Oct 17
|
The Nature and Consequences of Jewish Migration |
Zvi Gitelman |
| This event will start at 1:30 pm at Temple Emanuel (Adelson Community Hall), 385 Ward Street, Newton. |
Vayis’u Vayahanu [and they traveled and they encamped]: The Nature and Consequences of Jewish Migration
Ever since God spoke his first words to Abraham, lech lecho [go forth], Jews have been a migratory people. Migration and dispersal have influenced Jews’ culture, political behavior and economy. In many times and places, Jews have acculturated and assimilated, overwhelmed by more powerful and attractive cultures. But because of the power of other cultures, other Jews have chosen to isolate themselves from them as far as possible. In between these diametrically opposed reactions to cultural encounters is cultural borrowing, sometimes an exchange and sometimes a one-way process. Words, ideas, food, clothing, art, music and humor are among the items exchanged or adopted. The consequences of migration and dispersal are profound, and with the migration of over a million Jews from the former Soviet Union since 1989, the migratory experience is being relived. This talk explores the determinants and consequences of Jewish migration. The consequences of migration for the "sending" countries and the "receiving countries are examined for the migrants themselves and for the Jewish people as a whole.
Zvi Gitelman is Professor of Political Science, Preston Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies and was Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Michigan. He has won several teaching awards at Michigan. Gitelman was educated at Columbia University. He is the author or editor of fourteen books and over 100 articles. A second edition of his A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union since 1881 was published in Russian and Japanese. His most recent book is Ethnicity or Religion? The Evolution of Jewish Identities.
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