Jewish Russians : upheavals in a Moscow synagogue / Sascha L. Goluboff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goluboff, Sascha L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Goluboff, Sascha L.

Synagogues--Russia (Federation)--Moscow--History--20th century.

Synagogues.

Jews--Russia (Federation)--Moscow--History--20th century.

Jews.

Jews, Georgian (South Caucasian)--Russia (Federation)--Moscow--Social conditions--20th century.

Jews, Georgian (South Caucasian).

Jews, Bukharan--Russia (Federation)--Moscow--Social conditions--20th century.

Jews, Bukharan.

Mountain Jews--Russia (Federation)--Moscow--Social conditions--20th century.

Mountain Jews.

Moscow (Russia)--Ethnic relations.

Moscow (Russia).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (219 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The prevalence of anti-Semitism in Russia is well known, but the issue of race within the Jewish community has rarely been discussed explicitly. Combining ethnography with archival research, Jewish Russians: Upheavals in a Moscow Synagogue documents the changing face of the historically dominant Russian Jewish community in the mid-1990s. Sascha Goluboff focuses on a Moscow synagogue, now comprising individuals from radically different cultures and backgrounds, as a nexus from which to explore issues of identity creation and negotiation. Following the rapid rise of this transnational congregation-headed by a Western rabbi and consisting of Jews from Georgia and the mountains of Azerbaijan and Dagestan, along with Bukharan Jews from Central Asia-she evaluates the process that created this diverse gathering and offers an intimate sense of individual interactions in the context of the synagogue's congregation.Challenging earlier research claims that Russian and Jewish identities are mutually exclusive, Goluboff illustrates how post-Soviet Jews use Russian and Jewish ethnic labels and racial categories to describe themselves. Jews at the synagogue were constantly engaged in often contradictory but always culturally meaningful processes of identity formation. Ambivalent about emerging class distinctions, Georgian, Russian, Mountain, and Bukharan Jews evaluated one another based on each group's supposed success or failure in the new market economy. Goluboff argues that post-Soviet Jewry is based on perceived racial, class, and ethnic differences as they emerge within discourses of belonging to the Jewish people and the new Russian nation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. Fistfights at Morning Services

Chapter 2. Georgian Meatballs and Russian Kolbasa

Chapter 3. Renovating the Small Hall

Chapter 4. The Savage in the Jew

Chapter 5. The Madman and His Mission to Unite the Sephardim

Conclusion

Notes

Personae

Glossary

Works Cited

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-199) and index.

ISBN:

9781283890557

1283890550

9780812202038

0812202031

OCLC:

646158346