Thousands of Jews left Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022, seeking safety in places such as Israel, Canada, Austria, the United States, Poland, and other countries around the world. Similarly, thousands of Jews fled Russia, driven by a desire to avoid both complicity in the regime’s actions and the growing instability. Drawing on a two-year collaboration with Ukrainian refugees and Russian escapees who have been documenting their experiences since February 2022, this lecture explores how these individuals make sense of the war as it unfolds. Of particular interest is the role their Jewish identity plays in shaping their decisions to leave, their choice of destination, and their experiences of adaptation in new environments.
Anna Shternshis is the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair in Jewish Studies and director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. She received her doctoral degree (DPhil) from Oxford University in 2001. Shternshis is the author of cricically acclaimed monographs, including Soviet and Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923 - 1939 (Indiana UP, 2006), When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin (Oxford UP, 2017), and most recently co-author (together with Oleg Budnitsky, David Engel and Gennady Estraikh) of Jews in the Soviet Union: A History: War, Conquest, and Catastrophe, 1939–1945 (New York UP, 2022). Her latest book Jews in the Soviet Union: Post-War Life, Hopes, and Fears, 1945-1953 is in preparation with New York University Press. She is the author of more than 30 articles on the Soviet Jews during World War II, Russian Jewish culture, post-Soviet Jewish diaspora and Yiddish culture of the Holocaust. Together with artist Psoy Korolenko, Shternshis created and directed the Grammy-nominated Yiddish Glory project, an initiative that brought back to life forgotten Yiddish music written during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. A recipient of 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and President’s Impact Award at the University of Toronto, she is currently finishing her book tentatively entitled Last Yiddish Heroes: A Lost and Found Archive of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union about Yiddish music created in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
Thursday, March 20, 2025 @ 5:00-6:30pm
3335 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley
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Host: Center for Jewish Studies; Co-sponsor: Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies