ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of Jewish intellectuals in the emerging Jewish community, focusing on Russia alone and on the majority of its Jewish community which is of Ashkenazic origin. During the Soviet period the majority of Russian Jews believed that individual acculturation was the best strategy of survival. The survival of Russian Jewry as a distinct group depends on its ability to recreate a viable and manifold Jewish cultural life which could become a consolidating force for the reconstruction of the community. The cultural and communal development of post-Soviet Jewry can be characterized as "cultural colonization", i.e., the wholesale import of Jewish cultural production from abroad, mostly from Israel and the United States. The re-creation of communal life for Russian Jewry will require some sort of "cultural therapy" for the people. The tools of such therapy can become the various Jewish educational institutions and projects which have been emerging in the former Soviet Union since 1991.
