Search results
Your search found 2300 items
Previous | Next
Sort: Relevance | Topics | Title | Author | Publication Year
turned off because more than 500 resultsView all
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 > >>
Home  / Search Results
The Complexity of the Relations between European Jewry and Israel
Author(s): Eytan, Freddy
Date: 2017
Topics: Israel-Diaspora Relations, Main Topic: Other
Given Up by Parents for Survival: Separation Narratives by Formerly Persecuted Elderly Belgian Jews
Author(s): Fohn, Adeline; Bouhmid, Souad; Bushati, Ekujtesa; Mba, Diane; Yesilgöz, Eylem; Habermas, Tilmann
Date: 2017
Topics: Ageing and the Elderly, Holocaust Survivors, Memory, Mental Health, Trauma, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Abstract: Theories of psychological trauma have suggested that trauma narratives are fragmented, lack emotion and cognitive terms (narrative evaluation), and show linguistic indicators of reliving (narrative immersion). We tested the relation between narrative evaluation and immersion on the one hand with PTSD symptoms (Impact of Event Scale – Revised) and remembered dangerous/frightening qualities of the experience on the other hand. A sample of 26 elderly Belgian Jews narrated their lives. As children they had been separated from their families to be hidden and saved from Nazi persecution. We analyzed sections of their narratives regarding separation from parents. PTSD symptoms correlated only with a lack of positive evaluations, and narrative immersion correlated with the scariness/dangerousness of the original events. We suggest that the emotional quality of memories is sufficient to predict narrative qualities that signal reliving, but that the lack of positive emotions is specific to the presence of PTSD symptoms.
Eintracht Frankfurt fans and the museum: Football history, remembrance culture, and the fight against antisemitism
Author(s): Matthias, Thoma; Liepach, Martin
Editor(s): Brunssen, Pavel; Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Football, Sports, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Museums
Appealing to a common identity: The case of antisemitism in Dutch football
Author(s): Verhoeven, Joram; Wagenaar, Willem
Editor(s): Brunssen, Pavel; Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Football, Sports, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Antisemitic ressentiment-communication directed at RB Leipzig in German football fan culture: The third other
Author(s): Brunssen, Pavel
Editor(s): Brunssen, Pavel; Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Football, Sports, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Antisemitism in German football since the 1980s
Author(s): Schubert, Florian
Editor(s): Brunssen, Pavel; Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Football, Sports, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Is There a Jewish Revival in Moldova?
Author(s): Sheveliov, Dymitry
Editor(s): Sujecka, Jolanta
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Revival, Post-1989
The sociopolitical roots of antisemitism among football fandom: The real absence and imagined presence of Jews in Polish football
Author(s): Burski, Jacek; Woźniak, Wojciech
Editor(s): Brunssen, Pavel; Schüler-Springorum, Stefanie
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Football, Sports, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Mutual Influences in the Family Rites of Moldavian Jews and Their Neighbors (According to Materials from Fieldwork in the Republic of Moldova)
Author(s): Golant, Natalia
Editor(s): Sujecka, Jolanta
Date: 2020
Topics: Family and Household, Main Topic: Other
The Jewish Community in Post-Communist Bulgaria: State Policy and Community Evolution
Author(s): Christidis, Yorgos
Editor(s): Sujecka, Jolanta
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Community, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Post-1989, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Politics, Policy
Examining the Formal Political Participation of Jews in Post-Dayton Bosnia and Hercegovina: What Types of Participants
Author(s): Savić-Bojanić, Maja
Editor(s): Sujecka, Jolanta
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Politics
The Sephardim in Sarajevo and Their Reflections on the Crises, Antisemitism and Islamization of Today
Author(s): Rock, Jonna
Editor(s): Sujecka, Jolanta
Date: 2020
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Muslim, Islamic Fundamentalism, Main Topic: Other, Jewish Identity, Sephardi Jews
Intergenerational Memory, Language and Jewish Identification of the Sarajevo Sephardim
Author(s): Rock, Jonna
Date: 2019
Topics: Jewish Revival, Language, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Sephardi Jews, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Community
Abstract: This study analyzes issues of language and Jewish identification pertaining to the Sephardim in Sarajevo. Complexity of the Sarajevo Sephardi history means that I explore Bosnia-Herzegovina/Yugoslavia, Israel and Spain as possible identity-creating factors for the Sephardim in Sarajevo today. My findings show that the elderly Sephardic generation insist on calling their language Serbo-Croatian, whereas the younger generations do not really know what language they speak – and laugh about the linguistic situation in Sarajevo, or rely on made-up categories such as ‘Sarajevan.’ None of the interviewees emphasize the maintenance of Judeo-Spanish as a crucial condition for the continuation of Sephardic culture in Sarajevo. Similarly, the celebration of Jewish holidays is more important for the maintenance of identity across the generations than speaking a Jewish language. At the same time, the individuals also assert alternative forms of being Bosnian, ones that encompass multiple ethnicities and religious ascriptions. All the youngest interviewees however fear that the Sarajevo Sephardic identity will disappear in a near future. Unique characteristics of Sarajevo Sephardim include the status of the Sephardim and minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina given (1) the discriminatory Bosnian Constitution; (2) the absence of a law in Bosnia on the return of property; (3) the special situation wherein three major ethnic groups, and not just a single, ethnically homogeneous ‘majority,’ dominate the country; (4) the lack of a well-developed Jewish cultural infrastructure. Despite all of this, a rapprochement between the Sarajevo Jewish Community members and their religion and tradition is taking place. This phenomenon is partly attributable to the Community’s young religious activist and chazan, Igor Kožemjakin, who has attracted younger members to the religious services.
Sarajevo and the Sarajevo Sephardim
Author(s): Rock, Jonna
Date: 2018
Topics: Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Sephardi Jews
Abstract: This article highlights issues pertaining to the Sephardim ([-im] is the masculine plural Hebrew ending and Sepharad is the Hebrew name for Spain. Sephardim thus literally means the Jews of Spain) in Sarajevo from the time of their arrival in the Ottoman Empire in the late fifteenth century until the present day. I describe the status quo for the Sephardi minority in post-Ottoman Sarajevo, in the first and second Yugoslavia, and in today’s post-Communist Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The objective is to shed light on how historic preconditions have influenced identity formation as it expresses itself from a Sephardic perspective. The aim is moreover to generate knowledge of the circumstances that affected how Sephardim came to understand themselves in terms of their Jewish identification. I present empirical findings from my semi-structured interviews with Sarajevo Sephardim of different generations (2015 and 2016). I argue that while none of the interlocutors conceive of Jewish identification as divergent from halachic interpretations of matrilineal descent, they moreover propose other conceptions of what it means to be Jewish, such as celebrating Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, and other patterns of socialization. At the same time, these individuals also assert alternative forms of being Bosnian, one that includes multiple ethnicities, and multiple religious ascriptions. This study elucidates a little-explored history and sheds light on the ways in which historical conditions have shaped contemporary, layered framings of identification among Sarajevo’s current Jewish population. This article is relevant for those interested in contemporary Sephardic Bosnian culture and in the role and function of ideology in creating conditions for identity formation and transformation.
Neo Anti-Semitism in Today's Italy
Author(s): Minerbi, Sergio I.
Date: 2003
