Адраджэнне яўрэйскай спадчыны на польска-беларуска-ўкраінскім памежжы і міф пра мультыкультуралізм
Jewish Heritage Revival in the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands and the Myth of Multiculturalism

Summary/Abstract: The present article seeks to investigate the political and cultural ramifications of the memory projects referencing the region’s multicultural past, both in regard to issues of cultural appropriation and the context of post-colonial power relations. We are considering the memorial initiatives in a number of former shtetls, boasting a significant Jewish majority up to 1939, and located in today’s Polish-Ukrainian- Belarusian borderland: a shtetl reconstruction in Biłgoraj (Poland); the state Museum of National Cultures and Memorial to Four Religions in Iŭje (Belarus) and the project of revitalizing the synagogue of Brody (Ukraine). Comparing different grassroots, private and state supported, initiatives of preserving the region’s multi-ethnic heritage, we are showing the different formats (including museums, revitalization and simulacrum) a variety of discourses they are embedded in, as well as different patterns of cooperation between the local actors and the Jewish diaspora. Investigating the local social and political context, the motivations of the local actors and the discourses that surround the projects, we are examining how the myth of the region’s bygone multiculturalism inspires grassroots attempts at reframing the dominant narratives of local past, which had expunged Jewish heritage from the official historiography after 1945. We are also addressing the implications of non-Jewish agency in reviving Jewish heritage of the region and the transnational memorial transactions that take place in this context.

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