The international conference Thinking Beyond the ‘Soviet Jewry’ Narrative: Localism, Diversity, and Subjective Experiences of Jews in the Soviet Republics under Late Socialism took place on 9–10 October 2024 at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg, Germany. Co-organized by the Herder Institute (Marburg), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (ZZF Potsdam), the Justus Liebig University Giessen, RECET (University of Vienna), and the Dubnow Institute (Leipzig), the conference challenged the dominant scholarly and public narratives that portray Soviet Jewry as a monolithic entity. Instead, it highlighted the lived diversity and complexity of Jewish life across the Soviet Union’s peripheries during late socialism, from Central Asia to the Baltics.

Participants examined the nuanced and often-overlooked realities of Jewish subjectivity, identity, and daily life outside Moscow and Leningrad. Discussions addressed a range of themes: local experiences of antisemitism, cultural continuity and revival, gendered and generational perspectives, interactions with non-Jewish communities, and the multifaceted motivations and consequences of emigration. By shifting the focus from central Soviet narratives to peripheral voices, the conference provided a platform for rethinking the historiography of Soviet Jewry and the broader processes of Soviet nation-building and decline.

Program in PDF (click to download)