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Rebuilding Jewish Europe after the Fall of Communism, 1989-2000: a case of transnational circulation of narratives, resources and knowledge
Author(s): Dimentstein, Marcelo David
Date: 2024
Topics: NGOs, Jewish Revival, Post-1989, Main Topic: Other, Jewish Peoplehood, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Organisations, Fundraising and Philanthropy
Abstract: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the communist regimes in Europe represented a radical change for Judaism on the continent. The most striking change occurred, naturally, in Central and Eastern Europe, that is, in those countries that were behind the Iron Curtain, such as Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia or the German Democratic Republic. There, while the political decomposition of the Soviet bloc was gaining traction, thousands of people rediscovered their Jewish origins – forbidden, concealed, or silenced under communism, giving rise to a process of Jewish revivalism. In this context, numerous Jewish philanthropic organizations came to the region to support these developments with the mission of renewing local Jewish communities. The process involved a multitude of actors – Jewish agencies, organizations and foundations based in the United States, Europe and Israel – and entailed the mobilization of professionals, specialists and financial resources. This thesis explores the concrete dynamics of this cross-border mobilization of Jewish philanthropic bodies in favor of the Jewish communities of East Central Europe after the fall of communism in 1989. It studies in-depth the historical origins and evolution of transnational Jewish solidarity in modern times, enquires about the Jewish agencies and organizations that started to operate in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, especially, but not only, their sources of financing and the circulation of economic resources. Finally, it gives an account of the narrative corpus that emerged about European Jews before and during this process, identifying those actors who created and mobilized these narratives.
Memory crisis: The Shoah within a collective European memory
Author(s): van der Poel, Stefan
Date: 2019
Topics: Memory, Memorial, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials
Abstract: This paper analyses the memory crisis resulting from conflicting perceptions of the Shoah in Western and Central Europe. To clarify this memory crisis, crucial aspects of these divergent perceptions will be discussed. From the Western perspective, there is a strong tendency to underline the universal meaning and importance of the Shoah, and to institutionalize this in UN and EU resolutions and declarations. From an Eastern perspective, this process of globalizing Shoah discourse is often considered to be a Western preoccupation and as just another mechanism to promulgate further Western cultural domination. In Central Europe the supposed singularity of the Shoah is not only often doubted, but the focus is shifted far more on to processing communism and identity-based policies. To clarify and illustrate how the Shoah is reflected on in historical debates and the public domain, recent Polish and Hungarian monuments, museums, literature and films are discussed.
What is Jewish about Contemporary Central European Jewish Culture?
Author(s): Gebert, Konstanty
Editor(s): Fireberg, Haim; Glöckner, Olaf; Zoufalá, Marcela Menachem
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Culture, Jewish Heritage, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Renewal or Regression? Jewish Self-Assertion and Re-Orientation in Twenty-first Century Central Europe
Author(s): Schoeps, Julius H.
Editor(s): Fireberg, Haim; Glöckner, Olaf; Zoufalá, Marcela Menachem
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Identity, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Unfinished Business and Unexploited Opportunities: Central and Eastern Europe, Jews, and the Jewish State
Author(s): Rubin, Barry
Date: 2010
Topics: Israel-Diaspora Relations, Post-1989, Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Other
Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial in Post-Communist Eastern Europe
Author(s): Lobont, Florin
Editor(s): Stone, Dan
Date: 2004
Topics: Antisemitism, Holocaust Denial, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Post-1989
Abstract: At a meeting of the Helsinki signatories (CSCE — Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Copenhagen in June 1990 a formal document was adopted which ‘clearly and unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism’ along with ‘racial and ethnic hatred’. The signatories agreed to ‘intensify their efforts to combat these phenomena’. The action was unprecedented. No international or regional treaty or agreement or declaration had ever specifically condemned anti-Semitism …. Motivation for the changed attitude resulted from the shock of European leaders with the results of the 1989 revolutions in East Central Europe which brought in their wake waves of hatred directed against Jews as well as Gypsies and migrants.
Holocaust Memorials in Central and Eastern Europe: Communist Legacies, Transnational Influences and National Developments
Author(s): Kucia, Marek
Date: 2016
Topics: Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Post-1989, Communism, Memorial
Abstract: The article analyses selected Holocaust memorials in several Central and East
European countries. Using the approaches of historical and visual sociology, it
identifies processes and agents that shaped the present-day memorials during
communism and after. These were: commemoration by Jews; memorialization,
marginalization, suppression and the obliteration of Jewish victimhood by the
communist authorities; making minor or substantial changes to the existing
monuments after communism and developing them; and creating new Holocaust
memorials both public and private, and by domestic and foreign agents. The article
concludes that the Holocaust memorials in the region are primarily a result of
legacies of communist times. They were also shaped by transnational influences.
By and large they are national developments.
The International Jewish Youth Camp at Szarvas History, impact and future
Author(s): Pasajlic, Mina
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Summer/Youth Camps, Youth, Young Adults / Emerging Adulthood, Teenagers, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community, Informal Education, Jewish Revival
Abstract: The JDC-Lauder International Jewish Youth Camp at Szarvas is perceived today as the single most important Jewish outreach and educational programme in Central and Eastern Europe; it is a key symbol for Eastern European Jewry. This paper emphasises the importance of the Szarvas camp, located some 170 km south-east of Budapest in Hungary, and its impact on the Jewish identity of the Central and Eastern European participants, and by extension on their families and communities. It focuses on the camp’s history and uniqueness, and includes a personal experience on the part of the author, who has participated in the camp and today works as its programme director. It also presents information collected from those who have experienced the impact of the camp on themselves.
Antisemitism in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: A Marginal or Central Issue?
Author(s): Volovici, Leon
Date: 1994
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Far right, Politics, Surveys
Abstract: Surveys on present trends of post-Communist antisemitism in Eastern Europe reveal contradictory images of the weight and significance of current anti-Jewish manifestations and rhetoric. An evaluation of the main themes of the present antisemitic discourse points to the predominance of irrational myths -- the“Jewish (or Israeli) conspiracy” and world-wide “Jewish power.” In addition, the public debate on the Holocaust and collectiveresponsibility for crimes against the local Jewish population has had a significant impact on public discourse. Questions of national identity, a tendency towards historical distortion and mystification, and the propagandistic accusation of “Jewish guilt” for the former repressive communist regimes form another area of contention which leads to anti-Jewish manifestations.The reproduction and spread of antisemitic motifs is found mainly in political discourse. In order to understand whether antisemitic political groups are central or marginal, it is necessary to consider the degree of their acceptance or support bymainstream political forces, direct or insidious forms of legitimation for them, as well as the force of the antisemitic tradition,and the amplitude of public or official reactions against either the vulgar or the sophisticated expressions of antisemitism
Between Denial and "Comparative Trivialization": Holocaust Negationism in Post-Communist East Central Europe
Author(s): Shafir, Michael
Date: 2002
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust
The Danger of antisemitism in Central and Eastern Europe in the wake of 1989-1990
Editor(s): Bauer, Yehuda
Date: 1991
Topics: Antisemitism, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Post-1989
Abstract: Papers delivered at a conference in Jerusalem, October 1990.

