JSEE: Общая информация
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JEWISH SCHOLARSHIP IN EASTERN EUROPE
Vol. 1, No. 1, May 1997
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CONTENTS
- Scholarly Institutions:
Jewish Heritage Society - a survey of activities,
programs and publications
- Calendar of Events:
academic events in the field of East European Jewish
studies for years 1996 - 1998
- Publications:
new books on East European Jewish studies
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SCHOLARLY INSTITUTIONS
The section comprises information on the activities
of Jewish scholarly institutions focusing on Eastern
Europe.
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JEWISH HERITAGE SOCIETY
Goals and Activities
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The Jewish Heritage Society is an independent
scholarly institution for the development and
coordination of research in history and culture of
the Jewish people in the Russian Empire and the USSR,
and for documenting the Jewish historical legacy. The
Society's interests range from history and sociology
to ethnography, source studies and booklore. The
Society's activities are aimed at support and
cooperation of scholars, research and educational
institutions engaged in wide spectrum of Jewish
studies, libraries and archives of Judaica. Founded
in 1989 it presently comprises more than 500 scholars
and research institutions in the former USSR and
worldwide involved in the Society's research,
information and publication programs.
The Society pursues the following agenda:
- search, preservation and research of Jewish
historical heritage in the Russian Empire and the
USSR including archival records, book collections,
and other source material of Jewish religious,
communal and social life; - development and
coordination of academic scholarship in Jewish
history and culture; - publication of scholarly works
and source studies - monographs, articles, archival
surveys and bibliographies - devoted to Russian-
Jewish history.
One of the key principles of the Society's work is
the unrestricted access to collected information. All
information resources are available for users through
the Society's publications. They are intended for
free distribution among scholars worldwide by mail
and on-line on the JHS Internet home page -
http://www.glasnet.ru/~heritage/ (recently marked as
"recommended" by the "Jewish Guide to Internet").
The information on the Society's Web site includes:
- general information about the JHS, its activities
and publications; - "Jewish Archive" series issues;
- Preprints series issues;
- Bibliographic series issues;
- the JHS Information bulletin issues;
- the JHS membership list;
- the list and information about Jewish scholarly and
social institutions in the CIS and the Baltic states;
- source materials in Jewish history.
Publications
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The JHS currently corresponds with over 450
subscribers around the world, among them are:
scholars of Jewish history, research institutions,
libraries and archives of Judaica. The JHS publishes
and distributes information bulletins, preprints,
archival and bibliographic guides. During the first
half of the 1996 the Society completed over 100
research requests for scholarly publications and
other materials. In 1993 - 1997 the Society has
published:
- 42 preprints and reprints,
- 9 issues of the "Jewish Archive" Series,
- 2 issues of the Bibliography Series,
- 7 issues of the Information Bulletin "Current
Judaic Studies in the CIS and Worldwide", - 2 issues
of the Information Bulletin "Jewish Scholarship and
Higher Education" - jointly with the Center "Sefer"
of the Russian Academy of Sciences, - 2 research
monographs.
All JHS services and publications are free of charge.
Updated information about the JHS programs and recent
Society's publications are available at the Society's
Web site on the Internet.
To receive the Society's mailings on the regular
basis, to participate in the Society's programs and
to order the Society's publications and materials,
please, contact us by mail or by e-mail at the
addresses provided below. Information about JHS
programs and publications are also available at the
Society's web site - http://www.glasnet.ru/~heritage/.
Source:
Jewish Heritage Society
Russia 117449 Moscow,
Novocheremushkinskaya Ul., 1/14-3-12
heritage@glasnet.ru
http://www.glasnet.ru/~heritage/
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
The calendar surveys academic events (conferences,
courses, institutional activities) in the field of
East European Jewish studies for years 1996 - 1998.
Information is derived from: Mendele: Yiddish
literature and language electronic mailing list,
Jewish Studies On-Line electronic newsletter, and
from a variety of other sources. Requests for
detailed information on the events listed in the
calendar should be directed to the contact addresses
provided.
