International Conference: Jewish Immigration from Eastern Europe to Israel and Germany in Light of the War in Ukraine (1991–2025): Narratives, Memory, and Identity Formation

Interdisciplinary conference organized by the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Leibnitz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Center
for Israel Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

About the conference
The Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has triggered one of the largest refugee crises in recent European history. Over 1.2 million Ukrainian citizens have received temporary protection in Germany, while a significant number of refugees—Jewish or of Jewish origin—have also sought refuge in Israel and received citizenship under the Law of Return. The experiences of Ukrainian Jews in the wake of the war offer an important lens through which to examine broader patterns of Jewish migration from Eastern Europe over the past four decades.
This two-day , aims to juxtapose two pivotal periods of Jewish migration to Israel and Germany—the post-Soviet 1990s and the post-2022 Ukrainian crisis. By bringing together scholars from the humanities and social sciences, the conference seeks to enrich our understanding of the shifting meanings of Jewish belonging, displacement, and diaspora in the 21st century. Through historical, sociological, and cultural analyses, we aim to build a comparative framework for analyzing Jewish migration in the context of political rupture, memory politics, and transnational identity formation.

You will find a detailed programm here

Speakers

Jan C. Behrends, ZZF Potsdam / Europa-Universität Viadrina
Marguerite Bertheau, LMU Munich
Franziska Davies, ZZF Potsdam
Dmitry Dubrovski, Charles University, Prague
Semion Goldin, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gelinada Grinchenko, LMU and Oral History Association, Ukraine
Maria Kaspina, The National Library of Israel
Natalia Kireeva, The National Library of Israel
Anna Kushkova, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Philipp Lenhard, LMU Munich
Oksana Mikheieva, Social Sciences Department, Kyiv School of Economics (KSE)
Natalia Otrishchenko, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv
Katja Petrowskaja, Berlin
Marina Sapritsky-Nahum, University College London
Ghilad H. Shenhav, LMU Munich
Anna Shternshis, University of Toronto
Daria Vakhrushova, LMU Munich