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A Half Century of Jewish Emigration from the Former Soviet Union
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Emigration, Aliyah, Russian-Speaking Jews
Евреи Беларуси: общий обзор
Translated Title: Jews of Belarus – a Current Picture
Author(s): Sheveliov, Dymitry
Date: 2018
Topics: Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Revival
Abstract: На протяжении почти 30 лет, прошедших после распада СССР в 1991 году, численность еврейского населения Беларуси постоянно сокращалась вследствие ассимиляции, естественной убыли (депопуляции) и особенно ‑ эмиграции из страны. Еврейские общинные организации оценивают численность еврейского населения республики на сегодняшний момент либо 9-15, либо 30-40 тысяч человек. Тем не менее, в стране действует разветвленная сеть городских, религиозных, культурных и других еврейских организаций, объединенных в три, иногда соперничающие друг с другом «зонтичные» структуры. Лоббистские возможности еврейских организаций, которые в Беларуси, в отличие от иных постсоветских республик, не находятся под опекой крупного частного бизнеса или межрегиональных еврейских объединений, ограничены и потому фактически зависят от личных связей отдельных общинных лидеров с представителями власти. Интерес широкой публики к еврейской истории и культуре; желание властей превратить еврейскую историю Беларуси в дипломатический и политический бренд и продвижение, в рамках политики развития туризма в стране, идеи международного еврейского паломничества к «сакральным иудейским объектам», по аналогии с паломничеством иудеев на Украину в период осенних праздников ‑ перспективы общинной жизни Беларуси в ближайшие годы.
Interactions: Explorations of good practice in educational work with video testimonies of victims of National Socialism
Editor(s): Dreier, Werner; Laumer, Angelika; Wein, Moritz
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Interviews, Holocaust Survivors, Oral History and Biography, Methodology, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials
Abstract: According to estimates, there are over 100,000 video testimonies with victims of National Socialism. Many of the interview archives are easily accessed, including some that are available in the Internet for free. While teachers are hesitant in making use of this treasure of source materials, learners are familiar with the figure of the eyewitness as communicated via film and television. But what can be taught with the help of what in cinematographic terms is often criticised as “talking heads”? What constitutes a good learning setting? And how do users interact with the – usually digitised – video testimonies and the collections that are often available online? In January 2017 experienced educators and researchers attended an international workshop on “Localisation of video testimonies with victims
of National Socialism in educational programmes” and discussed the question of what is good practice in this specific form of educational work. This volume is the result of that process. It provides an insight into the conceptual and practical ideas on which the various programmes are based. The book also has a focus on video testimonies presented at historical exhibitions and includes contributions from many countries, such as Belarus,
Canada, Israel, Macedonia, the Netherlands and South Africa.
Bearing Witness Over Time: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Aging in Survivors of the Holocaust in Belarus
Author(s): Spekhard, Anne
Date: 2002
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Oral History and Biography, Psychology/Psychiatry, Trauma
Abstract: This paper is a report of in-depth research interviews with Belarusian Holocaust survivors still residing in Belarus sixty years following the end of World War II on Belarusian soil, or the war that Belarusians call “The Great Patriotic War”. Forty-six subjects were interviewed for the project and eleven of these also took a Russian translated version of the Impact of Events Scale (IES-R), an objective measure of posttraumatic stress responses, which has been used the world over in posttraumatic stress research (Weiss & Marmar, 1995; Tarabrina, et al, 1993).
Репрезентация представлений о Катастрофе в исторической памяти свидетелей и их потомков (по материалам экспедиции в Бешенковичский район Витебской области Беларуси)
Translated Title: Representation of Ideas on The Shoah in The Historical Memory of Witnesses to The Catastrophe and Their Descendants. The Case of The Expedition in Beshankovichy District of Viciebsk Region of Belarus.
Author(s): Сивохин, Геннадий
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust, Memory
Abstract: On the materials of the field expedition in the Biešankovičy rajon of Vitebsk region of Belarus in 2016, dedicated to the relations between Belarusians and Jews, there was a reconstruction of the history of Shtetlekh on the basis of oral testimonies of Jewish and non-Jewish population. The tragic events of the Second World War and the Catastrophe of the Jews that took place in Belarus along with the direct inter-ethnic relations served the main object rather than the background of the research work.

According to the research results we can state that the Belarusian official discourse of the politics of memory about the Catastrophe creates a model of non-identification, denial and mitigation of certain problems of the historical memory related to this tragedy. In the Belarusian ideological rhetoric it is still spoken only about the tragedy of the Soviet people and about the national socialist policy of genocide, which was aimed at the destruction of the Slavs and other peoples. Sometimes under the “others” Jews are meant. Moreover, often in the official discourse at the highest level, the “peculiar nature” of the final solution to the question and the specific
genocide of the Jews are denied, and their “victims” are ranked together with the losses of Belarusians etc.

Though the return of the memory of the Shoah happens to be in today’s Belarus, this process is quite slow and faces a number of difficulties connected with the integration of the memory of the Belarusian and Jewish historical narratives regarding the Second World War. These difficulties of integration of the memory of the Belarusian and Jewish historical narratives regarding World War II in general and the Shoah in particular happen in the consequence of the emergence of the strategies of the “national commemoration”, in the framework of which cultural memory and the conflict of the interpretations of the Catastrophe are constructed.

Contrary to the official Belarusian politics of memory, residents of Beshankovichy, Ula and their surroundings identify the Jews as victims of the German occupation authorities. What is different about it is that this determination takes place against the background of sustainable practice of suppression or mitigation and, paradoxically, sometimes even denying of the tragedy of the Catastrophe, which came as a result of the official Soviet and post-Soviet state policies of memory that has been active for decades in the background of a traumatic experience which occurred due to the reluctance of some Belarusians to admit both guilt for the participation in the events of the Shoah and the responsibility for its consequences.
Post-Soviet Jewish Demographic Dynamics: An Analysis of Recent Data
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Editor(s): DellaPergola, Sergio; Rebhun, Uzi
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Russian Emigration
Abstract: FSU Jewish numerical dynamics and emigration are presented. The demographic characteristics of the Jews today in different FSU countries and some parts of the Russian Federation are analyzed in comparison with those of Soviet Jewry at the onset of the mass emigration of the 1990s.
Beyond the Trauma: New Perspectives for Preservation, Management and Museum Representation of Jewish Cultural Heritage in post-Soviet Cities
Author(s): Felcher, Anastasia
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Heritage
Abstract: The thesis is based on three starting points. The first is on the acknowledgement of the lamentable condition of buildings of Jewish-related heritage in cities with a multicultural past across the present-day former Soviet Union. The second is on the acknowledgement of a slow process of gradual recognition of these traces as examples of tangible heritage and a provisional resource for heritage commodification. The third is the on the acknowledgement of ‘heritage’, ‘memory’ and ‘space’ as phenomena that are subject to manipulation on various levels.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the understanding of what constitutes national heritage in the newly-appeared independent states has conformed to correspond with the interpretations and values of national histories. In managerial terms some immovable heritage of ethnic minorities has been returned to the symbolic successors of previous owners. This defined provisional sources of funding for partial renovation of this heritage, as well as its use. The remaining sites, the majority of which are monuments protected by the state, most frequently stay unattended. In order to design policy recommendations to improve the situation, a complex understanding of factors that influence heritage protection, interpretation, and promotion in the post-Soviet space is needed.
Within this state of affairs, the thesis aims to analyze agency behind 'top-down' policies and 'down-up' grass-roots initiatives towards (non)interpretation of Jewish-related heritage sites in Chişinǎu (Moldova), Odessa and L’viv (Ukraine) and Minsk (Belarus). This selection of cities is chosen to reveal the multiplicity of factors that determine apparent similarity in heritage condition and management in the post-Soviet space, but instead reveal diverse dynamics of interaction between heritage and politics; heritage and nationalism; heritage and civil society, etc.
The methodology utilized here includes archival search, participant observation, media and expert opinion analysis, as well as examination of museum exhibitions. The fieldwork included data collection on the actual condition of Jewish heritage in the cities under discussion and interviews with various agents. Elite interviews were analyzed as basis for authoritative heritage discourse before discussing actual heritage projects in these cities. Based on interdisciplinary analysis, the thesis provides an embracing overview of the broad spectrum of agency behind Jewish heritage-related initiatives (or their absence). It then offers recommendations for the advancement of managerial strategies.
Demographic Trends Among the Jews in the Three Slavic Republics of the Former USSR: A Comparative Analysis
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Editor(s): Schmelz, U O; DellaPergola, Sergio; Even, Judith
Date: 1997
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography
Abstract: This article presents voluminous demographic information on the Jews in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belorussia which was collected by Soviet population censuses and vital statistics: detailed structure by age and sex in 1959, 1970, 1979 and 1989 (Tables 1A – 3A on pp. 171-173), and annual numbers of births and deaths for the period since 1958 (Tables 4A – 5A on pp. 174-175).
Jewish Education and Its Outcomes: Knowledge and Interests among Jewish Summer Camp Participants in the former Soviet Union
Translated Title: החינוך היהודי ותפוקותיו: מה יודעים ובמה מתעניינים משתתפי מחנות הקיץ בברית המועצות לשעבר
Author(s): Epstein, Alek D.
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Education, Jewish Students, Summer/Youth Camps, Israel Education, Surveys
Abstract: The current research is based on two surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012 at nine youth camps organized for high school students’ education and recreation by the Jewish Agency for Israel in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Among the campers who responded to our survey, over two-thirds have attended Jewish schools or clubs. However, the study has shown that most respondents had a very limited knowledge of general Jewish and especially Israeli history: only under a quarter (24.7%) came up with three post-biblical names of historical Jewish figures. Recalling three meaningful names in the history of the State of Israel proved to be even more challenging: nearly half of respondents could not recall a single name (47.6%) and only 22.8% stated three relevant names. Respondents also manifested poor familiarity with the history of Russian Jewry over the last two centuries, i.e. their own cultural heritage that apparently is not transferred from parents to children in their (usually ethnically-mixed) families.
Еврейская молодежь в постсоветских странах: Институт востоковедения РАН
Translated Title: Post-Soviet Jewish Youth: Ethnic Identity, Community Life and Connections with Israel
Author(s): Ханин, ВладиМир (Зеэв); Писаревская, Дина; Эпштейн, Алек Д
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Ethnicity, Youth, Jewish Education
Abstract: Монография представляет собой попытку реконструировать модели этнического, национально-гражданского и религиозного самосознания постсоветской еврейской молодежи, с привлечением собранного авторами полевого материала. В работе рассматривается, в чем проявляется еврейская идентичность молодых людей. Внимание уделяется таким темам, как формирование этнической самоидентификации и религиозный опыт еврейской молодежи; стремление разнообразных еврейских организаций сконструировать новую еврейскую идентичность на постсоветском пространстве; стиль жизни и формы проведения досуга молодежи; система ценностей молодых людей еврейского происхождения, включая их отношение к Государству Израиль и память о Холокосте.

