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Więcej niż stereotyp. "Żydokomuna" jako wzór kultury polskiej
Translated Title: More than a Stereotype: “Jewish Bolshevism” as a Pattern of Polish Culture
Author(s): Zawadzka, Anna
Date: 2023
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Discourse, Communism, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Politics, Post-1989
Abstract: Książka Więcej niż stereotyp. „Żydokomuna” jako wzór kultury polskiej oparta jest na analizie dyskursu ntykomunistycznego i antysemickiego we współczesnej Polsce i ich wzajemnych powiązań. Jej powstaniu towarzyszyła intencja uszeregowania trzech zachodzących na siebie procesów: 1) intensyfikacji i rozwoju dyskursu antysemickiego w synergii z wciąż zyskującą na znaczeniu polityką historyczną, 2) powstawania nowych teorii interweniujących w pole badań nad antysemityzmem, 3) pojawiania się nowych zjawisk w sferze społecznej, które miałyby być tymi teoriami wyjaśniane. Na tle dotychczasowych ujęć tematu podejście autorki wyróżniają rozbudowane rozważania metodologiczne, a zwłaszcza wypunktowanie niedostatków kategorii stereotypu i wyjście poza nią w kierunku kategorii wzoru kultury. Kategoria stereotypu sugeruje, że mamy do czynienia z błędem poznawczym, aberracją lub pomyłką. Zaproponowaną w książce analizę antysemityzmu charakteryzuje tymczasem całkowite zerwanie z koncepcją „ziarna prawdy”, na której zasadza się większość definicji stereotypu jako uproszczonej wizji jakiegoś wycinka rzeczywistości. Podążając tropem Sandera Gilmana, autorka traktuje treści stereotypów jako materiał do analizy grupy wytwarzającej stereotypy. Takie podejście pozwala na wykorzystanie motywu „żydokomuny” do opisania status quo współczesnej kultury polskiej w zakresie wyobrażeń o żydowskości i o komunizmie. Autorka dowodzi, że przekonania na temat Żydów są integralną częścią kultury, wypracowaną i reprodukowaną w jej prawomocnych obiegach. Są one generowane, produkowane i używane do podtrzymywania pewnej całości kulturowej i pozostają w harmonii z jej pozostałymi elementami. Autorka broni tezy o „żydokomunie” jako motywie współcześnie konstytutywnym dla koherencji kulturowej, generowanej w ramach paradygmatu antykomunistycznego. Książka ma dowieść, że antykomunizm nie tylko stanowi komponent tradycji antysemickiej, ale w dużej mierze ukształtował taki model badań nad antysemityzmem, w którym możliwość zdiagnozowania i rozmontowania tego ideologicznego konstruktu jest strukturalnie zablokowana. Strukturę tę umacnia fakt, że – za sprawą szantażu antysemicką zbitką „żydokomuny” zastosowanym wobec szkoły frankfurckiej na uchodźctwie – zbudowano ją niejako „rękami Żydów” – badaczek i badaczy, którzy po drugiej stronie żelaznej kurtyny w początkach zimnej wojny rozwinęli koncepcję relacji międzygrupowych, próbując ten szantaż obejść. Podążając tropem Stuarta Svonkina i Avivy Weingarten, autorka śledzi historię powojennego konstruowania narzędzi badawczych antysemityzmu w duchu psychologii społecznej przy równoczesnym odchodzeniu od kategorii socjologicznych. W książce wypunktowane zostają niedostatki takiego podejścia, ponieważ koncentruje się ono na szacowaniu indywidualnych podmiotów antysemityzmu, definiując antysemityzm podług cech nieadekwatnych do jego współczesnej konstrukcji. Tymczasem kategoria wzoru kultury pozwala przenieść punkt ciężkości z pytania o to, kto jest antysemitą, na pytanie o to, jakie treści kulturowe cyrkulujące w rozmaitych rejestrach kultury, także tych najbardziej oficjalnych, są zakorzenione w antysemickich kategoriach postrzegania rzeczywistości oraz jakie są funkcje tych kategorii dla stabilizowania zastanego porządku. Takie ujęcie pozwala na uchwycenie mechanizmów odtwarzania motywu „żydokomuny” we współczesnym dyskursie i jego funkcjonalności. Zaproponowana w książce krytyka słownika pojęć używanych do analizy antysemityzmu obejmuje także terminy wypracowane w łonie nauk społecznych na Zachodzie, stosowane do półperyferyjnych warunków ostkomunistycznego kraju Europy Wschodniej. W książce znajdziemy krytykę powierzchownego przyswojenia kategorii: intersekcjonalność, białość, imperializm. Rozważając przystawalność amerykańskiego dyskursu o rasie i rasizmie do warunków polskich, autorka stara się dowieść, że użycie niektórych pojęć bez zważania na lokalny kontekst okazuje się mieć odwrotny wydźwięk w stosunku do intencji, które stały za ich wypracowaniem. Ostatnia część książki poświęcona jest recepcji piętna „żydokomuny” przez napiętnowanych. Rozważania na ten temat wynikają z założenia autorki, że tylko przemoc symboliczna – przemoc, którą jednostki i grupy zadają same sobie, uwewnętrzniając przekonania grupy dominującej na własny temat i odgrywając przeznaczone im przez grupę dominującą role (gościa, sublokatora, aspirującego, podejrzanego, niszczyciela, wroga itd.) – zapewnia tym przekonaniom pełną stabilność kulturową i możliwość bezkolizyjnego wypełniania określonych funkcji w kulturze. Zadając pytanie o to, w jaki sposób czytać narracje mniejszościowe, autorka mierzy się z metodologicznym impasem powodowanym faktem, że struktura dyskursywna stawia w upośledzonej pozycji tych uczestników dyskursu, którzy – bez względu na to, jaką mają tożsamość wybraną – postrzegani są przez pryzmat tożsamości wymuszonej. Nosicielki i nosiciele piętna są w kulturze dominującej pozycjonowani jako stronniczy. Jest to jeden z efektów mistyfikacyjnego uniwersalizmu. Czy zatem, analizując narracje napiętnowanych, należy brać pod uwagę piętno podmiotu? Czy nie jest to powtórzenie – w imię analizy – gestu napiętnowania? Z drugiej strony, czy pominięcie piętna nie byłoby niedopuszczalnym przeoczeniem, skoro wiemy, że autorka/autor pisze w obrębie kultury, która z przyczyn strukturalnych, pod groźbą przemocy, nie chce dopuścić jej/go do głosu na równych prawach? By przełamać ten impas, autorka proponuje oryginalny, czterostopniowy schemat analizy dyskursu w badaniach nad recepcją piętna.
