Abstract: Depuis les années 1970, s’observe une « orthodoxisation » de la judaïcité mondiale, notamment en France, au Royaume-Uni, aux États-Unis ou en Israël. Ce mouvement est d’abord porté par des jeunes. Or, jusqu’ici, les études n’ont pas suffisamment abordé la conjonction de la globalisation, de la jeunesse et de la religion dans cette évolution. Cet article étudie la globalisation d’un courant juif orthodoxe, le mouvement loubavitch. Comment insère-t-il les jeunes dans une stratégie de globalisation ? Quels en sont les effets sur leur pratique religieuse ? Cette ONG confessionnelle est un important vecteur d’une « orthodoxisation » chez les jeunes. Elle investit de manière prioritaire dans la jeunesse, notamment par un système éducatif spécifique : il vise à favoriser l’intégration à la communauté loubavitch, par le biais d’une formation orthodoxe standardisée. Mais au sein du mouvement, les jeunes sont aussi des agents : ils sont promoteurs d’une orthodoxie juive globalisée.
Abstract: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the communist regimes in Europe represented a radical change for Judaism on the continent. The most striking change occurred, naturally, in Central and Eastern Europe, that is, in those countries that were behind the Iron Curtain, such as Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia or the German Democratic Republic. There, while the political decomposition of the Soviet bloc was gaining traction, thousands of people rediscovered their Jewish origins – forbidden, concealed, or silenced under communism, giving rise to a process of Jewish revivalism. In this context, numerous Jewish philanthropic organizations came to the region to support these developments with the mission of renewing local Jewish communities. The process involved a multitude of actors – Jewish agencies, organizations and foundations based in the United States, Europe and Israel – and entailed the mobilization of professionals, specialists and financial resources. This thesis explores the concrete dynamics of this cross-border mobilization of Jewish philanthropic bodies in favor of the Jewish communities of East Central Europe after the fall of communism in 1989. It studies in-depth the historical origins and evolution of transnational Jewish solidarity in modern times, enquires about the Jewish agencies and organizations that started to operate in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, especially, but not only, their sources of financing and the circulation of economic resources. Finally, it gives an account of the narrative corpus that emerged about European Jews before and during this process, identifying those actors who created and mobilized these narratives.
Topics: Diaspora, Ethnography, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Revival, Outreach, Baal Teshuvah, Orthodox Judaism, NGOs, Young Adults / Emerging Adulthood, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Against the gloomy forecast of “The Vanishing Diaspora”, the end of the second millennium saw the global emergence of a dazzling array of Jewish cultural initiatives, institutional modalities, and individual practices. These “Jewish Revival” and “Jewish Renewal” projects are led by Jewish NGOs and philanthropic organizations, the Orthodox Teshuva (return to the fold) movement and its well-known emissary Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism, and alternative cultural initiatives that promote what can be termed “lifestyle Judaism”. This range between institutionalized revival movements and ephemeral event-driven projects circumscribes a diverse space of creative agency. Indeed, the trope of a “Jewish Renaissance” has become both a descriptive category of an increasingly popular and scholarly discourse across the globe, and a prescriptive model for social action. This article explores the global transformations of contemporary Jewishness, which give renewed meaning to identity, tradition, and politics in our post-secular world in two different sociopolitical contexts. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, we interrogate the relations between “diaspora” and “homeland” by analyzing two case studies: the Jewish revival movement in Budapest, Hungary, and the Jewish renewal initiatives in Israel. While the first instantiates a diasporic movement anchored in a post-denominational and post-secular attempt to reclaim Jewish tradition for a new generation of Jew-llennials (Millennial Jews), the second group operates against the Orthodox hegemony of the institutional Rabbinate by revisiting religious ritual and textual study. By proposing new cultural repertoires, these movements highlight the dialectic exchange between center and periphery. The ethnography of religious revival decenters the Israeli Orthodoxy as “the homeland” and positions the diaspora at the core of a network of cultural creativity and renewal, while remaining in constant dialog with Israel and other diasporic communities.