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: New Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Left-Wing, Anti-Zionism, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze and confute some of the arguments recently put forward by important Italian intellectuals against Jews and against Israel. Neo anti-Semitism camouflaged as anti-Zionism is spreading in Italy today. Three main examples of this phenomenon are given: Sergio Romano, Alberto Asor Rosa, and Barbara Spinelli. Romano claims that the memory of the Shoah has become an insurance policy and is used by Israel as a diplomatic weapon, while Israel itself is "a war-mongering, imperialist, arrogant nation" and "an unscrupulous liar." Asor Rosa claims that Israel "developed a marvelous army" but at the same time "the tradition and thinking melted away," while Israel affirms, he writes, "the racial superiority of the Jewish people." For Barbara Spinelli: "Israel constitutes a scandal" for the way in which Moses' religion validates "rights which are often meta-historical" and "linked to sacred texts." Spinelli thinks that Israel should express its culpability to Palestinians and Islam. She goes as far as stating that some Israelis dream "of a sort of second holocaust." She also attacks the "double and contradictory loyalty" of the Jews. There is a short analysis of the Italian press and of the stand of the Catholic Church. The lynch in Ramallah is discussed, as well as the declarations of Ambassador Vento. The author also raises the question of school textbooks, the boycott against Israeli universities, and the existence of other voices, very different from the ones mentioned above.
Remembering and Forgetting: The Holocaust in 21st Century Britain
Author(s): Critchell, Kara
Date: 2016
Topics: Holocaust Education, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Commemoration, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, National Identity
Abstract: This article explores the politics of Holocaust memorialization by examining the intersection of education, commemoration and national identity in 21st-century Britain since the inaugural Holocaust Memorial Day in 2001. The article shows how institutionalized spheres have intersected with contemporary cultural discourse surrounding questions of civic morality, immigration and the memory of other genocides. The main argument put forward is that the way in which the Holocaust has been indelibly associated with these issues has both implicitly and explicitly connected Holocaust discourse to contemporary debates on what constitutes British identity in the 21st century. The article also suggests that highly domesticated narratives of the period are often used to promote a self-congratulatory notion of British identity and supposed British exceptionalism.
Holocaust education in British society and culture
Author(s): Critchell, Kara
Date: 2014
Topics: Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Education, Holocaust Memorials, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Schools: Non-Jewish
Abstract: Moving away from traditional encounters with Holocaust education in academic research this study explores the role of Holocaust education in the construction and mediation of British historical consciousness of the Holocaust. Following contextual explorations of the role of two of the most dominant symbols to have emerged within the field of Holocaust education since the establishment of the National Curriculum, the Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau, this study closely analyses the way in which each of these Holocaust icons has been represented and utilised within educational programmes promoted by the Holocaust Educational Trust. It is shown that the educational representations of these symbols contribute to the domestication of Holocaust consciousness within a British narrative, reinforcing positive interpretations of British national identity and the benefits of liberal democracy whilst, simultaneously, distancing the crimes committed during the Holocaust from the British public through representing these acts as the very antithesis of what is deemed to be British. Through such analysis it is demonstrated that Holocaust education, as it exists in Britain today, reflects the British context in which it has evolved whilst illustrating how it has also fundamentally been shaped by this same context. Whilst considering the ways in which these representations both reflect and shape understandings of the Holocaust this study also illustrates that the Holocaust as it exists in popular consciousness, and educational programmes, is being increasingly unmoored from its historical context as the iconic symbols associated with it are becoming gradually dehistoricised as a means of providing relevant “lessons” for contemporary society. As Holocaust educators reach a crossroads in their field and prepare to decide the future shape British Holocaust education will assume this research constitutes a timely contribution to existing knowledge and understanding of how the Holocaust is encountered within the educational sphere and within British society and culture.
Antisemitism in the Czech Republic: Understanding Current Trends
Author(s): Tarant, Zbyněk
Date: 2020
Topics: Antisemitism, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Abstract: The Czech Republic is considered to be a country with low levels of antisemitism. This does not mean, however, that anti-Jewish attitudes have disappeared from Czech society. While it is not an immediate threat, the phenomenon persists in certain specific political and cultural circles. The first section of this article examines the major characteristics of Czech antisemitism through statistics, polls, and other indicators. The second section explores the ideological sources and visual forms of Czech antisemitism. Unlike Western Europe and the United States, the Czech Republic faces challenges involving more traditional forms of antisemitism, such as conspiracy theories and even the blood-libel, which do not respect partisan political divisions and often lead to unexpected alliances.
Making Space for Jewish Culture in Polish Folk and Ethnographic Museums
Author(s): Lehrer, Erica; Murzyn-Kupisz, Monika
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Heritage, Memory, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Museums
Abstract: Looking beyond Poland's internationally lauded new Jewish museums, this article asks how Jews are represented in longer-standing folk and ethnographic museums whose mandates have been to represent the historical culture of the Polish nation. How have such museums navigated growing internal pressures to incorporate Jews and reconsider the boundaries of “Polishness” alongside external pressures to rethink the function and approach of ethnographic museology? Based on three museums that have taken three different approaches to Jewishness—what we call cabinet of Jewish curiosities, two solitudes, and ambivalent externalization—we assess the roles played by inherited discourses and structures as well as human agents within and beyond the museum. We illuminate how social debate about the character of the nation (and Jews’ place in it) plays out in museums at a moment in their transition from nineteenth- to twenty-first-century paradigms and how a distinctively Polish path toward a “new museology” is emerging in conversation with and resistance to its Western counterparts.
Plaid Cymru Review into Antisemitism
Author(s): Saville Roberts, Liz
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Left-Wing, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Politics, Policy
Abstract: Plaid Cymru is committed to being a safe space for Jews and to playing our part in ensuring
that Jews are safe in Wales and the United Kingdom. This commitment is enshrined in the
Party’s Antisemitism Statement.
The Leadership of the Party is determined that the Antisemitism Statement be incorporated
into the Party’s policies, procedures, structures and culture. To this end, and following
discussion with the Board of Deputies of British Jews regarding a number of antisemitism
complaints made against Party members and representatives over the last two years, the
Leader commissioned a review by the Leader of the Westminster Parliamentary Group.
Jewish employment patterns: How the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Jewish people’s working lives
Author(s): Graham, David; Boyd, Jonathan; Lessof, Carli
Date: 2021
Topics: Employment, Work, Main Topic: Other, Coronavirus/Covid
Abstract: As soon as the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic became evident, concern began to be expressed in the Jewish community about how its effects might damage different aspects of Jewish life. Our July 2020 survey of Jews across the UK was designed to investigate some of these effects and bring some data into policy discussion about the future of the community.

