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Curricular Choices of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities: Translating International Human Rights Law to Education Policy
Author(s): Perry-Hazan, Lotem
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews
Abstract: This paper employs the provisions of international human rights law in order to analyse whether and how liberal states should regulate Haredi educational practices, which sanctify the exclusive focus on religious studies in schools for boys. It conceptualises the conflict between the right to acceptable education and the right to adaptable education in international human rights law, and analyses four case studies of Haredi education that exemplify different socio-legal approaches towards this conflict. The case studies show how education laws are transformed along the cogwheels of education policy, in which there are plural normative orders and many agents who implement them. Based on the case studies, I suggest that policies providing financial incentives for implementing educational standards may facilitate the realisation of the right to acceptable education in Haredi schools more than policies devised to enforce this right. I also suggest stipulations for effective conditional-funding policies.
'I Didn't Know How to Be with My Husband': State-Religion Struggles over Sex Education in Israel and England
Author(s): Taragin-Zeller, Lea; Kasstan, Ben
Date: 2020
Topics: Sex Education, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Main Topic: Other, Education
Abstract: Sex education presents a major dilemma for state‐minority relations, reflecting a conflict between basic rights to education and religious freedom. In this comparative ethnography of informal sex education among ultra‐Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in Israel and England, we frame the critical difference between “age‐appropriate” and “life‐stage” (marriage and childbirth) models of sex education. Conceptualizing these competing approaches as disputes over “knowledge responsibility,” we call for more context‐specific understandings of how educational responsibilities are envisioned in increasingly diverse populations.
Les élèves face à la Shoah. Lieux, histoire, voyages
Editor(s): Fijalkow, Jacques; Fijalkow, Ygal
Date: 2012
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Education, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Educational Tours, Youth
Abstract: Cet ouvrage dirigé par Jacques et Ygal Fijalkow découle du colloque qui s'est tenu en 2011 à Lacaune sur le thème des voyages de mémoire de la Shoah (colloque soutenu par la Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah). Enseignants, personnels des musées mémoriaux, témoins de la Shoah, acteurs institutionnels, experts et universitaires y livrent leurs regards et leurs analyses sur les voyages d'étude sur la Shoah.

Enseigner la Shoah n’est pas chose facile. Tous les enseignants le savent. Dans le souci de développer des formes nouvelles d’enseignement, certains ont trouvé une solution : sortir de la classe et aller avec leurs élèves sur des lieux de mémoire. Cette façon de faire, dans un contexte de développement des voyages en général, est en plein développement.Du côté des pouvoirs publics, la formule a plu et les soutiens arrivent de sorte que le nombre de voyages augmente d’année en année. Le succès aidant, un débat est né : qu’apportent véritablement ces voyages de mémoire aux élèves qui y participent ?

