Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Land of the Soviets
A discussion with author and historian Elissa Bemporad about her book, Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets.
Based on witness accounts, memoirs, the press, and secret police reports from the archives and libraries of Kyiv, Lviv, Vilnius, Jerusalem, Washington D.C., and New York City, Legacy of Blood explores the afterlife of the two most extreme manifestations of tsarist antisemitism—pogroms and blood libels—in the Soviet Union, from the Revolution of 1917 to the early 1960s.
By dissecting the phenomenon and the memory of anti-Jewish violence under the Bolsheviks, this book sheds light on the ever-changing and at times ambivalent relationship between the state and the Jewish minority group in modern times.
Shelley S. Hebert writes in The Times of Israel: “It provides an unflinching examination of the political, governmental and social dynamics that led to the violent deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
This event was sponsored by The JTS Library. Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, JTS, will serve as moderator.
