Jewish identities in postcommunist Russia and Ukraine

About this book

"This book examines in depth post-Soviet Jews' attitudes toward religion, intermarriage, emigration, anti-Semitism and rebuilding Jewish life"-- "Things did not turn out as they were supposed to. Ethnic groups were supposed to disappear. Marxists, western liberals and social scientists agreed on that for different reasons. For Marxists, the inevitable demise of capitalism would do it. Others banked on economic development and "modernization" to rendered ethnicity and other "traditional" categories irrelevant. Many intellectuals and statesmen believed that the era of ethnicity and nationalism, which had brought such violence and bloodshed to the mankind, would soon be superseded by a rational and scientific temper in the world. After the Second World War nationalism had been sufficiently discredited so that all expressions of ethnicity would be looked at askance. Yet, ethnicity persists and is one of the fundamental cleavages in many European, Asian and African societies, as well in parts of the Americas. As the example of Yugoslavia shows, national or ethnic hatreds can still be the basis for wars, the dismemberment of states, and the killing of one's neighbors, even in a region which suffered so much from ethnic wars just half a century earlier. After discussing ethnicity, we shall return to its predicted demise and why it has persisted"--