C’est sur cette toile de fond que cet ouvrage a été rédigé. On y trouvera des éclairages sur ce qu’apportent les institutions spécialisées dans ce domaine. On pourra y voir également comment les choses se passent, aussi bien lors de la préparation que sur les lieux de mémoire eux-mêmes. Et ceci en France mais aussi chez nos voisins anglais, belges, espagnols, italiens, suisses, ainsi qu’en Israël. Le cas d’Auschwitz est privilégié, mais d’autres lieux sont également examinés.
The persistence of nostalgia? When Poles miss their Jews and Israelis yearn for Europe
Author(s): Popescu, Diana I.
Date: 2013
Topics: Israeli Expatriates, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Jewish Culture, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory
Abstract: The relevance of nostalgia and memory in the constitution of identity narratives of individuals and nation states is a well-documented phenomenon. Yet little is known about the function of nostalgia in the context of Israeli and Polish relations. The Holocaust experience has changed in dramatic ways how Jews and Poles relate to the category of nostalgia. In this essay Swetlana Boym’s distinction between ‘reflective nostalgia’ and ‘restorative nostalgia’ will serve as a starting point for a discussion about the function of nostalgia in the works of Israeli artist Yael Bartana and Polish artist Rafał Betlejewski, and about its role in facilitating the formation of new perceptions of the self and of the other and of new understandings of homelands.
Altérité "chez soi" : la migration et l'intégration des Juifs français en Israël cette dernière décennie
Translated Title: Otherness "at home": the migration and integration of French Jews in Israel over the past decade
Author(s): Raviv, Noga
Topics: Aliyah, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: Malgré la conception du « retour » caractérisant l‟installation des Juifs français en Israël, leur intégration
requière une réelle adaptation. Leurs divergences avec la société d‟accueil les ont même menés ces dernières
années à rechercher un « entre-soi », qu‟ils avaient pour la plupart déjà développé en France. Cette
« diaspora » en Israël leur a permis de se rassembler autour d‟une condition similaire, dans un attachement
fort à leur double appartenance. Ils ont recréé ainsi une « identité collective déterritorialisée » (Martiniello,
2007), au croisement identitaire entre leur pays d‟accueil et d‟origine. Cette « nationalité portable »
(Anderson, 1996) rompt en quelque sorte avec la vision traditionnelle reliant la diaspora et Israël dans
l‟imaginaire juif. Dans un contexte d‟hyper-mobilité et de pluri-appartenance, la différence entre les Juifs
d‟Israël et ceux de la diaspora pourrait se révéler davantage par les références identitaires que par le lieu de
résidence.
Jews in Russia and Russians in Israel
Author(s): Fedorova, Marina
Editor(s): Biagioli, Mario; Lépinay, Vincent Antonin
Date: 2019
Topics: Aliyah, Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration
Traveling Jews, Creating Memory: Eastern Europe, Israel, and the Diaspora Business
Author(s): Aviv, Caryn; Shneer, David
Editor(s): Gerson, Judith M.; Wolf, Diane L.
Date: 2007
Topics: Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Jewish Heritage, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Diaspora, Memory, Educational Tours, Tourism
The Roles of Judeo-Arabic in France and Israel: A Preliminary Sociolinguistic Comparison
Author(s): Henshke, Yehudit
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Linguistics, Language, Humour, North African Jewry
Abstract: This article, which is based on field research in France and Israel, explores the sociolinguistic role of Judeo-Arabic among Jews of North African extraction in France as compared to Israel. Its focus is on this sector in France, and the Israeli context serves as its backdrop. Among the topics discussed are: the speakers’ attitude toward Judeo-Arabic, and the limited use of Judeo-Arabic in France, alongside the individual categories in which Judeo-Arabic has been better preserved in France. Also examined were the strategies that influence the use of idioms and aphorisms in France and the role of Judeo-Arabic in Israeli, but not in French, humor. Examination of the Hebrew communal tradition elicited an intriguing insight. This consideration clearly showed that whereas features of Hebrew (like pharyngeals) could be preserved by Jews of North African origins in France, the same characteristics were no longer preserved in their Judeo-Arabic.
Comment les petits-enfants de Juifs Polonais qui ont traversé l’Holocauste et l’immigration perçoivent leur histoire familiale et leur identité
Translated Title: How the grand-children of polish Jews who went through the Holocaust and immigration perceive their family story and their identity
Author(s): Oppenheim-Gluckman, Hélène; Oppenheim, Daniel
Date: 2011
Topics: Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Oral History and Biography, Age and Generational Issues, Jewish Identity
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to better know how adult grand-children perceive their family history when their grand-parents have gone through major ordeals such as Holocaust and exile; what consequences these events and the way they have been transmitted have on their sense of identity and on their choices in their life. The grandchildren show a great diversity in the way they perceive their family history, their heritage, their identity, and they build their own life. Their grandparents who have gone through the Holocaust and immigration have transmitted trauma, sometimes a long lasting one, but also positive values and complex identity landmarks. Comparisons between these findings in France and Israel and those in other countries – such as Germany –, but also with those who have remained in Poland would be particularly interesting.
Jews and Coronavirus
Author(s): Staetsky, Daniel L.
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Health, Demography, Coronavirus/Covid
Abstract: In this short essay, JPR Senior Research Fellow and Director of our European Jewish Demography Unit, Dr Daniel Staetsky, explores why Jews may be rather less vulnerable to coronavirus than average.
Who went where? Jewish immigration from the Former Soviet Union to Israel, the USA and Germany, 1990–2000
Author(s): Cohen, Yinon; Haberfeld, Yitchak; Kogan, Irena
Date: 2011
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Immigration
Abstract: Drawing on Israeli, German and US census data, we compare the educational levels of Jewish immigrants (and their non-Jewish family members) from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) arriving in Israel, Germany, and the US during 1990–2000. The comparison of educational levels among immigrants arriving in the three countries can be viewed as a ‘natural experiment’ in immigrants' destination options, whereby immigrants could choose two countries with practically no visa restriction (Israel and Germany) and one country (USA) with visa requirements. Drawing on Borjas' theory of self-selection, the paper discusses the relative attractiveness of the three countries to various types of immigrants, expecting highly educated immigrants to prefer destinations where returns on skills are higher. The findings support theoretical expectations: highly educated migrants were more likely to move to the US, where the labour market is more flexible and returns on skills are higher than in Israel or Germany.
“It took me a few years until I understood that I am, as a matter of fact, Jewish”: The third generation (writ small) going large as a generaction
Author(s): Kranz, Dani
Editor(s): Rebentisch, Jost; Dymczyk, Adina; Fehlberg, Thorsten
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Trauma, Memory, Age and Generational Issues
Trauma, Resilience, and Empowerment: Descendants of Survivors of Nazi Persecution
Editor(s): Rebentisch, Jost; Dymczyk, Adina; Fehlberg, Thorsten
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Trauma, Memory, Restitution and Reparations, Age and Generational Issues
Abstract: As is well known, traumata can be passed from one generation to the next; and hardly any other group is so affected by this phenomenon as the descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis. Yet, how exactly does this transfer take place? What role do family traditions and continued social practices play? Might genetics play a role? Furthermore, can this cycle at all be broken?

The descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis can draw on unique resources and skills. They make significant contributions to political and social confrontations with the Nazi era, and they work for the welfare of the survivors. Many are active in political education and advocate for an appropriate culture of remembrance. In a time of increasing right-wing populism, their views are indispensable.
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
Haredi Women, Haredi Men, Stress and Distress / Commentary: Haredi Women, Haredi Men: From London to Jerusalem?
Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; Goldblatt, Vivienne; Lubitsch, Guy
Date: 1998
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Mental Health, Psychology/Psychiatry, Interviews, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Comparative Studies
Abstract: This report examines data from interviews with 179 strictly-orthodox Jews living in London. The impetus was a debate in this journal on the question whether men or women in the strictly-orthodox (haredi) community are more stressed. Many of the observations made in this journal on the quality of life among haredi men and women in Israel were borne out among the strictly-orthodox London Jews interviewed. Quantitatively, severe stress and clinical levels of depression and anxiety were similar among the men and women studied, but women had overall more eventful lives than men, and were more likely to suffer from borderline depression and anxiety - though these differences were only marginally significant. It is suggested that the London sample studied were probably similar to haredim in Israel, and that the findings might therefore be applicable.
The Israeli Diaspora in Berlin: Back to Being Jewish?
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Israeli Expatriates, Diaspora, Ethnography, Emigration, Immigration
Abstract: In this ethnographic essay, I reflect on the origins and present condition of the new (post-2010) Israeli diaspora in Berlin. Based on 10 months of participant observation, I map out the main sub-streams of this emigration; elicit the economic, professional, and political reasons for leaving Israel; and explore these émigrés’ initial encounter with German society. My observations suggest that many Israeli residents of Berlin (mostly secular) rediscover their Jewishness along diasporic lines and forge ties with the local religious and community organizations. Being a small minority in the German-speaking milieu, Israelis invest in building their own Hebrew-based community networks, including media outlets and cultural and educational institutions. Lastly, I explore these émigrés’ ties with Israel and conclude that many Israelis in Berlin are sojourners rather than immigrants and that Berlin is but one phase in their life journey.
Les jours du Messie
Translated Title: The days of the Messiah
Author(s): Podselver, Laurence
Editor(s): Aubin-Boltanski, Emma; Gautier, Claude
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Aliyah, Baal Teshuvah, Chabad-Lubavitch
Circumcising the body: negotiating difference and belonging in Germany
Author(s): Dekel, Irit; Forchtner, Bernhard; Efe, Ibrahim
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Circumcision / Brit Milah, Newspapers, Magazines and Periodicals, Media, National Identity, Islam, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Body
Abstract: The circumcision debate in Germany in 2012 is an exemplary case for symbolic struggles over national boundaries. The debate became a site for the negotiation of traditions practiced by religious minorities. We ask, first, how the clinical gaze constitutes Muslim and Jewish others. Second, we investigate how ‘writing around’ the debate’s center, bodily integrity, became meaningful through analogies to other practices said to harm it. We compare newspaper coverage in Germany, Israel and Turkey, and reveal transnational discursive dynamics that transgress national boundaries. We show how ‘otherness’ of Muslims and Jews remains present in a self-perceived secular, liberal imaginary.
From Testimony to Story. Video Interviews about Nazi Crimes. Perspectives and Experiences in four Countries
Editor(s): Knellessen, Dagi; Bachmann, Ralf
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Interviews, Holocaust Survivors, Oral History and Biography, Methodology, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Education
Abstract: The stories of Holocaust survivors and others who were persecuted by the Nazis are an invaluable resource for understanding what effect persecution had on victims and how they dealt with this experience over time. In recent
decades, researchers in many countries began videotaping contemporary witnesses as they told their stories, allowing their voices to be heard, when personal encounters are no longer possible. In the interviews, biographical
narratives and personal memories are used to document the mass crimes committed by the Nazis and also to illuminate how survivors processed these memories in their lifetime.