Polticized memory in Poland: anti-communism and the Holocaust
Author(s): Korycki, Kate
Date: 2019
Topics: Antisemitism, Communism, Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory
Abstract: In this article, I trace how political and intellectual elites in contemporary Poland weave the stories of the recent past, paying particular attention to narratives of Polish-Jewish relations and imbrications with communism. I first outline the three main narrations of the past and identify their divergent themes; I then specify their consonant and similar motifs. I demonstrate that despite differences, all major political actors conflate communism with Jewishness and circulate the myth of Żydokomuna. In so doing, they discursively establish the symmetry of suffering between the groups, and they affect the way contemporary Poles remember the Holocaust.
Jewish-Ukrainian Relations in Late and Post-Soviet Ukraine
Author(s): Burakovskiy, Aleksandr
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Post-1989, Jewish Revival, Communism, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations
Abstract: The implementation of perestroika and the unexpected collapse of the USSR provoked unease that long-underlying ethnic tensions could erupt in strife in the post-Soviet world. Of particular concern in Ukraine was one of history’s fault lines in the region—the relations between Jews and Ukrainians.

In this collection of articles, lectures, presentations, and research, the author, a writer and an activist during this period of change, through firsthand experience offers an overview of the bold hopes of the Ukrainian and Jewish intellectual elite, as well as of the multifaceted and complicated reality and disappointments that thwarted these hopes.
Folk Judaism: Variations of Religious Practices among the Jews of Ukraine and Moldova (Research Findings, 2004–11)
Author(s): Kaspina, Maria
Date: 2016
Topics: Folklore, Main Topic: Other, Communism, Interviews, Oral History and Biography, Religious Observance and Practice, Ritual
Abstract: This article draws on analysis of interviews with Jews of Ukraine and Moldova who lived the first part of their lives following traditional Jewish ways, while the latter part occurred during the period of strong anti-religious pressure in the Soviet Union. As a result, several variations of what we can call “folk Judaism” emerged. One form consists of a coerced nonobservance of the laws of Judaism and entails the elaboration of various ways to observe Jewish traditions in the absence of the ability to follow the letter of the law. The second option involves conscious rejection of ancestral religious traditions, partial observance as “camouflage,” and minimal interaction with modern Orthodox Judaism. The third option is creating one’s own individual rules for observing selected religious commandments. Several key mechanisms of the formation of new Jewish “folk” religious practices can be identified. They are the transformation of the existing halakhic regulations with the help of a) ritual deception; b) changes in the status of the ritual object; and c) application of the laws of ritual purity to an object known to be unclean.
Crossroads of Jewish Bratislava An Ethnological Examination of the Jewish Community between the 19th and 21st Centuries
Author(s): Salner, Peter
Date: 2021
Topics: Holocaust, Cities and Suburbs, Jewish Culture, Festivals and Holidays, Cemeteries, Communism, Jewish Heritage, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: In Crossroads of Jewish Bratislava, the author identifies several key junctures that determined the history of Jews in Bratislava between the 19th and 21st centuries, especially in terms of their culture and way of life. The first part of the book (History) provides an overview of historical milestones, with a particular emphasis on the two totalitarian regimes (the Wartime Slovak State and Communist Czechoslovakia 1948–1989). The second part, entitled Dilemmas, examines the current situation of Jewish cemeteries, the consequences of the Holocaust, and the ongoing transformations of Jewish holidays. The author’s research leads to the conclusion that traditional manifestations of Jewish culture are being reshaped by factors of selectiveness, streamlining, and individualisation.
Krieg um die Erinnerung Kroatische Vergangenheitspolitik zwischen Revisionismus und europäischen Standards
Translated Title: War for memory Croatian politics of the past between revisionism and European standards
Author(s): Radonić, Ljiljana
Date: 2010
Topics: Communism, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Nationalism
Abstract: Nach dem Zerfall Jugoslawiens tobte in den Nachfolgestaaten ein "Krieg um die Erinnerung". Alte Feindbilder aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurden reaktiviert und in Kroatien galt der faschistische "Ustascha-Staat" als Meilenstein auf dem Weg zur kroatischen Unabhängigkeit. Heute steht Kroatien kurz vor dem EU-Beitritt und ist ein Paradebeispiel für die Übernahme europäischer "Erinnerungsstandards" in post-sozialistischen Staaten. Dies ist nicht nur positiv zu bewerten: Unter dem Schlagwort "Totalitarismus" werden die NS- und Ustascha-Verbrechen mit denen des Staatssozialismus gleichgesetzt und "die Serben" als die neuen Faschisten gedeutet. Ljiljana Radonic analysiert anhand von Zeitungsartikeln über die Gedenkstätten Jasenovac und Bleiburg den Wandel der kroatischen Vergangenheitspolitik von 1985 bis heute und bettet diese ein in die Debatten über die "gespaltene Erinnerung" in Ost und West.
