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donate Impulses for Europe
Eighty per cent of Jewish people worldwide have eastern European roots, yet how far are the countries of eastern Europe ready to integrate Jewish life and influences into their national commemorative cultures and present day identities? Eurozine publishes a selection of articles from the issue of Osteuropa, "Impulses for Europe. Tradition and Modernity in East European Jewry". [ more ]
Remembrance as balancing act
The public and scholarly treatment of
eastern Europe’s Jewish heritage
How to communicate eastern European Jewish history and culture without turning it into commercialism and kitsch or treating Jewish life as a museum artefact and thus forgetting its renaissance? A roundtable discussion with historians, curators, and educators. [ more ]
Intellectual heritage
From obscurantism to holiness
"Eastern Jewish" thought in Buber, Heschel, and Levinas
Intellectual heritage The intellectuals Martin Buber, Joshua Heschel, and Emmanuel Levinas shared the eastern European Jewish experience and a universalistic ethic. Above all it is Levinas to whom we owe an appreciation of what one could call "eastern European Jewry", writes Micha Brumlik. [ more ]
Overcoming war
Jan Bloch: entrepreneur, publicist, pacifist
Intellectual heritage As influencial entrepreneur, publicist, and pacifist, Jan Bloch deserves a prominent place in European collective memory: initiating the Hague Peace Conference, advocating arms control and an international court of justice, he was well ahead of his time, writes Manfred Sapper. [ more ]
Jewish history and transnational memory
A reluctant look back
Jews and the Holocaust in Ukraine
Ukraine Ukraine's official politics of remembrance omits the country's Jewish heritage, leaving it to private organisations to try to embed Jewish culture and history into national consciousness. This process demands the recognition of Ukrainians' share of responsibility for the Shoah.
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Disputed memory
Jewish past, Polish remembrance
Poland Nearly all of the three million Jews living in Poland before WWII were killed during the Shoah. Yet remembrance only began after 1990 and still polarizes Polish society. "Competition among victims" continues to dominate and a kind of "virtual Jewry" has emerged, reports Katrin Steffen. [ more ]
Repress, reassess, remember
Jewish heritage in Lithuania
Lithuania In Lithuania today, the acceptance of shared responsibility for the Holocaust is met with political resistance. However, the heritage of Lithuanian Jews is slowly being integrated into the society's collective consciousness, writes Vytautas Toleikis. [ more ]
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