Впервые воедино собраны материалы восьми исследований, проведенных авторами в течение последних десяти лет, и большая часть полученных данных публикуется впервые. Это позволяет получить доступ к беспрецедентно большому массиву информации и проанализировать исследовательские вопросы более углубленно, чем это когда-либо делалось прежде.

Книга может представлять интерес для социологов, этнологов, антропологов, культурологов и специалистов по иудаике, а также для широкого круга читателей, интересующихся современными проблемами еврейства
The Jews in the Three Post-Soviet Slavic Countries: Selected Population Trends
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Editor(s): Moskovitch, Wolf; Finberg, Leonid
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Education, Ageing and the Elderly, Censuses
Abstract: The data of the recent post-Soviet censuses show that the sizable educational difference among the three Slavic countries persisted after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to the 2002 Russian census, 61.1 percent of the Jews aged 20 and over had attained higher education; for Russian Jews this percentage was higher by 1.2 and 1.5 times than for those in Ukraine and Belarus, respectively. Among younger Jews who remained in the Russian Federation I found a decrease in educational attainments as compared with older cohorts. The highest educational attainments were of Jews who received their degrees mostly in the Soviet period. Sizable differences were also found in the levels of aging and education within the Jewries of these countries.
Remembering the Holocaust on the fault lines of East and West-European memorial cultures: the new memorial complex in Trastsianets, Belarus
Author(s): Waligórska, Magdalena
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Memorials, Memory, National Identity
Abstract: The article addresses the emerging memorial spaces on the fault lines of the post-Soviet and Western memorial cultures. Taking as a case study the Memorial Complex in Trastsianets, located on the fourth biggest site of Nazi mass killing in Europe, it analyses the way Belarus revisits its memorial paradigms and factors the Holocaust into its national narrative. Looking at the political underpinnings of the project, rivaling artistic visions and the transnational diplomatic efforts involved, the article examines how different stakeholders negotiate the symbolic significance and material appearance of this major but little known Eastern European Holocaust site.
Post-Soviet Jewish Demography, 1989-2004
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Editor(s): Gitelman, Zvi; Ro'i, Yaakov
Date: 2007
Topics: Soviet Jewry, Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Censuses, Migration, Aliyah
Demography: Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and other Successor States
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2009
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Jewish Women, Demography, Soviet Jewry, Censuses, Ageing and the Elderly, Emigration, Divorce, Marriage
Post-Soviet Jewish Demographic Dynamics: An Analysis of Recent Data [Revised as of February 18, 2018]
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Censuses, Ageing and the Elderly, Aliyah, Emigration
Abstract: Results of the recent censuses of the FSU countries clearly demonstrated that Jewish demographic decline has transpired rather quickly in most of them. Our analysis shows that aging reached a very advanced level among all post-Soviet Jews, with the exception of those in Azerbaijan. Especially high indicators of aging were found in Belarus and St. Petersburg. Based on the data of Russian censuses we also found that low fertility persisted among the Jewish population. Germany and the USA ceased to be a major destination for ex-Soviet Jewish emigration as immigration rules became more stringent in these countries. At the same time, a severe economic crisis led to a great increase in emigration from Russia and Ukraine to Israel in recent years, whereas return migration, as seen in Russian data, reached its lowest level.
Bringing the Dark Past to Light The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe
Editor(s): Himka, John-Paul; Michlic, Joanna Beata
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, National Identity, Antisemitism, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust Commemoration, Jewish Revival, Post-1989, Communism, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations
Abstract: Despite the Holocaust’s profound impact on the history of Eastern Europe, the communist regimes successfully repressed public discourse about and memory of this tragedy. Since the collapse of communism in 1989, however, this has changed. Not only has a wealth of archival sources become available, but there have also been oral history projects and interviews recording the testimonies of eyewitnesses who experienced the Holocaust as children and young adults. Recent political, social, and cultural developments have facilitated a more nuanced and complex understanding of the continuities and discontinuities in representations of the Holocaust. People are beginning to realize the significant role that memory of Holocaust plays in contemporary discussions of national identity in Eastern Europe.

