Victory Day, marking the end of the Second World War. Some newcomers turn to alternative rituals, and this chapter has a section on a New Age group that had been popular in Russia. Called the followers of Simoron, this group struggles to attract a following on Israeli soil.

The dramatic political and economic changes leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union have had a considerable impact on the identities of the people inhabiting the once almighty and omnipotent Red Empire. Changes have been especially dramatic for the Jewish diasporas of the ...

Veröffentlicht auf zeitgeschichte | online (https://zeitgeschichte-online.de) Home > Beiträge > Jüdisches Leben in der Ukraine der Nachkriegszeit Jüdisches Leben in der Ukraine der Nachkriegszeit "Wir haben überlebt, wir sollten zusammen sein" Anatoly Podolsky 28. Juli 2022 Die Verfolgung von Jüd*innen in den ehemals besetzten Gebieten des östlichen Europas, so auch in der Ukraine, ist in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit nur sehr unvollständig bekannt. Dabei spielten die Massenerschießungen in der Ukraine eine große Rolle für den weiteren Verlauf des Genozids. SS und Wehrmacht haben den Massenmord zunächst hier verübt und dabei nach effizienteren Tötungsmethoden als die zeit-und ressourcenaufwendigen Erschießungen im "Holocaust durch Kugeln" gesucht. Ebenso wenig bekannt ist die Geschichte des jüdischen Lebens und das Schweigen über Baby Jar in der Sowjetunion. Die folgenden Erinnerungen des Historikers Anatoly Podolsky lassen die Ereignisse und das Schicksal der Familie Podolsky nahe an uns heranrücken. Anatoly Podolsky ist Leiter des Ukrainischen Zentrums für Holocaust Studien und einer der führenden Wissenschaftler*innen am Institut für politische und ethno-nationale Studien der Nationalen Akademie der Wissenschaften der Ukraine.

In the case of Jewish migration, the process of Jews moving to Israel is often referred to as "repatriation" and those moving are thus called "repatriates." In the Hebrew language the word for repatriation is aliyah, which means "ascent" or "pilgrimage" and stands in sharp contrast to the word yerida (emigration from Israel), which literally means "descent." This paper looks at the language of Jewish migration from Israel, and how it echoes the experiences of actual returns, but also delves deeper and looks at the feelings these terms evoke among Jewish migrants. Based on ethnographic material gathered in Odessa, Ukraine, this paper analyses the way ex-Soviet Jews in Ukraine who immigrated to Israel and have since returned navigate the moral demands and pressures that arise upon their return as they negotiate their sense of belonging as locals and returnees.1 In what follows, I look at the language that frames Jewish migration to and from Israel in the institutional and public spheres and the way returning Jews reflect on their decision to move as well as their experiences upon arrival. I analyze the moral dimensions of returnees' trajectories, specifically the ways in which Israel and Ukraine are judged as homes in different contexts of everyday life. Moreover, I look at the ways in which the narrative of Israel as a meaningful place for Jews is taken apart but not necessarily abandoned in the process of return as many Ukrainian Jews remain citizens of Israel and stay socially and economically connected to both places. I argue that a return (however indefinite) is always tangled in a web of complex moral codes that returnees contemplate as they rebuild their lives in an attempt to secure a brighter future. In the case of Jewish returnees in Odessa, leaving Israel does not mean abandoning it and returning to their native city does not mean committing to stay there. The morality of their everyday life does not reflect the institutional moral codes evident in the language of Jewish migration. Returnees, in other words, do not move up or down on the moral ladder but rather across a terrain of moral codes linked to their multiple places of belonging.

Several waves of Ukrainian refugees have arrived in the United States since 1945, each following a remarkably different resettlement and assimilation path. This article offers a comparative analysis of the role of religious affiliation and transnational religious organizations and networks in shaping processes of resettlement, ethnic group formation and the creation of attachments to Ukraine to explain the lower than expected levels of engagement of the last two waves with the Ukrainian diaspora and with Ukraine. Evolving global forces and the social structures within them render diasporic identities, which are closely associated with a territorially anchored sense of national culture, less appealing than the highly fluid transnational networks of religious groups. The role of religious-based resettlement organizations and their networks in the United States is likely to exert an ever greater effect on refugee resettlement and migration more generally.

This article addresses the self-images of adult educators in view of exercising their professional agency in contexts of social transformation after the fall of the communist regimes. It draws on research undertaken in Poland, Ukraine and Russia in 2009 which investigated the self-perception and self-evaluation of adult educators with regard to their own educational practice8211;vis-à-vis the challenges of transition in general and of the need of rethinking the dictatorial past in particular. The interviews with 91 adult educators in three countries illustrate the impact of socio-political change in the period of democratization on the concept of one's professional identity. They also demonstrate how transition policies create dilemmas for practice which adult educators accommodate or resist. The article discusses how different self-images are linked to socio-political challenges of society in the transition times. It analyses the possibilities, challenges, impacts and constrain...

When people think about politics they typically have in mind the interaction between two sets of institutions: those whose main function is the exercise of power (the executive, legislative, judicial, and coercive branches of the state) and institutions in civil society (political parties, social movements, the mass media, and lobbies). However, politics is not restricted to such specialized political institutions. People exercise power in all social settings. One can therefore speak sensibly of the politics of families, universities, communities, and other institutions whose chief functions are not political. In communities, for example, some members are in a better position than others to define community priorities and, as a result, are more likely to feel they are an integral part of community life. They are able to enjoy these advantages by virtue of having more power than other community members have. Accordingly, in this chapter, our aims are threefold. First, we provide background information on the characteristics of Jews born in the USSR/FSU who reside in Canada, including a new estimate of their number as of 2015. 1 Second, we analyze their Canadian political party preferences and their attitudes toward certain aspects of Israeli politics, which, as we will show, are closely associated. Third, we discuss their involvement in, and reasons for their estrangement from, the life of Canada's established Jewish community. We draw on official statistics, the 2018 Survey of Jews in Canada, the secondary literature and, in the chapter's third section, primary research conducted by one of this chapter's authors. Unfortunately, our account must be brief because little research has been conducted on the subjects that interest us here. Canadian censuses taken in the second year of each decade ask respondents to state their religious affiliation, ethnic identity, and immigration status. Immigrants are asked where they were born and the name of the last country they lived in before arriving in Canada. Data based on their responses are useful for estimating the size of Canada's Jewish population born in the FSU. Unfortunately, this book goes to press just months before social scientists gain access to 2021 Canadian census data for purposes of secondary analysis. Adding to the difficulty of providing an up-to-date count of the number of FSU-born Jews living in Canada is the fact that, in 2011, for the first time in 140 years, and for idiosyncratic political reasons that need not detain us, the Canadian decennial census was not taken. Instead, Statistics Canada fielded a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS). It had a collection response rate of just under 69%,