Eastern

European Jewish Affairs

Special Issue: New Jewish Museums in post-Communist Europe
edited by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Olga Gershenson

Call for Papers

Post-Communist Eastern Europe is experiencing a museum boom, and Jewish museums
and Holocaust memorials are among them. The Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in
Moscow and Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw are prime examples of this
trend, but there are many others. For decades, the subject of the Holocaust, and Jewish
history in general, were largely off-limits in the Eastern bloc. With the disintegration of the
Soviet Union and fall of the Berlin Wall, there is a revival of Jewish culture and institutions
in Eastern Europe and growing interest in Jewish subjects on the part of non-Jews,
paradoxically, in the near absence of Jews. New museums and memorials are part of this
trend.

Some of these new museum projects are ambitious. They may be financed at a level of
millions of dollars, from both private and public funds. They may be initiated and supported
by local and international Jewish communities, as well as by local authorities. They often
engage both local and international academics and exhibition designers. Their core
exhibitions may present the full sweep of Jewish history in a given place, including the
Holocaust and postwar period. They may start from a collection of objects or, in the newest
and largest examples, create multimedia narrative exhibitions.

In light of these new developments, we invite submissions to this special issue on Jewish
museums in post-Communist Europe that explore the place and meanings of such museums
in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Moldova, East Germany, and
beyond. Possible topics include:

- Museums as agents of transformation in post-Communist societies, including their
role in national narratives and civil society. What exactly constitutes a Jewish
museum in post-Communist Europe? How do Jewish museums respond to the
opportunities and challenges of the post-Communist period?
- Evolution and transformation of Jewish museums that existed before and after
World War II. What is their relationship to new generation museums and
exhibitions?
- Issues and debates regarding the relationship of the Jewish historical narrative to
wider local, national, and international narratives in a museums exhibition. What is
highlighted and what omitted? How does the exhibition deal with competing
narratives? Who are the victims, the perpetrators, the heroes? Who tells the story
for whom and who is in control of the narrative?
- Relationship of Jewish museums to Holocaust history, memory, memorials, and
commemoration. What does it mean to create Jewish museums, as opposed to
Holocaust museums, memorials, and tolerance centers, particularly in the post-war,
post-genocide, post-Communist era?
- Issues of reception, including controversies and reactions in local Jewish
communities, national and international media, and on the part of visitors and
general public.
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Jewish museums and their stakeholders city, state, donors, Jewish communities
(local, national, international), and audiences (local, Jewish, and international).
Poetics and politics of exhibitions old and new approaches to exhibitions and their
responsibility to those whose story they tell.
Collections: how they were formed, to whom the objects belong, and how museums
deal with issues of provenance and restitution.
Museum architecture and location site specificity, new architecture, adaptation of
pre-existing buildings, with or without a connection to Jewish history.
Relation of Jewish museums to networks of Jewish heritage sites and routes linked
to religious pilgrimage, Holocaust commemoration, and genealogical quests.

To initiate submission, please send a proposal, consisting of TITLE, ABSTRACT, and
AUTHORS BIO to the editors at brayndl@gmail.com and at gershenson@judnea.umass.edu
Proposal must be received via email no later than March 30, 2014. Approved proposals will
advance to the next stage and will be expected to be submitted as completed articles in
January, 2015. We encourage prospective authors to contact the editors with questions about
submissions.
This special issue will also include book reviews on related subjects. Call for book reviews
will be circulated separately.