Abstract: Entwined Homelands, Empowered Diasporas explores how the 30,000 Jews in northern Morocco developed a sense of kinship with modern Spain, medieval Sepharad, and the broader Hispanophone world that was unlike anything experienced elsewhere. The Hispanic Moroccan Jewish diaspora, as this group is often called by its scholars and its community leaders, also became one of the most mobile and globally dispersed North African groups in the twentieth century, with major hubs in Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Spain, Israel, Canada, France, and the US, among others.
Drawing on an array of communal sources from across this diaspora, Aviad Moreno explores how narratives of ancestry in Spain, Israel, Morocco, and several Latin American countries interconnected the diaspora, empowering its hubs across the globe throughout the twentieth century and beyond.
By investigating these mechanisms of diaspora formation in a small community that once shared the same space in Morocco, Entwined Homelands, Empowered Diasporas challenges national accounts of the broader Jewish diasporas and adds complexity to the annals of multilayered ethnic communities on the move.
Abstract: Of about a million Jews that arrived to Israel from the (former) USSR after 1989 some 12% left the country by the end of 2017. It is estimated that about a half of them left "back" for the FSU, and the rest for the USA, Canada and the Western Europe. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of this specific Jewish Israeli Diaspora group through cutting-edge approaches in the social sciences, and examines the settlement patterns of Israeli Russian-speaking emigrants, their identity, social demographic profile, reasons of emigration, their economic achievements, identification, and status vis-à-vis host Jewish and non-Jewish environment, vision of Israel, migration interests and behavior, as well as their social and community networks, elites and institutions. Vladimir Ze’ev Khanin makes a significant contribution to migration theory, academic understanding of transnational Diasporas, and sheds a new light on the identity and structure of contemporary Israeli society. The book is based on the unique statistics from Israeli and other Government sources and sociological information obtained from the author’s first of this kind on-going study of Israeli Russian-speaking emigrant communities in different regions of the world.
Abstract: В статье подробно анализируется численная динамика и демографическая структура наиболее многочисленного в 1990-2023 гг. миграционного потока в Израиль, который шел из России. С этой целью рассмотрено ежегодное изменение чисел мигрантов из этой страны в Израиль за этот период. Выявлены пики миграции, обусловленные событиями в стране происхождения мигрантов, пришедшиеся на 1990-1991 и 1999-2000 гг. и новый, начавшийся в 2022 г. Для нового пика миграции проанализирована динамика чисел мигрантов за отдельные месяцы с выделением среди них двух групп: прибывших в Израиль с визой репатрианта («прямая алия») и тех, кто первоначально въехали в эту страну как туристы и после того получили статус репатрианта. Оценено влияние отрицательной нетто-миграции на снижение численности еврейского населения России в 1990-2022 гг.
Проведенный анализ показал, что современная очень постаревшая структура еврейского населения в России не может обеспечить масштабную эмиграцию. Однако израильский Закон о возвращении распространяется на значительно более широкий круг лиц, имеющих еврейское происхождение и их супругов. Ежегодные данные израильской статистики показывают, что доля евреев среди иммигрантов из России падала на протяжении рассмотренного периода. Возрастная структура мигрантов из России в Израиль была близка до конца прошлого десятилетия к возрастному составу всего городского населения страны выезда, а по самым последним данным даже стала более молодой по сравнению с ним. В общем составе мигрантов на протяжении большей части анализируемого периода численно преобладали женщины, однако в последней миграционной волне по данным 2022 г. стали незначительно преобладать мужчины.
