Before the USSR collapsed, ethnic identities were imposed by the state. This book analyzes how and why Jews decided what being Jewish meant to them after the state dissolved and describes the historical evolution of Jewish identities. Surveys of more than 6,000 Jews in the early and late 1990s reveal that Russian and Ukrainian Jews have a deep sense of their Jewishness but are uncertain what it means. They see little connection between Judaism and being Jewish. Their attitudes toward Judaism, intermarriage and Jewish nationhood differ dramatically from those of Jews elsewhere. Many think Jews can believe in Christianity and do not condemn marrying non-Jews. This complicates their connections with other Jews, resettlement in Israel, the United States and Germany, and the rebuilding of public Jewish life in Russia and Ukraine. Post-Communist Jews, especially the young, are transforming religious-based practices into ethnic traditions and increasingly manifesting their Jewishness in public.
• Embeds the study of post-Communist Jews in wide-ranging historical analyses of the relationship between religion and ethnicity, inter-ethnic marriage, Jewish migration patterns and European anti-Semitism • Based on the most comprehensive and extensive surveys of Russian and Ukrainian Jews • Includes in-depth examinations of the thinking and behavior of Russian and Ukrainian Jews regarding issues such as religion, intermarriage, anti-Semitism, emigration and rebuilding Jewish public life
Contents
1. Ethnicity and identity; 2. The evolution of Jewish identities; 3. Soviet policies and the Jewish nationality; 4. Constructing Jewishness in Russia and Ukraine; 5. Judaism and Jewishness: religion and ethnicity in Russia and Ukraine; 6. Becoming Soviet Jews: friendship patterns; 7. Acting Jewish; 8. Anti-Semitism and Jewish identity; 9. Identity, Israel, and immigration; 10. Ethnicity and marriage; 11. Polities, affect, affiliation, and alienation; 12. Conclusion.
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