Hasidic Pilgrimages and Local Identity

Stories from Four Eastern European Towns
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-90-485-7918-1
Verlag: Pallas Publications

Buch, Englisch, 254 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Memory, Heritage and Public History in Central and Eastern Europe

Hasidic Pilgrimages and Local Identity: Stories from Four European Towns offers a compelling account of how Jewish pilgrimage reshapes collective memory in contemporary Eastern Europe. Focusing on Uman and Belz in Ukraine, and Bobowa and Le.ajsk in Poland, the book traces how the return of Hasidic pilgrims transforms local landscapes, narratives, and identities.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, media analysis, and memory studies, the author examines how pilgrims, local residents, and institutions engage with the Jewish past in ways that are often parallel, contested, or only partially connected. Rather than forming a shared framework, these encounters produce multiple, coexisting interpretations of place and history.

By tracing patterns of cooperation, tension, and selective inclusion, this book reveals how collective memory is continuously negotiated in post-socialist contexts, offering new insights into pilgrimage, heritage, and the politics of memory in a changing Europe.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Marchenko, Alla

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte des Judentums (Diaspora)
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

GLOSSARY

Chapter 1. Collective Memory: Between Stability and Transformation

Chapter 2. Belz: Princely Memory and Fragmented Continuities

Chapter 3. Bobowa: Lacemaking and Memory Continuity

Chapter 4. Le.ajsk: Between the Bernardine Shrine and the Elimelech Route

Chapter 5. Uman: A Town Where They Wait for You

General Conclusions. Traveling Jews, Traveling Memories

Bibliography

Appendix 1. Guidelines for semi-structured interviews with local memory keepers

Appendix 2. List of articles about ethnic minorities and Hasidic pilgrimages in local newspapers from the four towns, 2018–2019 (in chronological order)

Appendix 3. Questionnaire for the Uman survey

Appendix 4. Questionnaire for the Le.ajsk survey

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Marchenko, Alla
Alla Marchenko, PhD (Polish Academy of Sciences, 2022), is a postdoctoral scholar at the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research examines Jewish pilgrimage, collective memory, and media in Eastern Europe, drawing on extensive fieldwork in Ukraine and Poland.

Alla Marchenko, PhD (Polish Academy of Sciences, 2022), is a sociologiest whose research examines Jewish pilgrimage, collective memory, and media in Eastern Europe, drawing on extensive fieldwork in Ukraine and Poland.