Abstract: Seventy years have passed since the Holocaust, but this cataclysmic event continues to reverberate in the present. In this research, we examine attributions about the causes of the Holocaust and the influence of such attributions on intergroup relations. Three representative surveys were conducted among Germans, Poles, and Israeli Jews to examine inter- and intragroup variations in attributions for the Holocaust and how these attributions influence intergroup attitudes. Results indicated that Germans made more external than internal attributions and were especially low in attributing an evil essence to their ancestors. Israelis and Poles mainly endorsed the obedient essence attribution and were lowest on attribution to coercion. These attributions, however, were related to attitudes towards contemporary Germany primarily among Israeli Jews. The more they endorsed situationist explanations, and the less they endorsed the evil essence explanation, the more positive their attitude to Germany. Among Germans, attributions were related to a higher motivation for historical closure, except for the obedience attribution that was related to low desire for closure. Israelis exhibited a low desire for historical closure especially when attribution for evil essence was high. These findings suggest that lay perceptions of history are essential to understanding contemporary intergroup processes.
Abstract: Un nombre considérable de juifs a quitté la France dans la dernière décennie, sans que les paroles rassurantes émanant des plus hautes autorités de l’État aient pu arrêter l’hémorragie. Quant à ceux qui restent, ils ne peuvent éviter l’idée de devoir peut-être partir un jour, au regard des événements et d’un climat général dont chacun perçoit le poids.
La sociologie politique, curieusement, n’a que bien peu à dire sur un tel phénomène. Prolixe sur la question de l’immigration, elle est pratiquement muette sur le fait que la France ait pu ainsi devenir une terre d’émigration. Qu’est-il donc arrivé ? Pour le comprendre, l’invocation commode des tensions intercommunautaires et du radicalisme islamiste est bien loin de suffire. C’est une généalogie au long cours de notre situation qui est requise, une restitution des dynamiques complexes où sont intriqués, depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les juifs, l’Europe et l’État d’Israël.
De cette manière, et de cette manière seulement, l’un des points les plus sensibles du malaise politique actuel peut enfin être affronté.
Abstract: Love, to a significant other, can be the motivation for migration, inform a migration trajectory, or provide reasons for remaining in situ. Even so, love remains in the undercurrents of migration research. It is not explicitly addressed, even though it underpins migration within the constellation of arranged marriage, or if the pursuit of love is limited by social structures, or law. This paper links the dynamics of agentic love and self-initiated migration by way of German (non-Jewish) and Israeli (Jewish) migrants in Israel and Germany, respectively. It highlights individual trajectories of love migrants, establishing that love within the area of migration studies needs to be conceptualised as multifaceted and complex, at times contradictory, and as part of an affective trajectory of the migration process; and that the ability to follow up on falling in love, and to actualise love, cannot be unhinged from privilege.
Abstract: Настоящая книга представляет собой продолжение двух предыдущих изданий: "20 лет Большой алии" (2013) и “Четверть века Большой алии” (2017) и посвящена дальнейшим изменениям, которые претерпела еврейская русскоязычная община в Израиле. 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, владение ивритом и англий-ским языком, компьютерную грамотность, армейскую/национальную службу, образова-ние (как взрослого населения, так и детей и молодежи). Особое внимание уделяется профессиональному трудоустройству репатриантов, и в частности, специалистов с выс-шим образованием. Рассматриваются также изменения в экономическом положении ре-патриантов, их состояние здоровья, а также общая удовлетворенность жизнью в Изра-иле, отношение к различным общественным институтам и уровень религиозности. По сравнению с предыдущим изданием, данные уточнены в соответствии с новыми источ-никами 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 проблемами интеграции репатриантов в различных сферах и всех интересующихся данной пробле-мой.
Abstract: Visitor Experience at Holocaust Memorials and Museums is the first volume to offer comprehensive insights into visitor reactions to a wide range of museum exhibitions, memorials, and memory sites.
Drawing exclusively upon empirical research, chapters within the book offer critical insights about visitor experience at museums and memory sites in the United States, Poland, Austria, Germany, France, the UK, Norway, Hungary, Australia, and Israel. The contributions to the volume explore visitor experience in all its complexity and argue that visitors are more than just "learners". Approaching visitor experience as a multidimensional phenomenon, the book positions visitor experience within a diverse national, ethnic, cultural, social, and generational context. It also considers the impact of museums’ curatorial and design choices, visitor motivations and expectations, and the crucial role emotions play in shaping understanding of historical events and subjects. By approaching visitors as active interpreters of memory spaces and museum exhibitions, Popescu and the contributing authors provide a much-needed insight into the different ways in which members of the public act as "agents of memory", endowing this history with personal and collective meaning and relevance.
Visitor Experience at Holocaust Memorials and Museums offers significant insights into audience motivation, expectation, and behaviour. It is essential reading for academics, postgraduate students and practitioners with an interest in museums and heritage, visitor studies, Holocaust and genocide studies, and tourism.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Visitors at Holocaust Museums and Memory sites
Diana I. Popescu
Part I: Visitor Experience in Museum Spaces
Mobile Memory; or What Visitors Saw at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Michael Bernard-Donals
Visitor Emotions, Experientiality, Holocaust, and Human Rights: TripAdvisor Responses to the Topography of Terror (Berlin) and the Kazerne Dossin (Mechelen)
Stephan Jaeger
"Really made you feel for the Jews who went through this terrible time in History" Holocaust Audience Re-mediation and Re-narrativization at the Florida Holocaust Museum
Chaim Noy
Understanding Visitors’ Bodily Engagement with Holocaust Museum Architecture: A Comparative Empirical Research at three European Museums
Xenia Tsiftsi
Attention Please: The Tour Guide is Here to Speak Out. The Role of the Israeli Tour Guide at Holocaust Sites in Israel
Yael Shtauber, Yaniv Poria, and Zehavit Gross
The Impact of Emotions, Empathy, and Memory in Holocaust exhibitions: A Study of the National Holocaust Centre & Museum in Nottinghamshire, and the Jewish Museum in London
Sofia Katharaki
The Affective Entanglements of the Visitor Experience at Holocaust Sites and Museums
Adele Nye and Jennifer Clark
Part II: Digital Engagement Inside and Outside the Museum and Memory Site
"…It no longer is the same place": Exploring Realities in the Memorial Falstad Centre with the ‘Falstad Digital Reconstruction and V/AR Guide’
Anette Homlong Storeide
"Ways of seeing". Visitor response to Holocaust Photographs at ‘The Eye as Witness: Recording the Holocaust’ Exhibition
Diana I. Popescu and Maiken Umbach
Dachau from a Distance: The Liberation during The COVID-19 Pandemic
Kate Marrison
Curating the Past: Digital Media and Visitor Experiences at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Christoph Bareither
Diversity, Digital Programming, and the Small Holocaust Education Centre: Examining Paths and Obstacles to Visitor Experience
Laura Beth Cohen and Cary Lane
Part III: Visitors at Former Camp Sites
The Unanticipated Visitor: A Case Study of Response and Poetry at Sites of Holocaust Memory
Anna Veprinska
"Did you have a good trip?" Young people’s Reflections on Visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Town of Oświęcim
Alasdair Richardson
Rewind, Relisten, Rethink: The Value of Audience Reception for Grasping Art’s Efficacy
Tanja Schult
"The value of being there" -Visitor Experiences at German Holocaust Memorial Sites
Doreen Pastor
"Everyone Talks About the Wind": Temporality, Climate, and the More-than Representational Landscapes of the Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes
Ian Cantoni
Guiding or Obscuring? Visitor Engagement with Treblinka’s Audio Guide and Its Sonic Infrastructure
Kathryn Agnes Huether
Abstract: There is consensus that experiences gained during immigration have an impact on health status. However, studies comparing health-related outcomes in homogeneous groups of immigrants living in different host countries are rare. In a sample of Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in two different host countries, Germany and Israel, possible predictors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and satisfaction with life (SWL) were examined. In total, 359 Jewish immigrants from the FSU living in Germany (n = 180) and Israel (n = 179) completed the questionnaire measuring immigration-related and sociodemographic characteristics. HRQoL was assessed via Short Form Health Survey Version 2 (SF-12v2), and SWL via Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Hierarchical linear regression models were applied for analyzing immigration-related and sociodemographic predictors of HRQoL and SWL. Participants living in Israel scored higher on HRQoL, and no differences were found concerning SWL ratings. However, no direct influences of the host country were detected by predicting HRQoL and SWL scores. In both subgroups, immigration-related factors such as perceived discrimination or level of integration were found as significant predictors. In the face of different immigration waves in the host countries, Germany and Israel, the results display similarities rather than differences between the groups concerning the sociodemographic and immigration-related predictors on HRQoL and SWL. The findings using cross-cultural analysis level underscore the need of much more detailed future research on this issue.
