Rate My Professor Jeffrey Koerber

Koerber's research specializes in the experiences of young Jews in the Soviet-Polish borderlands during the Holocaust, exploring prewar identity formation and wartime survival strategies. His seminal book, Borderland Generation: Soviet and Polish Jews under Hitler (Syracuse University Press, 2020), derived from his dissertation “Born in the Borderlands: Jewish Youth and Their Response to Oppression and Genocide, 1933–1948,” was a finalist for the 2019 Wiener Holocaust Library Ernst Fraenkel Prize. Recent publications include “Purim Gifts from Russian Neighbors: Prewar Identity Formation and Wartime Survival among Young Jews from Soviet Vitebsk” in East European Politics & Societies and Cultures (2023) and contributions to edited volumes such as “Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Prewar Poland as Holocaust Sources” in Agency in the Holocaust and Genocide (2020) and “What Did Soviet Jews Make of Kristallnacht? The Nazi Threat in the Soviet Press” in New Perspectives on Kristallnacht (2019). His scholarship has earned fellowships from the Claims Conference (Saul Kagan Fellowship), USC Shoah Foundation Institute, Holocaust Educational Foundation, Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, and Fulbright. Possessing reading proficiency in Yiddish, German, Russian, and Belorussian, Koerber teaches Holocaust history courses, supervises undergraduate theses, and participates in Chapman University’s War, Diplomacy, and Society MA program, contributing significantly to Holocaust studies and historical education.