From local to global: transformations of Bukharan Jewish community organization in the twentieth century

Zdenek Hojda and Jirí Pokorný, Pomníky a zapomníky (Monuments and Forgetting). Prague: Paseka, 1996, 280 pp. + illustrations.

Vladimír Macura, Masarykové boty (Masaryk's Shoes). Prague, 1993, 99 pp.

Jirí Rak, Bývali ?echové, ?eské historické myty a stereotypy (Once Upon a Time, The Czechs Were. Czech Historical Myths and Stereotypes). Prague: Nakladatelstvi H &; H, 1994, 149 pp. + illustrations.

Vít Vinas, Jan Nepomucky,Ceská Legenda (Jan of Nepomuck. Czech Legend). Prague: Nakladadelství Mladá Fronta, 1993, 283 pp. + bibliography, chronology, illustrations.     

Age and family structures among the Jews of Mitau,Kurland, 1833–1834

The article analyzes an 1834 listing of the Jewish inhabitants in the city of Mitau in the province of Kurland, one of the Baltic provinces (the other two were Estland and Livland) of the Russian Empire. From Catherine the Great's reign onward, the Jewish population of the Baltic provinces rose steadily throughout the 19th century, but microstudies of Jewish communities in the region are virtually nonexistent, especially for the first half of the century. The Mitau list shows that the Jewish population there was very young, with about 45% being in the age group 0–14. Age at first marriage for males was about 24 years, and for females 21. From about age 35, 93% of males and 97% of females were married. The mean size of the family group was 5.8 persons, and about a third of all families were either extended (containing unmarried relatives beyond the nuclear family) or multiple (more than one kin-linked conjugal family unit). Judging by kinship terms in the source, the kin system tilted toward patrilineality, as would be expected. These characteristics need to be compared to other Jewish communities before and after 1834—in the Baltic area and surrounding regions—but the paucity of local studies suggests that some time will pass before the Mitau findings can be placed in an adequate comparative framework.     

哈尔滨犹太宗教公会的兴衰

19世纪末，伴随着沙俄的排犹政策和中东铁路的修筑，大批俄国犹太人来到哈尔滨这个新的“避难所”定居。他们在哈尔滨建立了犹太会堂、银行、学校、医院，还创办了犹太人自己的社团，形成了较完整的犹太社区体系，当时的哈尔滨已成为东亚地区犹太人最大的活动中心之一。通过研究发现，哈尔滨犹太宗教公会在哈尔滨犹太人社区中处于领导核心的地位。通过犹太宗教公会的组织活动，维护犹太人的利益，使在哈尔滨的犹太人同欧美、苏俄、中东地区的犹太人保持了密切的联系。     

Putin as a flexible politician. Does he imitate Stalin?

The article is about Putin's ‘Jewish anomaly’. Against all expectations, Putin during his tenure as president of the Russian Federation showed in various ways his concern about the life of Jews in his country.     

Reviews

Book reviews: Robinson, Cedric J., Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (reviewed by Frederick Knight); Robinson, Cedric J., Black Movements in America (reviewed by Frederick Knight)     

Contours of Memory in Post-Nazi Austria

Knight discusses both domestic and foreign aspects of the post-war Austrian 'landscape of memory', going back to the Anschluss and the antisemitic violence that followed it. In the years after 1945 this memory was sidelined, first by the West in the interests of the Cold War and then by the Soviet Union, although it has persisted in a subterranean sort of way. Since the 'Waldheim affair' it has surfaced to join a new international politics of sensibility about the Holocaust and related issues. Austria started in 1945 from a position similar to that of Germany but thereafter took a different course in respect of the 'national question' and the creation of a governing party coalition. Paradoxically, at a time when Austria has ceased to be exempt from scrutiny, sections of its society have become more sensitive about the magnitude of Nazi crimes than they ever were before.     

On collective assertiveness and activism during the immigration process: a case study of Yemenite immigrants who founded Kiryat Shmona – 1949–1953

This article focuses on the ways in which over 200 families of Yemenite immigrants, who founded the city of Kiryat Shmona, the development town situated at the edge of Israel's Northern District, functioned as a group during the immigration process. This case study coincides with the trend – within research of mass immigration to Israel – that relates the historical narrative through the perspective of the immigrant and settler groups, rather than from the vantage point of the establishment in charge of their absorption. The affair could have gone down in the annals of history as a story of weakness and victimhood: hundreds of immigrants were sent off to settle in an outlying peripheral region and were compelled to integrate into an environment where the financially and political-powerful kibbutzim were preponderant. Yet the Yemenite immigrants of Kiryat Shmona turned out to be a consolidated, opinionated, fighting and stubborn force that succeeded, in trying conditions, to assert their voice, struggle for their values and identity, affect major changes within the immigration–absorption system.     

Examining Changes in Settlement Policies for Immigrants: The Israeli Case

Settlement policies for immigrants seek to provide services for the needs of the newcomers during their initial stay in their new country. These services can be differentiated by the degree of discretion clients have over the manner in which the services are provided, i.e., in the form of in-kind or cash benefits, and by the conditions linked to receipt of these services. In recent years, the Israeli government has implemented an unusually liberal and relatively generous settlement policy that provides virtually unconditional cash benefits to immigrants. An examination of the decision-making process surrounding the adoption of this unique policy indicates that it can be linked to the need to deal with the mass influx of Soviet Jews during the early 1990s, power struggles between the agencies charged with immigrant integration, and the dominant Zionist and free market values of the decision-makers. This study of the settlement policy adopted in Israel during the 1990s not only can contribute to a better understanding of the decision-making process involved in social policy formulation but, on a more practical level, can serve as a model of dealing with immigrants that may be of relevance to other welfare states.     

The Sephardi and Oriental Jews of Haifa and Arab-Jewish relations in Mandate Palestine

Abstract

This article examines the development of the relations between Jews and Arabs in Haifa during the British Mandate period from the perspective of the Sephardi and Oriental Jews (Mizrahim). It focuses on the two Sephardi neighborhoods in Haifa: Ard al-Yahud and Harat al-Yahud. The article examines the character of the shared Jewish-Arab space that existed in both these mixed neighborhoods, which were inhabited by both Jews and Arabs. The character of this spatial system was exposed during the course of a local political struggle to secure representation for the Sephardi and Oriental Jews and to improve their social condition, as well as during periods of security tension. The article also examines the attitude of the Sephardi leadership toward the ‘Arab question’, and discusses the manner in which everyday life in Ard al-Yahud and Harat al-Yahud manifested the existence of an Arab-Jewish identity during the Mandate period.