Abstract: Migration, displacement, and flight are major worldwide phenomena and typically pose challenges to mental health. Therefore, migrants’ mental health, and the factors which may predict it, have become an important research subject. The present population-based cross-national comparison study explores symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization, as well as quality-of-life in samples of ex-Soviet Jewish migrants settling in three new countries: Germany, Austria and Israel, as well as in a sample of non-migrant ex-Soviet Jews in their country of origin, Russia. In the current study, we investigate the relationship of perceived xenophobiа and antisemitism, acculturation attitudes, ethnic and national identity, as well as affiliation with Jewish religion and culture to the psychological well-being of these migrants. Furthermore, we consider xenophobic and antisemitic attitudes as well as the acculturation orientation of the new countries’ societies, assessed in the native control samples. Our data suggest that attitudes of the new country’s society matter for the mental health of this migrant group. We conclude that the level of distress among ex-Soviet Jewish migrants seems to depend, among other factors, on the characteristics of the new country and/or specific interactions of the migrant population with the society they are settling in.
Abstract: This dissertation illustrates how a moral burden of history manifests itself in social relationships, cultural processes, and material products. Specifically, it argues that what appears to many as a superficial, commercially motivated revival of Jewishness in Poland is also a significant joint venture between non-Jewish Poles and Jewish visitors to Poland in exploring inter-ethnic memory-building and reconciliation. The findings are based on 18 months of ethnographic research in the historical Jewish quarter (Kazimierz) in Krakow, Poland, with further research in Israel and the United States among diaspora Jews. My research reveals that the notion of uniform Holocaust tourism disguises a movement to contest lachrymose conceptions of Jewishness as victimhood. I document a sense of Jewish connection to Poland---overlooked in mainstream discourses---that animates new generations of Jews and Poles to seek each other out. Similarly, much of the Jewish revival in Kazimierz is orchestrated by non-Jewish Poles. I show how they use identification with Jewishness to reconfigure their own Polishness and their visions for a pluralistic Polish nation state. I conclude that (1) popular cultural products, practices, and spaces can be important manifestations of---and tools for---moral reckoning; (2) identification with someone else's ethnicity/religion (often called appropriation) can be understood as an enlargement of, rather than an escape from, the self, and (3) Kazimierz in Krakow represents the cutting edge of Polish-Jewish relations via local grassroots culture brokers who use Jewishness to expand the Polish universe of obligation.
