Tova Benjamin, a doctoral student at New York University (New York, USA), visited Moscow in October and November 2019, within the framework of the fellowship program. Tova Benjamin worked on the project: In Russian Courts and Prisons: Jewish autonomy in Imperial Russia and the Early Soviet Union (1880-1920).
This larger dissertation project considered transformations in the Russian criminal justice system during the revolutionary years, and in the first decade of the Soviet Union, in order to understand the relationship between Jews and the changing Russian state, and Jewish autonomy during this period. Whereas confessional groups, like Jews, historically enjoyed a level of religious and administrative autonomy, in the late 1880’s, Jews were overrepresented in Russian state prisons, relative to their percentage of the population. Examining court cases and the empire’s prison infrastructure can help understand how Russian prisons and courts paradoxically integrated Jews into Russian society and the early Soviet Republic, even as they were discriminated against in the law.
Tova spent two months conducting archival research in Moscow. While in Moscow, she looked at the Yiddish-language people’s courts, established under the Jewish section of the communist party (Yevsektsiia) at RGIA, and compared them to imperial court records involving Jews at RGASPI. As a fellow at the Jewish Museum, her project considered changing definitions of Jewish criminality over time, from the imperial to the Soviet period—such as the prosecution of political crimes to religious practice—and the structure of the Soviet, Yiddish-language courts. Of particular interest was the use of medical and scientific reasoning in constructing new legal languages.
This larger dissertation project considered transformations in the Russian criminal justice system during the revolutionary years, and in the first decade of the Soviet Union, in order to understand the relationship between Jews and the changing Russian state, and Jewish autonomy during this period. Whereas confessional groups, like Jews, historically enjoyed a level of religious and administrative autonomy, in the late 1880’s, Jews were overrepresented in Russian state prisons, relative to their percentage of the population. Examining court cases and the empire’s prison infrastructure can help understand how Russian prisons and courts paradoxically integrated Jews into Russian society and the early Soviet Republic, even as they were discriminated against in the law.
Tova spent two months conducting archival research in Moscow. While in Moscow, she looked at the Yiddish-language people’s courts, established under the Jewish section of the communist party (Yevsektsiia) at RGIA, and compared them to imperial court records involving Jews at RGASPI. As a fellow at the Jewish Museum, her project considered changing definitions of Jewish criminality over time, from the imperial to the Soviet period—such as the prosecution of political crimes to religious practice—and the structure of the Soviet, Yiddish-language courts. Of particular interest was the use of medical and scientific reasoning in constructing new legal languages.
Image: Newspaper «Еврейская жизнь» №31, July 31, 1916 (Blavatnik archive).