Open AccessOn the Development of Jewish Museums and Jewish Ethnography in Ukraine, 1917–1941
Author(s) -
Марина Щербакова
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
judaic-slavic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2658-3364
DOI - 10.31168/2658-3364.2019.1.1.2
Subject(s) - judaism , jewish culture , politics , exhibition , ukrainian , state (computer science) , jewish identity , sociology , indigenization , ethnography , ethnic group , gender studies , political science , history , anthropology , art history , law , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , computer science
The article explores the development of the Jewish museums and Ethnographic Studies of Jewish culture in the Soviet Ukraine within the framework of the state ethnic policies and local scholarly and cultural initiatives. After 1917, the state’s gradually increased attention – as ambivalent as it was – to Jewish exhibitions can be seen in a number of projects conceived and in part realized in Kyev.The Mendele Moicher Sforim Museum of Jewish culture, opened in Odessa in 1927, was meant to become the central representation of the Soviet Jewish culture. However, despite the initial support of the Soviet administration,the change of the political situation in the early 1930s jeopardized the existence of the museum collections. Numerous displays of Judaica objects in local museums of Ukrainian towns provide insight into the role of the korenization (“giving roots”, indigenization) campaign and the legacy of the pre-revolutionary national movements. The article investigates the process of the museumization of Jewish culture in the interwar period as a confluence of factors of national identity, social construction, and relations between the center and the periphery.