Noticing that Kasparov& other notorious chess players were Russian Jews, I'm curious about their History in Russia and Eastern Europe

[Champakian]

My understanding is that they enjoy a rich heritage of scholarship
but that this was somewhat accidentally imposed by the really long list
of things that they were not allowed to engage in by the prevailing culture.
If you think about the middle ages and much of the time that followed,
intellectual pursuits were not high on the list of those in control...

 

[pecksniff]

Jews in Russia play chess because everybody does. They even broadcast chess tournaments on television and people watch them.

 

[pecksniff]

How were Jews treated in EE, Russia and Ukraine in particular?

Badly, especially in the 19th Century, when the whole Jewish Pale was part of Russia and the state encouraged anti-Jewish pogroms.

 

[oggbashan]

Some of my wife's ancestors were Polish Jews when Poland was split between Prussia and Russia. The head of the family was an officer in the Russian Army but in the revolutionary year of 1848 (across Europe) he was asked to fire on Poles protesting against Russian authoritarian rule. He refused, and was dismissed from the Army. He had to flee with his family because his name was on a list of those to be arrested and sent to Siberia.

Initially, for about a year, the family stayed in Copenhagen before going to Hull as emigrants. There they became Christian and set up a mission to help Jews fleeing from Europe and to try to convert them to Christianity.

For many Jews, Hull was just a stopping point on the way to Liverpool and the US. He and his family helped them with paperwork and tickets etc.

But his relations left in Poland were forced into Ghettos by the Russians (and Prussians) and during the Second World War most Polish Jews were sent to extermination camps. None of my wife's distant relations now exist in Poland.

 

[mayfly13]

My understanding is that they enjoy a rich heritage of scholarship

I first heard it from you and Ish. I was stunned to learn that they were the first ethnicity in the world who imposed literacy on most of it''s members, because neither my, nor the Western textbooks taught this.

I found it to be subtly and passive-aggressively racist to present them only as victims (of Progroms, Holocaust etc)
while leaving THAT huge accomplishment out of History books,

but that this was somewhat accidentally imposed by the really long list
of things that they were not allowed to engage in by the prevailing culture.
If you think about the middle ages and much of the time that followed,
intellectual pursuits were not high on the list of those in control...

can you elaborate on both? I didn't understand 100%

 

[mayfly13]

Badly, especially in the 19th Century, when the whole Jewish Pale was part of Russia and the state encouraged anti-Jewish pogroms.

I'm surprised, because none of my EE friends, Russians included think of Jews other than right up there with Greece and Italy as in the cradles of European civilization..

If they hold prejudices, it's more against Muslims and Romas, and that's more based on culture and perceived (lack of) morality than on morphology or skin tone.

 

[mayfly13]

Some of my wife's ancestors were Polish Jews when Poland was split between Prussia and Russia. The head of the family was an officer in the Russian Army but in the revolutionary year of 1848 (across Europe) he was asked to fire on Poles protesting against Russian authoritarian rule. He refused, and was dismissed from the Army. He had to flee with his family because his name was on a list of those to be arrested and sent to Siberia.

wow, a snipet of History
so relevant to the current events too.

But his relations left in Poland were forced into Ghettos by the Russians (and Prussians) and during the Second World War most Polish Jews were sent to extermination camps. None of my wife's distant relations now exist in Poland.

whaaat? both Prussians AND Russians?
Because Soviets always portrayed themselves as those who saved Jews from Holocaust.

 

[Sh1ne0n67]

They also try to portray themselves as the guardians of Christianity.