Language:
English
Year of publication:
2003
Titel der Quelle:
East European Jewish Affairs
Angaben zur Quelle:
33,1 (2003) 4-29
Keywords:
Antisemitism
Abstract:
Discarding the theory of "premeditated antisemitism" as the motive behind the Soviet repressive campaign against the Jews in 1948-53, examines this campaign as part of general Soviet policy against diaspora nationalities in the USSR. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee not only fostered the resurgence of Jewish national sentiments during and after the war, but also established contacts with Western Jewry and tried to act as an advocate for Soviet Jews, thus violating the official rules and ideology accepted in the USSR and presenting Soviet Jewry as a diaspora nationality; this view was reinforced with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Expressions of pro-Israel sentiments by many Soviet Jews and the attempts of the Israeli embassy in Moscow to establish direct contacts with Soviet Jews, strengthened the stereotype of Jews as a "fifth column" of a capitalist state in the country. Unable to deport all the Jews to the interior (as they had done with Poles, Koreans, etc.), the authorities chose to suppress Jewish culture and to decapitate Soviet Jewry of its political and cultural leadership.
DOI:
10.1080/13501670308577985
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink