Semion Goldin

Semion Goldin (born 1967) is an Israeli historian. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and Eastern European Jewry in Israel.

Career

Goldin is responsible for the programmatic development and administrative aspects of the Nevzlin Center. He received his PhD cum laude from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His dissertation, published as monograph, focuses on Russian army policy towards Jews from 1914 to 1917.

Goldin now teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published several articles on various topics of East European Jewish history in the twentieth century.

Books

• The Russian Army and the Jewish Population, 1914–1917: Libel, Persecution, Reaction

This book represents a new reading of a key moment in the history of East European Jewry, namely the period preceding the collapse of the Russian Empire. Offering a novel analysis of relations between the Russian army and Jews during the First World War, it points to the army and military authorities as the 'gravediggers' of the Jews’ fragile co-existence with the tsarist regime. It focuses on various aspects of the Russian army’s brutal treatment of Jews living in or near the Eastern Front, where three quarters of European Jewry were living when the war began. At the same time, it shows the enormous harm this anti-Jewish campaign wreaked on the Russian empire’s economy, finances, public security, and international status.

• Jewish Migration in Modern Times: The Case of Eastern Europe

This collection examines various aspects of Jewish migration within, from and to eastern Europe between 1880 and the present. It focuses on not only the wide variety of factors that often influenced the fateful decision to immigrate, but also the personal experience of migration and the critical role of individuals in larger historical processes.