Language:
German
Year of publication:
2018
Titel der Quelle:
Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts
Angaben zur Quelle:
17 (2018) 569-598
Keywords:
Evreĭskoe istoriko-ėtnograficheskoe obshchestvo (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
;
Sovetish Heymland (Moscow)
;
Jews Study and teaching
;
Jewish scholars
;
Jews Identity
;
Yiddish periodicals
Abstract:
After years of difficult conditions for Jewish studies in the Soviet Union, a new Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Commission was founded in 1982, intentionally named after its late imperial predecessor. It was a daring undertaking, especially considering the fact that some of its members had applied for emigration to Israel and took part in the movement for Jewish self-determination. However, other founding members were reputable colleagues at the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR who, besides their commitment to the Commission, worked on other ethnographic subjects. In 1982, despite the initial reservations of its managing editor Aron Vergelis, the Commission convinced the only Soviet Yiddish-language journal Sovetish Heymland, which was originally tasked to propagate a liberal Soviet attitude towards its Jewish readership, to launch a special section on Jewish ethnography. This cooperation with the journal allowed the Commission to publish some of its results and provided access to libraries and archival material on Jewish topics. Despite distrust and surveillance by the state, the Commission’s members who supported the movement for Jewish self-determination used the state’s official structures, such as the Sovetish Heymland and the Academy of Sciences, to recover the heritage of its predecessor organization in archives and museums, but also to conduct field research in remote areas of the Soviet Union. In doing so, it served both as a platform for exchange and a starting point for research by future professionals in Jewish studies.
Note:
With an English abstract.
DOI:
10.13109/9783666370809.569
URL:
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