INTERVIEW OF A SCIENTIST OF OUR INSTITUTE TO EUROPEAN INTEREST PUBLICATION

“The European research hub for the study of anti-Semitism and the development of Jewish life can be opened in Ukraine” (Interview with O. Kozerod to European Interest).

On May 8, 2023, Oleg Kozerod, a senior researcher at the Department of Ethnopolitics of our Institute, Doctor of Historical Sciences, gave an interview to the publication European Interest. In it, he praised the efforts of researchers from the British Center for the Jewish Policy Research and the European Jewish Research Archive in London, who in April jointly issued a report commissioned by the European Commission, “The Field of Research on Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Jewish Life: Working to Create a European Research Center.”

During the interview, Oleg Kozerod supported the idea of starting the implementation of the tasks of the EU Strategy on Combating Anti-Semitism and Promoting Jewish Life (2021-2030) precisely by creating a scientific hub and involving Jewish Studies specialists in this process. He emphasized that before allocating multimillion-dollar funding within the framework of this Strategy, it is necessary to define priorities and a strategy with the help of European scientists, which should include the interests of the largest Jewish communities both among EU member states and candidate countries for EU accession.

Oleg Kozerod supported the European Commission’s decision to attract research centers from Great Britain, because the British Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the European Jewish Research Archive in London are well known in the EU for their analysis of the life and development of Jewish communities. But at the same time, the scientist emphasized, the European research hub of anti-Semitism and the development of Jewish life should be located and work in continental Europe, so he suggested opening it in Ukraine, which is a candidate for EU membership. O. Kozerod reminded that Jewish studies in Ukraine are developing mainly on the basis of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine. The opening of a research hub under the auspices of the European Commission in Ukraine would be logical given the plans to open the College of Europe and other scientific European institutions in Kyiv. The researcher also offered his own vision of a plan for the development of Jewish life. According to the scientist, this plan may contain five consecutive steps. Namely: 1) activation of the restitution of Jewish property; 2) restoration of citizenship to descendants of Jews illegally expelled from European countries; 3) creating legislation that will protect the rights of believers in the workplace; 4) protection of the right to preserve the kosher method of slaughtering livestock in Jewish communities; 5) measures to support the birth rate in modern Jewish communities and social support of Jewish families.

The text of the interview by O. Kozerod