This volume of original essays explores the memory of the Holocaust and the Jewish past in postcommunist Eastern Europe. Devoting space to every postcommunist country, the essays in Bringing the Dark Past to Light explore how the memory of the “dark pasts” of Eastern European nations is being recollected and reworked. In addition, it examines how this memory shapes the collective identities and the social identity of ethnic and national minorities. Memory of the Holocaust has practical implications regarding the current development of national cultures and international relationships.

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
John-Paul Himka and Joanna Beata Michlic
1. "Our Conscience Is Clean": Albanian Elites and the Memory of the Holocaust in Postsocialist Albania
Daniel Perez
2. The Invisible Genocide: The Holocaust in Belarus
Per Anders Rudling
3. Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Francine Friedman
4. Debating the Fate of Bulgarian Jews during World War II
Joseph Benatov
5. Representations of the Holocaust and Historical Debates in Croatia since 1989
Mark Biondich
6. The Sheep of Lidice: The Holocaust and the Construction of Czech National History
Michal Frankl
7. Victim of History: Perceptions of the Holocaust in Estonia
Anton Weiss-Wendt
8. Holocaust Remembrance in the German Democratic Republic--and Beyond
Peter Monteath
9. The Memory of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Hungary
Part 1: The Politics of Holocaust Memory
Paul Hanebrink
Part 2: Cinematic Memory of the Holocaust
Catherine Portuges
10. The Transformation of Holocaust Memory in Post-Soviet Latvia
Bella Zisere
11. Conflicting Memories: The Reception of the Holocaust in Lithuania
Saulius Sužied<edot>lis and Šarūnas Liekis
12. The Combined Legacies of the "Jewish Question" and the "Macedonian Question"
Holly Case
13. Public Discourses on the Holocaust in Moldova: Justification, Instrumentalization, and Mourning
Vladimir Solonari
14. The Memory of the Holocaust in Post-1989 Poland: Renewal--Its Accomplishments and Its Powerlessness
Joanna B. Michlic and Małgorzata Melchior
15. Public Perceptions of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Romania
Felicia Waldman and Mihai Chioveanu
16. The Reception of the Holocaust in Russia: Silence, Conspiracy, and Glimpses of Light
Klas-Göran Karlsson
17. Between Marginalization and Instrumentalization: Holocaust Memory in Serbia since the Late 1980s
Jovan Byford
18. The "Unmasterable Past"? The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Slovakia
Nina Paulovičová
19. On the Periphery: Jews, Slovenes, and the Memory of the Holocaust
Gregor Joseph Kranjc
20. The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Ukraine
John-Paul Himka
Conclusion
Omer Bartov
Contributors
Index
Антисемитизм на постсоветском пространстве: обзор (2007–2008 гг.)
Translated Title: Anti-Semitism in the Post-Soviet Space: a Review (2007-2008)
Author(s): Лихачев, Вячеслав
Editor(s): Членов, Михаил
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Monitoring, Antisemitism
Еврейская община Беларуси в 5767 г
Translated Title: The Jewish community of Belarus in 5767
Author(s): Шевелев, Дмитрий
Editor(s): Членов, Михаил
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community
Еврейские общины Украины, Молдовы и Беларуси на рубеже 1990-2000-х гг
Translated Title: Jewish communities of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus at the turn of 1990-2000s
Author(s): Шевелёв, Дмитрий
Date: 2009
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community
Reportage: Small exhibits, major steps: four post-Soviet Jewish museums
Author(s): Felcher, Anastasia
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Memory, Post-1989, Jewish Community
Abstract: The small-scale Jewish museums in Chișinău (Moldova), Odessa (Ukraine), Lviv (Ukraine), and Minsk (Belarus) narrate the history of once flourishing Jewish communities, and document their disappearance. Their permanent collections, which consist of the private belongings that emigrating Jewish families gave them in the early 1990s, are the basis for their exhibitions. These museums opened in the early 2000s under the auspices of local Jewish cultural and charitable organizations. They are not state museums and lack a solid financial foundation and stable professional curatorial team. Much depends on the personal vision of their directors. Despite both limited exhibition space and locations not frequented by tourists, these museums are important agents of memory and identity for local Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, as well as for international visitors.
Demographic Trends Among the Jews in the Three Post-Soviet Slavic Republics
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2005
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Censuses, Fertility
Abstract: To understand the post-Soviet Jewish population trends in the three post-Soviet Slavic Republics of the former Soviet Union (FSU) we have prepared new estimates of numerical dynamics. We shall study the aging of the Jewish population in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus based on the results of the first post-Soviet censuses. Based on the results of the 2002 Russian census and special processing of birth certificates of that year we shall analyze the changing marriage pattern of the Jews and their recent fertility decline.
Overview of Immovable Property Restitution/Compensation Regime - Belarus (As of 13 December 2016)
Author(s): European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI)
Date: 2017
Topics: Holocaust Survivors, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Holocaust
Abstract: The Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study is the first-ever comprehensive
compilation of all significant legislation passed since 1945 by the 47 states that participated in
the 2009 Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference and endorsed the 2009 Terezin Declaration
that came out of the Prague conference.

