The savage in the jew: Race, class, and nation in post‐soviet Moscow

The study of the interrelationships between Russian Jews and Mountain Jews at the Moscow Choral Synagogue provides a basis to explore how race defines the Russian and Jewish nations. An examination of the racializing discourses used by men from both groups to categorize one another shows how images of gender and sexuality shaped these narratives and provided the means to subvert them. An exploration of the making of the nation through women's bodies illustrates the tenuous and power‐laden processes of identity formation in post‐socialist societies.

Key words:

• Russian Jews
• Mountain Jews
• Nation
• Race
• Class