Krieg um die versöhnende Erinnerung: Vergangenheitspolitische Diskurse in Kroatien zwischen historischem Revisionismus und europäischen Standards
Translated Title: War for the reconciling memory: Discourses on politics of the past in Croatia between historical revisionism and European standards
Author(s): Radonić, Ljiljana
Date: 2009
Topics: Communism, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Nationalism
Abstract: Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach dem Wandel der kroatischen Vergangenheitspolitik und der „Geschichte des Sagbaren“ (Achim Landwehr) im Laufe von vier politischen Phasen nach: der Endphase des Sozialismus (1985-1990), der Ära unter Präsident Franjo Tuđman (1990-1999), der sozialdemokratisch angeführten Koalition nach den Wendewahlen (2000-2003) und nach dem Wahlsieg der reformierten ehemaligen Tuđman-Partei HDZ (2003-2008). Der Begriff Vergangenheitspolitik zielt dabei auf den politischen, justiziellen und diskursiven Umgang einer demokratischen Gesellschaft mit ihrer diktatorischen Vergangenheit ab, in diesem Fall vor allem mit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und dem Ustascha-Regime. Kroatien war in der Tuđman-Ära jedoch ein autoritäres Wahlregime mit starken Demokratiedefiziten, was sich auch in der Durchsetzung der Vergangenheitspolitik, vor allem in der Repression kritischer Medien niederschlug. Die Jahre 1990 und 2000 stellten somit nicht nur politische, sondern auch diskursive Wenden dar. Mit dem neuerlichen Wahlsieg der ehemaligen Tuđman-Partei HDZ 2003 änderten sich zwar erneut die Inhalte des vergangenheitspolitischen Diskurses, doch die dämonisierenden Feindbildzuschreibungen der 1990er Jahre blieben die Ausnahme. Die sich seit der Holocaust-Konferenz in Stockholm im Jahr 2000 herausbildenden europäischen Standards der Erinnerung („Europäisierung des Holocaust“) befördern hierbei das nationale Opfernarrativ auf zweifache Weise: Die zunehmende Durchsetzung des Holocaust als gemeinsamem, negativem europäischem Gründungsmythos und moralischer Negativikone beinhaltet einen Fokus auf individuelle Opferschicksale. Dementsprechend wurden in Kroatien a) in der 2006 eröffneten Jasenovac-Ausstellung die TäterInnen weitgehend ausgeblendet und b) „die Kroaten“ als die Opfer des neuen, „serbischen Faschismus“ gedeutet. Den theoretischen Hintergrund für die Untersuchung bilden neben vergangenheitspolitischen Konzepten Nationalismus- und Gedächtnistheorien. Als Methode für den diskursanalytischen Kern der Arbeit dient die Diskursanalyse in Anlehnung an Reiner Keller und Siegfried Jäger. Analysiert wurde die Berichterstattung in der staatlichen Zeitung Vjesnik und (der von 1993-2000 einzigen unabhängigen Tageszeitung) Novi list über drei diskursive Höhepunkte: die jährlichen Gedenkveranstaltungen in den beiden zentralen kroatischen Gedächtnisorten Jasenovac (1985-2008) und Bleiburg (1990-2008) sowie den Gerichtsprozess gegen den ehemaligen Jasenovac-Kommandanten Dinko Šakić 1998/1999.
Der Zweite Weltkrieg in postsozialistischen Gedenkmuseen Geschichtspolitik zwischen der ‚Anrufung Europas‘ und dem Fokus auf ‚unser‘ Leid
Translated Title: World War Two in Post-Communist Memorial Museums. Memory Politics between an 'Invocation of Europe' and the Focus on 'Our' Suffering
Author(s): Radonić, Ljiljana
Date: 2021
Topics: European Union, Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Communism, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Memorial, Museums, Post-1989
Abstract: This volume is the first to examine the museum landscape of all post-socialist EU member states. How do museums present the Second World War, the Holocaust, and Soviet crimes? As part of their nations’ attempts to join the EU, some "invoke" Europe, aiming to prove their Europeanness by adopting international museification trends. Others demand that "Europe" recognizes their suffering under Soviet rule as the greater evil.
Doppelte Diktaturerfahrung. Die Erinnerung an stalinistischen Terror und Holocaust im KGB-Eckhaus und Rigaer Ghetto-Museum
Translated Title: Double experience of dictatorship. The memory of Stalinist terror and the Holocaust in the KGB Corner House and Riga Ghetto Museum
Author(s): Wezel, Katja
Editor(s): Radonić, Ljiljana; Uhl, Heidemarie
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Survivors, Communism
Abstract: Der Beitrag vergleicht das Rigaer KGB-Museum, im Volksmund Eckhaus genannt, mit dem Rigaer Ghetto-Museum. Beide Museen sind zirka im gleichen Zeitraum (zwischen 2010 und 2016) entstanden bzw. erweitert worden und befinden sich an Originalschauplätzen. Beide Museen legen ein besonderes Augenmerk darauf darzustellen, welche Folgen die nationalsozialistische bzw. kommunistische Besatzung und Diktatur auf Lettland hatte. So beinhaltet das Rigaer Ghetto-Museum eine Ausstellung zum jüdischen Leben in Lettland vor 1941. Beide Ausstellungen legen großen Wert darauf, Zeugnisse von Überlebenden einzubeziehen. Da die Opfer des Rigaer Ghetto-Museums auch aus Deutschland und Österreich kamen, ist die Einbeziehung einer europäischen Perspektive hier vom Untersuchungsgegenstand vorgegeben. Die Europäisierung des Holocaustgedenkens wird auch anhand mehrerer Ausstellungsstücke, so zum Beispiel eines nachkonstruierten Zugwaggons, deutlich. Hingegen stellt das KGB-Eckhaus primär die lettische Geschichte aus: Der Fokus liegt auf den zivilen lettischen Opfern der kommunistischen Diktatur, die im Kellergefängnis des NKWD bzw. des KGB gefoltert wurden. Eine »Europäisierung« wird nur in Querverweisen zu anderen Museen deutlich, die ebenfalls die Geschichte der kommunistischen Diktatur ausstellen, wie z.B. das Haus des Terrors in Budapest.
Debating, obfuscating and disciplining the Holocaust: post-Soviet historical discourses on the OUN–UPA and other nationalist movements
Author(s): Rossoliński-Liebe, Grzegorz
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Communism, History, Nationalism
Abstract: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the archives of the former republics and satellite states of this multiethnic empire were opened. This allowed historians to investigate the history of nationalist and radical right organisations and armies that, during the Second World War, had been involved in the Holocaust and other atrocities. Among them was the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. For a long time the history of these movements was unknown or distorted by Soviet propaganda and propagandist publications written during the Cold War by veterans of these movements living in the West and cooperating with Western intelligence services. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was simultaneously accompanied by the “rebirth” of nationalism that was not free from antisemitism and racism, and which triggered different types of nationalist distortions of history and obfuscations of the Holocaust. Post-Soviet historical discourses were shaped not only by journalists or political activists, but also by radical right historians. These discourses impacted as well on historians who in general were critical of the post-Soviet rehabilitation of nationalism, war criminality or East Central European fascism. Concentrating on Ukrainian and Polish history, this article explores how the radical right historical discourses appeared in the post-Soviet space, what types of historians were involved in them and what kinds of distortions and obfuscations have predominated.
Socialism and the Jewish Community in Slovakia
Author(s): Salner, Peter
Date: 2020
Topics: Oral History and Biography, Interviews, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Holocaust Survivors: Grandchildren of, Communism, Jewish History, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This study is based on data acquired by the oral history method and discusses the reflections of two generations of Jews in relation to the socialist regime in Czechoslovakia (1948–1989). The first generation is represented by people who had survived the Holocaust. The second generation is represented by the ‘children of the Holocaust’ (born 1945–1965). They grew up at a time when the political realm was completely dominated by the Communist Party. Their attitudes only changed with the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. This probe suggests differences which stem from contrasting life experiences.
