The second volume of the IAJS series on post-Soviet Jewry has been officially published

De Gruyter – Brill Publishers (Berlin and Leiden), one of the world's most prestigious academic publishing houses, has released a collective monograph entitled "After Soviet State Antisemitism: Emigration, Transformation, and the Rebuilding of Jewish Life After 1991."

This volume is the second in the "Post-Soviet Jewry in Transition" series, initiated by the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies (IEAJS)—the research and analytical arm of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC). Prof. Zeev Khanin, Academic Director of the IEAJS, serves as one of the two editors-in-chief of the series, as well as a co-editor and contributor to the "After Soviet State Antisemitism" volume. Dr. Haim Ben Yakov, Director General of the EAJC and Vice President of the Institute, who also co-authored the new volume, serves on the editorial board of the publishing series.

The second volume of the "Post-Soviet Jewry in Transition" series aims to contribute to the study of emerging trends and perspectives on Jewish life in the post-Soviet space. The new publication features contributions from a group of distinguished experts from Belarus, Germany, Israel, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. They analyze contemporary Jewish communities in the post-Soviet countries of the Euro-Asian region, employing methodologies from sociology, history, cultural studies, religious studies, ethnography, political science, and other related disciplines.

EAJC Director General Dr. Haim Ben Yakov noted:

“The 'Post-Soviet Jewry in Transition' series, which we established, the release of its first two volumes, and the highly productive collaboration between the IEAJS and the eminent academic publisher De Gruyter constitute a clear recognition of the authority of the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies as the EAJC's established think tank. Currently, we continue our active initiatives across several domains, engaging experts and researchers throughout the Euro-Asian region. We are pleased to see the results of such complex work manifest in such a superb form, and we have many further plans and research projects ahead.”

About "After Soviet State Antisemitism: Emigration, Transformation, and the Rebuilding of Jewish Life After 1991":

Official state-sponsored antisemitism in the USSR effectively ceased in 1987, when, as part of the liberalization policies pursued by Mikhail Gorbachev during Perestroika, the Soviet authorities opened borders for refusenik emigration and, shortly thereafter, permitted the establishment of legal, independent Jewish organizations for the first time in six decades. Since then, Jewish life in the post-Soviet space has been defined by two interconnected dynamics: on one hand, large-scale migration and relocation (both abroad and to major industrial and cultural centers of the CIS), and on the other, efforts to rebuild organized Jewish life locally and adapt it to changing circumstances. Although many aspects of these processes have already been the subject of academic research, a significant portion of the key developments within post-Soviet Jewish communities over the past decade remains understudied.

These include the transformation of Soviet and post-Soviet Jewry (still noticeable in the initial years following the collapse of the USSR) into an Eastern European/Eurasian segment of the transnational Russian-speaking Jewish community; the emergence of new national and trans-regional Jewish organizations; and the integration into Jewish communities of the post-Soviet generation, a significant proportion of whom are descendants of intermarriages.

Additionally, the renewed cycle of interstate conflicts between former Soviet republics has posed a challenge to the collective identity of post-Soviet Jewry. Furthermore, the uptick in Jewish emigration from the CIS region, particularly since 2013-2014 (primarily Aliyah to Israel) and, since early 2022, to Europe, has once again fundamentally impacted socio-demographic and behavioral trends among post-Soviet Jews.

The publication is available for purchase on the website of De Gruyter – Brill Publishers.