Abstract: Mokslininkai sutinka, kad tapatumas yra kintantis pagal situaciją darinys, priklausomas nuo aplinkos. Kai aplinka yra traumuojanti, ji nutraukia stabilią individo gyvenimo tėkmę, pakeičia prisiimtus vaidmenis, nusistovėjusias vertybes, gyvenimo tikslus. Holokaustas buvo trauma, sutrikdžiusi žmonių kasdienį gyvenimą, privertusi iš naujo įvertinti save ir aplinką. Šiame darbe buvo nagrinėjama, kaip Holokausto sukelta trauma skatino keistis išgyvenusiųjų tapatumą karo metu, ir kokios yra ilgalaikės Holokausto pasekmės tapatumui. Atsakymams į šiuos klausimus atrasti buvo pasitelkta kokybinio tyrimo strategija ir teminės analizės metodas. 11 tyrimo dalyvių, išgyvenusių Holokaustą, interviu medžiaga atskleidė tapatumo pokyčius, sukeltus Holokausto karo metu - pakito išgyvenusiųjų savęs kaip visuomenės nario suvokimas dėl atskirties, susijusios su tautybe; pakito savo žydiškos kilmės suvokimas; pakito savo vaidmens šeimoje suvokimas, šeimos narių praradimas sustiprino šeiminius ryšius tarp išlikusiųjų; pakito gyvenimo tikslai, pagrindiniu tikslu tapo išgyvenimas; pakito savęs vertinimas. Holokaustas sukėlė ilgalaikes pasekmes tapatumui: Holokaustas suformavo savęs kaip „išgyvenusiojo“ suvokimą, kuris įgijo skirtingą vertę Lietuvos ir Izraelio visuomenių kontekste; išgyvenusieji save suvokia kaip vertinančius gyvybę, suprantančius materialių vertybių laikinumą; jie suvokia save kaip priimančius Dievą arba kaip neigiančius jo egzistavimą. Išgyvenusieji atskleidžia dvejopą savo santykį su Holokaustu: save suvokia kaip pasisėmusius stiprybės, gyvenimiškos patirties, Holokauste atradusius prasmę arba kaip netekusius gyvenimo tęstinumo, neradusius prasmės trauminiuose išgyvenimuose.
Abstract: The book "Survival of the Identity of Holocaust Survivors" was prepared on the basis of a doctoral dissertation. It examines how the trauma of the Holocaust led to a shift in identity among survivors during the war, and the long-term consequences of the Holocaust for identity.
The interview material of 11 research participants who survived the Holocaust revealed identity changes caused during the Holocaust war - the survivors' self-perception as a member of society changed due to the exclusion related to nationality; the perception of one's Jewish origin has changed; the perception of one's role in the family has changed, the loss of family members has strengthened family ties among the survivors; life goals changed, survival became the main goal; self-esteem has changed.
The Holocaust caused long-term consequences for identity: the Holocaust shaped the perception of oneself as a "survivor", which acquired a different value in the context of Lithuanian and Israeli societies; survivors perceive themselves as valuing life, understanding the transience of material values; they perceive themselves as accepting God or as denying his existence. Survivors reveals his dual relationship with the Holocaust: he perceives himself as having gained strength, life experience, having found meaning in the Holocaust, or as having lost the continuity of life.
The book has important lasting value because the research participants interviewed in the book were 80 years old or older at the time of the study, and now, several years after the study, some of them are no longer alive.
Abstract: Capitalising on new resources and advances made in the methods of estimation, this report is the first time that the global Haredi (strictly Orthodox) population size has been estimated and calculated, revealing that about 2,100,000 Haredi Jews live worldwide, out of a total global Jewish population of 15 million. The report projects that the Haredi population could double in size by the year 2040, rising to over a fifth of the total by that time.
Some of the key findings in this report:
• The global Haredi population is estimated at 2,100,000, constituting about 14% of the total Jewish population in the world.
• Together, Israel and the USA account for about 92% of all Haredi Jews. Europe hosts 5% of the global Haredi population, while the rest live mainly in Latin America, South Africa, Canada and Australia.
• Outside of Israel and the USA, the three largest Haredi populations are located in the UK (about 75,000, or 25% of all British Jews), Canada (30,000, 8%) and France (12,000, 3%).
• While the world Jewish population has been growing by approximately 0.7% per year over the past decade, the Haredi population is currently growing by about 3.5%-4.0% annually.
• Today, a large part of the growth of the global Jewish population as a whole is due to the Haredi population: perhaps as much as 70%-80% of the total growth worldwide.
• Haredi rates of growth are very high not simply due to high fertility, but rather to the combined effects of very high fertility and very low mortality.