The Terezin Declaration (and its companion document, the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices,
endorsed by 43 countries) focuses in substantial part on the treatment of immovable (real)
property restitution: private, communal, and heirless property. The Study examined private,
communal, and heirless property as discrete components of each country’s restitution efforts
from 1944 to 2016.

Belarus endorsed the Terezin Declaration in 2009 but did not endorse the 2010 Guidelines and
Best Practices.
As part of the European Shoah Legacy Institute’s Immovable Property Restitution Study, a
Questionnaire covering past and present restitution regimes for private, communal and heirless
property was sent to all 47 Terezin Declaration governments in 2015. As of 13 December 2016,
no response from Belarus has been received.
Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study
Author(s): European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI)
Date: 2017
Topics: Holocaust Survivors, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations
Abstract: The Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study is the first-ever comprehensive
compilation of all significant legislation passed since 1945 by the 47 states that participated in
the 2009 Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference and endorsed the 2009 Terezin Declaration
that came out of the Prague conference.

The Terezin Declaration (and its companion document, the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices,
endorsed by 43 countries) focuses in substantial part on the treatment of immovable (real)
property restitution: private, communal, and heirless property. The Study examined private,
communal, and heirless property as discrete components of each country’s restitution efforts
from 1944 to 2016.
Mixed Marriage and Post-Soviet Aliyah
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2005
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Intermarriage, Demography, Aliyah
Abstract: This paper is a study of 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 was paid to the offspring of mixed couples and their ethnic affiliation. The relatively high proportion of non-Jews in the migration movement to Israel (aliyah) from the FSU as a consequence of mixed marriage was also examined.
The Post-Soviet Jewish Emigration
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2001
Topics: Demography, Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Aliyah, Russian Emigration, Emigration
Abstract: A new stage in the demography of (post-) Soviet Jewry began in 1989 when mass emigration of the
Jews from the former Soviet Union (FSU) dramatically exacerbated the already unfavorable population
dynamics. During this period, emigration became the main reason for the rapid demographic decline of FSU
Jewry. Most of this movement was directed toward Israel, a very unusual north-to-south geographical
direction, whereas the rest was divided mostly between the US and Germany. Based on the statistics of FSU
countries, as well as statistics of countries of destination, we can develop a rather detailed pic ture of the
Jewish recent mass emigration and population decline.
Antisemitism in FSU - 2014
Author(s): Likhachev, Vyacheslav
Date: 2015
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Monitoring, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Antisemitism in Post-Soviet Territory: A Concise Overview (2009-2010)
Author(s): Likhachev, Vyacheslav
Date: 2010
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Monitoring, Hate crime, Holocaust Denial, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Jewish Heritage and the New Belarusian National Identity Project
Author(s): Waligórska, Magdalena
Date: 2016
Topics: Jewish Heritage, Jewish Museums, Nationalism, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: Focusing on three contemporary grassroots initiatives of preserving Jewish heritage and commemorating Jews in Belarus, namely, the Jewish Museum in Minsk, Ada Raǐchonak’s private museum of regional heritage in Hermanovichi, and the initiative of erecting the monument of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in Hlybokae, the present article discusses how local efforts to commemorate Jews and preserve Jewish heritage tap into the culture of political dissent, Belarus’s international relations, and the larger project of redefining the Belarusian national identity. Looking at the way these memorial interventions frame Jewish legacy within a Belarusian national narrative, the article concentrates in particular on the institution of the public historian and the small, informal social networks used to operate under a repressive regime. Incorporating the multicultural legacy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into the canon of Belarusian national heritage and recognizing the contribution of ethnic minorities to the cultural landscape of Belarus, new memory projects devoted to Jewish history in Belarus mark a caesura in the country’s engagement with its ethnic Others and are also highly political. While the effort of filling in the gaps in national historiography and celebrating the cultural diversity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania overlaps in significant ways with the agenda of the anti-Lukashenka opposition, Jewish heritage in Belarus also resonates with the state authorities, who seek to instrumentalize it for their own vision of national unity.
Еврейское население бывшего СССР в ХХ веке: (социально-демографический анализ).
Translated Title: Jewish Population of the Former Soviet Union in 20th Century (Socio-Demographic Analysis)
Author(s): Konstantinov, Viacheslav
Date: 2007
Topics: Demography, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
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.
Survey Results: General Assembly Budapest 2004
Date: 2004
Topics: Jewish Organisations, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Surveys, Jewish Leadership, Antisemitism, Affiliation and Belonging, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This survey was given to participants in the 3rd General Assembly of European Jewry, which was held in Budapest in May 2004. Participants were asked how many Jews participate in community programs in their respective cities; the programs and activities their Jewish community offers; and how they believe their community could be more effective in attracting more members.
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
Compass 09/10: Directions in European Jewish Life
Date: 2009
Topics: Fundraising and Philanthropy, Social Entrepeneurs, Jewish Organisations, Jewish Community, Jewish Heritage, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: An initiative of the Westbury Group, a network of more than 20 international foundations with a shared interest in enhancing Jewish life in Europe, Compass reflects the breadth and depth of Jewish activity across the cultural, historical and religious spectrums of European Jewish life in 15 countries.