Emigration, Home, Identity: An Ethnological Examination of the Identity of Jewish Emigrants from Czechoslovakia
Author(s): Salner, Peter
Date: 2021
Topics: Communism, Emigration, Main Topic: Other, Jewish Organisations
Abstract: Stretnutie (The Meeting) is a group formed in October 2004 by Jewish emigrants from Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) who fled Czechoslovakia following the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The original intention behind its founding was to hold a reunion that would bring together people who, forty years after emigrating, lived in Israel, in different states across Europe and North America, and in Australia. The meeting took place in May 2005 in Bratislava, drawing over 200 participants. Encouraged by this initial success, the group and its website continued its activities, and it remains operational to this day. This paper examines the early years of The Meeting’s existence (2004–2009). Analyzing the correspondence on its website, it attempts to elucidate the rationale behind the group’s creation, as well as the reasons for its persisting appeal and the emigrants’ relationship to the country and milieu from which they fled.
„Zoo” i „makieta”. O dominujących sposobach pisania o Birobidżanie
Translated Title: A “zoo” and “mock-up”: On the most frequent ways of portraying Birobidzhan
Author(s): Maksimowska, Agata
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Attitudes to Jews, Communism, Jewish History, Media, Soviet Jewry
Abstract: W artykule przeanalizowane zostały najczęstsze sposoby opisywania Birobidżanu przez dziennikarzy, blogerów, filmowców i pisarzy. Utworzony w 1934 r. Żydowski Obwód Autonomiczny wciąż istnieje jako jednostka administracyjna w ramach Federacji Rosyjskiej. Zazwyczaj traktowany jest przez odwiedzających z innych części Rosji lub z zagranicy jako „egzotyczny”, „śmieszny”, „absurdalny”, „groteskowy” czy „sztuczny”. Jego historia postrzegana jest jako „porażka”, zwłaszcza w porównaniu z historią Izraela. Autorzy rozmaitych przedstawień Birobidżanu posługują się także koncepcją „utopii” w jej zawężonym, negatywnym rozumieniu, jako „nierealnej mrzonki”. Orientalizacja Żydowskiego Obwodu Autonomicznego przyczynia się do uprzedmiotowienia jego mieszkańców i delegitymizowania ich praktyk nadawania sensu historii regionu.
The Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan in Siberia
Author(s): Vitale, Alessandro
Date: 2021
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Post-1989, Communism, Soviet Jewry
Abstract: The Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) of Birobidzhan in Siberia is still alive. The once famous “Siberian Zion”, at the confluence of the Bira and Bidzhan rivers, a stone’s throw away from China and a day from the Pacific Ocean, 9,000 km and six days by train from Moscow, is still a geographical reality. The political class of the Soviet Union decided to create a territory the size of Belgium for a settlement for Jews, choosing a region on the border between China and the Soviet Union. It believed that Soviet Jews needed, like other national minorities, a homeland with a territory. The Soviet regime thus opted to establish an enclave that would become the JAR in 1934. We should note that the creation of the JAR was the first historically fulfilled case of building an officially recognised Jewish national territory since antiquity and well before Israel. Nevertheless, many historians declared this experiment a failure and the history of the Region only tragic. It is interesting to note, however, that the survival of the JAR in post-Soviet Russia has been not only a historical curiosity, a legacy of Soviet national policy, but today – after the collapse of the Soviet Union – it represents a very interesting case study. It is also a topic useful for the analysis and understanding of inter-ethnic relations, cooperation, and coexistence and it is a unique case of geographic resettlement that produced a special case of “local patriotism”, as an example also for different ethnic groups living in the JAR, based on Jewish and Yiddish roots.
Thrice Plundered: The Politics of Restitution with Regard to the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Author(s): Friedman, Francine
Editor(s): Ognjenovic, Gorana; Jozelic, Jasna
Date: 2021
Topics: Holocaust, Main Topic: Other, Memory, Restitution and Reparations, Communism
Abstract: The chapter deals specifically with a political attempt at history’s erasure. As detailed throughout the anthology, the manipulation and often willful misinterpretation of history in order to benefit one group while belittling the suffering of another group by changing the record of, or even denying, their experience has led to distrust among the groups involved, no less today than previously. The appropriation of private and communal property of a powerless or minority group by a country’s dominant group through manipulation of the historical record, treated here through a case study of the theft over many decades of the Bosnian Jewish community’s property, is, thus, a clear example of the politicization of history.
Hungary and the Distortion of Holocaust History: The Hungarian Holocaust Memorial Year 2014
Author(s): Mindler-Steiner, Ursula K.; Kovács, Henriett
Date: 2015
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Commemoration, Communism, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Memorial, Post-1989
Abstract: This paper deals with the Hungarian Holocaust Memorial Year 2014 and the ongoing debate about how to assess Hungary’s involvement in the Holocaust. By introducing the Holocaust Memorial Year 2014,erecting the Monument on the German Occupation and initiating a Memorial to Child Victims of the Holocaust(the House of Fates), the Hungarian government tried to establish a common narrative about the Holocaust in Hungary. For various reasons, however, this attempt failed. Instead, it turned out that the anniversary year 2014 fostered the emergence of diverse new cultures of commemoration at different levels of society. This study discusses the reasons for these developments and provides an overview of the (public) events surrounding commemorations in the Holocaust Memorial Year, thus exploring Hungary ’s process of coming to terms with its past. The events in 2014 were accompanied by disputes at multiple levels that were held in the public domain and involved all types of traditional and modern media. This study highlights the reactions to several statements and explains how they came about. Our aim is to engender interest in further scholarly examination.
Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine and Belarus: Public Debates and Historiography
Author(s): Baranova, Olga
Date: 2019
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Education, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Post-1989, Communism
Abstract: This article investigates how the Holocaust was recollected, presented, and interpreted in Ukraine and Belarus during the Soviet era. It further examines the changes that have taken place in the representation of the Holocaust in Ukraine and Belarus in the post-communist period. First, the article aims to explain the ideological reasons why the Jewish origin of many Nazi victims was largely played down or ignored in the Soviet historiography. Second, it investigates the new political dynamics in independent post-communist Ukraine and Belarus that have influenced public discourse and historiographical reflections on various issues of the Second World War, including the persecution of the Jews. As well as historiography, the article investigates the developments that have taken place in contemporary Ukraine and Belarus regarding commemorative practices, monuments, museum exhibitions, and education initiatives to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to promote knowledge about this event
“Anti-Semites of the Continent Unite!” Is the East still Different?
Author(s): Vago, Raphael
Editor(s): Gloeckner, Olaf; Schoeps, Julius H.
