From a Shtetl House to an Urban Apartment: The Soviet Jewish Home Negotiated, Transformed, and Reimagined

Authors

Anna Kushkova, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Abstract

This essay argues that despite the powerful forces of assimilation, official campaigns against Jewish religion/languages, and grassroots/state antisemitism, the “Jewish home” did not disappear, as is sometimes assumed, but continued to present a site of Jewish ethnic production and transmission, creativity, and resistance during the Soviet regime. In the Soviet Union, especially in the postwar period, Jewish ethnic culture was forced to leave the public sphere, where it became unwelcome and even dangerous, and withdrew into the less visible space of domestic interiors. The degree of Jewish public presence varied geographically: the situation was generally better in the Baltic Republics, in the former shtetlekh of Ukraine, and in Moscow, probably because it had to put up a façade for the international community. The situation in Leningrad, where most of my interviews for this article were recorded, was much worse.

Recommended Citation

Kushkova, Anna (2025) "From a Shtetl House to an Urban Apartment: The Soviet Jewish Home Negotiated, Transformed, and Reimagined," Jewish Folklore and Ethnology: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/jewishfolklore/vol4/iss1/4