In this fifth paper drawing on those survey data, we examine the impact of the pandemic on the working lives of Jewish people in the United Kingdom. It begins by studying how the experience of Jews compares to that of the wider population, and explores the issues of employment, redundancy and furlough, as well as other work disruptions such as income reduction, working from home, and caring for children. With very little data on Jewish employment available, this report provides key insights into the ways in which the community was impacted over the first five months of the pandemic, and points to how it is likely to have been affected subsequently. By providing this analysis, we hope to help UK Jewish community organisations and foundations to respond appropriately to the challenges identified.

Of particular note among the findings: the Jewish employment rate had declined at a lower rate than among the general population, but the Jewish unemployment rate had increased at a higher rate. Whilst many Jews have experienced serious work impacts, and many among the high proportions of self-employed Jews have lost income without having the same access to government financial support as the employed, it seems unlikely that the Jewish population as a whole has suffered disproportionately. We found that those who were most likely to experience severe work disruptions (defined as being made redundant, being furloughed, having their pay reduced and/or having their hours reduced) were the youngest workers (aged 16-24), Jewish women (especially regarding furlough and redundancy), single parents, those with household incomes below £30,000 per year prior to the pandemic, and the most religious respondents, especially Strictly Orthodox workers, more than half of whom (52%) experienced one or more of these severe impacts.

A follow-up survey planned for the coming months will determine how things have changed further since July among Jews, but it is nevertheless already clear that communal investment in employment support is needed, since all national indicators tell us that the employment situation has generally deteriorated since that time. Continued monitoring of Jewish employment rates is imperative if we are to determine and understand how the overall picture is changing and whether various endeavours being undertaken to address the challenges are effective. This will require a combination of continued investigations using data gathered within the community, as well as new investments in analysing and interpreting national data sources to shed light on long-term trends.
Moving beyond COVID-19: What needs to be done to help preserve and enhance Jewish communal life?
Author(s): Boyd, Jonathan
Date: 2021
Topics: Coronavirus/Covid, Health, Finance, Main Topic: Other, Policy, Synagogues, Jewish Schools, Care and Welfare, Charity / Tzedakah
Abstract: Since the COVID-19 pandemic first began, the JPR research team has focused its efforts on trying to understand how it is affecting Jewish life in the UK and around the world, and has generated a series of reports sharing our insights as they evolve. In this research and policy briefing, we draw together the findings from much of the work that has been done, and consider their implications for the future of Jewish communal life.

The report touches on multiple themes, including the economic needs of disadvantaged households, how best to maintain the Jewish charitable sector, the importance of supporting local synagogue communities and Jewish schools, how to address the potential harmful effects of the pandemic on the community’s informal educational infrastructure, health measures that should be considered to help protect lives, intracommunal relations, and issues around the use of technology to help support and bolster Jewish life.

In addition, it considers how the pandemic has impacted data collection work, for good and for bad, and makes important recommendations about the research that needs to be undertaken to support Jewish life going forward.

