Jews have been residents of Ukraine for centuries – building communities, celebrating their culture, and sometimes enduring unspeakable horrors. During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, Ukraine was one of the most densely populated Jewish communities on earth, balancing between vulnerability and communal growth. Despite their long tenure in the region, Jews have long been considered outsiders by their neighbors, suffering through persecution and massacres even after the Holocaust decimated most of their community.

What do we make of the Jews who remained in the area well into the twenty-first century? What is their role in today’s Ukraine? How have they navigated the past year under Russian attack? Are we witnessing the end of this storied community?

Dr. Lauren B. Strauss is Senior Professorial Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in American University’s Jewish Studies Program.  A scholar of American Jewish political and cultural history, her forthcoming book is: Painting the Town Red: Jewish Visual Artists, Yiddish Culture, and Radical Politics in Interwar New York. She co-edited an anthology on Jews in the modern world, and her next book explores social and political activism in the D.C. Jewish community. Dr. Strauss lectures widely and is a commentator at Jewish cultural events and in the press.  She holds degrees from Brandeis University (B.A.), and Yale University (M.A. in International Relations), and received her Ph.D. from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

At AU, Dr. Strauss teaches courses in American Jewish politics and popular culture, Ancient and Modern Jewish civilization, Modern Jewish literature, Holocaust literature, Black-Jewish relations, Israel studies, and more.  Her public museum work includes curating a traveling exhibition on the history of modern Israel, serving as historical consultant to the Library of Congress exhibit “From Haven to Home,” and advising the forthcoming Capital Jewish Museum in D.C.  

In addition to her academic pursuits, Dr. Strauss co-chairs the Greater Washington Forum on Israeli Arab Issues, is a board member of the Association for Jewish Studies (the umbrella organization for the academic study of Jews and Judaism), and serves on the Editorial Board of the Jewish Women’s Archive Encyclopedia. She is also a board member of the Friends of the Kibbutz Movement Archives in Israel, and is a founding member of Heart of a Nation, a group which encourages dialogue among Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians.

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