Date: 2011
Topics: Post-1989, Antisemitism, Communism, Main Topic: Antisemitism
ewish Property Restitution in the Czech Republic
Author(s): Hochstein, Robert
Date: 1996
Topics: Restitution and Reparations, Law, Communism, Main Topic: Other
The Holocaust in the Contemporary Baltic States: International Relations, Politics, and Education
Author(s): Stevick, Doyle
Date: 2012
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Education, Communism, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Post-1989
Abstract: For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, many societies across Central and Eastern Europe have not embraced the history of the Holocaust as it is understood in Western Europe and the U.S. and Israel, nor have they incorporated it substantively in their education systems, textbooks, and curricula. This article reviews the shared historical experiences of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania during the Second World War and the Soviet period and considers how those shaped contemporary perspectives and attitudes in the region. Using data from cross-cultural exchanges between Estonians and foreign advocates of Holocaust education, the article shows that distrust exists around evidence gathered or disseminated by the Soviets and about perceived inconsistencies in the pursuit of justice. It finally compares two approaches to foreign engagement in the Holocaust, one rooted in power that was counterproductive and one rooted in dialogue that seems more promising.
Holocaust Memorials in Central and Eastern Europe: Communist Legacies, Transnational Influences and National Developments
Author(s): Kucia, Marek
Date: 2016
Topics: Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Post-1989, Communism, Memorial
Abstract: The article analyses selected Holocaust memorials in several Central and East
European countries. Using the approaches of historical and visual sociology, it
identifies processes and agents that shaped the present-day memorials during
communism and after. These were: commemoration by Jews; memorialization,
marginalization, suppression and the obliteration of Jewish victimhood by the
communist authorities; making minor or substantial changes to the existing
monuments after communism and developing them; and creating new Holocaust
memorials both public and private, and by domestic and foreign agents. The article
concludes that the Holocaust memorials in the region are primarily a result of
legacies of communist times. They were also shaped by transnational influences.
By and large they are national developments.
The Nature of Postcommunist Antisemitism in East Central Europe: Ideology’s Backdoor Return
Author(s): Shafir, Michael
Date: 2018
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Discourse, Holocaust, Holocaust Denial, Communism, Post-1989, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Abstract: This article analyzes contemporary antisemitism and Holocaust distortion in Eastern Europe. The main argument is that Brown and Red, Nazism and Communism, respectively are not at all equal. In Eastern Europe, in particular, antisemitic ideology is grounded on the rehabilitation of anticommunist national “heroes.” The history of the Holocaust is thereby distorted. Based on Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of “social frameworks,” the author shows how “competitive martyrdom,” the “Double Genocide” ideology, and “Holocaust obfuscation” are intertwined. Empirically, the paper examines these concepts in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia, and Romania.
Unacademic academics: Holocaust deniers and trivializers in post-Communist Romania
Author(s): Shafir, Michael
Date: 2014
Topics: Antisemitism, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Denial, Communism, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Trauma, Post-1989
Abstract: The Romanian Academy (and much of the country's historical establishment) is packed with Holocaust deniers and trivializers, many of whom indulge in Holocaust obfuscation against the background of the post-Communist “competitive martyrdom” between the victims of the Holocaust and the Gulag. Quite a few of these deniers and trivializers are also former secret police informers. On closer examination, however, it turns out that explaining the reluctance to face the country's “dark past” as being the independent variable resultant of the post “Romanianization” of the Communist Party and its Securitate is a partial explanation at best. A substantially more convincing one might be provided by scrutinizing the phenomenon as the product of post-mnemonic cultural traumas.
Hungarian Jewish Politics from the End of the Second World War until the Collapse of Communism
Author(s): Kovács, András
Editor(s): Mendelsohn, Ezra
Date: 2004
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Politics, Politics, Communism, Post-War Jewish History
Abstract: The present study examines Jewish politics in Communist Hungary. As it is widely known, politicians of Jewish origin played an important role in the political life of post-war Hungary as leaders of the Communist party or as officials in the Communist governments. Their activity had a considerable effect, both directly and indirectly, on the life of Hungarian Jews. "Judeo-Bolshevic" rule is still a favorite topic of contemporary antisemitic publiciations. No doubt, the question of whether the Jewish origin of these politicians had an impact on their decisions, and if so, to what extent, could be a relevant subject for historical study. However, this essay deals with a different topic. It is concerned only with those politicians in post-war Hungary who identified themselves publicly as Jews or openly
represented Jewish causes. How did these politicians, who viewed Jews as a collectivity and sought to defend the Jews’ collective interests, act in the troublesome post-war decades?
Opening the Drawer: The Hidden Identities of Polish Jews
Author(s): Cohen, Barry
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Interviews, Photography, Oral History and Biography, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Jewish Revival, Communism, Post-1989
Abstract: For the first time in a single volume, Opening the Drawer brings together illustrated profiles of three generations of Poles who discovered their hidden Jewish identity in often surprising ways. Drawing on interviews with child survivors of the Holocaust; the post-war second generation; and the post-Communist third generation, these voyages of discovery are not simply variations on a theme, but memorable depictions of unearthing long-buried family histories and secrets. They include the stories of an outstanding Catholic priest, a former anti-Semitic football hooligan, students, academics and renowned writers. Each generation has confronted a specific Polish environment which shaped their lives. The profiles reveal the particular Polish contradictions in coming to terms with their upbringing. Although not all embraced some form of Jewish identity, some merely sought the secrets of their past while retaining their previous identity. In a sharp departure from the past, many Poles are expressing a deep, sympathetic interest in the phenomenon of emerging Jews by flocking to Jewish museums and cultural festivals. Until recently, Poland was regarded as a tragic land of ghosts where Jewish life had ceased to exist. But these wide-ranging profiles reflect a growing spectrum of communal activities that paint a different picture.
Yugoslav Jewry. Aspects of Post-World War II and Post-Yugoslav Developments
Author(s): Kerkkänen, Ari
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Post-1989, Post-War Jewish History, Nationalism, National Identity, Communism
The Holocaust as reflected in Communist and Post-Communist Romanian textbooks
Author(s): Bărbulescu, Ana; Degeratu, Laura; Guşu, Cosmina
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Education, Schools: Non-Jewish, Post-1989, Communism
Abstract: Romanian history textbooks were mostly silent about the Holocaust during the Communist era. The authors reconstructed the different models of remembering the Holocaust that are present in post-Communist Romanian textbooks. The analysis revealed the existence of six different models of recollecting this history. The six models of representing the Holocaust are: (1) The Holocaust is completely absent; (2) Romania as a saviour of Jews; (3) Discrimination without deportations; (4) Deportations to camps for unnamed victims; (5) Deportations without the final solution; and (6) The Romanian Holocaust: discrimination, pogroms and deportations. The analysis focused on Romanian History textbooks published before and after 1989; A qualitative analysis of the textbooks was employed.