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Past Activities
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YIDDISH CREATIVITY, EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION IN
EASTERN EUROPE
Moldova, Kishinev, August 15 - 17, 1996
By: L.Botwinik
This past summer in Kishenev, between the 15th and
the 17th of August, there was a conference entitled
"Yiddish Creativity, Education and Communication in
Eastern Europe". According to the information I have
received, there were 65 representatives from Moldova,
Romania, the Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. There were
also lecturers and observers from Israel and
representatives of the Moldavian government, of the
Joint, the Jewish Agency, and also the Chief Rabbi of
Romania.
For more details, contact:
leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il - Leybl Botwinik
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THEOLOGY AFTER AUSCHWITZ AND THE GULAG. ATTITUDES TO
JEWS AND JUDAISM OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN COMMUNIST
RUSSIA
Russia, St. Petersburg, January 26 - 29, 1997
By: N.Pecherskaya
From the 26th to the 29th of January 1997 the
international scholarly conference "Theology after
Auschwitz and the GULag. Attitudes to Jews and
Judaism of the Orthodox Church in Communist Russia"
was held in St. Petersburg, Russia. The conference
was organized by St. Petersburg School of Religion
and Philosophy with the participation of St.
Petersburg Association of Scientists and Scholars,
St. Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian
Academy of Sciencies, St. Petersburg Theological
Academy and Seminary, Research and Information Center
"Memorial", and the International Council of
Christians and Jews. Representatives of the Russian
Orthodox Church and other denominations, war
veterans, prisoners of concentration camps and
ghettos took part in the work of the conference and
its round table meetings along with renowned
scholars.
The participants discussed complicated issues of the
influence of the tragedy of the World War II, the
policies of genocide of Hitler's and Stalin's regimes
to the development of the theological thouht and
humanistic ideas in the countries of the Eastern and
Western Europe, in particular, in Russia, as well as
the issues of overcoming the misunderstanding of the
Western experience of solving "the Jewish question"
by the Russian Orthdox and the 20th century way of
martyrdom of the Russian Church by the Western
Cristians and Jews.
The idea of holding a conference which will
facilitate the development of JewishChristian dialog
and draw closer the views on the processes and events
of the past and present was supported by St.
Petersburg Orthodox metropolia. The conference would
be considered as a first public statement of the
representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church on
this question and allowed to carry out a historical,
a secular and a theological analysis of the noted
issues.
One of the results of the conference will be the
publication of its proceedings which will presumably
consist of 250 pages and will be both in English and
Russian.
For more information, contact:
pech@spas.spb.su - Natalia Pecherskaya, Director,
St. Petersburg Association
of Scientists and Scholars
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THE FOURTH ANNUAL ACADEMIC CONFERENCE OF THE MOCOW
CENTER FOR UNIVERSITY TEACHING OF JEWISH CIVILIZATION
"SEFER"
Russia, Moscow, February 4 - 6, 1997
By: J.Porath
Between 275 and 300 academics, students and guests
participated in the program. One hundred were
officially registered from Moscow, representing all
of the institutions where Academic Judaica is taught
(The Jewish University of Moscow, Maimonides State
Jewish Academy, Project Judaica - Russian State
University of the Humanities, Touro College, Moscow
State University, and a dozen smaller colleges and
theological seminaries), and 80 from other parts of
the FSU (including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia,
Lithuania and Moldova). They were joined by 50 - 75
local students and participants who visited many of
the sessions, as well as an international delegation
of more than 30.
The International Advisory Council (IAC) of "Sefer" -
The Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish
Civilization was formed by members of the
international delegation to the conference. The
purposes of the IAC are as follows:
- to foster the growth of Sefer and Academic Judaica
in the Former Soviet Union,
- to gather and encourage international support for
the above,
- to work with all other bodies who share similar
goals,
- to assist Sefer in its various projects and
activities, subject to the decisions of the Sefer
Academic Council and the local FSU board.
For detailed report, contact:
sefer@glasnet.ru - Viktoria Mochalova, Director,
Center "Sefer"
jporath@jdc.org.il - Jonathan Porath,
Department of the FSU,
AJJDC - Israel
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Future Activities
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YIDDISH PROGRAM IN POLAND
Poland, Warsaw, May 12 - June 13, 1997
By: M.Steinlauf
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in collaboration
with the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, is
launching a Yiddish program in Warsaw this summer.