As well as making specific recommendations, the paper is designed to be a trigger for discussion among community leaders, philanthropists and members, and we welcome feedback from readers.
‘Proud to be British; and proud to be Jewish’: the holocaust and British values in the twenty-first century
Author(s): Critchell, Kara
Date: 2020
Topics: Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust Education, Attitudes to Jews, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, National Identity
Abstract: As we approach the post-witness era this paper investigates the changing role of the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors in twenty-first century British politics and culture. In the first part, the article discusses the ways in which, through their role in educational initiatives and commemorative culture, survivors have acquired an increased visibility in British understandings of the Holocaust. For a significant period of time, this process was characterized by a tendency to abstract survivors from their Jewish identities to ensure that they could more easily act as mediators of a universalized, yet highly domesticated, Holocaust narrative with meanings for contemporary British society. However, in the second part the article will argue that, starting from the second decade of the twenty-first century, it is also possible to discern an increasing acknowledgement of British Holocaust survivors’ ‘difference.’ It will be suggested that British politicians have attempted to mobilize survivors, the Anglo-Jewish community they are seen to represent, and the Holocaust more in general, in Britain’s domestic battle against Islamic extremism and in the pursuit of the rather elusive concept of ‘British values.’
Group Identities and the Construction of the 1943 Rescue of the Danish Jews
Author(s): Buckser, Andrew
Date: 1998
Topics: Attitudes to Jews, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, National Identity, Memory
Abstract: The rescue of the Danish Jews from the Nazi roundups of 1943 has become the defining image of Judaism in Denmark, both within the country and to the world outside. This article examines the way in which this story about the past has been constructed, focusing particularly on its portrayals of the types of groups involved and on the motivations of the rescuers. It argues that the dominance and durability of this story in defining Jewish identity in Denmark stems from the type of relationships it posits between Danish Christians, Danish Jews, and worldwide Jewry. Anthropological studies of tradition could be enriched by a greater focus on such collaborative constructions of the past.
The Jewish Community in Denmark: History and Present Status
Author(s): Kisch, Conrad
Date: 1998
Topics: Jewish Community, Main Topic: Identity and Community
The Danish Jewish Museum: A New Museum Asserts its Character
Author(s): Laursen, Janne
Editor(s): Goodnow, Katherine; Akman, Haci
Date: 2008
Topics: Jewish Museums, Jewish Heritage, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Failing to remember: afterlives and Stolpersteine in the Nordic region
Author(s): Mandel, Ruth; Lehr, Rachel
Date: 2020
Topics: Holocaust Memorials, Memory, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Abstract: Artist Gunter Demnig’s counter-memorial project Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks) installs small brass plaques into the pavement in front of homes from which Nazi victims were deported. Extending to 27 countries, over 70,000 plaques are embossed with the names and fates of individuals memorialized. This article discusses the material, visual and narrative representations of the afterlives of the victims, addressing how the memory of their lives has been muted, forgotten and reinserted into the landscape. It is based on fieldwork throughout Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Stolpersteine, as objets chargés, engender contestations: they are celebrated, banned, cherished and vandalized. For some, Stolpersteine can serve as ersatz gravestones. Their afterlives are complex and destabilizing, both inspiring and politically controversial. Drawing from Nora’s notion lieux de mémoires, the concept of lieux chargés is introduced to theorize the salient sites and events relating to the processes, dynamics and emerging rituals surrounding Stolpersteine.
Danish museum, Jewish museum: the Danish Jewish Museum as discourse on a minority’s integration
Author(s): Nissimi, Hilda
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Heritage, Jewish Museums, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Assimilation, Immigration, National Identity
Abstract: The Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen presents the Jewish community as a religious minority that fully integrated into the country by relinquishing its wider context in Jewish history and its transnational ties. Thus the Museum’s discourse on diaspora and immigration can be examined as an example to be studied within the discourses on Jewish identity and Jewish–non-Jewish relationships. Furthermore, the Museum is Danish and takes part in the discourse on Danish identity, especially in its relation to minorities and immigrants. The Museum is viewed in this article through its function as a liminal space, a place of transformation, which aims at the deconstruction and reconstruction of the identities of its visitors from a possibly uninformed and unaware public towards more openness and diversity. The museum is analysed as a ‘text’ to describe how it defines the Jewish and Danish identities of Danish Jews according to religion and nation.
Means of transport and storage: suitcases and other containers for the memory of migration and displacement
Author(s): Schlör, Joachim
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Museums, Jewish Heritage, Immigration, Holocaust, Memory, Oral History and Biography
Abstract: Several exhibitions in recent years – in the ‘Deutsches Auswandererhaus’ Bremerhaven and other museums in Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States – have used suitcases (and ‘the suitcase’) as a central symbol and metaphor for the migration process. Based on a variety of examples, the article discusses the idea and the use of memory containers – and their function as archives – in the context of emigration, transmigration, and immigration. Suitcases are the most obvious material objects relating to these processes and the connected cultural practices. They are concrete objects, but beyond that they have been used as symbols and metaphors for the experience of travel and of dislocation. Suitcases often contained, and therefore are connected to, other items of memory storage: photographs and personal documents (letters, diaries about the migration experience – documents that have been termed, in a different context, ‘Schreibakte auf der Schwelle’ – acts of writing on the threshold); manuscripts, farewell letters (written on the boat, in border stations, in port cities), memorial and yizkor books, songs and poems, self-drawn maps which show the stations of the journey. An analysis of such ‘things’ – material objects which often carried an emotional value – and their representation in museums and exhibitions opens up a wide and rich field of research for the ethnography of migration.
Modern Antisemitism in the Visegrád Countries – Countering Distortion
Author(s): Ildikó, Barna; Kohut, Tamás; Pallai, Katalin
Date: 2021
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: New Antisemitism, Holocaust Denial, Focus Groups, Policy
Abstract: This qualitative study aimed to address current gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the relationship between modern antisemitism and Holocaust denial and distortion from a regional perspective. This inquiry
focuses on four post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe known as the Visegrád Four. Focus group research was conducted in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to explore how secondary antisemitism is manifested in Holocaust denial and distortion and how secondary and Israel-focused antisemitism (i.e. new antisemitism) can lead to Holocaust denial and distortion in the region.