Abstract: This article examines the Breslover Hasidim who attempted their annual pilgrimage to Uman during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the Ukrainian border closure in August 2020, which was supported by the State of Israel, thousands of Breslovers were stranded in airports, land borders, and even imprisoned in the weeks leading up to the Jewish New Year. This research contributes to an emerging scholarly literature on religion and COVID-19, challenging the religion and science "conflict thesis," as interviews revealed that the choice of Breslovers to ignore public health directives stemmed less from a disbelief in science than from a conflict between state and religious authority. Pious mobilities emerge, I argue, when secular logics fail to contain and properly modify religious actors. The choice to travel to Uman was made according to a Breslover moral universe as informants turned to the spiritual tools and teachings of Rebbe Nachman to guide their decisions, especially his notion of ratzon [willpower], engaging in a form of pious mobility that attempted to transcend nation-state borders. Pious mobilities not only challenged public health initiatives in 2020, but as I demonstrate in the ethnography, Breslovers' insistence on reaching Uman simultaneously threatened the cooptation of Breslov Hasidim within a Zionist narrative, reigniting a debate over the relocation of Rebbe Nachman's remains to Israel. By ethnographically examining moments of conflict between religious groups and state officials managing the pandemic, we might better inform future public health policies and the messaging aimed at religious populations including ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Abstract: Of about a million Jews that arrived to Israel from the (former) USSR after 1989 some 12% left the country by the end of 2017. It is estimated that about a half of them left "back" for the FSU, and the rest for the USA, Canada and the Western Europe. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of this specific Jewish Israeli Diaspora group through cutting-edge approaches in the social sciences, and examines the settlement patterns of Israeli Russian-speaking emigrants, their identity, social demographic profile, reasons of emigration, their economic achievements, identification, and status vis-à-vis host Jewish and non-Jewish environment, vision of Israel, migration interests and behavior, as well as their social and community networks, elites and institutions. Vladimir Ze’ev Khanin makes a significant contribution to migration theory, academic understanding of transnational Diasporas, and sheds a new light on the identity and structure of contemporary Israeli society. The book is based on the unique statistics from Israeli and other Government sources and sociological information obtained from the author’s first of this kind on-going study of Israeli Russian-speaking emigrant communities in different regions of the world.
Abstract: Culture is the cornerstone where societies have always supported their respective identities. It is a way of life, as long as it expresses not only the values, but also the education, the art, and the daily life of all those who live and work in a society. Thessaloniki has been a multicultural city, gathering populations from different nations and religions over time. The city was a refuge destination for many persecuted Jews in Europe, between 1492 and 1943, which led to the creation of a large Jewish community. As a result, the long tradition combined with the several elements of Jewish cultural interest attracts a large number of tourists from Israel every year. This paper presents the main research results conducted in Thessaloniki regarding tourists’ from Israel motivations and characteristics, but also their main elements of interest. Thessaloniki has all the essential elements, such as history, tradition, monuments, infrastructure, and services for the development of cultural tourism. These, however, need to be improved, so that the city of Thessaloniki becomes a more popular tourist destination for Israelis.
Abstract: This article presents research notes on an oral history project on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Jews over the age of 65 years. During the first stage of the project, we conducted nearly 80 interviews in eight cities worldwide: Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Milan, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and St. Petersburg, and in Israel. The interviews were conducted in the spring of 2020 and reflect the atmosphere and perception of interviewees at the end of the first lockdown.
Based on an analysis of the interviews, the findings are divided into three spheres: (1) the personal experience during the pandemic, including personal difficulties and the impact of the lockdown on family and social contacts; (2) Jewish communal life, manifested in changed functions and emergence of new needs, as well as religious rituals during the pandemic; and (3) perceived relations between the Jewish community and wider society, including relations with state authorities and civil society, attitudes of and towards official media, and the possible impact of COVID-19 on antisemitism. Together, these spheres shed light on how elderly Jews experience their current situation under COVID-19—as individuals and as part of a community.
COVID-19 taught interviewees to reappraise what was important to them. They felt their family relations became stronger under the pandemic, and that their Jewish community was more meaningful than they had thought. They understood that online communication will continue to be present in all three spheres, but concluded that human contact cannot be substituted by technical devices.