The program, five weeks of intensive instruction on
elementary and intermediate levels, will be modeled
on YIVO's Uriel Weinreich Summer Program at Columbia
University.
The classes will be taught by: Ellen Kelman,
University of Toronto (Canada), and David Braun, MIT
(USA). Dr. Daniel Soyer, resident fellow of the
Sweatshop Project of the Lower East Side Tenement
Museum, will aid archivists who are working with the
Ringelblum Archives. Forty students, most of them on
the staff of the Jewish Historical Institute or
doctoral candidates in Jewish studies at the
University of Warsaw, have enrolled in the program,
which will run from May 12 - June 13. The program
represents YIVO's first active involvement in Poland,
the land where it was founded, since the Holocaust.
Hopefully, the program will be taught every year.
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OUT OF THE GHETTO: JEWISH TRADITION IN CRISIS
Hungary, Budapest, Central European University,
June 30 - July 18, 1997
By: P.Gluck
Summer University (SUN) at Central European
University brings regional university professors,
scholars, and professionals to the CEU Budapest
campus for an advanced level course in selected
topic.
Purpose of the Course: From the end of the eighteenth
century up until the twentieth century, traditional
Jewish society was challenged by new Jewish
ideologies. The Haskala (the Jewish Enlightenment),
religious Reform and Jewish Nationalism all prodded
Jews to step "out of the ghetto" and posed
alternative visions of how Jewish identity and
Judaism was to be defined in the modern era. While
these movements have often been analyzed, this course
views them from an unconventional perspective--that
of the traditional sectors of Jewish society.
As such, the history of Jewish "tradition in crisis"
can be seen as a case-study how modernization takes
place in the context of a specific tradition. While
the traditionalists response is the primary focus of
the course, hopefully a better understanding of the
modernizing challenge should also emerge. Both the
transformation of tradition and how that tradition
shaped the very contours of the challenge are
examined through close textual study of primary
sources (in English translation). This course is part
of the larger effort of the CEU to develop a graduate
level Jewish Studies program. Specifically, it is
geared toward acquainting advanced students in modern
history and religion with some of the major trends in
Central and Eastern European modern Jewish history.
This will also be extensive enough to address the
needs of young faculty or researchers focused on
Jewish issues and education in the region.
The focus of the course on the traditional sector has
a twofold aim: it provides a unique perspective on
Jewish modernization and it presents the opportunity
to acquaint the student with basic elements of Jewish
tradition and society.
Course Director: Michael K. Silber, Hebrew University
of Jerusalem (Israel).
For more information, contact:
gluckp@picasso.ceu.hu - Pearl Gluck,
Committee on Jewish Studies,
Central European University
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THE SECOND CIS STUDENT CONFERENCE ON JEWISH STUDIES
Russia, Moscow, July 15 - 17, 1997
By: M.Chlenov
The Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish
Civilization "Sefer" and the Association of Moscow
Jewish Studies Students, in cooperation with the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, are
organizing the Second CIS Student Conference on
Jewish Studies. The Conference will take place in
Moscow, July 15 - 17, 1997.
Educated in more than 50 Jewish Universities and
educational programs around the FSU and representing
a new generation of Russian speaking academics in
Jewish studies, approximately 60 students from the
CIS will attend the conference. Topics for
presentation include Jewish history in Russia and the
USSR, Hebrew language, Yiddish language and
literature, Biblical studies, Jewish philosophy, and
Jewish arts. The goal of the conference is to
introduce the exciting research being done by young
academics in the CIS and to create a productive and
friendly environment for interchange between Jewish
studies students.
The First CIS Student Conference on Jewish Studies
was held last July in Moscow. 40 student papers were
presented, including those of foreign students from
University College London, Oxford University and Ohio
State University. 12 out of 40 papers presented were
recently published in a volume of the conference
proceedings by the Jewish Heritage Society.
