Together and Apart: Jewish Identity and Memory in Modern Ukraine

For our final speaker this spring semester, the CSULB Jewish Studies Program is delighted to host a talk by Dr. Jared McBride on “Together and Apart: Jewish Identity and Memory in Modern Ukraine.”  The talk will be on Tuesday evening, May 9^th, at 7 pm at the Alpert JCC (3801 E. Willow St.).

A millennium of coexistence and contact has provided for a rich, at times painful and also hopeful, historical relationship between Jews and Ukrainians. While an invasion by a belligerent neighbor is sadly nothing new for Ukraine, Russia’s most recent invasion, in addition to the longer conflict since 2014, has brought with it many horrors, but also a chance to reevaluate and consider the Jewish place in Ukraine in terms of ongoing relationships, as well as issues around their interwoven historical memories. To this day, many historical actors, scholars, activists, and everyday people are still trying to come to terms with this past. This talk explores this complicated relationship and historical legacy between Jews and Ukrainians in a free and independent Ukraine that is under attack. 

Jared McBride received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2014, where he is currently an assistant professor in the History Department.  He specializes in twentieth-century Russian, Ukrainian, and Eastern Europe history, with specific focus on borderlands, nationalism, mass violence, and genocide.  He is currently working on a book manuscript: Neighborly Violence and the Undoing of Multi-Ethnic Ukraine, 1941-1944.

Like all Jewish Studies events this talk is free and open to the public.  The JCC has recently begun asking all of us who schedule events there to ask for RSVPs.  This is for security purposes.  You can still attend without an RSVP, but you will need to be checked in. RSVPing in advance will greatly speed that process.  To RSVP, please click this link:  https://alpertjcc.org/event/csulb-jewish-studies-speaker-series-presents-dr-jared-mcbride/