Alexander Walther – författare

After the khurbn (destruction) perpetrated by Nazi Germany, its allies, and collaborators, the Yiddish communities in Eastern Europe were shattered and largely decimated. For most survivors, the old homeland in the East was a lost place of longing and a place of mere transit to the centers of the reconfiguring ‘West’: in North America, the global South, and the young state of Israel. Research has for the most part ignored the cultural activities, the political engagement, and the diverse visions of those cultural activists who remained in Eastern Europe in their thousands. This volume examines their activities as well as the role of and language policy regarding Yiddish in various socialist states, as well as trans-socialist and cross-bloc dialogues during the "Yiddish Cold War." How did the actors position themselves within socialist narratives of the past, present, and future and vis-à-vis the Jewish diasporas? What were their visions for Yiddishlands in the new world of really-existing socialism and how did they attempt to implement them? In this volume, case studies on Poland, the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, and Romania uncover diverse cultural reconstruction initiatives and cross-bloc entanglements with ‘Western’ countries, such as Great Britain, the United States, Argentina, and Israel.

This Atlas presents records of climatic variability and change in Europe starting before 1901 and focuses especially on trends of extreme temperatures and precipitation. The authors have used software developed within EMULATE (European and North Atlantic daily to MULtidecadal climATE variability) to obtain the extremes indices and temporal trends. The trend atlas provides an easy way to identify spatial patterns for a given time period, region, season, and index. The Atlas clearly shows that climate in Europe has changed over the last 100 to 150 years, such that the occurrence and intensity of warm temperature extremes have increased. Precipitation extremes have also changed, but with a less clear pattern compared to the temperature extremes.