To contact organizers:
sefer@glasnet.ru - Viktoria Mochalova,
Director, Center "Sefer"
chlenov@rsuh.ru - Motya Chlenov,
Conference Coordinator
Visit the conference web site:
http://www.glasnet.ru/~heritage/stcnfree.htm
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THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: JEWS IN A
CHANGING WORLD. RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR PERSPECTIVES:
THE JEWISH VIEW
Latvia, Riga, August 25 - 27, 1997
By: R.Ferber
The First International Conference "Jews in a
Changing World" was held in Riga on August 28 - 29,
1995. It received considerable attention in Latvia
and beyond. 37 papers were presented at the
conference by participants from Israel, the USA,
Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania,
Estonia, and Latvia. They dealt with problems of
demography, culture, philosophy, Jewish education,
and Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union.
The proceedings of the first conference have been
prepared for publication in English and Russian in
December 1996.
The Second International Conference "Jews in a
Changing World" will be held in Riga, on August 25 -
27, 1997. Its purpose is to give a Jewish analysis of
contemporary problems from the modern secular and
classical religious perspectives. Special attention
will be given to secularreligious philosophical
dialogue. The conference welcomes rabbinic and
humanities scholars and scientists from the Baltic
States, the CIS, Central and Western Europe, Israel,
and the USA to exchange views.
Organizers: M.Dubin Fund of the SHAMIR Association
(Latvia), Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
(USA), Latvian Academy of Sciences (Latvia), Ben
Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), Yeshiva
University (USA). Honorary President of the
Conference: N. Barkan, Chief Rabbi of Riga and
Latvia.
To contact organizers:
ferber@acad.latnet.lv - Prof. Ruvin Ferber,
Co-Chairman of the Conference
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ASHKENAZ: THEORY AND NATION
Poland, Krakow, May 26 - 29, 1998
By: D.Miller
Ashkenazic Studies focuses upon the culture and
civilization of Ashkenaz. Ashkenaz (alternatively:
Erets Ashkenaz 'the land of Ashkenaz') is the
indigenous name of the home territory of Central and
Eastern European Jewry. From its compact origins some
1000 years ago in the ShU"M communities along the
Rhine, Ashkenaz grew to cover the second-largest
unbroken language and culture area in Europe. From
the outset, Ashkenazic Jewry defined itself as
distinct both from the other emerging European
peoples and cultures with which it was coterritorial,
and from other Jewries. Ashkenaz developed a unique,
internally consistent, and culturally advanced
European civilization. Sharing a confession with non
Ashkenazic coreligionists, Ashkenazic Jewry also
participated in the millennia of cosmopolitan Jewish
textuality (sacred texts, commentary and responsa,
commercial contracts, domestic agreements, etc.).
Ashkenazic culture is characterized by a national
language (Yiddish); religion (Judaism); textual
tradition; material culture (architecture, dress,
foodways, routes of trade and migration); systems of
education, social welfare, dispute adjudication;
politics and ideology; national literature; high and
popular culture.
The conference focuses on aspects of Ashkenazic Jewry
as nation. Papers may be from any discipline (e.g.,
literature, history, linguistics, cultural studies,
social anthropology, folklore, geography, demography,
sociology, etc.), and should employ the theory or
methodology of the relevant discipline to the
analysis of Ashkenaz as nation. Papers dealing with
Ashkenaz from a cross-cultural perspective are
welcome as well. The conference will be held at the
Jagiellonian University, Krakow.
To contact organizers:
ashkenaz98@brooklyn.net - Prof. David Miller,
Ohio State University (USA),
Dr. Annamaria Orla Bukowska,
Jagiellonian University (Poland)
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PUBLICATIONS
New book announcement
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Suslensky Ya., True Heroes. Kiev, 1996
By: T.Puchkova
The Jewish-Ukrainian friendship society and historical
and literary society "Litopys" (Ukraine) presents a
new book recently published in Kiev.
The book "True Heroes" by Ya.Suslensky is a touching
account of the Holocaust in Ukraine dealing with Jews
saved by Ukrainians at a risk of their life. The book
is a combination of oral history by real-life
participants of the Holocaust drama and the author's
analysis of the events. "True Heroes" is a living,
breathing human story which contains numerous
photographs, letters, poems dated from the War times
to the present day. This work is also remarkable for
publishing documents that were either kept secret or
made public in a destorted way by the Soviet
government.
