Euroasian Jewish News

EAJC and Russian Academy of Sciences Discuss Joint Projects

On July 23, a working meeting was held on the premises of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) between the Secretary General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Professor Michael Chlenov and the Director of the RAS Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RAS Fellow Valeriy Tishkov. Possiblities for EAJC and RAS joint projects in Jewish Studies were discussed at the meeting. Particularly, a detailed discussion was held of an idea proposed by Tishkov at the RAS round table on Jewish Studies. The project includes a joint volume on Jewish Studies by Jewish studies scholars and representatives of other fields in the “Peoples and Cultures of Russia” series published by the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology.

As Michael Chlenov noted after the meeting, “It is portentous that the Academy of Sciences has decided to turn to serious Jewish studies for the first time since WWII. The project of a volume dedicated to an ethnography of the Jewish people in Russia may become the foundation for serious scholarly cooperation. Until now, Jewish Studies were the domain of stand-alone scholars, usually affiliated with the Jewish community. And now there is hope that Jewish Studies will become a constant presence in RAS.”