Join Marina Sapritsky-Nahum and Alissa Timoshkina for a conversation with Nadia Ragozhina about the evolution of Jewish heritage and identity in Russia and Ukraine, and the influence of Soviet hegemony, anti-Semitism and migration. Sapritsky-Nahum and Timoshkina will look in particular at the role language and food culture have played in preserving heritage among communities as well as the new, post-Soviet Jewish traditions that have evolved through the diaspora experience of migration, adaptability, resilience and change.  

In her recently published book, Jewish Odesa: Negotiating Identities and Traditions in Contemporary Ukraine, Sapritsky-Nahum considers how the role of Russian language and culture, alongside lingering memories of the Soviet era, have been critically re-evaluated in Ukraine’s modern history. The book subsequently explores how this has led to new forms of expression for Odesa's Jewish community within the broader Ukrainian national context. 

In her forthcoming book, Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe, Timoshkina celebrates the humble vegetables that have shaped some of the most vibrant culinary traditions in Eastern Europe. Kapusta builds on Timoshkina’s previous writing on (and cooking of) Ashkenazi food to explore how her own identity was shaped by Jewish and Ukrainian food of her childhood. 

Marina Sapritsky-Nahum is an honorary researcher at University College London (UCL) and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). A social anthropologist, her work focuses on post-Soviet Jewish communities, religion, migration, philanthropy and urban culture. Her research, which concentrates geographically on Ukraine and its diaspora communities abroad, brings together anthropology, history and Jewish studies. She is particularly interested in the process of religious revival and community-building in the aftermath of state socialism, and how these changes affect social relations and city life.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sapritsky-Nahum has been writing about the effects of war on the everyday lives of Ukrainian Jews – both those who remain in the country and of those who have fled to Europe and the UK – as well as the fragmentation and remaking of historical narratives.

Alissa Timoshkina is a London-based writer, cookbook author and historian specialising in Eastern European culinary culture. Born in Siberia with Ashkenazi and Eastern Slavic roots, she holds a PhD in Soviet culture and Holocaust history from the University of London. She is the author of Salt & Time (2019) and award-winning Kapusta (2025), and writes the Substack newsletter In Her Hands. In response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Alissa co-founded the global fundraising campaign #CookForUkraine, which has raised over £2.5 million for humanitarian relief and received multiple international awards. Lozhka (2026) is her latest cookbook

Nadia Ragozhina is an author and journalist with more than 20 years of experience at BBC News and other leading international news organisations. In her essay for Jewish Voices from Around the World, she explores the discovery and reconstruction of her Jewish identity in post-Soviet Russia. Her interest in her Jewish heritage had earlier led her to research a “missing” branch of her family, a journey which took her to Switzerland and resulted in her book, Worlds Apart: The Journeys of my Jewish Family in Twentieth-Century Europe. Nadia lives in London with her husband and three daughters.

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