More specifically, the focus group research was meant to explore: (1) how focus group participants in the Visegrád countries contextualize topics related to Holocaust denial and distortion; (2) how these arguments are framed and justified; (3) how narratives of Holocaust denial and distortion are linked to Holocaust remembrance; (4)
how such narratives are embedded in the discussion on Israel-focused antisemitism; (5) how Holocaust distortion and new antisemitism can reinforce each other in these narratives; and (6) how social settings can give rise to manifestations of antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion.

Drawing on the findings of this research, policy workshops were organized in each Visegrád country to formulate practice-oriented proposals that could inform policy development. The results of the qualitative research and the discussions in these workshops will contribute to the formulation of region-specific survey questions
that can serve as a basis for further research on modern antisemitism in the Visegrád countries.

This report summarizes the qualitative research, its key findings and the resulting proposals to combat Holocaust denial and distortion in the region.
Jewish Identities in Poland and America: The Impact of the Shoah on Religion and Ethnicity
Author(s): Rejak, Sebastian
Date: 2011
Topics: Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Secularity
Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women
Author(s): Taylor-Guthartz, Lindsey
Date: 2021
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Women, Interviews, Prayer, Religious Observance and Practice, Ritual, Orthodox Judaism
Abstract: Orthodox Jewish women are increasingly seeking new ways to express themselves religiously, and important changes have occurred in consequence in their self-definition and the part they play in the religious life of their communities. Drawing on surveys and interviews across different Orthodox groups in London, as well as on the author’s own experience of active participation over many years, this is a thoroughly researched study that analyses its findings in the context of related developments in Israel and the USA. Sympathetic attention is given to women’s creativity and sophistication as they struggle to develop new modes of expression that will let their voices be heard; at the same time, the inevitable points of conflict with the male-dominated religious establishment are examined and explained. There is a focus, too, on the impact of innovations in ritual: these include not only the creation of women-only spaces and women’s participation in public practices traditionally reserved for men, but also new personal practices often acquired on study visits to Israel which are replacing traditions learned from family members. This is a much-needed study of how new norms of lived religion have emerged in London, influenced by both the rise of feminism and the backlash against it, and also by women’s new understanding of their religious roles.
Criss-Crossing Identities: The Russian Jewish Diaspora and the Jewish Diaspora in Russia
Author(s): Markowitz, Fran
Date: 1995
Topics: Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Diaspora, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews
Jews in Present-Day Russia
Author(s): Ryvkina, Rozalina V.
Date: 1998
Topics: Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity
Abstract: The purpose of the present article is to provide an analysis of the problems of Russian Jewry. As one of Russia's many ethnic groups and, moreover, a dispersed group, Jews have their own specific problems in addition to the problems that are common to the country's population at large. This is evident, in particular, in the mass emigration of Jews from Russia once travel restrictions were lifted in the late eighties. The scale of Jewish emigration has been of such a magnitude that the likelihood that all Jews will leave Russia, their Exodus, has become a quite realistic possibility. This situation requires a scientific analysis. First it will be useful to determine how many Jews there are in Russia, and who may be considered a Jew.
Identity Quest of Russian Jews in the 1990s: Before and After Emigration
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Editor(s): Krausz, Ernest; Tulea, Gitta
Date: 1998
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity
Russian-Speaking Jewry Communal and Congregational Life Abroad: the Role of Language
Author(s): Ser, Gregory; Talalova, Larissa
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Continuity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Language
Abstract: The authors explore the Russian Jews diaspora which represents the viable mechanisms of real functioning in a host society. The article marks three criteria that help to be navigated among the options how the Russian Jewish immigration in the UK pans out in terms of: a) preserving the mother tongue, b) sticking to the home culture and c) whether the Russian Jews choose to adopt the host culture, whether they partly integrate into it or they fully assimilate.
An exploration of attitudes towards breast cancer screening in orthodox Jewish women in Antwerp – Belgium
Author(s): Bruwiere, E.; Van Roosbroeck, S.; Van Hal, G.; Muys, J.; Jacquemyn, Y
Date: 2016
Topics: Focus Groups, Jewish Women, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Health, Health Education, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Objective: To explore determinants of participation in breast cancer screening in orthodox Jewish women living in Antwerp, Belgium, and to uncover their opinions and attitudes towards screening, and thereby to detect ways to optimize participation. Study design: Focus group discussions were performed during the last months of 2011 and the first half of 2012 to explore motivation to participate or not in breast cancer screening. Groups consisted of five to seven women. Inclusion criteria were: being female, considering oneself as orthodox Jewish, aged between 50 and 69 years. Results: Three focus group discussions with in a total of 20 women had taken place. All participants in the focus group discussions had a screening mammography taken on a regular base. All participants agreed that the social cohesion between Jewish orthodox women and the importance that is given to healthcare within the Jewish tradition are important contributors to their participation in a breast cancer screening program. Pain, lack of information during the exam, lack of confidence in the quality of the exam, perceived problems when the examining doctor/technician is male, and fear of the results are mentioned as barriers. The participants, however, state that these were not important enough to result in non-participation. Barriers could be diminished by information sessions specifically aimed at orthodox Jewish women. Conclusion: This qualitative research demonstrates a generally positive attitude of orthodox Jewish women living in Antwerp, Belgium, towards mammographic breast cancer screening. Increased and repeated structured information sessions are likely to improve breast cancer awareness in this population.
Religion and Ethics at the End of Life. A Qualitative Empirical Study among Elderly Jewish and Muslim Women in Antwerp (Belgium)
Author(s): Baeke, Goedele
Date: 2012
Topics: Ageing and the Elderly, Main Topic: Other, Comparisons with other communities, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Health, Death and Mourning
Rejecting “Controversial” Issues in Education: A Case Study of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Schools in Belgium
Author(s): Franken, Leni; Levrau, François
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Curriculum, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations
Abstract: In liberal democracies, fundamental rights and freedoms can conflict, and if they do, it is not always clear which right the state should prioritize. Should the right of parents to choose education in line with their own convictions prevail, or should the right of children to be prepared for a future life in a liberal democratic society be given more moral weight? While the former might lead to establishing and subsidizing orthodox religious schools, the latter implies “liberal”, “autonomy-facilitating” education. In order to make this tension concrete, we focus on a case study of an ultra-orthodox Jewish (Haredi) school in Flanders (Belgium), where “controversial issues” are excluded from the curriculum and where education is not fully in line with the core principles of “liberal education”. Subsequently, we explore the legal educational context in liberal democracies, with a particular focus on the freedom of religion and education. Then, we scrutinize several arguments for or against ultra-orthodox faith-based schools. We conclude that there are no convincing arguments for state support for these kinds of schools and that the recent Flemish policy of homeschooling might be a reasonable alternative, wherein a balance is found between children’s rights and parental rights
Jewish Identity, Values, and Religion in a Globalized World: A Study of Late Adolescents
Author(s): Saroglou, Vassilis; Hanique, Benoît
Date: 2006
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Comparisons with other communities, National Identity, Teenagers, Youth
Abstract: Multiple identities are becoming an increasingly important issue in a globalized world. This study examines the interference of Jewish identity with other collective identities, national and transnational, as well as the influence of religion and values on Jewish and other collective identities in Jewish late adolescents in Belgium. We compared data with those of a previous study on native Belgians and Muslim immigrants (Saroglou & Galand, 2004) and found similarities between Jews and the other two groups in the hierarchies of collective identities and values; however, Jews differed in their weak European identity and the considerable importance to them of autonomy and self-enhancement values (power and achievement). Jewish cultural identity was unrelated to other collective identities, but a shift from a Jewish identity to a new, Belgian identity or to a broad, transnational identity (or both) was occasionally related to low levels of attachment to religion, tradition, power, security, and hedonism and to high levels of universalism, autonomy, and conformity.
Understanding How Communities Respond to COVID-19: Experiences from the Orthodox Jewish Communities of Antwerp City [Preprint]
Author(s): Vanhamel, Jeff; Meudec, Maria; Van Landeghem, Ella; Ronse, Maya; Gryseels, Charlotte; Reyniers, Thijs; Rotsaert, Anke; Ddungu, Charles; Manirankunda, Lazare; Katsuva, Deogratias; Koen, Peeters Grietens; Nöstlinger, Christiana
Date: 2021
Topics: Coronavirus/Covid, Health, Health Education, Jewish Community, Main Topic: Other, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews
Abstract: Background: The importance of community involvement in the response against disease outbreaks has been well established. However, we lack insights into local communities’ experiences in coping with the current COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored both the impact of, and response to, COVID-19 within the Orthodox Jewish communities of Antwerp (Belgium) during the first lockdown period (March 2020 – May 2020).

