While Jewish migration from the late Russian Empire is fairly well-researched, the less-known fact is that seventy-five to ninety percent of departures occurred illegally. This talk explains the ubiquity of illegal border crossings and why Jewish emigrants had to choose the clandestine route when legal options were also available.

Anastasiia Strakhova specializes in Modern Jewish history with a concentration on Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, and migration. After receiving her Ph.D. in History and Jewish Studies from Emory University in 2022, she has been working on a book that examines how the racialization of Jews in the late Russian Empire functioned through migration policies and everyday border-crossing practices. She is currently a Starr fellow in Judaica at Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies and will continue at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign as an associate director of the Program in Jewish Culture and Society next academic year.