This multi-faceted historical source poses special challenges to educational work. This volume reflects international developments, trends and debates about the videotaped contemporary witness interviews and their digital
archives. Different interview collections and educational approaches from Israel, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany are presented. These essays document the exchange that took place between education experts from
these four countries as part of the series Entdecken und Verstehen. Bildungsarbeit mit Zeugnissen von Opfern des Nationalsozialismus (“Discovering and Understanding: Educational Work with Testimonials from Victims of
National Socialism”) that was initiated and organized by the Foundation EVZ in 2010 and 2011.
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.
The Struggle for Justice: A Survey of Child Holocaust Survivors’ Experiences with Restitution
Author(s): Moskovitz, Sarah; Krell, Robert; Moskovitz, Itzik; Askren, Arietta
Editor(s): Roth, John K.; Maxwell, Elizabeth; Levy, Margot; Whitworth, Wendy
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust, Restitution and Reparations, Trauma, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Surveys, Holocaust Survivors
Abstract: One and a half million children and adolescents were murdered during the Holocaust. Throughout Europe, thousands of children were hidden. They had the best chance of surviving. Very few children survived concentration camps. From 1938 to 1945, children fled (as in the Kindertransport from Germany and Austria), others hid in cellars, forests, orphanages, convents and with Christian families. By the war’s end, the majority of child survivors under age 16 had been orphaned. Many were entirely alone.
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.
Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk
Author(s): Jaspal, Rusi
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Discourse, Interviews, Anti-Zionism, Media, Psychology
Abstract: Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are complex, delineable, yet inter-related social-psychological phenomena. While antisemitism has been described as an irrational, age-old prejudice, anti-Zionism is often represented as a legitimate response to a ’rogue state’. Drawing upon media and visual sources and rich interview data from Iran, Britain and Israel, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk examines the concepts of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, tracing their evolution and inter-relations, and considering the distinct ways in which they are manifested, and responded to, by Muslim and Jewish communities in Iran, Britain and Israel. Providing insights from social psychology, sociology and history, this interdisciplinary analysis sheds light on the pivotal role of the media, social representations and identity processes in shaping antisemitism and anti-Zionism. As such, this provocative book will be of interest to social scientists working on antisemitism, race and ethnicity, political sociology and political science, media studies and Middle Eastern politics.
Europe, Israel, the Jewish Communities, and Growing Antisemitism
Author(s): Glöckner, Olaf
Editor(s): Ben-Rafael, Eliezer; Schoeps, Julius H.; Sternberg, Yitzhak; Glöckner, Olaf
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Antisemitism, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Attitudes to Israel, Israel Criticism, Anti-Zionism
Choosing One or Being Both: The Identity Dilemmas of Russian-Jewish Mixed Ethnics Living in Russia and in Israel
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Intermarriage, Migration, Aliyah, Integration, Interviews
Abstract: A large share of Russian/Soviet Jews, especially among younger cohorts, are descendants of intermarriage. In this essay, I reflect on the implications of the built-in ambivalence of these mixed ethnics, comparing their identity qualms and social strategies in their native Russia and after migration to Israel. My analysis draws upon participant observation and interviews conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and across Israel over the last 20 years. My theoretical anchors are recent discussions on the evolving nature of Jewish identity, formed at the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and culture, in the context of ongoing intermarriage and assimilation. The comparison between the (ex-)Soviet and Israeli context underscores the role of local social constructions of ethno-religious belonging, nationalism, and citizenship as synergistic forces in shaping social locations of mixed ethnics. It also sheds light on the tactics of adjustment and “passing” among individuals with ambivalent ethnic identities who experience rapid social transformation or migration.
Perpetual Diaspora, Changing Homelands: The Construction of Russian-Speaking Jews as a Diaspora of Both Israel and Russia
Author(s): Ben-Porat, Illa
Date: 2011
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Diaspora, Nationalism, National Identity
Abstract: This article considers the interrelationship between a homeland and its diasporic communities from the point of view of the homeland. In particular, it examines the policies adopted by Russia and Israel toward the same group; that is, the Russian-speaking Jews who have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The article demonstrates how the construction of this migrant population as diasporic community of the “homeland” gives rise to unexpected challenges to the symbolic definition of the “nation.” These challenges add a new perspective in this regard, rendering tenuous the claim of the nation to primordiality, constancy, and coherence.
Conversions au judaïsme et institutionnalité juive : une sociologie comparée du pluralisme religieux dans le judaïsme contemporain (Israël, France, Argentine, Etats-Unis)
Translated Title: Conversions to judaism and jewish institutionality: A compared sociology of religious pluralism in contemporary judaism (Israel, France, Argentina and United States)
Author(s): Tank-Storper, Sébastien
Date: 2003
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Organisations, Conversion, Intermarriage, Pluralism
Abstract: Environ 90% des demandes de conversion adressées aujourd'hui aux institutions juives émanent de conjoints non juifs de "couples mixtes" désirant homogénéiser religieusement leur famille. Cela pose un double problème aux institutions: tout d'abord, selon la Halakha, ne peut être accepté qu'un candidat qui ne désire pas se convertir pour obtenir un bénéfice de sa conversion. Ensuite, cela pose la question de la réponse institutionnelle à la transgression: l'exogamie étant interdite par le judaïsme, faut-il repousser les déviants en refusant de régulariser a posteriori leur situation en convertissant le conjoint ou au contraire opter pour plus de tolérance et les intégrer? Ce dossier permet ainsi d'interroger les modalités de construction de l'autorité rabbinique et des institutions dans un contexte où ces derniers peinent de plus en plus à imposer leurs normes à des fidèles revendiquant leur autonomie.
Jewish Hungarian in Hungary and Israel
Author(s): Rosenhouse, Judith
Editor(s): Hary, Benjamin; Benor`, Sarah Bunin
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Language, Linguistics
National Perspectives on Jews at Work: Contrasting Australia, France, Israel, and the UK
Author(s): Klarsfeld, Alain; Bebbington, Diana; Kay, Avi; Taksa, Lucy; Guo, Fei; Mendes, Philip
Editor(s): Syed, Jawad; Klarsfeld, Alain; Wambura Ngunjiri, Faith; Härtel, Charmine E. J.
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Work, Diversity
Former Soviet Jews in Israel and in the West: Integration, Exclusion and Transnationalism
Translated Title: Бывшие советские иммигранты в Израиле и на Западе: интеграция, изоляция и транснационализм / יהודי ברה''מ לשעבר בישראל ובמערב: השתלבות, דחייה וטרנס-לאומיות
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2007
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Immigration, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Diaspora, Globalisation, Integration
Abstract: Theoretical focus of the paper is the relationship between transnationalism and immigrant incorporation in the host country’s labor market and social system. It is shown that due to its timing and composition, Russian immigration of the 1990s was readily transnational at the outset, but the expression of diasporic interests and activities depends both on geographic location and modes of integration in the new homelands. Russian Jews in Israel and Germany display stronger diasporic tendencies than those who resettled in the USA and Canada. Across the New Diaspora, transnational activities among Russian Jews grow ‘from below’ (i.e. from individual initiative rather than institutional action) and are largely limited to the socio-cultural domain. The reliance on co-ethnic networks within and outside of the host country may be a mixed blessing, both empowering the weaker segments of the immigrants and thwarting their integration by creating an alternative social space.
Deutschland, die Juden und der Staat Israel: Eine politische Bestandsaufnahme
Translated Title: Germany, the Jews and the State of Israel: A political inventory.
Editor(s): Glöckner, Olaf; Schoeps, Julius H.
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Antisemitism, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Israel Advocacy, Zionism, Post-War Reconstruction, Restitution and Reparations
Abstract: Deutschland und Israel, wie geht das zusammen? Immer wieder ist dies seit 1965, seit der Aufnahme diplomatischer Beziehungen zwischen dem "Land der Dichter und Henker" und dem kleinen, selbstbewussten jüdischen Staat im Nahen Osten, gefragt worden. Es geht erstaunlich gut, bei aller Last der Vergangenheit.
16 deutsche und israelische Autoren geben Auskunft, wie aus zähen Annäherungsprozessen, mutigen Versöhnungsprojekten, pragmatischen Wirtschaftsvereinbarungen und spektakulären Geheimdienstkooperationen gegenseitiges Vertrauen erwuchs.

Israel und Deutschland sind heute wichtige Partner, auf nahezu allen Gebieten, selbst wenn unbewältigter Antisemitismus und ein verhärteter israelisch-palästinensischer Dauerkonflikt das Miteinander immer wieder verunsichern. Auch diese Probleme spart der Band nicht aus.
The Limmud Impact Study: Exploring volunteers’ Jewish journeys
Author(s): Kahn-Harris, Keith
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Surveys, Focus Groups, Limmud, Jewish Organisations, Evaluation, Volunteering, Jewish Education
Abstract: The Limmud Impact Study looks at how successful Limmud has been in taking people ‘one step further on their Jewish journeys’, what these journeys consist of and their wider impact on Jewish communities.

The study focuses on Limmud volunteers and draws on a survey of ten Limmud volunteer communities in eight countries - UK, USA, South Africa, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Israel and Argentina - together with focus groups conducted with Limmud volunteers from around the world.

The findings provide clear evidence that Limmud advances the majority of its volunteers on their Jewish journeys, and for a significant proportion it takes them ‘further’ towards greater interest in and commitment to Jewish life.

