At the end of the 1990s, a circle of researchers had formed in Belarus whose academic interests included Jewish studies—a multi-disciplinary field concerned with the study of the languages, history, and culture of the Jewish people. In order to bring these academicians together and foster their efforts, the European Humanities University (EHU) established its Center for the Study of the History and Culture of the Jews of Belarus (Jewish Studies Center) in May 2010.
The Center’s activities are focused on the following:
- Organization of academic conferences, seminars, round tables, and lectures
- Organizing, cataloging, and digitizing archival materials
- Publication of archival sources
- Research work
- Publication of the Belarusian academic annual Tsaytshrift (צייַטשריפֿט), dedicated exclusively to Jewish studies
“The annual will address research questions specific to Belarusian and Eastern European Jewish studies while situating this scholarship within the broader context of emergent trends in the humanities at the turn of the 21st century,” says editor-in-chief and Director of EHU’s Jewish Studies Center Dzmitry Sh.
Tsaytshrift is the only journal dedicated to Jewish studies in Belarus. The editorial board considers the annual a continuation of the tradition of Jewish studies established by its forerunner—the earlier Tsaytshrift that was published in Minsk from 1926 to 1931. The journal covers research issues specific to Belarusian and Eastern Europe Judaica, while at the same time placing them in a broader context of new trends in the humanities of the early 21st century. The publishers of the annual highlight the issues of socio-economic, political history and the history of Jewish culture in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the history of Israel, its domestic and foreign policy, as problem areas.
The journal is indexed in the EBSCO and RAMBI databases.
The editors hope that Tsaytshrift will inspire and promote Jewish studies in Belarus, as well as in other post-Soviet states and Eastern Europe. The editorial board includes Doctors and Candidates of sciences from Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Armenia, Great Britain, USA: Irena Vaišvilaitė (Lithuania); Anastasia Ioksha (Armenia); Evgeniya Kotlyar (Ukraine); Claire Le Fol (UK); Alexandra Polyan (Russia); Dmitry Prokhorov (Russia); Igor Spivak (Russia); Alexey Sivertsev (USA); Shaul Stampfer (Israel)