Contents:
Kulka, Otto Dov: History and Historical Prognoses (9-11);
Bauer, Yehuda: The Danger of Antisemitism in Today's Central Europe (13-24);
Benz, Wolfgang: Antisemitism in East and West Germany: Will It Increase after Reunification? (25-33);
Stern, Frank: The "Jewish Question" in the "German Question" 1945-1990: Reflections in the Light of November 9th (35- 51);
Deak, Istvan: The Danger of Antisemitism in Hungary (53-61);
Vago, Raphael: Antisemitism in the New Romania (63-74);
Gutman, Yisrael: Polish Antisemitism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Will Things Ever Change? (75-81);
Nosenko, Vladimir: The Upsurge of Antisemitism in the Soviet Union in the Years of Perestroika: Background and Causes (83-93);
Avineri, Shlomo: The Return to History and Its Consequences for the Jewish Communities in Eastern Europe (95-101);
Bauer, Yehuda: In Conclusion (103-106)
Reconstructing Jewish Communities and Jewish Identities in PostCommunist East Central Europe
Author(s): Gitelman, Zvi
Editor(s): Kovács, András; Andor, Eszter
Date: 2000
Topics: Jewish Revival, Jewish Renewal, Post-1989, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community
Jewishness and psychoanalysis - the relationship to identity, trauma and exile. An interview study
Author(s): Johansson, Per Magnus; Punzi, Elisabeth
Date: 2019
Topics: Diaspora, Emigration, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Refugees, Interviews, Ageing and the Elderly
Abstract: The relationship between psychoanalysis and Jewishness has been debated for over one hundred years and the derogatory term ”Jewish science” has been used to describe psychoanalysis. Because of the Nazi regime both Jewish and non-Jewish psychoanalysts left their homelands. In this study, aging Jewish individuals born in Central Europe and forced into exile were interviewed concerning their perceptions of psychoanalysis and Jewishness, of Jewish identity and exile. Anti-Semitism had influenced their perceptions of their work in the psychoanalytic field. The findings are discussed in relation to the current position of psychoanalysis as well as to questions of trauma and exile.
Anti-Semitism in Postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe
Author(s): Starman, Hannah
Date: 2004
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism, Post-1989
Introduction: New Jewish museums in post-communist Europe
Author(s): Gershenson, Olga; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Post-1989, Jewish Revival, Memory, Holocaust Commemoration
The constructed Jew. A pragmatic approach for defining a collective Central European image of Jews
Author(s): Gantner, Eszter B.; Kovács, Mátyás
Editor(s): Šiaučiunaitė-Verbickiene, Jurgita; Lempertienė, Larisa
Date: 2007
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Culture, Jewish Heritage, Jewish Museums, Klezmer, Jewish Music, Jewish Revival, Post-1989
Migration and Remembrance: Sounds and Spaces of Klezmer ‘Revivals’
Author(s): Ray, Larry
Date: 2010
Topics: Klezmer, Jewish Culture, Jewish Revival, Memory, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: This article discusses the cultural meanings of recent revivals in Yiddish music in the USA and central Europe. It does this with reference to Adorno’s critique of lyrical celebration of the past as a means of forgetting. It examines the criticisms that recent ‘Jewish’ cultural revivals are kitsch forms of unreflective nostalgia and considers the complexity of meanings here. It then explores the ways in which klezmer might be an aural form of memory and suggests that revivals can represent gateways into personal and collective engagement with the past. It further argues that experimental hybrid forms of new klezmer potentially open new spaces of remembrance and expressions of Jewish identity.
Identity à la Carte: Research on Jewish identities, participation and affiliation in five Eastern European countries
Author(s): Kovács, András; Ildiko, Barna; DellaPergola, Sergio; Kosmin, Barry
Date: 2011
Topics: Affiliation and Belonging, Antisemitism, Intermarriage, Israel Attachment, Surveys, Jewish Identity, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract:

