Being Jewish in 21st Century Central Europe

Haim Fireberg, Olaf Glöckner, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Haim Fireberg, Olaf Glöckner, Marcela Menachem Zoufalá

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783110582369
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

Jewish life in Europe has undergone dramatic changes and transformations within the 20th century and also the last two decades. The phenomenon of the dual position of the Jewish minority in relation to the majority, not entirely unusual for Jewish Diaspora communities, manifested itself most distinctly on the European continent. This unique Jewish experience of the ambiguous position of insider and outsider may provide valuable views on contemporary European reality and identity crisis. The book focuses inter alia on the main common denominators of contemporary Jewish life in Central Europe, such as an intense confrontation with the heritage of the Holocaust and unrelenting antisemitism on the one hand and on the other hand, huge appreciation of traditional Jewish learning and culture by a considerable part of non-Jewish Europeans. The volume includes contributions on Jewish life in central European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Germany.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Editors’ Introduction
• Section I: Contextualizing Jewish Life in the Midst of the “Old Continent”
• The Quest for the “Authentic” Central Europe
• Jewish Demography in the European Union – Virtuous and Vicious Paths
• Renewal or Regression? Jewish Self-Assertion and Re-Orientation in Twenty-first Century Central Europe
• Section II: Breaks, Changes, and Continuities in Austria and Hungary
• “Russians,” “Sephardi”, and “Israelis”: The Changing Structure of Austrian Jewry
• Jewish Religious-Cultural Traditions and Identity Patterns in Post-Communist Hungary
• The “Missing” and “Missed” Jews in Hungary
• Memories and Hopes: The Zionist Youth Movements and the Communist Regimes in Central Europe, 1944–1950
• Section III: Jewish Past and Present in the Czech Republic
• Jews and Jewishness in Cinema and Literature: The Case of the Czech Republic
• Ethno-religious Othering as a Reason Behind the Central European* Jewish Distancing from Israel
• Jews and Muslims in the Czech Republic – Demography, Communal Institutions, Mutual Relations
• Jewish-Roma Relations in the former Czechoslovakia: An Alliance Against Racism
• Section IV: An Ongoing Struggle with Judeophobia
• Holocaust Denial as a Symptom of Unresolved European History
• The Antisemitic Paradox in Europe: Empirical Evidences and Jewish Perceptions. A Comparative Study Between the West and East
• Appendix: Memories, Reflections, and Prospects
• What is Jewish about Contemporary Central European Jewish Culture?
• Preserving Jewish Cemeteries as an Actual Challenge in Contemporary Poland
• Holocaust Memorialization in Poland: A Case Study of Polin Museum
• Thirty Years After. The Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow of the Czech Jewish Community
• About the Authors
• Index of persons