Identity and Language Politics in the Post-Soviet Ukrainian Jewish Community (original) (raw)
Revival of Jewish national and cultural life and its organizational structure has been highly significant in the post-Soviet environment of the recent decades. Attempts to institutionalize Jewish communities in the countries of the former Soviet Union—post-Soviet Jews, no matter where they live today, need to resolve a plethora of problems similar in nature but different in scope. The search for cultural, national, and linguistic identity remains a firm objective. It is only natural that in such circumstances the language problem is a key identifying factor. The article looks at the contemporary role and status of Yiddish taking the example of Ukraine, where the tradition of this language, has never been broken despite the hardships and troubles of the past century.
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The paper shows an image and functions of Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish languages among Jewish Diaspora groups – the Balkan Sephardim and the Ashkenazim (the Ostjuden group) – in the period from the beginning of the twentieth century until the outbreak of World War II. The study is based on the articles from Jewish weeklies, magazines and newspapers from prewar Bosnia and Hercegovina and from Germany/Poland. It demonstrates a double-sided attitude towards the languages. On the one hand – an image of the languages as determinants of Jewish identity. Touching on this theme, the authors of the paper also try to highlight the images of Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish and as determinants in a narrower sense – of the Sephardi/Ashkenazi identity in that period. On the other hand, the paper shows a tendency to treat the languages as " corrupted " and " dying " languages, and as factors slowing down the assimilation of Jewish groups and also as an obstacle for Zionist ideologies.
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Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish as Determinants of Identity: As Illustrated in the Jewish Press of the First Half of the Twentieth CenturyThe paper shows an image and functions of Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish languages among Jewish Diaspora groups – the Balkan Sephardim and the Ashkenazim (the Ostjuden group) – in the period from the beginning of the twentieth century until the outbreak of World War II. The study is based on the articles from Jewish weeklies, magazines and newspapers from pre-war Bosnia and Hercegovina and from Germany/Poland. It demonstrates a double-sided attitude towards the languages. On the one hand – an image of the languages as determinants of Jewish identity. Touching on this theme, the authors of the paper also try to highlight the images of Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish and as determinants in a narrower sense – of the Sephardi/Ashkenazi identity in that period. On the other hand, the paper shows a tendency to treat the languages as “corrupted” and “dying” languages, an...
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Modernist Yiddish literature was an important part of the Yiddish-cultural response to the existential turmoil caused by the First World War. This “small literature,” to use Kafka’s phrase, came into being without the support of a nation-state and in an alien environment. In a 1922 edition of Warsaw’s avant-garde magazine Albatros, Yiddish poets reflected on their “wandering through various centres of their Jewish extraterritoriality.” Five years later, in 1927, when stateless Yiddish literature became a member of the International PEN Club, this existential extraterritoriality underwent a bold reinterpretation with the new concept of “Yiddishland.” My paper reconstructs the discourse that led to the transformation of the existential concept of eksteritoryalishkayt along with the creation of the cosmopolitan cultural project originally called “dos land yidish,” and later “Yiddishland:” a republic of words that unified the Yiddish speakers globally via literature and arts.
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For Hebrew and Yiddish terms 1 have followed the system of The New Encyclopedia of Judaism (1989). For Russian terms, and extended passages, all the translations are my own unless otherwise stated. I have used the British Standard (BGN) system for transliterating Russian names of individuals and the names of streets and other city places. In the case of individual scholars published in English, I have reproduced their names in English exactly as they appear in these publications. In the case of local informants, many of their names have been changed here in order to protect individuals' privacy. Where informants have also published under their own name and expressed the desire to use their real name, I have followed their wishes, For all others, alternative names have been substituted. American spelling, punctuation and date conventions (month/day/year) are used throughout this thesis and it broadly follows the guidelines of the American Anthropological Association Style Guide 2009 (www.aaanet.org/publications/stvle guide.pdf). Research Themes This thesis explores the lived experiences and present-day orientations of Jewish residents of Odessa. It is as much a study of their shared efforts to construct, negotiate and question a meaningful sense of togetherness-otherwise known as "community"-as it is about the individual trajectories of Jewish Odessans challenged 1A round skullcap worn by observant Jewish men. See the Glossary In Appendix 2 for a full list of important Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish and Hebrew terms and expressions used in this thesis.
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