Defining Soviet Antisemitism: Everyday Jewish Experiences in the USSR

This edited volume comprehensively examines antisemitism within Soviet society and the Soviet system. It sees expert contributors based in nine different countries define its characteristics, foreground how Jews experienced prejudice, and elucidate the ways in which antisemitism intersected with repression of non-Jewish groups.

Defining Soviet Antisemitism spans a variety of approaches, from empirically based case studies to methodological reflections and ‘state of the field’ retrospectives. In particular, the book articulates what was specifically ‘Soviet’ about Soviet antisemitism, while at the same time presenting anti-Jewish prejudice in the USSR as a variable spectrum that extended from 1917 through 1991. The bottom-up perspective of many of the chapters included enhances understanding of grassroots manifestations of antisemitism in the USSR, especially how they shaped the daily lives of ordinary Soviet Jews.

With the nature of antisemitism and its relation to anti-Israel sentiments increasingly hotly debated, Defining Soviet Antisemitism returns us to the notorious case of Soviet antisemitism and sheds new light on how to distinguish and counteract prejudice against Jews based on their Jewish identities in the process.