This directory – the first of its kind to focus on European Jewry, including the FSU – will introduce, enlighten and inform its readers about some of the exciting Jewish projects taking place in cities and towns all over Europe. The 36 organisations and programmes featured in this first edition of Compass reflect the breadth and depth of communities that are innovative, creative, effective and most importantly, sustainable.
European Jewish Digest: April 2015
Author(s): Goldstein, Richard
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Other
Abstract: JPR’s monthly European Jewish digest provides a concise look at some of the major events impacting on Jewish life around Europe.
Sources for the Demographic Study of the Jews in the Former Soviet Union
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Editor(s): Rebhun, Uzi
Date: 2014
Topics: Demography, Bibliography and Literature Reviews, Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Censuses, Aliyah, Migration, Soviet Jewry
Abstract: The article shows that demographic study of the Jews in the Former Soviet Union has a long and well established tradition based on the very rich amount of data: i.e., vital and migration statistics, and census results. The analysis started from an overview of the Tsarist and Soviet statistical legacies. However, most of the attention is focused on findings of the last quarter century. The study examines both the role of the Soviet internal passport which, because it listed ethnicity, was the basis for Jewish statistics, and the consequences of the elimination of compulsory ethnic identification in the post-Soviet Slavic countries.
The Jewish Population of the USSR on the Eve of the Great Exodus
Author(s): Konstantinov, Viacheslav
Date: 1991
Topics: Demography, Soviet Jewry, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Spiritual Potential of the Communal Revival: Yiddish Culture and Post-Soviet Jewry
Author(s): Chernin, Velvl
Date: 2002
Topics: Yiddish, Aliyah, Jewish Culture, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: Even though Yiddish as a spoken language will most likely disappear in the former Soviet Union, it will still be needed as a symbol of Jewish identity – one that is not overtly Zionist or religious. Yiddish, with its rich culture and literature, can be utilized to help Jews reconnect with their roots. In Israel, older immigrants, whose knowledge of Yiddish is not fluent, and who are unable to master Hebrew, employ Yiddish in order to communicate. Zionist Yiddishism has become one of the ideological components in the identity of immigrants from the former USSR, and enables them to link up with some form of Jewish culture as they integrate into the life of Israel.
Institutionalization of the Post-Communist Jewish Movement: Organizational Structures, Ruling Elites, and Political Conflicts
Author(s): Khanin, Vladimir Zeev
Date: 2002
Topics: Jewish Organisations, Jewish Leadership, Power, Jewish Politics, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Soviet Jews endured administrative, political, and societal anti-Semitism for years, and by the early 1960s the rich political tradition of Eastern European Jewry had been almost totally lost. In the post-Soviet period, a Jewish institutional infrastructure began to appear and develop, leading to the political advancement of a Jewish communal elite. However, the political institutionalization of the Jewish movement has become somewhat controversial and there is still some unfinished business as to its ultimate character.
Yiddish in the Former Soviet Union since 1959: A Statistical-Demographic Analysis
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2012
Topics: Censuses, Demography, Yiddish, Language, Statistics, Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Post-War Jewish History
Abstract:

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.