Limmud’s principle impact on its volunteers lies in making new friends and contacts, encountering different kinds of Jews and enhancing a sense of connection to the Jewish people. For many Limmud volunteers, their experience has increased their Jewish
knowledge, their leadership skills and their involvement in the wider Jewish community. Involvement in Limmud therefore enhances both the desire to take further steps on their Jewish journeys, and the tools for doing so.

Limmud impacts equally on Jews regardless of denominationand religious practice. The younger the volunteers and the less committed they are when they begin their Limmud journeys, the further Limmud takes them. Those with more senior levels of involvement in Limmud report higher levels of impact on their Jewish journeys than other volunteers, as do those who had received a subsidy or training from Limmud.

Limmud volunteers often have difficult experiences and risk burnout and
exhaustion. While volunteers generally view the gains as worth the cost, Limmud
needs to pay attention to this issue and provide further support.
Четверть века Большой алии: статистический анализ перемен (второе издание)
Translated Title: A Quarter Century of the Great Aliya: A Statistical Analysis of Changes (second edition)
Author(s): Konstantinov, Viacheslav
Date: 2017
Topics: Demography, Aliyah, Immigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: Настоящая книга представляет собой второе издание (исправленное и дополненное) книги автора "20 лет Большой алии: статистический анализ перемен", вышедшей в 2013 году, которая, в свою очередь, явилась логическим продолжением предыдущей книги автора “Еврейское население бывшего СССР в ХХ веке (социально- демографический анализ)”. Если первая книга автора была посвящена развитию со- ветского еврейства в стране исхода, то нынешняя – тем изменениям, которые претер- пела еврейская русскоязычная община в Израиле, где сейчас проживает ее бóльшая часть. Наш анализ охватывает период с начала 1990-х годов до настоящего времени, и включает динамику общей численности репатриантов по республикам исхода, их расселение по городам и регионам Израиля, демографические аспекты, образование (как взрослого населения, так и детей и молодежи), владение ивритом и английским языком, компьютерную грамотность, армейскую/национальную службу. Особое внима- ние уделяется профессиональному трудоустройству репатриантов, и в частности, специалистов с высшим образованием. Рассматриваются также изменения в эконо- мическом положении репатриантов, их состояние здоровья, а также общая удовлетво- ренность жизнью в Израиле, национальное самосознание, традиции и ценности. По сравнению с предыдущим изданием, данные уточнены в соответствии с новыми ис- точниками и с учетом тенденций последних лет. Данные по репатриантам сопоставляются со всем еврейским населением Израиля, а по возможности – с еврейскими иммигрантами из бывшего СССР в США и Германии. Книга предназначена для демографов, социологов, специалистов, занятых проблема- ми интеграции репатриантов в различных сферах и всех интересующихся данной про- блемой.
The Holocaust is a Foreign Country: Comparing Representations of Place in Lithuanian Jewish Testimony
Author(s): Pollin-Galay, Hannah
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust, Oral History and Biography, Interviews, Geography, Diaspora, Yiddish
Abstract: This article explores discourse on the Holocaust as a ‘placeless’ event. Analyzing survivor testimony delivered in different cultural contexts, I ask whether or not the idea of strange or vanished places is culturally specific or universal to memories of Holocaust victimhood. As a case study, I analyze the testimony of Lithuanian Jewish Holocaust survivors. I compare the more commonly heard testimonies of survivors living in North America and Israel to the lesser known voices of survivors who have remained in Lithuania—witnesses who live and testify ‘on the scene of the crime.’ I demonstrate how important the idea of estranged geography figures in the testimony of émigré witnesses. By contrast, the survivors who have remained in Lithuania draw a different narrative map of the country, one in which past and present interact on the same sites. Their home landscape, however, also has black holes, dark places that they consider untouchable in everyday life. The article thus points to a tension between contextual particularities and universal challenges in depicting Holocaust places.
Naming the Criminal: Lithuanian Jews Remember Perpetrators
Author(s): Pollin-Galay, Hannah
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Oral History and Biography, Yiddish, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust, Interviews
Abstract: Psychoanalyst Dori Laub asserts that for camp inmates the Holocaust extinguished the possibility of “I-thou” interaction. Address and response, the basis of human subjectivity, became impossible for the prisoner to imagine. The author of this article uses victims’ descriptions of perpetrators to investigate this assertion. Do survivors at times conceive of a wartime assailant as “you”—as an addressable human agent? Comparing two clusters of testimony by Lithuanian Jews, the author finds that contemporary language and social context shape the victims’ stance toward Holocaust perpetration—that is, how they weigh human versus structural wrong. She also points out various ethical traps inherent in each of the two methods of remembering wartime aggressor
Generation 1.5 of Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel and in Germany: An overview of recent research and a German pilot study
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Editor(s): Isurin, Ludmilla; Riehl, Claudia Maria
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Aliyah, Russian-Speaking Jews, Integration, Immigration, Age and Generational Issues, Discrimination, Interviews
Abstract: This chapter offers a comparative overview of immigrant trajectories and inte-gration outcomes of Russian-Jewish youths (the so-called 1.5 generation) who immigrated to Israel and Germany with their families over the last 25 years. At the outset, I compare Israeli and German reception contexts and policies and present the generic features of the 1.5 immigrant generation. Next I overview the Israeli research findings on Russian Israeli 1.5ers – their schooling, social mobility, cultural and linguistic practices, parents’ role in their integration, and juxtapose them with (still limited) German data. 󰀀e final section presents two recent German studies of young Russian-Jewish adults and the initial findings from my own study among these immigrants living in four German cities. My interviews with 20 men and women, mostly successful professionals or entrepreneurs, indicate that their upward social mobility was facilitated by the continuous welfare support of their families, school integration programs, and low financial barriers to higher education. Despite common occupation-al and social downgrading of the parental generation in both countries, the 1.5-ers in Israel had to struggle harder to overcome their inherent immigrant disadvantage vs. native peers to access good schools and professional careers. Most young immigrants deem full assimilation in the host country’s main-stream unattainable and opt instead for a bilingual and/or bicultural strategy of integration
Judeo-Spanish In Standard Language Cultures: Minority/Dominated Languages And Language Ideologies In The 21st Century
Translated Title: / Jevrejsko-Španski U Standardnim Jezičkim Kulturama: Manjinski Jezici/Jezici Kojima Se Dominira I Jezičke Ideologije U 21. Veku / El Judeoespañol En Las Culturas De Lenguas Estandarizadas: Lenguas Minoritarias Dominadas E Ideologías Lingüísticas En El Siglo Xxi
Author(s): Filipović, Jelena
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Language, Ladino, Sephardi Jews, Jewish Studies, Jewish Heritage, Jewish Culture
Abstract: The status and sustainability of minority/dominated languages in the 21st century are
very much influenced by general and language ideologies of times gone by. Namely,
Eurocentric modernity-driven language policy and planning, which result in the
formation of standard language culture ideologies, are at the core of the cultural,
political and historical frameworks which, since the 19th century, have influenced the
relationship between majority (standardized) languages and minority/dominated
languages spoken in political entities recognized as nation-states in Europe. It is within
this framework of standard language cultures (Milroy, 2001) that the history, the loss,
and the possible revitalization of Judeo-Spanish can and should be understood.

