In 2004 the following lectures were delivered within the framework of the series:

Russian Jews on the Way to the New World: Why and How They Fled (At the Turn of XIX-XX Centuries)

Lecturer: Victoria Zhuravleva, Ph.D. in History, Associate Professor of the Chair of World History of the Russian State University for the Humanities, the author of numerous publications in leading historical journals and annuals, member of the American Studies Association.

The lecture was devoted to the history of mass Russian-Jewish emigration to the US in 1881-1914. On the basis of memoirs, diaries and émigré correspondence, publications in the Russian-Jewish and American periodicals of those years, statistical data, opinion pieces, reports of emigration organizations in Russia and émigré ones in the US , the speaker addressed the following questions:

• what motivated the Russian Jews to set off on a risky journey overseas;
• how and why the composition of migration movement was changing;
• how the emigrants were leaving the boundaries of the Russian Empire and were conducting a difficult journey from the Pale of Settlement to the East Coast of North America;
• what organizations to assist the Jewish migrants were established in Russia and Europe;
• how the Russian Jews were received at the American immigration posts, and what proved to be their first sobering experience

The Russian Jews in the New World : How They Lived

Lecturer - Victoria Zhuravleva

Lecture The Russian Jews in the New World: How They Lived was a sequel to another lecture given by Zhuravleva in February – Russian Jews on the Way to the New World : Why and How They Fled (At the Turn of XIX-XX Centuries).The second lecture was devoted to depiction of the process of adaptation of émigrés to the conditions of life in the US at the turn of XIX-XX centuries, description of a peculiar world of the New York ghetto, the problems of émigré community and its cooperation with the American environment, contemplation of the roots of the modern Jewish-American identity.

Dostoevsky and the Jewry

Lecturer: Vladimir Kantor, Professor of the Department of Philosophy, Higher School of Economics, member of the Russian Writers' Union , author of 11 monographs and 7 books of fiction.

The following problems were examined by the lecturer:

The Jewish hypochondria and Dostoevsky's reverie, and the direction of his anti-Semitism
The Jewish theme in Dostoevsky's novels: from reverence before the Old Testament to blood libel
“A Jew without God is somehow unthinkable”: the issue of the role of this “world tribe”
Was Ivan Karamazov a Talmudist?
The topic of the chosen people: the Jews or the Russians?
Dostoevsky as an Old Testament prophet.

The Jews in South Africa

Lecturer: Apollon Davidson – Head of the Center for African Studies at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of Moscow State University and the Higher School of Economics, member of the Moscow Writers' Union. In 1994-1998 Apollon Davidson was the Director of the Center for Russian Studies at Cape Town University ( South Africa ).

The following issues were addressed:

• stages of the Jewish emigration from Russia and Eastern Europe , and the composition of the flow of emigrants;
• adaptation of Jews in South Africa;
• role of the Jews in economic, political and cultural life of South Africa.

The World Crisis of 1914-1920 and the Fate of the Russian Jewry

Lecturer: Oleg Budnitskii – Professor of History, Academic Director of the International Center for Russian & East European Jewish Studies , Leading Academic Associate at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In this lecture, timed to the 90 th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, dramatic events in life of the Jews in the World War period and the following revolution were examined – mass deportations and pogroms, liquidation of the Pale of Settlement, active participation in the revolution and hopes for revival of the Jewish state in Palestine, a split of the Jewish community as a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire, internal struggle on the “Jewish street”.

The Architects of the Jewish History: Graetz, Dubnov, Baron

Lecturer: Alexander Lockshin, Ph.D. in History, Senior Fellow of the Department for Studies of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora at the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The lecture focused on the works and concepts of the creators of the Jewish history as an academic discipline, the authors of multi-volume works, original ideas, without which we could not envision modern historiography. A lot of attention was devoted to the personalities and the historical atmosphere, in which the formation of these key figures of Jewish historiography took place - Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891), Semen Dubnov (1860-1941), and Salo Baron (1895-1989).

Mikhail Gershenzon and Grigory Landau: Dispute and Agreement

Lecturer: Nikolay Tsimbaev, Professor of History, Moscow State University , author of works in the history of Russia of XVIII-XX centuries, history of the Russian and European thought.

The lecture is built upon comparative analysis of life, literary heritage and historiosophical insights of the two major figures of culture of early XX century: Mikhail Gershenzon, whose brilliant works on the history of public thought have not lost their vitality today, and Grigory Landau, who remains in obscurity, and whose ideological heritage, including his great book Sumerki Evropy (The Twilight of Europe)(1923), is continuing to be largely unclaimed. The lecture follows the life of these two people, which is especially important considering the general unfamiliarity with Landau's biography.

Russia, 121069, Moscow, P.O.B. 11

Phone: +7 (499) 940 6432

Fax: +7 (499) 940 6432

E-mail: info@crjs.ru

Copyright © 2004 “The International Center for Russian & East European Jewish Studies"