Political memory, ontological security, and Holocaust remembrance in post-communist Europe
Author(s): Subotic, Jelena
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Commemoration, Memory, Communism, Post-1989, Antisemitism
Abstract: Post-communist states today are dealing with conflicting sources of ontological insecurity. They are anxious to be perceived as fully European by “core” European states, a status that remains fleeting. Being fully European, however, means sharing in the cosmopolitan European narratives of the twentieth century, perhaps the strongest being the narrative of the Holocaust. Influencing the European Union’s own memory politics and legislation in the process, post-communist states have attempted to resolve these insecurities by undergoing a radical revision of their respective Holocaust remembrance where the memory, symbols, and imagery of the Holocaust become appropriated to represent crimes of communism. By rejecting the cosmopolitan European narrative of the Holocaust, post-communist states have also removed anti-fascist resistance from the core memory of the Holocaust, allowing for a revival and ideological normalisation of contemporary fascist ideological movements. I illustrate the argument with an overview of contemporary Holocaust remembrance practices in the EU’s youngest member, Croatia.
Staging Traumatic Memory: Competing Narratives of State Violence in Post-Communist Hungarian Museums
Author(s): Manchin, Anna
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Memory, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Education, Holocaust Memorials, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Post-1989, Communism
Abstract: The article examines the way three contemporary Hungarian museums–the House of Terror Museum, the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial and Documentation Center–represent the history of the Holocaust and the history of Jewish/non-Jewish relations. Reflecting different political agendas, each of the three museums offers a different interpretation of how the Holocaust fits into the larger narrative of Hungary's 20th century history. The article argues that post-communist public memory has been constructed through debates about these histories. By analyzing the three museums' displays, narratives and the debates surrounding them, the article argues that Hungarian public discourse has yet to come to terms with the meaning and place of “Jewishness” (and the way it has informed “Hungarianness”) in modern Hungarian history. Despite the centrality of Jews and Jewish-non-Jewish relations to the museums' narratives, none are able to offer a clear definition of what “Jewishness” means and how it functioned at different times throughout the 20th century.
The shtetl in the museum: representing Jews in the eras of Stalin and Putin
Author(s): Yalen, Deborah
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Post-1989, Jewish Revival, Memory, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Education, Communism, Soviet Jewry
Abstract: This article considers the representation of the shtetl in two museum narratives devoted to Jews in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. The first, the state-funded 1939 exhibit “The Jews in Tsarist Russia and the USSR” was organized by the Jewish Section of the State Museum of Ethnography in Leningrad and remained on display to the Soviet public until the Nazi invasion in June 1941. The second is the privately funded Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, which opened in 2012. Though conceived under radically different ideological and political circumstances, each exhibition conveys a significant message about the place of Jews in Soviet and post-Soviet society, respectively, and each positions the shtetl as a formative arena for Jewish civic identity vis-à-vis the Russian homeland. Across the chasm of over seventy years, these two museum projects raise strikingly similar questions about how and why cultural institutions are mobilized to define the relationship of Ashkenazi Jews and the state. In both cases, the shtetl plays a significant role in narrating this unequal relationship.
The House of Terror and the Holocaust Memorial Centre: Resentment and Melancholia in Post-89 Hungary
Author(s): Creet, Julia
Editor(s): Mithander, Conny; Sundholm, John; Adrian, Velicu
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Memorials, Jewish Museums, Memory, Memorial, Communism, Post-1989
Abstract: The Terror Háza (House of Terror, 2002) and the Holocaust Dokumentacios Kozpont es emlekgyujtemeny (The Holocaust Documentation and Memorial Centre, 2004) opened in Budapest within two years of each other. Together, these two museums are illustrative of the phenomenology and competing affective narratives of Hungarian national memory post-89, and of post-communist countries more generally. While each museum purports to tell a specific history, both are manifestations of the political struggle over the national memory of the Second World War and its aftermath, a history that has been substantially rewritten since the end of Communism. The House of Terror enacts the ‘double occupation’ of Nazism and Communism and the Holocaust Memorial Centre archives and the deportation of the Hungarian Jews and Roma. Each museum aestheticises an affective phenomenology of historical victimisation, provoking ressentiment and melancholia respectively in visitors as a means of staging moral values and perpetuating contested memories.
Growing up Jewish in Communist Czechoslovakia
Author(s): Heitlinger, Alena
Date: 2004
Topics: Oral History and Biography, Communism, Main Topic: Other
Between the Red and Yellow Stars: Ethnic and Religious Identity of Soviet Jewish World War II Veterans in New York, Toronto, and Berlin
Author(s): Shternshis, Anna
Date: 2011
Topics: Ageing and the Elderly, Russian-Speaking Jews, Communism, Military Service, Interviews, Newspapers, Magazines and Periodicals, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
A few days after arriving in New York during the spring of 1990, Anatolii S. (born in 1920, Ukraine), put on his jacket, decorated with the numerous military medals that he had earned during his service in the Soviet Army during World War II, and went into a nearby synagogue, hoping to find out about the benefits available to him as a Jewish veteran of the war that "helped to save America from fascism." He showed his documents to the local clerk, who only gestured for him to put his hat back on and to pray with the prayer book. Unable to open the book correctly, and most importantly, unwilling to pray, Anatolii realized that neither his participation in the war, nor his knowledge of Yiddish, made him a true member of this community. Being accustomed to displays of public respect and economic benefits from his status as a war veteran, Anatolii now had to embrace his new status in a society that did not regard him any differently from any other non-English speaking, elderly Jewish immigrant from Russia.

Anatolii, like the other approximately 26,000 Soviet Jewish veterans who migrated to Germany, Israel, Canada, and the United States in the 1990s, was certainly welcome to attend synagogues and Jewish community centers in his new country, but his understanding of what it meant to be a Jew differed profoundly from the majority of members in these communities. Anatolii and his peers (Soviet veterans) regarded their participation in the war as the most important part of their Jewish identity, and they were often shocked to find out how little the war meant to the Jewish identity of the local populations they encountered. Unsatisfied with the status quo, many Soviet veterans launched their own organizations, where being Jewish and proud of Soviet accomplishments did not seem contradictory. Moreover, the definitions of "Soviet" and "Jewish" shifted, merged, and eventually formed the foundation of a specific culture, with its own leaders, traditions, rituals, and language.

