Men’s Program: Soviet Anti-Zionism: History and Legacy
Join us for a compelling and thought-provoking presentation with Dr. Anna Shternshis, one of the world’s leading scholars of Soviet Jewish history and culture.
In this eye-opening talk, Dr. Shternshis examines the anti-Zionist rhetoric that circulated in the Soviet Union during the late 1960s and 1970s, focusing on critical works by Evgenii Evseev and others. By exploring how these messages were interpreted by both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Dr. Shternshis sheds light on why arguments that once had limited traction in the USSR now feel strikingly familiar within contemporary North American debates.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
Location provided upon registration
Bagels and schmear served!
Dive into this illuminating journey through the ideological forces of the past—and discover how they continue to shape today’s public discourse in surprising and powerful ways.
To register, contact Franzi at [email protected].
Exclusive to B’nai Brith Lodge members
Speaker Bio
Anna Shternshis is the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair in Jewish Studies & Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. She received her doctoral degree (DPhil) from Oxford University in 2001 & is the author of critically acclaimed monographs, including Soviet & Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923 – 1939 (Indiana UP, 2006), When Sonia Met Boris: An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin (Oxford UP, 2017), and co-author (together with Oleg Budnitsky, David Engel & Gennady Estraikh) of Jews in the Soviet Union: A History: War, Conquest, and Catastrophe, 1939–1945 (New York UP, 2022). Her latest book, Jews in the Soviet Union: Post-War Life, Hopes, and Fears, 1945-1953, is coming out from New York University Press. She is the author of more than 30 articles on the Soviet Jews during World War II, Russian Jewish culture, post-Soviet Jewish diaspora & Yiddish culture of the Holocaust. Together with artist Psoy Korolenko, Shternshis created & directed the Grammy-nominated Yiddish Glory project, an initiative that brought back to life forgotten Yiddish music written during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. A recipient of the 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and the President’s Impact Award at the University of Toronto, she is currently finishing her book, tentatively entitled Last Yiddish Heroes: A Lost and Found Archive of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, about Yiddish music created in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.