The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present - Hardcover

Riff, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0853032203 ISBN 13: 9780853032205

Publisher: NYU Press, 1993

Synopsis

In the 1930s, almost five million Jews lived in central Eastern Europe. Ninety percent of these lives were lost in the Holocaust, and the most optimistic estimate puts the number of Jews in that region today at 150,000. Through words and pictures, The Face of Survival tells the story behind the statistics of Eastern European Jewry since the turn of the century, a story that is one of survival as well as destruction.

The Face of Survival combines over one hundred never before published photographs with narrative and autobiographical text to capture Jewish life, history and culture in Eastern Europe, revealing the vitality and fortitude of a people determined to survive in the face of enormous odds. Despite new ambiguities since the collapse of Communism, as well as intermarriage, emigration, and renewed anti-Semitism, Jews continue to live as Jews in Eastern Europe.

The photographs presented here attest to the survival of these communities, testimony to the tenacity and courage of individuals as well as to the strength of Jewish cohesiveness.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In the late 1930s about 4.7 million Jewish men, women and children lived in the East Central European countries of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Over 4.2 million, or 90 per cent, of these lives were lost in Hitler's war against the Jews - the Holocaust. Today, even the most optimistic estimates put the Jewish population of these countries to be not more than 150,000. Behind these cold statistics lies the tragedy of European Jewry. Behind the sad facts of persecution and destruction is also the story of survival. Out of the despair of 1945 Jewish life in each of the countries concerned was reborn. As a result of individual as well as collective efforts and in the face of varying degrees of adversity Jewish communal life was maintained in all of East Central Europe through the worst days of Stalinist and neo-Stalinist rule. The collapse of communism in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania has transformed Jewish life in these countries yet again. A new set of circumstances has been created in which the emergence of democratic freedoms has been a mixed blessing. There has been a revival of Jewish cultural life, and greater numbers of Jews than previously are now openly professing their Jewishness. At the same time, under the pressure of mounting political, national and economic tension antisemitism has resurfaced. The Face of Survival combines narrative and autobiographical text with many hitherto unpublished photographs to view Jewish life in East Central Europe from the vantage-point of the present. In words and pictures it traces the history of the Jews of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia from the late nineteenth century through the First World War, theinterwar years and the Holocaust till the present day. Throughout the book every care is taken to depict the full richness of Jewish life in each of the countries concerned, and while each society is treated singularly, running through the book is a visible comparative thread.

About the Author:

Michael A. Riff is former Associate Director of the New York Office of the Anti-Defamation League. General Editor of the Dictionary of Modern Political Ideologies, he has taught at New York University and Hunter College of the City University of New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0853032203
• ISBN 13: 9780853032205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224