Dor Shabashewitz, at The Blogs

Dor Shabashewitz

Mar 27, 2025, 7:40 AM

Minority solidarity and the un-Jewishness of xenophobia

Restaurant offering dishes from Uzbekistan and the Caucasus in Haifa’s Hadar neighborhood. (Dor Shabashewitz)

Many Russian-speaking olim feel discriminated against by mainstream Israeli society. They complain, and rightfully so, that sabras often question their Jewishness. Rumor has it that many of them bribed Soviet officials to get fake certificates of Jewish ancestry as...

Mar 26, 2025, 1:32 AM

The Jewish history of a Kazakh city

Soviet-era building in Atyrau’s Zhilgorodok district where many Jews settled after the WWII

Atyrau, a majority-Muslim Kazakh city in a Central Asian desert known for its history of Cossack rebellions, doesn’t sound like a very Jewish place. But in fact, it has had a Jewish presence for centuries. Notable Jews born in Atyrau...

About Me

Dor Shabashewitz is a doctoral candidate in history at Tel Aviv University and affiliated author at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He was born in Russia and lived in Armenia with his wife Ana, who is Armenian, before they made aliyah together. He writes about ethnic minorities in Russia and the ex-USSR, lesser-known Jewish communities around the world and Armenian-Jewish relations.

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