Na status i održivost manjinskih jezika/jezika kojima se dominira u 21. veku
umnogome utiču opšte i jezičke ideologije prošlih vremena. Naime, evrocentrična
modernost koju pokreće jezička politika i jezičko planiranje, koja ima za posledicu
oblikovanje standardnih jezičkih kulturnih ideologija, predstavlja srž kulturnih,
političkih i istorijskih okvira koja je od 19. veka uticala na odnos između većinskih
(standardizovanih) jezika i manjinskih jezika/jezika kojima se dominira kao političke
entitete koji su priznati kao nacionalne države u Evropi. Upravo se u ovom okviru
standardnih jezičkih kultura (Milroy, 2001) mogu i treba razumeti istorija i gubitak, kao
i moguća revitalizacija jevrejsko- španskog.

En relación a las lenguas minoritarias dominadas en el siglo xxi, su estado y subsistencia
están muy influidas por las ideologías generales y también lingüísticas del tiempo que
vivimos. Concretamente, la modernidad eurocéntrica de la política y de la planificación
lingüística que conducen a la formación de ideologías culturales lingüísticas estandarizadas,
están en el núcleo de los marcos históricos, políticos y culturales que, desde el siglo xix,
han influido en la relación entre la mayoría de las lenguas (estandarizadas) y las lenguas
minoritarias dominadas habladas en las entidades políticas reconocidas como son los
Estados nación en Europa. Es dentro de este marco de culturas lingüísticas estándar (Milroy,
2001) que puede y debe ser entendida su historia y su pérdida, así como la revitalización
del judeoespañol.
Religious affiliation, ethnicity, and power in admission policies to Jewish religious schools
Author(s): Perry-Hazan, Lotem
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law, Discrimination
Abstract: This paper analyzes the challenges embedded in the conflict between the right to accessible education, which implies a prohibition on discriminatory practices in school admission, and the right to adaptable education, which accommodates children’s cultural affiliations. It shows that a normative lens, which examines the ways by which legal rules correspond to conflicting rights and interests, cannot fully capture the tension between legal prohibitions on discrimination in education and the sociocultural norms in religious communities. Thus, the paper offers a socio-legal lens, which focuses on the context of admission policies to Jewish religious schools. Based on three test cases of admission policies to Jewish religious schools in Israel, England, and Flanders, Belgium, the paper demonstrates how the legal rules regulating the admission policies are influenced by social forces. In Israel and England, these forces have facilitated a descent down slippery slope, originating with religious criteria, but concluding with discriminatory criteria. They also shaped admission practices reflecting the asymmetric power relations between the institutional school systems and individual families. The paper highlights the benefits of the Belgian policy, which proscribes religious classification of school candidates. This policy circumvents the ambiguous distinction between religion, ethnicity, and social class, and expands educational choices.
Ex-Soviet Jews: Collective Autoethnography
Author(s): Fialkova, Larisa; Yelenevskaya, Maria
Editor(s): Veidlinger, Jeffrey
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Ethnography, Methodology, Anthropology, Emigration, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Soviet Jewry
Der Shop als Spiegel des Museums Ausstellungsobjekte, Souvenirs und Identitätspraktiken im Jüdischen Museum Berlin und im Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Translated Title: The shop as a mirror of the museum, exhibition exhibits, souvenirs and identity practices in the Jewish Museum Berlin and in the Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Author(s): Peleikis, Anja; Feldman, Jackie
Editor(s): Schnepel, Burkhard; Girke, Felix; Knoll, Eva-Maria
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials
Between Three Worlds Host, Homeland, and Global Media in the Lives of Russian Immigrant Families in Israel and Germany
Author(s): Elias, Nelly; Lemish, Dafna
Date: 2011
Topics: Focus Groups, Integration, Interviews, Media, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Family and Household, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This study investigated various roles played by host, homeland, and global media in the lives of immigrant families from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS, former USSR) to Israel and Germany, as well as the place of different media in family conflicts, consolidation, and parenting strategies. The study was based on focus group interviews with 60 families of Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel and Germany and 73 semistructured, in-depth interviews with immigrant youngsters. The findings of this study demonstrate that the mass media fulfill diverse roles for immigrant families, assisting them face two main relocation challenges: integration “inward” (i.e., cultural transmission and family consolidation) and “outward” integration into their new surroundings.
Demography of the Contemporary Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2011
Topics: Aliyah, Demography, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Diaspora, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract:

This paper is a study of the demography of the contemporary post-Soviet Jewish Diaspora based on various statistical sources collected from many countries where these Jews live. It examines (post-) Soviet Jewish resettlement, and the demographic transformation of FSU Jews in the wake of the recent mass migration, especially in Israel. Based on this analysis, an update for 2010 of the number of the 'core' Jews (by self-identity) originating from the FSU by country was presented, and the total number of people belonging to the post-Soviet Jewish Diaspora worldwide and their distribution was estimated.
The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-Speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel, and Germany
Editor(s): Gitelman, Zvi
Date: 2016
Topics: Russian-Speaking Jews, Immigration, Aliyah, Diaspora, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: In 1900 over five million Jews lived in the Russian empire; today, there are four times as many Russian-speaking Jews residing outside the former Soviet Union than there are in that region. The New Jewish Diaspora is the first English-language study of the Russian-speaking Jewish diaspora. This migration has made deep marks on the social, cultural, and political terrain of many countries, in particular the United States, Israel, and Germany. The contributors examine the varied ways these immigrants have adapted to new environments, while identifying the common cultural bonds that continue to unite them.