This paper was presented at the conference "Yiddish in the Contemporary World" at Oxford, 19-21 April 1998, and revised in May 2012.
Identity, Assimilation and Revival: Ethno-Social Processes within the Jewish Population of the Former Soviet Union / זהות, התבוללות ותחִיה: תהליכים אתנו-חברתיים בקרב האוכלוסיה היהודית בברית המועצות לשעבר
Author(s): Khanin, Ze'ev; Chernin, Velvl
Date: 2007
Topics: Assimilation, Demography, Care and Welfare, Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Drs. Khanin and Chernin address basic questions regarding Jewish life in the FSU states at present and in the future. A major issue they focused on was this: under current socio-economic and political circumstances in Eastern Europe, many intermarried Jews together with their non-Jewish partners choose to maintain ties with Jewish communities and to take advantage of their educational, information, cultural and welfare services. Consequently, most local Jewish leaders regard this group as a target population for their communal activity. Accordingly, such activity is directed in fact at all those to whom the Israeli Law of Return applies, and sometimes even to those are not included in this category (4th generation members married to non-Jewish spouses, for example).

Some of the questions raised by the center’s researchers were:
1. How significant is the size of this group?
2. Can it be regarded as a human reservoir for Jewish activity?
3. Does this activity contribute to the formation of Jewish or semi-Jewish identity among offspring of mixed-married couples and among the non-Jewish members of their families, and to the evolution of behavioral models that can be interpreted as “post assimilatory” behavior?
In order to address these questions, a vast and diverse body of data was amassed. The authors did not relay only upon existing data but set out on an empirical exploration. They have conducted interviews in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Sertov, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Birobidjan, Tomsk, Petrozavodsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhni Novgorod, Kazan, Vladimir, Riazen, Tula, Rostov, Piatigorsk, Nalchik, Kiev, Daniepropetrovsk, Odessa, Zaporozhieh, and a number of towns in Belarus and Latvia.

The compelling findings of the research indicate an interesting variety of sub-populations in the vast group called “FSU Jewry”. Specific planning based on the distinctive characteristics and the features of each group can serve as the basis for well-tuned action plans aimed at the strengthening of the Jewish future of each specific sector.


ד"ר חנין וד"ר צ'רנין מעלים במחקרם שאלות יסוד אודות הקיום היהודי בארצות חבר העמים לשעבר, כיום ובעתיד. נושא מרכזי שבו התמקדו היה זה: בתנאים החברתיים-כלכליים והפוליטיים הקיימים במזרח אירופה בימינו, מעדיפים רבים מבני נישואי תערובת, הן בן הזוג היהודי הן בן הזוג הלא-יהודי, ועמם בני המשפחה המעורבים, להיות קשורים לקהילות יהודיות ולהסתייע בשירותיהן בתחומי החינוך, המידע, התרבות והרווחה. עקב כך, רוב המנהיגים היהודיים המקומיים רואים בקבוצה זו "קבוצות יעד" לפעילות הקהילתית. בהתאם לכך, פעילות זו מופנית בפועל לכל זכאי חוק השבות הישראלי, ולעתים אף לאוכלוסיה החורגת מגבולות המוגדר בחוק זה (כגון בני הדור הרביעי לנישואי תערובת).

במחקרם, שאלו החוקרים את השאלות הבאות:
א. עד כמה משמעותי הוא היקפה של קבוצה זו?
ב. האמנם ניתן לראות בה עתודה לפעילות יהודית?
ג. האם פעילות זו תורמת לעיצוב זהות יהודית או כעין-יהודית אצל צאצאי נישואי תערובת ובני משפחה לא-יהודיים של בתי אב מעורבים, ולבניית דגמי התנהגות חברתית שניתן לפרשם כ"בתר-התבוללות"?
כדי להשיב על שאלות אלו, נאספו נתונים מרובים ומגוונים. החוקרים לא הסתפקו בנתונים קיימים, אלא יצאו לשטח כדי לבדוק את הנתונים באופן ישיר. הם ערכו ראיונות במקומות אלו: מוסקבה, סנט פטרבורג, יקטרינבורג, סמרה, סרטוב, נובוסיבירסק, אירקוטסק, חברובסק, בירוביג'אן, טומסק, פטרוזבודסק, צ'ליאבינסק, ניז'ני נובגורוד, קאזן, ולדימיר, ריאזן, טולא, רוסטוב, פיאטיגורסק, נלצ'יק, קייב, דנייפרופטרובסק, אודסה, זאפורוז'יה, וכן כמה ערים בביילורוסיה ובלטביה.

ממצאי המחקר מצביעים על מגוון מעניין של אוכלוסיות-מִשנה בתוך הקבוצה הגדולה המכונה 'יהדות חבר העמים'. תכנון ממוקד, המתבסס על מאפיינים ייחודיים של כל קבוצה, עשוי להוות בסיס לתכניות פעולה ממוקדות, שתכליתן חיזוק עתידו היהודי של כל מגזר ספציפי.
Jewish Education and Its Outcomes: Knowledge and Interests among Jewish Summer Camp Participants in the Former Soviet Union
Translated Title: החינוך היהודי ותפוקותיו: מה יודעים ובמה מתעניינים משתתפי מחנות הקיץ בברית המועצות לשעבר
Author(s): Epstein, Alek D.
Date: 2013
Topics: Summer/Youth Camps, Jewish Youth, Main Topic: Education
Abstract: The current research is based on two surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012 at nine youth camps organized for high school students’ education and recreation by the Jewish Agency for Israel in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Among the campers who responded to our survey, over two-thirds have attended Jewish schools or clubs. However, the study has shown that most respondents had a very limited knowledge of general Jewish and especially Israeli history: only under a quarter (24.7%) came up with three post-biblical names of historical Jewish figures. Recalling three meaningful names in the history of the State of Israel proved to be even more challenging: nearly half of respondents could not recall a single name (47.6%) and only 22.8% stated three relevant names. Respondents also manifested poor familiarity with the history of Russian Jewry over the last two centuries, i.e. their own cultural heritage that apparently is not transferred from parents to children in their (usually ethnically-mixed) families.
Антисемитизм на постсоветском пространстве: краткий обзор (2009–2010)
Translated Title: Antisemitism in the Former Soviet Union: An Overview (2009-2010)
Author(s): Likhachev, Vyacheslav
Date: 2010
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Monitoring, Hate crime, Holocaust Denial, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Еврейский вопрос в современной Беларуси
Translated Title: The Jewish question in modern Belarus
Author(s): Basin, Yakov
Date: 2010
Topics: Antisemitism, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Mixed Marriage and Post-Soviet Aliyah
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Editor(s): Reinharz, Shulamit; DellaPergola, Sergio
Date: 2009
Topics: Intermarriage, Aliyah, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: 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
European Jewish identity at the dawn of the 21 century: A working paper
Author(s): Graham, David
Date: 2004
Topics: Jewish Identity, Ethnicity, Jewish Revival, Secularity, Holocaust, Censuses, Surveys, Demography, Research, Methodology, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: David Graham's important study argues that contemporary Jewish identity has been heavily shaped by three key developments: the rise and fall of Communism; the Holocaust; and the increasing secularisation of European society. It notes that existing social research demonstrates a revival of Jewish life in Europe that, whilst heavily influenced by the various broader cultures in which it is located, nevertheless shows striking similarities across national boundaries.

As well as listing and referencing the major studies conducted on different European Jewish communities, it calls for a more unified approach to Jewish social research in Europe, and the collation of key sources into a centralised databank.
Jewish Life in Belarus During the Past Decade
Author(s): Zajka, Vital
Date: 1993
Topics: Jewish Revival, Jewish Culture, Demography, Antisemitism, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community
The Emigration Potential of Jews in the Former Soviet Union
Author(s): Brym, Robert J.
Date: 1993
Topics: Emigration, Immigration, Aliyah, Antisemitism, Surveys, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Soviet Dis-Union and the Fragmenting of Self: Implications for the Emigrating Jewish Family
Author(s): Markowitz, Fran
Date: 1994
Topics: Immigration, Emigration, Aliyah, Family and Household, Children, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Post-Soviet Jewry in Search of Identity: The Case of Belarus
Author(s): Zajka, Vital
Date: 1994
Topics: Jewish Revival, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Jews in the 1989 USSR Census
Author(s): Heitman, Sidney
Date: 1990
Topics: Censuses, Demography, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
The Jews of Moscow, Kiev and Minsk: Identity, Assimilation and Emigration
Author(s): Brym, Robert J.
Date: 2008
Topics: Antisemitism, Jewish Perceptions of Antisemitism, Emigration, Immigration, Aliyah, Demography, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This is a slightly revised web edition of the 1994 book of the same name, produced 'with the assistance of' Rozalina Ryvkina and published by Macmillan Press and the Institute of Jewish Affairs. The book reports the results of some of the first surveys conducted on Jews in the FSU. Topics discussed include emigration, antisemitism, Jewish identity and demography. Author's most recent views on the subject can be found in RUS2