Methods: We conducted an explorative qualitative study using a participatory approach. First, we performed a community mapping to identify relevant stakeholders. Through the active involvement of a community advisory board and based on qualitative interviews with key-informants and community members, we elicited lived experiences, attitudes, and perceptions towards COVID-19. Interviews were conducted both face-to-face and using online web conferencing technology. Data were analyzed inductively according to the principles of thematic analysis.

Results: Government-issued outbreak control measures presented context-specific challenges to the Orthodox Jewish communities in Antwerp. They related mainly to the remote organization of religious life, and practicing physical distancing in socially and culturally strongly connected communities. Key informants described how existing community resources were rapidly mobilized to adapt to the outbreak and to self-organize response initiatives within communities. This included the active involvement of community and religious leaders in risk communication, which proved to be of great importance to facilitate coverage and uptake of pandemic control measures while protecting essential community values and traditions. Creating bottom-up and community-adapted communication strategies, including addressing language barriers and involving Rabbis in the dissemination of prevention messages, fostered a feeling of trust in government’s response measures. However, unmet information and prevention needs were also identified, such as the need for inclusive communication by public authorities and the need to mitigate the negative effects of stigmatization.

Conclusion: The experiences of Orthodox Jewish communities in Antwerp demonstrate a valuable example of a feasible community-centered approach to health emergencies. Increasing the engagement of communities in local decision-making and governance structures remains a key strategy to respond to unmet information and prevention needs.
Hardship And Needs Of Elderly Hesed Clients: An Analysis Of Clients Served By Hesed Service Centers In Russia & Ukraine
Author(s): Tighe, Elizabeth; Magidin de Kramer, Raquel; Bleckman, Dina; Begli, Nursahedov; Saxe, Leonard
Date: 2012
Topics: Ageing and the Elderly, Care and Welfare, Health, Evaluation, Main Topic: Other, Social Services, Social Work, NGOs
Abstract:

The countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) are the home today for a substantial number of Jews, many of whom live in poor, economically disadvantaged communities. Throughout the FSU, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has supported the development of Hesed welfare and Jewish community centers to assist in the provision of services to Jews in need and to support the renewal of Jewish life after years of suppression. The present report is designed to review the current economic, health, and social conditions of these elderly Jews in need in the FSU and to compare their circumstances, as best possible, to their counterparts who live in western countries such as the United States.

Data from a large number of sources are reviewed and analyzed, including national statistics, national and local surveys, and client-level data. The data indicate clearly that, in view of demographic composition, as well as economic and social conditions, elderly Jews in the FSU have tremendous needs for supportive services funded by philanthropy compared to their peers in the United States. The comparisons also highlight the disparities in available care among those most in need.

