Abstract: This chapter seeks to analyse the entanglement of exclusionist ideas in antisemitic and anti-feminist thought in Poland and Europe from the late nineteenth century to the present day. It will consider discriminatory politics, practices, and violence against women, Jews, and other groups that were perceived as ‘Other’, drawing on cases from Germany, Poland, and Hungary in a comparative approach. Since connections between exclusion, sexuality, and violence during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries are currently undergoing reinterpretation, the chapter will also examine developments and examples of anti-gender ideology and right-wing populism in contemporary Poland and Europe and discuss the dangers such shared forms of ressentiment pose to democracy.
Abstract: This special section explores the experiences of cohabitation and transnational migration routes of Jews from the Caucasus through the lens of anthropology, sociology, and social history. Focusing on underrepresented Jewish groups from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the North Caucasus (Russian Federation), it suggests an innovative view on Jewish studies, the study of the Caucasus and Post-Soviet migration studies. The contributions challenge dominant narratives that subsume diverse Jewish identities from Georgia, Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus under the label “Russian Jews” and instead foreground the multi-layered entanglements of Jewish life in and beyond the Caucasus – as locals, minorities, and migrants in multi-religious and multi-ethnic settings. The special section papers reveal how Soviet secularism, post-Soviet nationalism, and global Jewish discourses intersect with local memory, of living together, religious practice, and belonging. By situating Caucasus Jews in broader debates on diversity, migration, and coloniality, this section calls for a rethinking Jewish studies beyond the taken-for granted binary formulas of Ashkenazi/Mizrahi or European/Non European frameworks.
Abstract: Since 1989 Project Kesher has worked bringing women together, creating a network of Jewish women, helping women who knew nothing or very little about what it means to be Jewish, not only to become Jewish, but to create and strengthen Jewish community life in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. We shared success and analyzed the changes. We felt that we were one people.
Due to the present political crises we lost our vision as one Jewish people, we became divided. It was clear Project Kesher needed to take action. We started with International Skype calls. Every evening one woman from Russia, one from Ukraine, one from Belarus, one from Israel called a woman in another country: talking, sharing our love and support, wishing peace. When women started calling each other again and restoring broken relationships we saw that “KESHER” – connection – is working.
One day when there was a serious military clash in the area where she lived one of our leaders proposed to read Tehilim (Psalms), as prayers for peace. Soon more than one hundred women were reading Psalms, creating a chain of peace. Such a spirit of peace prevailed even at a time when the air was filled with war.
In Russia there are refugee families from different regions of the Ukraine. Sometimes they lost everything. Project Kesher women’s groups in cooperation with other Jewish organizations collected clothes, foot-wear as well as school-bags, school record books, sketchbooks, colored paper, paperboard, plasticine, pencil boxes, paints and markers for refugee children. Project Kesher activists also actively participated in organizing camps for refugees in Kharkiv and the Dnipropretrovsk region (Ukraine).
In times of conflict the wish to live in peace is not enough. Women needed instruments for conflict resolution. Project Kesher developed a unique leadership training program with the aim to enable the participants to conduct trainings in conflict resolution themselves in Jewish communities and partner organizations and to engage in mediation. These trainings are often based on Jewish tradition and text study.
A special event is Project Kesher’s Global Women’s Seder that was celebrated in 2015 for the 21st time. No less than 2500 members of 140 Project Kesher women’s and youth groups in 110 cities and five countries – Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Russia and the Ukraine – participated this year. The participants spoke about peace and declared that they intended to do everything possible to maintain peace in their families and in society. With the energy it sets free Project Kesher continues to initiate positive changes.
Abstract: Настоящая книга представляет собой попытку обобщающего исследования
социально-демографического развития еврейского населения бывшего СССР
за истекшее столетие, включая динамику численности и расселения по
республикам и городам, этноязыковой состав, половозрастную и семейную
структуру, рождаемость и смертность, уровень образования,
профессиональную структуру, участие в советской политической системе и
эмиграцию в другие страны. В частности, рассматривается влияние
Катастрофы, как на общую численность еврейского населения, так и на его
социально-экономическую структуру. Большое внимание в книге уделяется
представительству евреев среди студентов, специалистов и научных
работников бывшего СССР.
Книга предназначена для демографов, социологов, историков и всех
интересующихся данной проблемой. Многие статистические материалы,
представленные в книге, публикуются впервые.
Abstract: The goals of the Foundation in conducting this survey were manifold:
we aimed to generate a comprehensive picture of the Jewish museum
landscape across Europe, and to identify the most pressing issues,
challenges and needs faced by these institutions. We wanted to learn about
the mission, philosophy and methodology of Jewish museums, and better
understand their role and position in the cultural and educational realm at
large. We were also interested in the level of professionalization of Jewish
museums, both in staff training, collection preservation and cataloguing,
management, and the ways in which Jewish museums communicate and
arrange partnerships with one another. With a better understanding of
these issues, we want now to assess the resources needed and the funding
priorities for the next five to ten years.
The questionnaire was sent to 120 institutions in 34 countries and we
received 64 completed forms from 30 countries. The questions addressed
eleven broad topics: organisation, collections, permanent and temporary
exhibitions, facility, visitor services, public programmes, visitor
demographics, marketing and PR, finances, future plans and needs.
This diverse sample enabled us to get, for the first time, a quasicomprehensive
picture of the Jewish museum landscape in Europe, from
small community museums to landmarks of “starchitecture;” from
institutions boasting thousands of rare objects to others mostly text
panels- or technology-based; from museums employing scores of
professional staff and interns to synagogues-turned-exhibition halls run by
volunteers for a few hours a month. That was precisely the challenge: the
large and numerous discrepancies between institutions, depending on their
location, their financial and human resources, their political and economic
context, the type of visitors they receive, and other contextual
considerations.
The results point to four major findings:
1. Transition from museums to multi-purpose hubs;
2. Lack of collaboration and partnerships;
3. Tension between particularistic and universalistic missions;
4. Increasing need to serve a diverse audience.
