Jewish Odesa: Negotiating Identities and Traditions in Contemporary Ukraine

Jewish Odesa: Negotiating Identities and Traditions in Contemporary Ukraine explores the rich Jewish history in Ukraine’s port city of Odesa. Long considered both a uniquely cosmopolitan and Jewish place, Odesa’s Jewish character has shifted since the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine gained its independence.

Drawing on extensive field research, Marina Sapritsky-Nahum examines how the role of Russian language and culture, memories of the Soviet political project, and Odesan’s place in a Ukrainian national project have all been questioned in recent years.

Jewish Odesa reveals how a city once famous for its progressive Jewish traditions has become dominated by Orthodox Judaism and framed by the agendas of international Jewish organizations embedded in a religiosity that is foreign to the city. Russia’s war in Ukraine has forced Jewish identities with ties to Odesa to change still further.

Marina Sapritsky-Nahum is a social anthropologist based in London, UK. She is Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Honorary Senior Research Associate at University College London. She is also affiliated with the European Center for Jewish Music in Hannover, where she is currently conducting research on Ukrainian Jewish cultural heritage and writing more broadly about the effects of war on Jewish life in Ukraine.