The “Belorussianisation” of the Jewish population during the interwar period: discourses and achievements in political and cultural spheres

Foll, Claire Le

doi:10.1080/13501670801897510

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Soviet Belarus held a central position in the promotion of this new Jewish identity, since it was the only Soviet republic to designate Yiddish as an official state language to stand alongside Belarusian, Russian, and Polish. 5 each national group had their own schools, published literature, workers' clubs, and the like.…”

Section: The Context Of Identity and Belongingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Purim Gifts from Russian Neighbors: Prewar Identity Formation and Wartime Survival among Young Jews from Soviet Vitebsk

Koerber

2022

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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Life under Stalinism in the 1930s challenged Jews, particularly the young, with innumerable compromises to their religious and ethnic identity, yielding unexpected responses during World War II and the Holocaust. This article analyzes how Jewish youth raised in 1930s Vitebsk in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic acquired firsthand knowledge of the language and customs of their Slavic neighbors, and how some of this cohort harnessed their experiences and understanding in their attempts to survive during the Holocaust. Bolshevik policies unique to Soviet Belarus affected its Jews in ways distinct from their counterparts elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Nationalities and religious policies as well as the Five-Year Plans and the Great Terror served as the context for this situation, shaping and distorting transmission of Jewish traditions along with changing the dynamics of the family and social relationships. Young Jews in Vitebsk learned Slavic languages and culture from their neighbors, in Soviet schools, and through other means. After the German invasion in 1941, the application of these skills and knowledge are a common thread through the survival narratives of young Holocaust survivors from Soviet Vitebsk.

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Section: The Context Of Identity and Belongingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Purim Gifts from Russian Neighbors: Prewar Identity Formation and Wartime Survival among Young Jews from Soviet Vitebsk

Koerber

2022

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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“…41 and indeed, the budding Belarusian nationalist movement embraced the ideals of interethnic solidarity and equal standing of all languages spoken in Belarus. 42 These principles inspired the BNR exiled government, which even established a Ministry for National Minorities (in 1921) and called upon Belarusians and Jews as "two dominant nations on the Belarusian territory" 43 to co-construct the Belarusian People's Republic but, more importantly, also the BSSR, which implemented quadrilingualism and guaranteed equal status of the Belarusian, Russian, Polish, and Yiddish languages in the constitution. 44 The ideals of korenizatsiia-the Soviet policies of supporting the revival of ethnic minorities oppressed under the tsars-not only brought about unprecedented opportunities of social mobility for Belarusian Jews, a proliferation of Yiddish schools and the rise of Jewish studies under the aegis of Institute for Belarusian Culture [Inbelkult], but also helped consolidate the Belarusian nationalist movement.…”

Section: Figure 5 Henadz' Plavinski With a Flyer About Ben-yehuda 2013mentioning

confidence: 99%

Jewish Heritage and the New Belarusian National Identity Project

Waligórska

2015

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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Focusing on three contemporary grassroots initiatives of preserving Jewish heritage and commemorating Jews in Belarus, namely, the Jewish Museum in Minsk, Ada Raǐchonak’s private museum of regional heritage in Hermanovichi, and the initiative of erecting the monument of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in Hlybokae, the present article discusses how local efforts to commemorate Jews and preserve Jewish heritage tap into the culture of political dissent, Belarus’s international relations, and the larger project of redefining the Belarusian national identity. Looking at the way these memorial interventions frame Jewish legacy within a Belarusian national narrative, the article concentrates in particular on the institution of the public historian and the small, informal social networks used to operate under a repressive regime. Incorporating the multicultural legacy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into the canon of Belarusian national heritage and recognizing the contribution of ethnic minorities to the cultural landscape of Belarus, new memory projects devoted to Jewish history in Belarus mark a caesura in the country’s engagement with its ethnic Others and are also highly political. While the effort of filling in the gaps in national historiography and celebrating the cultural diversity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania overlaps in significant ways with the agenda of the anti-Lukashenka opposition, Jewish heritage in Belarus also resonates with the state authorities, who seek to instrumentalize it for their own vision of national unity.

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The “Belorussianisation” of the Jewish population during the interwar period: discourses and achievements in political and cultural spheres

Cited by 2 publications

References 8 publications

Purim Gifts from Russian Neighbors: Prewar Identity Formation and Wartime Survival among Young Jews from Soviet Vitebsk

Purim Gifts from Russian Neighbors: Prewar Identity Formation and Wartime Survival among Young Jews from Soviet Vitebsk

Jewish Heritage and the New Belarusian National Identity Project

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