This report describes the process and results of a research study on Jewish identity and community participation in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, it identifies trends among Jewish adults in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania. This two-year and wide-reaching study, examined views on religious observance, Jewish identity, anti-Semitism, Israel, Jewish knowledge, and organizational affiliation among 1,270 Jews, ages 18-60.
Reclaiming memory: Urban regeneration in the historic Jewish quarters of Central European cities
Editor(s): Murzyn-Kupisz, Monika; Purchla, Jacek
Date: 2009
Topics: Jewish Heritage, Museums, Memory, Jewish Space, Post-1989, Restitution and Reparations, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: TABLE OF CONTENTS
7 Jacek Purchla, "A world after a Catastrophe" - in search of lost memory

Witnesses in the space of memory

13 Miriam Akavia, A world before a Catastrophe. My Krakow family between the wars
21 Leopold Unger, From the "last hope" to the "last exodus"
29 Yevsei Handel, Minsk: non-revitalisation ofJewish districts and possible reasons
43 Janusz Makuch, The Jewish Culture Festival: between two worlds

Jewish heritage - dilemmas of regained memory

53 Michal Firestone, The conservation ofJewish cultural heritage as a tool for the investigation of identity
63 Ruth Ellen Gruber, Beyond virtually Jewish... balancing the real, the surreal and real imaginary places
81 Sandra Lustig, Alternatives to "Jewish Disneyland." Some approaches to Jewish history in European cities and towns
99 Magdalena Waligorska, Spotlight on the unseen: the rediscovery of little Jerusalems
117 Agnieszka Sabor, In search of identity

Jewish heritage in Central European metropolises

123 Andreas Wilke, The Spandauer Vorstadt in Berlin.15 years of urban regeneration
139 Martha Keil, A clash of times. Jewish sites in Vienna (Judenplatz, Seitenstettengasse, Tempelgasse)
163 Krisztina Keresztely, Wasting memories -gentrification vs. urban values in the Jewish neighbourhood ofBudapest
181 Arno Pah'k, The struggle to protect the monuments of Prague's Jewish Town
215 Jaroslav Klenovsky, Jewish Brno
247 Sarunas Lields, The revitalisation of Jewish heritage in Vilnius

Approaches of Polish towns and cities to the problems of revitalising Jewish cultural heritage
263 Bogustaw Szmygin, Can a world which has ceased to exist be protected? The Jewish district in Lublin
287 Eleonora Bergman, The "Northern District" in Warsaw:a city within a city?
301 Jacek Wesoiowski, The Jewish heritage in the urban space of todz - a question ofpresence
325 Agnieszka Zabtocka-Kos, In search of new ideas. Wroclaw's "Jewish district" - yesterday and today
343 Adam Bartosz, This was the Tarnow shtetl
363 Monika Murzyn-Kupisz, Reclaiming memory or mass consumption? Dilemmas in rediscovering Jewish heritage ofKrakow's Kazimierz
„Wer kann den Judentempel brauchen?” Synagogen in Mitteleuropa nach 1945
Translated Title: "Who nneds the Jews' Temple?" Synagogues in Central Europe after 1945
Date: 2015
Topics: Synagogues, Restitution and Reparations, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Post-War Reconstruction, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: 70 Jahre nach Kriegsende thematisiert die vorliegende Ausgabe von „Juden in Mitteleuropa“ unterschiedliche Aspekte der Geschichte und Gegenwart von Synagogen in Mitteleuropa, die im Nationalsozialismus beschädigt und ihrer Gemeinden beraubt wurden, deren Gebäude die Zeit jedoch überstanden haben. Die Frage nach der Nutzung leerstehender Synagogenbauten ist nach wie vor aktuell; sie stellt sich im Verhältnis zu jüdischer Geschichte und jüdischem Kulturerbe, zu den jeweiligen nationalen Erinnerungsdiskursen und nicht zuletzt im Zusammenhang mit wirtschaftlichen Überlegungen.

Der Umgang mit den verbliebenen „Leerstellen“ im Kontext der Gedenkkultur vor Ort wird an verschiedenen Beispielen erörtert, sei es das Entdecken des „jüdischen Erbes“ in ehemaligen Landgemeinden, die Rückgabe, Renovierung oder der Neubau einer Synagoge, oder aber die virtuelle Rekonstruktion, um Teile der (Stadt-)Geschichte zurück ins Bewusstsein zu holen.

Inhalt:

Philipp Mettauer
Strafsache Novemberpogrom. Der Fall St. Pölten 1949-1952
Christoph Lind
„Wer kann den Judentempel brauchen?” Die Renovierung der St. Pöltner Synagoge – ein Fallbeispiel
Georg Traska
Der zerstörte Turnertempel in Wien und das Gedächtnis seines Ortes
Gerald Lamprecht
Erinnerungszeichen – Bethaus – Lernort? Die wiedererrichtete Grazer Synagoge
Katrin Keßler/Ulrich Knufinke
Religiöse Bauwerke jüdischer Gemeinschaften als Orte der sakralen Topographie
Rebekka Denz„Die ‚Judenschul‘ im Dorf”. Vom Umgang mit Spuren jüdischen Lebens in Unterfranken
Katharina Friedla
„Wir wollen, dass unsere Gebetshäuser wieder belebt werden…“ Die Synagogen in Breslau und Krakau
Benjamin Grilj
Synagogen in Czernowitz. Die Zerstörung Jerusalems am Pruth
The Jews in East-Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union since 1989: Proceedings of an international conference at the Institute of Jewish Affairs in memory of Dr Lukasz Hirszowicz
Editor(s): Spier, Howard
Date: 1994
Topics: Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Central and East European Jewry: The Impact of Liberalization and Revolution
Author(s): Institute of Jewish Affairs
Date: 1990
Topics: Jewish Community, Jewish Culture, Antisemitism, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Reports on the development of Jewish life in Eastern and Central Europe following liberalization. Covers seven countries using specialists and reports on similar patterns: revival of Jewish cultural life, people who had denied their origins now identifying as Jews, young people discovering Jewish identity, ousting of communist era Jewish leaders, increased desire to participate in European and international Jewish activities. Also discusses antitsemitism and relations with Israel.