Jewish Religious Intermarriage in Canada

Drawing on secondary literature, this paper first identifies trends in Jewish religious intermarriage in Canada—including variation over time, gender, age and community size. It then critically examines results from the 2018 Survey of Jews in Canada to explore factors associated with intermarriage. Binary logistic regression demonstrates that intermarriage is significantly and independently associated with residing in cities other than Montreal and Toronto, relative youth, male gender, having little Jewish secondary socialization outside the family and having both parents born in Canada. The statistically positive effect of having intermarried parents on children’s likelihood of intermarriage falls if children attend full-time Jewish school and summer camp with Jewish content. The effect disappears if at least one parent is an immigrant. These findings imply that the rising rate of intermarriage can be significantly mitigated if the Jewish community finds the means to increase the proportion of children who undergo intensive Jewish secondary socialization and the proportion of immigrants in the Jewish community. The paper concludes by discussing policies that could facilitate this outcome. En s’appuyant sur la littérature secondaire, cet article identifie d’abord les tendances des mariages interreligieux juifs au Canada, y compris les variations dans le temps, le sexe, l’âge et la taille des communautés. Il examine ensuite de manière critique les résultats de l’enquête de 2018 sur les Juifs au Canada afin d’étudier les facteurs associés aux mariages mixtes. La régression logistique binaire démontre que les mariages mixtes sont associés de manière significative et indépendante à la résidence dans des villes autres que Montréal et Toronto, à la jeunesse relative, au sexe masculin, à une faible socialisation secondaire juive en dehors de la famille et au fait que les deux parents sont nés au Canada. L’effet statistiquement positif du fait d’avoir des parents mariés à des non-Juifs sur la probabilité de mariage mixte diminue si les enfants fréquentent une école juive à temps plein et un camp d’été à contenu juif. L’effet disparait si au moins un des parents est un immigrant. Ces résultats impliquent que le taux croissant de mariages mixtes peut être considérablement atténué si la communauté juive trouve les moyens d’augmenter la proportion d’enfants qui poursuivent une socialisation secondaire juive intensive et la proportion d’immigrants dans la communauté juive. L’article conclut en discutant des politiques qui pourraient faciliter ce résultat.

From the History of Jewish Schools in Samarkand

This article describes the activities of Jewish schools in Samarkand region during the reign of the Russian Empire on the basis of archival documents. In Turkestan, the views and policies of the Russian government on Jewish education have been objectively assessed on the basis of sources. The author cited the number of Jewish schools in the province and the number of students in them on the basis of documents. The Jewish school in Samarkand, their educational system, their features are covered. Shortcomings and achievements in the education system of the Jewish diaspora were revealed.

Mané-Katz: Jewishness and Modernity

This article introduces Emmanuel Mané-Katz (1894–1962), a Jewish artist from Ukraine, who spent most of his life in Paris. The article discusses the problem of Judaism in art, how this problem was seen by the artists belonging to the Jewish School of Paris, and the relationship between Judaism and modernity in art, including Mané-Katz’s work.

Jewish Nationalism and Indifference between Posen and Poznań: The Jewish People’s Council, 1918–1920*

This article analyses the role of the Jüdischer Volksrat—the Jewish People’s Council—in Posen/Poznań between 1918 and 1920. In establishing this institution, Zionist activists gained a significant amount of influence in a traditionally German-acculturated Jewish space during the period of transition from German to Polish rule in the city. Claiming to represent the city’s ‘third nation’ and making demands for Jewish national autonomy, the Jüdischer Volksrat was instrumental in reshaping intercommunity relations and the Jews’ place in society, winning the support of sizeable sections of the Jewish population. This article argues that these successes can be attributed not to the reception of grand ideological concepts of Jewish nationalism, but rather to the fact that Jüdischer Volksrat activists played a central role in people’s everyday lives. They provided economic support, food deliveries, legal aid, and collective security, thereby placing themselves at the centre of the community. The article shows, however, that contrary to activists’ hopes, support for the Volksrat did not necessarily mean an immediate acceptance of Jewish-national concepts. As the debates around the establishment of a Jewish school illustrate, support for national claims and institutions was primarily situational and related to immediate local pressures.

Oświata żydowska w powojennej Legnicy (1945–1968)

Education in post-war Legnica (1945–1968)When the war activities came to a close, first Jews started to come into town, mainly the former prisoners from Gross-Rosen concentration camp, and then the displaced rescued in the territory of the Soviet Union. The newcomers soon opened their own educational facilities and in the school year 1946/1947 in Legnica there were: a kindergarten, a foster house, a heder, a primary school with Hebrew as the language of lecture, a kibbutz and a Hebrew primary school. The educational pluralism did not last long because from the school year 1950/1951 there remained just one state-controlled Jewish school (the other facilities had been closed). The kindergarten was the only exception and although it received the status of a public institution it preserved Jewish character until mid-50s. The subsequent years brought significant fluctuation of teachers and students as many of them left Poland in the first half of the 1950s, whereas from 1956 more newcomers arrived from the USSR. On September 1, 1959 a high-school class was launched in the local primary school. In the 1960s the emigration of Jews from Legnica increased significantly, which resulted in smaller number of students. A breakthrough year was 1968, when, because of too small number of children (38 in total), on August 31 the Jewish high-school and primary school ceased to exist