Call fop papers: conference «At the Crossroads of Cultures: The Jews of Central Asia and the Caucasus»

Research Center of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center (Moscow) together with the Ben-Zvi Institute (Jerusalem) and the Georgian American University (Tbilisi) are organizing a conference devoted to the interaction, mutual influence of various Jewish groups and their ethno-confessional neighbors in Central Asia, the Caucasus and in the border regions during the "colonial era" of the 19th - 20th centuries and nowadays. We consider a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to:

• The impact of modernization on the life of Jewish communities;
• Political activity and involvement;
• Relations and interactions with local and foreign (Jewish and non-Jewish) populations;
• Cultural development and assimilation processes;
• Language policies.

In addition to this, the organizers will seek to develop a section devoted to commemoration of 100 years since the setting of the Jewish agricultural settlement in USSR, which was initiated, by the KOMZET and OZET committees. Original and innovative papers focusing on their activities in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and other parts of the USSR are extremely welcomed.

Format: the conference will take place in Moscow on June 5-6 and in Tbilisi on June 7-9, 2024, in hybrid format.
We accept proposals in Russian and English languages (simultaneous translation will be provided)
To apply
Proposal deadline: March 31, 2024
Decisions by: April 10, 2024
We will try to cover accommodation in Moscow (up to 2nights) and Tbilisi (up to 3 nights).

After the conference, we plan to publish a peer-reviewed collection of articles in Russian and English.

Visa support cannot be provided, but the Organizing Committee can send an official invitation. For young researchers (master’s students, postgraduate students and researchers who defended their thesises no more than 5 years ago) we have a few competitive travel grants.

Conference Organizing Committee:
Svetlana Amosova, head of the Research Center of theJewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Junior Research Fellow in the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Asya Deka, manager of the Research Center of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow
Alena Fomenko, assistant of the Research Center of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow
Zeev Levin, director of the Research Center of Jews in Central Asia and the Iranian Sphere, Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, Jerusalem
Yulia Oreshina, associate Professor, Director of the Jewish Studies Center, Georgian American University, Tbilisi
Maria Zarkh, coordinator in the Research Center of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center (Secretary of the Organizing Committee), Moscow

FOR QUESTIONS AND INQUERIES: rc@jewish-museum.ru

Image: S. Boim, B. Sukhanov. Illustration “Jewish collective farm”, 1931