The newest volume of the annual Studies in Contemporary Jewry series features essays on the varied and often controversial ways Communism and Jewish history interacted during the 20th century. The volume's contents examine the relationship between Jews and the Communist movement in Poland, Russia, America, Britain, France, the Islamic world, and Germany.

The Studies in Contemporary Jewry series is edited by Jonathan Frankel, Eli Lederhendler, Peter Y. Medding, and Ezra Mendelsohn, who teach Jewish history, society, and politics at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Jonathan Frankel, the editor of Volume XX, is the Tamara and Saveli Grinberg Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and Professor Emeritus at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at The Hebrew University. He is author of a number of books including The Damascus Affair: "Ritual Murder," Politics and the Jews in 1840. The symposium is co-edited by Dan Diner, Professor of History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of the Simon-Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Leipzig.