There is a clear need for external support for basic health and social services for elderly Jews in the FSU. Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is not an adequate safety net for the elderly. The situation is in flux and there are unique challenges associated with understanding service delivery in societies that are in transition. The available data on pensions and living circumstances make clear that the economic situation for elderly in the FSU who seek Hesed services is dire. Faced with increasing costs for basic needs such as utilities and food, along with health services including essential medicines, quality care and homecare, the pension amounts that Hesed clients rely on are inadequate to meet their needs.
Anti-Semitism Among Hungarian College and University Students
Author(s): Kovács, András; Fischer, Gyorgy
Date: 1994
Topics: Antisemitism, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Students, Universities / Higher Education
Abstract: One thousand Hungarian students were interviewed in order to measure the intensity of antisemitic beliefs held by Hungarian college and university students. The results revealed that 25% of the students show antisemitic attitudes and 32% maintain some negative stereotypes about Jews. These results also had a strong correlation to the students' parents' level of education and social status. Furthermore, the study authors found that university students were less likely to be antisemitic than college students. The authors analyze the data and further examine the relationship between Jews and Hungarians.
Extremely high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a strictly-Orthodox Jewish community in the UK
Author(s): Gaskell, Katherine M.; Johnson, Marina; Gould, Victoria; Hunt, Adam; Stone, Neil RH; Waites, William; Kasstan, Ben; Chantler, Tracey; Lal, Sham; Roberts, Chrissy H.; Goldblatt, David; Eggo, Rosalind M.; Marks, Michael
Date: 2021
Topics: Coronavirus/Covid, Health, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Background Ethnic and religious minorities have been disproportionately affected by SARS-CoV-2 worldwide. The UK strictly-Orthodox Jewish community has been severely affected by the pandemic. This group shares characteristics with other ethnic minorities including larger family sizes, higher rates of household crowding and relative socioeconomic deprivation. We studied a UK strictly-Orthodox Jewish population to understand how COVID-19 had spread within this community.

Methods We performed a household-focused cross-sectional SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey specific to three antigen targets. Randomly-selected households completed a standardised questionnaire and underwent serological testing with a multiplex assay for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies. We report clinical illness and testing before the serosurvey, seroprevalence stratified by age and gender. We used random-effects models to identify factors associated with infection and antibody titres.

Findings A total of 343 households, consisting of 1,759 individuals, were recruited. Serum was available for 1,242 participants. The overall seroprevalence for SARS-CoV-2 was 64.3% (95% CI 61.6-67.0%). The lowest seroprevalence was 27.6% in children under 5 years and rose to 73.8% in secondary school children and 74% in adults. Antibody titres were higher in symptomatic individuals and declined over time since reported COVID-19 symptoms, with the decline more marked for nucleocapsid titres.

Interpretation In this tight-knit religious minority population in the UK, we report one of the highest SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence levels in the world to date. In the context of this high force of infection, all age groups experienced a high burden of infection. Actions to reduce the burden of disease in this and other minority populations are urgently required.

Funding This work was jointly funded by UKRI and NIHR [COV0335; MR/V027956/1], a donation from the LSHTM Alumni COVID-19 response fund, HDR UK, the MRC and the Wellcome Trust. The funders had no role in the design, conduct or analysis of the study or the decision to publish. The authors have no financial relationships with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Evidence before the study In January 2020, we searched PubMed for articles on rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst ethnic minority groups and amongst the Jewish population. Search teams included “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, seroprevalence, “ethnic minority”, and “Jewish” with no language restrictions. We also searched UK government documents on SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst minority groups. By January 2020, a large number of authors had reported that ethnic minority groups experienced higher numbers of cases and increased hospitalisations due to COVID-19. A small number of articles provided evidence that strictly-Orthodox Jewish populations had experienced a high rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection but extremely limited data was available on overall population level rates of infection amongst specific ethnic minority population groups. There was also extremely limited data on rates of infection amongst young children from ethnic minority groups.

Added value of the study We report findings from a population representative, household survey of SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst a UK strictly Orthodox Jewish population. We demonstrate an extremely high seroprevalence rate of SARS-CoV-2 in this population which is more than five times the estimated seroprevalence nationally and five times the estimated seroprevalence in London. In addition the large number of children in our survey, reflective of the underlying population structure, allows us to demonstrate that in this setting there is a significant burden of disease in all age groups with secondary school aged children having an equivalent seroprevalence to adults.

Implications of the available evidence Our data provide clear evidence of the markedly disproportionate impact of SARS-CoV-2 in minority populations. In this setting infection occurs at high rates across all age groups including pre-school, primary school and secondary school-age children. Contextually appropriate measures to specifically reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 amongst minority populations are urgently required.
Project Kesher – Making Jewish Women’s Voices Heard in the Former Soviet Union
Author(s): Yakimenko, Svetlana
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Women
More than Tikkun Olam? – Youth Work in (smaller) Communities
Author(s): Sheppard, Sarah
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Continuity, Small Jewish Communities, Youth Clubs, Youth Movements, Youth
Touring Amsterdam: Jews and the Tolerant City
Author(s): Modan, Gabriella
Editor(s): Piazza, Roberta
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Heritage, Jewish Neighbourhoods, Cities and Suburbs, Jewish Space, Tolerance, Tourism
Choosing Antisemitism: Instrumentalization and Tolerance of Antisemitism in Contemporary European Politics.
Date: 2021
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Far right, Antisemitism: Left-Wing, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Politics
Abstract: Overt state-sponsored antisemitism ended in Europe with the fall of the Soviet Union. Antisemitic attitudes, however, remain prevalent in Europe, and some European political actors have instrumentalized antisemitism for political gain. This report examines both the conscious use of antisemitism in European politics and the calculated tolerance of antisemitism, demonstrating that the oldest hatred remains a modern political tool.

Unlike antisemitic incidents of violence, vandalism, or insults, the political use of antisemitism does not target Jews themselves. Instead, antisemitic propaganda targets domestic or foreign audiences as a means of gaining political support. Demonstrating tolerance for antisemitism is another tactic of attracting political support. Polling data shows that these strategies have a rational basis. ADL’s 2019 Global 100 survey of antisemitic attitudes found that one in four Europeans polled harbored antisemitic beliefs.

Antisemitic propaganda has as its goal to energize and attract followers. Antisemitic propaganda is also used to tarnish political opponents in the eyes of a specific audience by intimating that someone is Jewish, supportive of Jewish causes or of the State of Israel. Other times, political opponents are slandered as antisemites or Nazis to diminish their reputations with specific audiences. Each of these techniques will be covered in this report, which focuses on the conscious choice of instrumentalizing or tolerating antisemitism for political gain. Antisemitic rhetoric by political actors as an indicator of bias is a much broader topic, and this report does not cover those instances.

The broad categories of the politicization of antisemitism include (1) politically motivated accusations of, or uses of, antisemitism against political opponents; (2) political appeals to antisemitic beliefs among the public, including the conspiracy theories about Jewish control of government, economy, media; and (3) tolerance of antisemitism within political movements as a strategy for increasing popular support. This list not exhaustive of the political instrumentalization of antisemitism, but this report provides illustrative examples from recent years in these broad categories.

Why is this report important? While violent antisemitic attacks receive wide publicity – and rightly so – the politicization of antisemitism can also severely impact Jewish communities. The British Jewish community provides a compelling example.

In January 2015, 11% of British Jews were considering emigrating, according to a poll by the UK’s Jewish Chronicle. That survey was conducted before Jeremy Corbyn, widely regarded within the British Jewish community as an antisemite himself, was even a leadership candidate for the Labour party. In September 2018, after antisemitism had become a serious problem in the Labour party under Corbyn, the Jewish Chronicle poll found that 39% of British Jews were considering emigrating. And in an October 2019 poll by the UK’s Jewish Leadership Council, just prior to the UK General Election, 47% of British Jews said they would “seriously consider” leaving the UK if Jeremy Corbyn were to win the election.

Had Jeremy Corbyn won, leading a major party widely recognized as tolerating antisemitism among its members, and had even 30% of British Jews emigrated as a result of that single event, that number of roughly 90,000 Jews would have been similar to the total of all the French Jews who left France over the past 20 years.

The sections below are select examples of the different ways in which antisemitism has been instrumentalized for political gain by various actors. The purposes and tactics vary substantially, but have the common element of politicizing antisemitism:

The Russian government instrumentalized antisemitism in the forms of propaganda and “false flag” operations to influence domestic and foreign public opinion in its conflict with Ukraine.
Polish political campaigns used overt antisemitic rhetoric during elections to win votes.
The Hungarian government used coded antisemitism in political campaigns against EU migration policies.
The UK Labour party consciously tolerated antisemitism to widen its political support from far-left radicals.
Ukrainian nationalists glorified World War II era fighters to promote nationalist narratives, while trivializing their involvement in the Holocaust.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party trivialized the Holocaust as part of their appeal to “Holocaust fatigue” among German voters.
Other political actors have engaged in similar acts of politicization, and their absence from this report is not indicative of any assessment. The cases below are simply the most blatant examples of the types of politicization to be highlighted.
Jewish Politics, Women’s Politics, General Politics – The Experience of Project Kesher
Author(s): Yakimenko, Svetlana
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Women, Jewish Peoplehood, Care and Welfare, Conflict Resolution
Abstract: Since 1989 Project Kesher has worked bringing women together, creating a network of Jewish women, helping women who knew nothing or very little about what it means to be Jewish, not only to become Jewish, but to create and strengthen Jewish community life in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. We shared success and analyzed the changes. We felt that we were one people.

Due to the present political crises we lost our vision as one Jewish people, we became divided. It was clear Project Kesher needed to take action. We started with International Skype calls. Every evening one woman from Russia, one from Ukraine, one from Belarus, one from Israel called a woman in another country: talking, sharing our love and support, wishing peace. When women started calling each other again and restoring broken relationships we saw that “KESHER” – connection – is working.

One day when there was a serious military clash in the area where she lived one of our leaders proposed to read Tehilim (Psalms), as prayers for peace. Soon more than one hundred women were reading Psalms, creating a chain of peace. Such a spirit of peace prevailed even at a time when the air was filled with war.

In Russia there are refugee families from different regions of the Ukraine. Sometimes they lost everything. Project Kesher women’s groups in cooperation with other Jewish organizations collected clothes, foot-wear as well as school-bags, school record books, sketchbooks, colored paper, paperboard, plasticine, pencil boxes, paints and markers for refugee children. Project Kesher activists also actively participated in organizing camps for refugees in Kharkiv and the Dnipropretrovsk region (Ukraine).

In times of conflict the wish to live in peace is not enough. Women needed instruments for conflict resolution. Project Kesher developed a unique leadership training program with the aim to enable the participants to conduct trainings in conflict resolution themselves in Jewish communities and partner organizations and to engage in mediation. These trainings are often based on Jewish tradition and text study.

A special event is Project Kesher’s Global Women’s Seder that was celebrated in 2015 for the 21st time. No less than 2500 members of 140 Project Kesher women’s and youth groups in 110 cities and five countries – Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Russia and the Ukraine – participated this year. The participants spoke about peace and declared that they intended to do everything possible to maintain peace in their families and in society. With the energy it sets free Project Kesher continues to initiate positive changes.
The Synagogue of Dieren
Author(s): Pach, Manja
Date: 2014
Topics: Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Other, Synagogues, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Rabbis, Jewish Women
Abstract: Manja Pach chronicles how a liberal Jewish community in the Netherlands reclaimed ownership of a disused village synagogue. While the women here had once been confined to the gallery, the synagogue now employs a female rabbi and cantor