VOLUME XLVI NUMBERS 1 and 2 CONTENTS Growing up Jewish In
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VOLUME XLVI NUMBERS 1 and 2 2004 CONTENTS Growing Up Jewish in Communist Czechoslovakia ALENA HEITLINGER Jews in Grandmaster Chess WILLIAM D. RUBINSTEJN Jews in the Canadian Armed Forces in the First World War: A Statistical Research Note HAROLD POLLINS Secular Studies in a Hassidic Enclave: 'What do we need it for?' W!LLIAM SHAFFIR Claudc Montefiore GEOFFREY ALDERMAN Book Reviews Chronicle Books Received Notes on Contributors Editor: .Judith Freedman OBJECTS AND SPONSORSHIP OF THE JEWISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY ., The Jewish .Journal of Sociology was sponsored by the Cultural Department of the World Jewish Congress from its inception in 1959 until the end of 1980. j Thereafter, from the first issue of 1981 (volume 23, no. t), the Journal has been sponsored by Maurice Freedman Research Trust Limited, which is registered as an educational charity by the Charity Commission of England and Wales (no. 326077). It has as its main purpose the encouragement of research in the sociology of the Jews and the publication of The Jewish Journal of Sociology. The objects of the Journal remain as stated in the Editorial of the first issue in '959' 'This journal has been brought into being in order to provide an international vehicle for serious writing on Jewish social affairs ... Academically we address ourselves not only to sociologists, but to social scientists in general, to historians, to philosophers, and to students of comparative religion . ... \Vc should like to stress both that the Journal is editorially independent and that the opinions expressed by authors are their own responsibility.' The founding Editor of the ]]S was Morris Ginsberg, and the founding I: ~·lanaging Editor was Mauricc Freedman. ~1orris Ginsberg, who had been Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, died in 1970. Mauricc Freedman, who had been Professor of Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics and later at the University of Oxford, succeeded to the title of Editor in 1971, when Or Judith Freedman (who had been Assistant Editor since 1963) became Managing Editor. Maurice Freedman died in 1975; since then the Journal has been edited by Or Judith Freedman. Applications for subscriptions and cnqwnes regarding back numbers should be addressed to: THE JEWISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 187 GLOUCESTER PLACE LONDON NWI 6BU ENGLAND TELEPHONE: 020-7262 8939 THE JEWISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Volume XLVI Numbers 1 and 2 2004 CONTENTS Growing Up Jewish in Communist Czechoslovakia ALENA HEITLINGER 5 Jews in Grandmaster Chess Wl!LIAM 0. KUBINSTEIN 35 Jews in the Canadian Armed Forces in the First World War: A Statistical Note HAROLD POLLINS 44 Secular Studies in a Hassidic Enclave: 'What do we need it for?' WILLIAM SHAFFIR 59 Claude Montefiore GEOFFREY ALDERMAN Book Reviews Chronicle 95 Books Received Notes on Contributors Published by Maurice Freedman Research Trust Ltd ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION INSTITUTIONS: £20.00 (U.S. Sg5.00) INDIVIDUALS: £15.00 (U.S. $26.00) Applications for subscriptions should be sent to Thejewishjou..mal of Sociology, 187 Gloucester Place, London NW• 6BU, England. Telephone: 02~7262 8939 EDITOR Judith Freedman ;l~ ADVISORY BOARD jACQUES GUTWIRTH (France) WILLIAM SHAFFIR (Canada) ERNEST KRAUSZ (/.rrat~ GIDEON SHIMONI (/.rrat~ HAROLD PoLLTNS (Britain) NORMAN SOLOMON (Britain) MARLENA ScHMOOL (Britain) © MAURICE FREEDMAN RESEARCH TRUST LTD 2004 PRODUCED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY J. W. ARROWSMITH LTD, BRISTOL BOOK REVIEWED Authors Titles Reviewers Page A. Joseph, ed. From tht Edge '![ tht World: The Jewish R. Miller 82 1/ffogee Expemnce Through Letters and SWries F. Karay Hasag-Leipdg Slave lAbour Camp For W. D. Rubinstein 85 Women: The Struggle for Survival Told by tht Women and Their Poetry S. W. Massil, ed. The Jewish rear Book 2004: 5764- J. Freedman 85 5765 H. Naveh, cd. Gentkr and Israeli Socie!)'. Womms' Trme H. L. Rubinstein 86 H. Naveh, cd. Israeli Fami!J; and Communi!J. Womens' H. L. Rubinstcin 87 Tune T. Bclzcr and Joining tht Sisterhood: roung Jewish H. L. Rubinstein 87 J. Pelc, eds. Women Write Their Lives G. Shimoni Communiry and Conscience: 7ht ]tws in H. Pollins 8g Aparthtid South Afoca J. Steinberg Midlands H. Pollins 8g D. R. Langton Clande Montifiore. His lifi and Thought G. Alderman 78 NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS Papers submitted to The Jewish Journal qf Sociology should be addressed to the Editor at 187 Gloucester Place, London NWI 6BU, England. The papers must be original. They should not have been published previously, or be committed to publication elsewhere, in any language. When a paper has been accepted for publication, the author may not publish it elsewhere in any language, without the written consent of the Editor of the JJS Articles (please send at least two copies) should be typewritten on one side only and double-spaced with ample margins. Pages (including those containing illustrations, diagrams, or tables) should be numbered consecutively. All quotations should be within single inverted commas; quotation marks within quotations should be double inverted commas. Notes should follow the style of this Journal and should be given at the end of the article in numerical sequence according to the order of their citation in the text. They should be double-spaced. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS A. Books Give author, title, place of publication, year, and page reference. Underline all titles of books. B. Articles Place titles of articles within single inverted commas. Underline the title of the book or journal in which the article appears. In the case of a journal, cite numbers of volume and part, and year of publication. PROOFS. An author making major revisions in proof will be required to bear the cost. Unless proofs are returned to the Editor promptly, authors' corrections will not be incorporated. l GROWING UP JEWISH IN COMMUNIST CZECHOSLOVAKIA Alena Heitlinger Introduction N 2002, a Slovak-SwissJewish respondent, whom I had approached for my survey, commented that in October 2001 she had visited the I Jewish Museum in Bratislava and added:' The history of Jews on display ended with the Holocaust. When I asked why no information is provided about Jewish life after the war- since I grew up in Bratislava when there was a Jewish sort of life of sorts then - they looked at me as if I feU from the moon. So it's great that somebody is now researching this subject. In this article, I use the Hebrew word Shoah to refer to what is popularly termed 'Holocaust' ofJewry during the Second World War. The principal aim of this paper is to analyze processes of identity formation among the generation of Czech and Slovak Jews who were born to Shoah survivors- the so-called 'second generation', who grew up under the post-war communist system. The focus is on inter- and intra generational differences, and on socio-political circumstances which have shaped an individual's consciousness and identity as a Jew, a Czech, a Slovak, or a Czechoslovak and, where relevant, as an emigre or an immigrant. A member of a specific birth cohort or generation has a unique set of life choices and opportunities. As each cohort ages, it faces a different set of historical forces, which may entail comparative advantages or disadvantages in life chances. Birth cohorts are most sharply differ entiated during periods of accelerated change. Traumatic episodes and experiences (such as ethnic genocide, war, foreign occupation) may crystallize a distinct mentality or a specific cohort, or self-identified generation.> Since there are structured variations in exposure to (and interpretation ofj specific historical conditions and events - by social class, gender, locality, ethnicity, and kinship relations- it is essential that an analysis of whole cohorts and generations be complemented by an analysis of life course variation within cohorts and generations. 3 The Tht Jewish Journal if SocWlogy, vol. 46, nos. 1 and '2, 2004 l 5 ALENA HEITLINGER present analysis relates both to those who remained in Czechoslovakia and those who emigrated after the Soviet invasion of August 1968. Methods, Data, and Sources The data on which this paper is based are drawn from seven main data sources: a) 195 semi-structured autobiographical replies to questionnaires which were returned to me during May-September 2002 from snow-ball sampling of 420 Czech and Slovak Jews of the 'second' generation currently living in the Czech and Slovak Republics, various countries in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, the U.S., and Israel; b) five focus group discussions with Czech and SlovakJews of the post-war generation, which I conducted in 2002 and 2003 in Geneva, Prague, Toronto, London, and Bratislava; c) 15 interview transcripts of daughters of Czech women survivors taped in 2001 and 2002, kindly made available to me by Ms. Pavla Fr)'dlova, the director of the Prague-based Gender Studies sponsored research project called 'Women's Memory- Victims of the Holocaust'; d) correspondence with some key participants in Czech and Slovak Jewish youth groups from the 196os; e) a ten-page confidential report on Czech Jewish youth activism that my late father Ota Heitlinger submitted to the Czech Ministry of Education and Culture on 21 June 1965 in support of his request to hold educational meetings for Jewish youth at the Prague Jewish town hall (from 1961 to 1974 he was the secretary-general of both the Council of Czech Jewish Religious Communities and the Prague Jewish Religious Community); and Q secondary data from existing comparative studies, websites, and personal memoirs, including data from the Slovak/Czech Jewish website www.chaverim.sk. Last but not least, I have also relied on my personal experiences as a Prague-bom Czech Jew of the 'second generation', as a member of a Prague-based Jewish youth group from the 196os, now called 'Deti Maislovlry' ('Children ofMaisel Street'),4 and as an August 1968 emigrant to the U.K.