The author, Yakov Suslensky, being a Ukrainian Jew
himself, and having lived through the Holocaust, in
1970 he was arrested and sentenced to 7 years of
concentration camps for his strive to enforce the
Declaration of Human Rights in the USSR labeled as
"anti-Soviet propaganda."
For more information, contact:
puchkovt@kirtland.cc.mi.us - Tanya Puchkova
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List of recent publications
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New books on Jewish history and culture published in
the CIS and Baltic states
By: A.Frenkel
Auschwitz - the tragedy of the XX century: a
catalogue of the exibition. Moscow, 1995. 20 pp. In
Russian
Book of memory of Jewish soldiers perished in battles
with Nazism. Vol. 1, Moscow, 1994. 550 pp., ill. In
Russian
Book of survivors: Memoirs of Jewish soldiers,
prisoners of ghettos and concentration camps,
partisans and dwellers of besieged Leningrad. St.
Petersburg, 1995. 416 pp. In Russian
Jews in the Great Patriotic War: the contribution to
the victory: a catalogue of the exibition. Moscow,
1995. 32 pp. In Russian
Lessons of Holocaust and contemporary Russia:
materials of the round table of the international
symposium in Moscow, April 6 - 8, 1994. Moscow, 1995.
136 pp. In Russian
University teaching of Jewish civilization in the
former Soviet Union. Moscow: Center "Sefer," 1996.
154 pp. In Russian and English
Vilnius Ghetto: List of Prisoners. Vol. 1. Vilnius:
The State Jewish Museum of Lithuania, 1996. 432 pp.,
ill. In Lithuanian, Russian, English.
Dubnova-Erlikh S., Bread and Matza: Memoirs. Poetry.
St.Petersburg, 1994. 300 pp. In Russian
Gazov-Ginzberg A., Starkova K., Tlizarova M., eds.,
Qumran Texts. Vol. 2. St. Petersburg: Center for
Oriental Studies, 1996. 440 pp. In Russian.
Hefter M., Echo of Holocaust and the Russian Jewish
question. Moscow, 1995. 296 pp. In Russian
Honcharok M., Century of will: Russian anarchism and
Jews (XIX - XX centuries). Jerusalem, 1996. 124 pp.,
ill. In Russian
Kahan I., A survey of History of Jews in Orenburg
province in the XIX - the beginning of the XX
centuries (Based on documents from the State Archives
of Orenburg province). Orengurg, 1996. 64 pp., ill.
In Russian
Poltorak D., History of Holocaust 1933 - 1945 : A
collection of documentary materials. Moscow, 1995. In
Russian
Povartsov S., The cause of the death - execution by
fire: the chronicle of the last days of Isaac Babel.
Moscow, 1996. 191 pp. In Russian
Redlich S., ed., Jewish Antifascist Committee in the
USSR, 1941-1948: a Documented History. Moscow, 1996.
424 pp., ill. In Russian
Ryvkina R., Jews in Post-Soviet Russia - who are
they? A sociologic analysis of problems of Soviet
Jewry. Moscow, 1996. 240 pp. In Russian
Simanovich D., ed., Shagalovskii sbornik: Materials
of the 1th - 4th Seminars on Marc Chagall in Vitebsk
(1991 - 1995). Vitebsk, 1996. 304 pp., ill. In
Russian.
Sverdlov F., ed., Documents blame. Holocaust:
witnesses of the Red Army: A collection of documents.
Moscow, 1996. 130 pp. In Russian
Source:
frenk@lea.spb.su - Electronic bulletin "Am ha Sefer",
Jewish Association of St. Petersburg
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JEWISH SCHOLARSHIP IN EASTERN EUROPE: ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
JSEE International academic editorial board:
Henry Abramson (Florida Atlantic University, USA),
Avraham Greenbaum (Ben-Zion Dinur Institute, Israel),
Rashid Kaplanov (Center "Sefer", Russia),
John Klier (University College London, England),
Antony Polonsky (Brandeis University, USA),
Paul Radensky (Jewish Theological Seminary, USA),
Shaul Stampfer (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel),
Michael Steinlauf (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, USA).
JSEE Moderator:
Elina Shkolnikova (Brandeis University, USA).
Subscription requests and submissions: heritage@glasnet.ru
Archives: http://www.glanet.ru/~heritage/jsee.htm
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