In this article, I look into the modes of survival of Soviet language and ideology among veterans, and analyze what these modes tell us about the patterns of immigrant adaptation. I concentrate on three centers of veterans' activities: New York, Toronto, and Berlin, and discuss similarities and differences in the adaptations of veterans in these communities. I will discuss how the culture of each city and country influenced what the veterans select from Soviet rhetoric to describe their present lives.

The second goal of this study is to challenge existing scholarship, which treats elderly migrants as passive and apathetic. Nursing Studies and Gerontology dominate research in this area (rather than the field of immigrant studies) and as a result we know much more about cases of extreme isolation, deprivation, and depression among elderly immigrants in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe than about the contribution elderly migrants make to the social and cultural systems in their new societies. While the vulnerability of this group is undeniable, I perceive studying foreign retirees solely as victims or disadvantaged entities as an "ageism" bias which denies proper recognition and acceptance of the achievements and life experiences of the elderly, as it sees them solely through the prism of their ailing bodies. Soviet Jewish veterans, as a group, serve as an ideal case study of how elderly immigrants fight such perceptions, both consciously and subconsciously, not only by creating their own organizations, but also by establishing an awareness of their legacies in their new home countries.

Data and Methodology
This study is based on 233 in-depth interviews with Soviet veterans of World War II conducted between 1999 and 2007 in Toronto, Berlin, and New York. I used a snowball sample, where the initial respondents—located through veterans' organizations and ads placed in Russian-language media—suggested other potential interviewees. The interviews consisted of open-ended questions about respondents' experiences throughout their lives. Russian-language newspaper articles published in immigrant papers also served as useful sources for public expressions of veterans' opinions about political, cultural, and social issues in their new countries.
Antisemitism in an Era of Transition: Continuities and Impact in Post-Communist Poland and Hungary
Editor(s): Guestnet, François; Jones, Gwen
Date: 2014
Topics: Antisemitism, Holocaust, Jewish History, Post-1989, Post-War Reconstruction, Communism, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Attitude Surveys
Abstract: The post-Communist transition in Eastern Central Europe has brought about democratic reform, liberalized economies and accession to the European Union, but also the emergence of political movements that revert to antisemitic rhetoric and arguments. This volume compares the genealogies and impact of antisemitism in contemporary Poland and Hungary. Leading and emerging scholars contrast developments in both countries from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the present, analysing the roles played by organised religion, political leaders, media and press, but also by Communist Parties. They present historical analysis as well as the results of qualitative and quantitative research on contemporary public memory, the image of the Jew, antisemitic media, political constituencies and the interplay of prejudices, specifically anti-Roma racism. A topical bibliography of research on antisemitism in post-Communist Eastern Central Europe offers pathways to further research.

Contents: François Guesnet/Gwen Jones: Antisemitism in Poland and Hungary after 1989: Determinants of social impact – Brian Porter-Szűcs: Why Do Polish Catholics Hate the Jews? A reasoned answer to a stupid question – János Dési: An Old-New Story: The continued existence of the Tiszaeszlár blood libel – Grzegorz Krzywiec: Between Realpolitik and Redemption: Roman Dmowski’s solution to the «Jewish question» – László Karsai: Miklós Horthy (1868-1957) and the «Jewish Question» in Hungary, 1920-1945 – Victor Karady: Jews and the Communist Commitment in Hungary and Eastern Central Europe after 1945 – András Kovács: Antisemitic Elements in Communist Discourse: A continuity factor in post-war Hungarian antisemitism – Adam Ostolski: Public Memory in Transition: Antisemitism and the memory of World War II in Poland, 1980-2010 – Gwen Jones: The work of Antisemitic Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Hungarianpublishing revivals since 1989 – Mikołaj Winiewski/Michał Bilewicz: The Emergence of Antisemitism in Times of Rapid Social Change: Survey results from Poland – Pál Tamás: The Indicators of Hungarian National Populism: What does antisemitism show? – Hanna Kwiatkowska: Old and New Fora for Antisemitic Discourse: Reflections on Poland since the 1990s. – Claude Cahn: Divida et Impera: (Re)Creating the Hungarian National Gypsy.
Túlélők és Újrakezők. Fejezetek a magyar zsidóság szociológiájából 1945 után
Translated Title: Survivors and those who start again. Chapters of the sociology of Jews in Hungary after 1945
Author(s): Karady, Viktor
Date: 2002
Topics: Post-War Jewish History, Communism, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Jewish Entrepreneurship and Identity under Capitalism and Socialism in Central Europe: The Unresolved Dilemmas of Hungarian Jewry
Author(s): Karady, Viktor
Editor(s): Chirot, Daniel; Reid, Anthony
Date: 1997
Topics: Communism, Business and Commerce, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Problèmes ethniques et communautés particularistes sous le 'socialisme réel'. Juifs, Allemands et Tsiganes en Hongrie depuis 1945
Translated Title: Ethnic problems and particularistic communities under 'real socialism'. Jews, Germans and Gypsies in Hungary since 1945
Author(s): Karady, Viktor
Editor(s): Reszler, André; Liebich , André
Date: 1993
Topics: Communism, Ethnicity, Post-1989, Post-War Jewish History, Minorities, Comparisons with other communities, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Intergenerational Dialog in Families ofJewish Communists in East Germany: A Process-Oriented Analysis
Author(s): Völter, Bettina
Editor(s): Breckner, Roswitha; Kalekin-Fishman, Devorah; Miethe, Ingrid
Date: 2000
Topics: Aliyah, Youth, Age and Generational Issues, Oral History and Biography, Communism, Family and Household, Main Topic: Other
Jewish Women in the Former Yugoslavia
Author(s): Lebl, Ana
Editor(s): Epstein, Helen
Date: 1999
Topics: Jewish Women, Jewish Organisations, Small Jewish Communities, Post-War Reconstruction, Communism, Conflict, Main Topic: Other
Abstract:

The author provides an overview of Jewish history in the former Yugoslavia, with an emphasis on the lives and activities of women. Until the Holocaust, the diverse Jewish community prospered and Jewish women's organizations multiplied and grew. Jewish women were active in organizing and providing aid, in supplies and medical work, in every Balkan war. After the decimation of the Holocaust, only a fraction of the community remained. Yugoslavia enjoyed relative freedom of movement and freedom of religion under communism, however, and eventually some women's organizations were rebuilt and were able to continue their benevolent work throughout the modern conflicts, even at the high point of violence in Sarajevo. Each of the new countries continues to have its own women's organizations, even in smaller communities like Split, where the Jewish population is only 120.
