Identity transformations of Ukrainian Jewry during the Russian-Ukrainian war: Odesa's communities and religious leaders at home and in exile

Sapritsky-Nahum, Marina (2025) Identity transformations of Ukrainian Jewry during the Russian-Ukrainian war: Odesa's communities and religious leaders at home and in exile. Canadian Slavonic Papers, 67 (1-2). pp. 214-235. ISSN 0008-5006

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Abstract

Russia’s extended war on Ukraine has profoundly affected the country’s religious communities, institutions, and congregational networks. These networks were built on deep historical, cultural, and familial ties across the region. Most literature on identity transformations during the war has focused on the macro-level analysis of Ukraine’s majority populations and the relationship between Russian and Ukrainian cultural and linguistic elements in the rise of civic Ukrainian identity. This article expands this discussion by examining the experiences of Ukraine’s Jewish ethnoreligious minority as well as the roles of its community organizations and religious leaders in shaping attitudes and orientations towards emerging identities. It argues that the war has triggered a multidirectional process of identity transformation, and it challenges it conventional understandings of belonging in wartime Ukraine and in communities of the displaced. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted virtually and in the field, primarily with Jews from Odesa, the author shows how Jews at home and in exile have come to position themselves as more and more Ukrainian while at the same time deepening their Jewish identity through active participation in Jewish communal life.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations H Social Sciences H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Date Deposited:	12 Aug 2025 09:57
Last Modified:	12 Aug 2025 19:06
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/129117

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