Jewish Autonomy in Interwar Estonia and the Life Trajectories of Its Leaders
Jewish Autonomy in Interwar Estonia and the Life Trajectories of Its Leaders

Summary/Abstract: This article tries to diversify the understanding of the Jewish experience in interwar Europe by analysing the work of Jewish Cultural Self-Government in interwar Estonia. Estonia’s Jews were granted self-government in 1926, and the institution worked until the summer of 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied Estonia. The institution created a public law forum for the Estonian Jewish community where they could independently manage cultural and edu-cational affairs. The authoritarian turn in spring 1934 meant increasing control over minor-ity autonomies, but the institution survived until summer 1940 without any significant re-strictions. Finally, by focussing on some members of the Jewish Cultural Council, the article discusses the possibility of using prosopographic methods to study the history of Jews of Estonia.

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