The image of the Jew in the turn-of-the-century visual discourse within the Russian Empire
The project’s objective is to create a catalog of visual representations of the image of the Jew in the Russian Empire based on data found in various written sources of the late XIX and early XX centuries. This project offers a systematic study and recording of such visual discourses. In the XIX century, "the Jew» became an important figure in the cultural and public discourse of the Russian Empire.
MORE
The origins of Russian Jewry: The Jews of Ancient Rus (X-XIV centuries)
The objective of this research is to study written evidence of Jewish presence on the territory of ancient Rus. A thorough study of primary sources, which contain information on the origins and dispersal of the Jewish people in territory of modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, is in the works.
MORE
Archived Documents Work Group
This group is engaged in the preparation of academic publications based on new documentary accounts. It has prepared for printing the 1941-1946 diary of V. N. Gelfand (who served as a mortar gunner, rising from private to lieutenant). Work is now ongoing on the collection entitled «The Second World War: Jews at War.»
MORE
Images and Symbols in Judaic, Christian and Muslim Tradition
This group’s tasks include research into the symbols, metaphors and images that are common to the three Abrahamic traditions; an attempt to define where their commonality ends and essential differences begin - not on the level of concepts and theories, but on that of metaphorical systems and imagery. This is both a question of the self-identification of a culture which finds its expression in terms of the framing of signs, symbol and metaphors, as well as an issue of the identification of the Other by means of particular signs, and the formation of an axiologically coloured semiotic field of a culture taken as a whole. This topic is of importance not only from the point of view of comparative studies, but is also highly relevant as a basis for a competent and productive dialogue between the three confessions.
MORE