ACADEMIA

Ksenia Krimer

Historian

Russian Jewish historian Ksenia Krimer, a fellow at the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany, has spent much of 2023 tracking the growing climate of antisemitism in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022. "Two years ago, I would have said no, but I think that today, the worst forecasts carry greater weight," Krimer told The Algemeiner in an interview in August. Born in Moscow into what she described as a "fairly assimilated Jewish family," she started attending synagogue in the relatively liberal environment that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, progressing to an academic career in Jewish history that won her fellowships at Yad Vashem in Israel and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. "We have to look at the milieu of ideas that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin floats in," Krimer argued. "There are people around him infected with antisemitic ideas, as well as anti-Western and anti-Polish prejudice. He cannot remain immune." (Photo: LinkedIn)