Prof. Zeev Khanin serves as the Academic Director of the ISAEA

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Bar-Ilan University Professor Ze'ev Khanin as Academic Director of the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies (IEAJS). This marks a new, significantly more substantial phase of cooperation with the distinguished Israeli scholar, who has chaired the institute's academic council on a voluntary basis since its inception in 2018. In his new capacity, Professor Ze'ev Khanin will oversee the development of IEAJS academic projects and the implementation of academic and applied research into the contemporary status of Jewish communities across the CIS, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, as well as Western, Central, and Eastern Asia.

Among these projects is the publication, in collaboration with De Gruyter (Berlin and Boston) — one of the leading European-American academic publishing houses — of the book "Post-Soviet Jewry in Transition." The first volume of this series is a monograph based on a large-scale study of Jewish communities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Kazakhstan, conducted at the initiative of the EAJC in 2019-2020, and is scheduled for release in late 2022.

Dr. Chaim Ben Yakov, Director General of the EAJC:

“We are exceptionally pleased that the cooperation between the EAJC and Professor Ze'ev Khanin has reached this new level. Since the establishment of the IEAJS, we have successfully implemented a number of significant projects—including conferences, research studies, and, naturally, the publication of the EAJC Yearbook, featuring papers by leading specialists in the fields of Jewish diaspora studies, Jewish studies, history, culture, and diplomacy. Professor Z. Khanin has consistently played a pivotal role in this work. Our Institute has gained recognition, and we intend to expand and strengthen our presence within the academic community. In times of global geopolitical crises, such as the one we are currently experiencing, it is of paramount importance to focus closely on objective research that can serve as a foundation for complex decision-making.”

Brief Biography:

A native of Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine), Professor Ze'ev (Vladimir) Khanin completed his postgraduate studies at the Institute for African Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where in 1989 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the relationship between political parties and informal power structures in Eastern countries. In 1991, as a British Council fellow, he undertook post-doctoral research at the Russian and East European Studies Centre at Oxford University (UK).

Following his repatriation to Israel in 1992, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in History and Political Science, Khanin worked as a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History and at the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies at Tel Aviv University, while also collaborating with several other educational and research institutions. From 1998 to 2012, and again starting in 2022, Khanin has taught political science at Bar-Ilan University; since 2013, he has also been a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Israel Heritage at Ariel University. Between 2009 and October 2022, he served as the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration of Israel. As a visiting lecturer, Ze'ev Khanin has delivered courses and lecture series at the Universities of Oxford and North London (UK), the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, and universities in Kyiv, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Baku, and Riga. He has also participated in dozens of academic conferences in Israel and abroad.

Ze'ev Khanin is the author of eleven books, co-author and editor of nine collective monographs, and author of dozens of articles in academic publications on socio-political issues concerning Israel, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and contemporary Jewish communities.

About the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies:

The Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies (IEAJS) is a project of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), designed to serve as a platform for scientific and professional dialogue (think-tank) among leading experts on the issues of Jewish communities in the CIS, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, as well as Western, Central, and Eastern Asia.

The objective of the Institute is to conduct academic and applied research into the contemporary status of Jewish communities in these regions within the context of the socio-political situation in their host countries, their relations with the State of Israel and regional centers of power, migration processes within local Jewish populations, as well as research into the history, culture, and social and political heritage of these communities.

Communities and organizations belonging to the EAJC, as well as partners of the Congress, can assist in conducting research, selecting authors for publications, aiding in data collection, drafting proposals, commissioning projects (including co-financing), and organizing presentations of the Institute's materials.

The Institute, in partnership with colleagues in the countries of the former USSR, has initiated a large-scale sociological study titled "Jewish Communities of the Post-Soviet Space: Contemporary Status and Dynamic Trends." The study includes a survey of the Jewish population (in the broad sense of the term) of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Moldova, aiming to better understand the development of Jewish and other ethnic identities in these communities and current trends in the formation of Jewish communities. It also assesses the mechanisms of affiliation with the Jewish collective among individuals of non-Jewish and mixed origin, migration dynamics, socioeconomic status of various Jewish groups in these countries, and their attitudes toward Israel.

The Institute welcomes the assistance of local communities in organizing this survey and stands ready to share the findings of this research, which we hope will be of assistance in planning their work.