Assembling an international array of experts on the Soviet and post-Soviet Jewish diaspora, the book makes room for a wide range of scholarly approaches, allowing readers to appreciate the significance of this migration from many different angles. Some chapters offer data-driven analyses that seek to quantify the impact Russian-speaking Jewish populations are making in their adoptive countries and their adaptations there. Others take a more ethnographic approach, using interviews and observations to determine how these immigrants integrate their old traditions and affiliations into their new identities. Further chapters examine how, despite the oceans separating them, members of this diaspora form imagined communities within cyberspace and through literature, enabling them to keep their shared culture alive.

Above all, the scholars in The New Jewish Diaspora place the migration of Russian-speaking Jews in its historical and social contexts, showing where it fits within the larger historic saga of the Jewish diaspora, exploring its dynamic engagement with the contemporary world, and pointing to future paths these immigrants and their descendants might follow.

Introduction: Homelands, Diasporas, and the Islands in Between
Zvi Gitelman
Part I Demography: Who Are the Migrants and Where Have They Gone?
Chapter 1 Demography of the Contemporary Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora
Mark Tolts
Chapter 2 The Russian-Speaking Israeli Diaspora in the FSU, Europe, and North America: Jewish Identification and Attachment to Israel
Uzi Rebhun
Chapter 3 Home in the Diaspora? Jewish Returnees and Transmigrants in Ukraine
Marina Sapritsky
Part II Transnationalism and Diasporas
Chapter 4 Rethinking Boundaries in the Jewish Diaspora from the FSU
Jonathan Dekel-Chen
Chapter 5 Diaspora from the Inside Out: Litvaks in Lithuania Today
Hannah Pollin-Galay
Chapter 6 Russian-Speaking Jews and Israeli Emigrants in the United States: A Comparison of Migrant Populations
Steven J. Gold
Part III Political and Economic Change
Chapter 7 Political Newborns: Immigrants in Israel and Germany
Olena Bagno-Moldavski
Chapter 8 The Move from Russia/the Soviet Union to Israel: A Transformation of Jewish Culture and Identity
Yaacov Ro’i
Chapter 9 The Economic Integration of Soviet Jewish Immigrants in Israel
Gur Ofer
Part IV Resocialization and the Malleability of Ethnicity
Chapter 10 Russian-Speaking Jews in Germany
Eliezer Ben-Rafael
Chapter 11 Performing Jewishness and Questioning the Civic Subject among Russian-Jewish Migrants in Germany
Sveta Roberman
Chapter 12 Inventing a “New Jew”: The Transformation of Jewish Identity in Post-Soviet Russia
Elena Nosenko-Shtein
Part V Migration and Religious Change
Chapter 13 Post-Soviet Immigrant Religiosity: Beyond the Israeli National Religion
Nelly Elias and Julia Lerner
Chapter 14 Virtual Village in a Real World: The Russian Jewish Diaspora Online
Anna Shternshis
Part VI Diaspora Russian Literature
Chapter 15 Four Voices from the Last Soviet Generation: Evgeny Steiner, Alexander Goldstein, Oleg Yuryev, and Alexander Ilichevsky
Mikhail Krutikov
Chapter 16 Poets and Poetry in Today’s Diaspora: On Being “Marginally Jewish”
Stephanie Sandler
Chapter 17 Triple Identities: Russian-Speaking Jews as German, American, and Israeli Writers
Adrian Wanner
Afterword: The Future of a Diaspora
Zvi Gitelman
Between Evidence and Symbol: The Auschwitz Album in Yad Vashem, the Imperial War Museum (London) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Author(s): Ashworth, Jaime
Date: 2011
Topics: Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust, Jewish Museums, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
20 лет Большой алии: статистический анализ перемен.
Translated Title: 20 Years of the Great Aliya: A Statistical Analysis of Changes
Author(s): Konstantinov, Viacheslav
Date: 2013
Topics: Demography, Aliyah, Immigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: Настоящая книга представляет собой логическое продолжение предыдущей книги ав-тора “Еврейское население бывшего СССР в ХХ веке (социально-демографический анализ)”. Если предыдущее исследование было посвящено развитию советского ев-рейства в стране исхода, то нынешнее – тем изменениям, которые претерпела еврей-ская русскоязычная община в Израиле, где сейчас проживает ее бóльшая часть. Наш анализ охватывает период с начала 1990-х годов до настоящего времени, и включает динамику общей численности репатриантов по республикам исхода, их расселение по городам и регионам Израиля, демографические аспекты, образование (как взрослого населения, так и детей и молодежи), владение ивритом и английским языком, компь-ютерную грамотность, армейскую/национальную службу. Особое внимание уделяется профессиональному трудоустройству репатриантов, и в частности, специалистов с высшим образованием. Рассматриваются также изменения в экономическом положе-нии репатриантов, их состояние здоровья, а также общая удовлетворенность жизнью в Израиле, национальное самосознание, традиции и ценности. Данные по репатриантам сопоставляются со всем еврейским населением Израиля, а по возможности – с еврей-скими иммигрантами из бывшего СССР в США и Германии.
Книга предназначена для демографов, социологов, специалистов, занятых проблема-ми интеграции репатриантов в различных сферах и всех интересующихся данной про-блемой. Многие статистические материалы, представленные в книге, публикуются впервые.
Jødisk Identitet og Oppdragelse. En komparativ analyse av jøder i Norge og Israel
Translated Title: Jewish Identity and Education. A Comparative Analysis of Jews in Norway and Israel
Author(s): Rambekk, Elin
Date: 2001
Topics: Jewish Identity, Jewish Education, Main Topic: Education
Is there an ‘Israeli Diaspora’? Jewish Israelis negotiating national identity between Zionist ideology and diasporic reality
Author(s): Moshkovitz, Yuval
Date: 2013
