REL 290: Jews in Ukraine

When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, thousands of refugees fled across Ukraine’s western border and the world watched in shock and horror. In particular, many Jews throughout the world responded with empathy, as they witnessed what seemed to be a complicated repeat of—or riff on—history. Descendants of Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, hear in place-names such as Kyiv and Odesa echoes of “the old country,” one which they may even have visited through heritage tours of pre-war Jewish shtetls and metropolises. And yet, those same resonances led other Jews to express unease about support for Ukraine’s resistance, given its long history of violent antisemitism—a history Russian propaganda cynically exploited.

In this course, we will examine the complexity of the Jewish past in Ukraine and consider how the historical experiences of Ukrainian Jews help to contextualize an array of morally, ethically, and socially complex phenomena, including migration, assimilation, ethnic identity, and toleration. In particular, we will take a deep dive into the history of Jewish Ukraine, and consider how that has shaped contemporary responses (individual and national) to violence; we will also study the moral and social responsibilities of communities to refugees, particularly when groups are linked by historical ties and religious trauma. No prior knowledge of Ukrainian or Jewish history is expected.