Ritual Slaughter Issue In Poland: Between Religious Freedom, Legal Order And Economic-Political Interests
Author(s): Szumigalska, Agnieszka; Bazan, Monika
Date: 2014
Topics: Antisemitism, Holocaust, Jewish History, Post-1989, Post-War Reconstruction, Communism, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Ritual slaughter issues have been broadly discussed in virtually all West European countries, where Jewish and/or Islamic minorities have marked their presence. In most cases, the main dimension of the public debate on this matter has concerned the collision between broadly defined religious freedom and the principles of animal protection. Recently, the discussion on ritual slaughtering has also reached Poland, where it has taken a specific form in comparison with Western countries. The distinctive character of the Polish case may be proven, inter alia, by the marginal socio-political relevance of Jewish and Islamic minorities in Poland and focus on the political and economic aspects of the issue. In the presented analysis, the main stress has been placed on the interpretation of religious freedom in this regard, i.e. its conditions and constraints, the conditions of the implementation of European law and the arguments used in the debate. Religious communities’ activities have been confronted with the political and economic aspects of the discussion, which are aimed at investigating the degree of the “politicisation” and “economisation” of the issues under scrutiny.
Importing Divisionism instead of Diversity: A Personal Account of Jewish Rebirth in Prague
Author(s): Šmok, Martin
Date: 2016
Topics: Post-1989, Jewish Leadership, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Communism
Abstract: This personal account of a former Czechoslovak Jewish Youth leader offers insights into the process of searching for Jewish identity and its meaning in post-Communist
Czechoslovakia. The author discusses the conceptual struggles faced by his generation, raised during the last two decades of the Communist regime, the impact of imported ideological infighting and factional splits on the makeup of an emerging community, the pop-appeal of Judaism to the Czech masses and the varied reactions of the highly assimilated Czech Jews to the eventual arrival of a dogmatic religious leadership.
Jews and other Europeans - Old and new
Author(s): Bauman, Zygmunt
Date: 2008
Topics: Holocaust, History, Antisemitism, Assimilation, Citizenship, Communism, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: In the late nineteenth century the great European project of nation-building was set in motion. It was meant to end in a Europe of unified nation-states, each with its own language, history, traditions and a people undivided in its loyalty. The local or ‘merely ethnic’ communities would be effaced, subsumed into the homogeneous nation. Assimilation was the means whereby outsiders would become insiders, strangers would become citizens.

The Second World War, and the Holocaust, brought this project to its end, laying bare the contradiction at its heart. Outsiders could not be assimilated since their loyalty was, by definition, always voluntary and therefore always seen as untrustworthy. As the historical epitome of the European outsider, Jews accordingly remained suspect despite all their ingenious efforts to assimilate. They experienced first-hand the ambivalence of the assimilatory drive, which was, from their point of view, to become like everyone else, and, from their hosts’ point of view, to deepen belonging by emphasizing difference.

Nowhere were the challenges and miseries of this process more pronounced than in the demographically complex nations of East-Central Europ. With the disappearance of Eastern European Jewry, the drama of Jewish assimilation came to an end.

In post-war Europe Jewish assimilation has, with the demise of the crusading spirit of nationalism, dissolved into a mundane and generalized show of conformity that runs alongside postmodernity’s emphasis on a seemingly infinite variety of privatized identities and choices. The sting has been taken out of Jewish assimilation, not because it was achieved, but because the life-and-death pressures to homogenize are no longer there.

Those few generations of European Jews who were forced to wrestle with the contradictions of assimilation were arguably the pioneers of the postmodern condition, making visible the ambiguities that mark contemporary existence for all Europeans. It is this that counts as the Jews’ most profound contribution to contemporary European culture.
A Szidö-Magyar Különbözöségekrol
Translated Title: Differences Between Jews and Hungarians
Author(s): Kende, Pierre
Date: 1994
Topics: Assimilation, Intermarriage, Post-1989, Communism, Antisemitism, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Zsidó Magyarország
Translated Title: Jewish Hungary
Author(s): Kende, Pierre
Date: 1997
Topics: Assimilation, Intermarriage, Post-1989, Communism, Antisemitism, Main Topic: Identity and Community
The Jews of Hungary: Beyond Assimilation
Author(s): Karady, Viktor
Date: 2002
Topics: Assimilation, Intermarriage, Post-1989, Communism, Antisemitism, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Discusses the status of Jews in Hungary post-1989. Responds to Pierre Kende's view on Hungarian Jewry in the post-1989 period. Argues that 'although social differences between Jews and non-Jews in certain spheres concerning self-definition and the social definition of Judaism have slowly disappeared, certain distinctions still remain and are, in fact, even tending to increase, thanks to the post-Communist transition.
Neutralizing Memory: The Jew in Contemporary Poland
Author(s): Irwin-Zarecka, Iwona
Date: 1989
Topics: Communism, Memory, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
In Search of a Meaningful Framework for the Study of Post-Soviet Jewish Identities, with Special Emphasis on the Case of Ukraine
Author(s): Golbert, Rebecca
Date: 1998
Topics: Jewish Revival, Soviet Jewry, Communism, Theory, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Soviet Jewry 1990: Yet Another Turning Point
Author(s): Leibler, Isi
Date: 1990
Topics: Soviet Jewry, Refuseniks, Aliyah, Antisemitism, Communism, Immigration, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: An assessment of recent developments within Soviet Jewry, based on the author's two visits in 1989.
Gray Dawn: The Jews of Eastern Europe in the Post-Communist Era
Author(s): Hoffman, Charles
Date: 1992
Topics: Communism, Jewish Revival, Antisemitism, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Following the collapse of the Soviet empire, the Jews of Eastern Europe--nearly obliterated by the Nazis, then persecuted by Communist regimes--are rediscovering their culture and religion. Texas-born Hoffman, a former staff writer for the Jerusalem Post , made 10 trips to Eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990 to produce this searching, alert portrait of a people poised between hope and despair. In Czechoslovakia and Poland, he found, small "caretaker communities" of Jews, non-Jews and part-Jews have united around the mission of preserving their countries' Jewish heritage. In contrast, Romania and Bulgaria have seen their Jewish populations depleted by the younger generation's mass exodus to Israel. In East Berlin, reports Hoffman, the tiny Jewish community has been fragmented by the swift, sudden reunion of East and West Germany. He discerningly looks at Eastern European Jews' responses to resurgent anti-Semitism and at their ambivalence toward the older Jewish leadership that accommodated itself to Communist rulers.