Beyond Renewed Survival: Jewish Croatians or Croatian Jews?

This paper examines Jewish culture in Croatia 10 years after Renewed Survival, an ethno-historic research study of Croatian Jewry, was published. Renewed Survival traces the community’s turbulent history from its inception in the late eighteenth century to the shifting political climate of the 1990s, following the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Croatia’s separation from Yugoslavia was explored by examining the lives of the members of a small community of largely intercultural Jews. Particular attention was paid to the impact of local and transnational cultural changes during this period, such as market capitalism, government-sponsored diversity campaigns and transnational identity politics (the post-socialist and budding capitalist “meaning makers” of Jewish identity). In Renewed Survival, I challenged both the nostalgic image of a thriving presence of Jewish culture in Croatia, as well as the (more prominent) view that Jewish communities in Croatia are on the brink of extinction. Ten years after the completion of my research study, I set out to examine how Jewish cultural life in Croatia has changed. How has post-socialist capitalism affected this small community of Jews? What has happened to the community since Croatia joined the European Union is 2013? How has the Jewish community been affected by the near 20% unemployment, right wing politics and xenophobia? How have Jews in Croatia dealt with the rampant anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiments which have become the new normal in Croatian public discourse? I discuss how Jews in Croatia have responded to these continued and newer challenges.