“Meetings and Movements Across Cold-War Boundaries: Jewish People and Artifacts in Contact”

The political discourses of the Cold War, and the first decades of reflection upon it following the regime changes in Central Europe in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, portrayed a world divided by ideology and bifurcated by militarized borders. Our roundtable explores areas and moments of contact between Jews and Jewish communities across Cold-War boundaries, with the goal of deepening our understanding of the Cold War as a global phenomenon, and of shared cultural patterns across the divides. We look at the meetings of individuals and organizations, as well as the circulation of artifacts and capital. We explore how local, national, and bloc politics conditioned the varied initiatives and experiences of stakeholders, while widening our focus to appreciate what so many instances of cross-boundary “contact” can teach us about the Cold War, in this case, with specific attention to Jewish politics, culture, and life in the postwar world.

Moderator: Rebekah Klein-Pejsova, Purdue University

Discussants: Amy Fedeski, University of Virginia; Rachelle Grossman, Harvard University; Jacob Labendz, Youngstown State University; Sasha Senderovich, University of Washington; Jonathan Zisook, CUNY Graduate Center