Topics: Israeli Expatriates, Israel-Diaspora Relations, National Identity, Zionism, Interviews, Psychology, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Diaspora, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Given the centrality of the ‘Negation of Exile’ in the construction of political Zionist ideology and the continued dominance of this world-view within the Jewish-Israeli imagined community and Israeli public space, the essay discusses the viability of an ‘Israeli–British diaspora’ – an intermediate space which is neither Israeli not British – that potentially troubles Zionist notions on nationality, belonging and Jewishness. The paper draws on interview material of Jewish Israelis who live in Britain, and examines the interplay between hegemonic Zionist discourses of nationality and counter-hegemonic discourses of diaspora, as subjects construct their personal narratives of ‘Israeliness abroad’.
What do we talk about when we talk about 'national identity'? : Jewish-Israelis in Britain negotiating 'national identity' between Zionist ideology and diasporic reality
Author(s): Moshkovitz, Yuval
Date: 2014
Topics: Israeli Expatriates, Israel-Diaspora Relations, National Identity, Zionism, Interviews, Psychology, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Diaspora, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This is a psychosocial research project investigating ‘national identity’ amongst middle class Jewish-Israelis in Britain. Its aim is to map key contents and highlight social categories that subjects draw on in their construction of ‘national identity’ and to study how they negotiate these categories and contents when narrating a story of ‘who they are’ as Israelis in Britain. The first part of the thesis provides historical and theoretical background to the study of national identities, with a focus on Jewish-Israeli identity in the context of Zionism. An empirical study is then presented, in which twelve Israelis living in London were interviewed in depth about their views on Israeli national identity, what it meant personally to them to be ‘an Israeli’, and what it meant to be ‘an Israeli in London’. Interviews were transcribed and a critical narrative approach was used to analyze the resulting texts, taking account of reflexive interview processes as well as exploring links with the broader cultural and political context. The findings reveal the elasticity and fluidity of ‘Israeli identity’. Subjects drew on a shared cultural reservoir - Zionist images, preconceptions and signifiers - to describe their personalized experience of belonging to or alienation from an acceptable notion of ‘Israeliness’ while living abroad. ‘Israeli identity’ was constructed against stereotypical images of ‘the others’ which, at times, applied racist discourse. Subjects constructed ‘Israeliness’ differently depending on the context they referred to (e.g. Israeli or British society). Each context had its distinct ‘others’. Within the British context Israeliness was constructed against the images of ‘the local Jews’, the ‘English’ and the ‘local Arabs and Muslims’. Constructing an Israeli identity was also influenced by the social position that subjects were implicated in, in relation to their class, ethnicity, gender, or occupation. This also shaped their experience of dislocation in Britain. Most of the participants conformed with a mainstream perspective on Israeli nationalism and refrained from criticizing it. This was interpreted as a discourse reflecting their privileged socio-cultural position in Israel and their commitment to a Zionist ethos which condemns emigration. Such a portrayal of Israeliness both initiated and contributed to a sense of unsettledness characteristic of this middle-class group. Subjects moved back and forth between two identificatory positions (‘Ha’aretz’ and ‘Israel’) as their points of identification constantly changed. The research contributes to the analysis of nationalism phenomena and associated concepts such as diaspora and belonging among a middle class group of migrants. It outlines cultural, material and political forces that sustain nationalism yet also demonstrates ways through which subjects negotiate or resist the discourses and social categories offered to them for the construction of a ‘national identity’.
Reconciliation through the Righteous: The Narratives of Heroic Helpers as a Fulfillment of Emotional Needs in Polish−Jewish Intergroup Contact
Author(s): Bilewicz, Michal; Jaworska, Manana
Date: 2013
Topics: Psychology, Conflict Resolution, Memory, Holocaust Education, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Abstract: Postwar Polish−Jewish relations are heavily affected by divergent narratives about the Holocaust. Debates about the role of Poles as passive bystanders or perpetrators during the Holocaust have deeply influenced mutual perceptions of Poles and Jews. Previous research has shown that historical issues raised during Polish−Jewish encounters inhibit positive consequences of intergroup contact, mostly due to frustrated emotional needs related to past genocide. The aim of the present intervention was to reconcile young Poles and Israelis by presenting narratives that could change stereotypical thinking about the past. Our results indicate that the narratives of historical rescuers of Jews during WWII allowed overcoming the negative impact of the past on intergroup contact by fulfilling frustrated needs for acceptance among Polish participants. The article discusses the potential role of the heroic helpers’ narrative for reconciliation after mass violence, as it may prevent entitative categorizations of groups as victims, perpetrators, and bystanders.
Retrospective and Afterological Considerations of the Contemporary Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora: Whence and Whither?
Author(s): Markowitz, Fran
Date: 2009
Topics: Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Diaspora, Globalisation, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This article reviews the transformations undergone by Russian speaking Jews over the past half century, and how these have been portrayed in key scholarly texts. It analyzes the representation of Soviet Jews first as a people of silence, then as new immigrants in Israel and North America, and, most recently, as a globalized community or worldwide diaspora. But rather than accepting these identity transformations as a fait accompli, the article problematizes their present meanings and ponders future trends.