Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature: An Anthology

by Maxim D. Shrayer (Editor)

Overview

Edited by Maxim D. Shrayer, a leading specialist in Russia’s Jewish culture, this definitive anthology of major nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, nonfiction and poetry by eighty Jewish-Russian writers explores both timeless themes and specific tribulations of a people’s history. A living record of the rich and vibrant legacy of Russia’s Jews, this reader-friendly and comprehensive anthology features original English translations. In its selection and presentation, the anthology tilts in favor of human interest and readability. It is organized both chronologically and topically (e.g. “Seething Times: 1860s-1880s”; “Revolution and Emigration: 1920s-1930s”; “Late Soviet Empire and Collapse: 1960s-1990s”). A comprehensive headnote introduces each section. Individual selections have short essays containing information about the authors and the works that are relevant to the topic. The editor’s opening essay introduces the topic and relevant contexts at the beginning of the volume; the overview by the leading historian of Russian Jewry John D. Klier appears the end of the volume. Over 500,000 Russian-speaking Jews presently live in America and about 1 million in Israel, while only about 170,000 Jews remain in Russia. The great outflux of Jews from the former USSR and the post-Soviet states has changed the cultural habitat of world Jewry. A formidable force and a new Jewish Diaspora, Russian Jews are transforming the texture of daily life in the US and Canada, and Israel. A living memory, a space of survival and a record of success, Voice of Jewish-Russian Literature ensures the preservation and accessibility of the rich legacy of Russian-speaking Jews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644691526
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	07/31/2019
Series:	Jews of Russia & Eastern Europe and Their Legacy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1036
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Maxim D. Shrayer, a bilingual author, scholar and translator, is Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College and Director of the Project on Russian & Eurasian Jewry at Harvard’s Davis Center. Born in Moscow in 1967 to a writer’s family, Shrayer emigrated to the United States in 1987. He has authored and edited fifteen books in English and Russian, among them the internationally acclaimed memoirs Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story and Waiting for America: A Story of Emigration, the story collection Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, and the Holocaust study I Saw It: Ilya Selvinsky and the Legacy of Bearing Witness to the Shoah, and the travelogue With or Without You: The Prospect for Jews in Today’s Russia. Shrayer is the recipient of a 2007 National Jewish Book Award and a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship. Visit Shrayer’s website at www.shrayer.com.
Maxim D. Shrayer, translingual author, scholar and translator, was born in Moscow and emigrated in 1987 with his parents, David Shrayer-Petrov and Emilia Shrayer. He is Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College and Director of the Project on Russian and Eurasian Jewry at the Davis Center, Harvard University. Shrayer is the author and editor of over 15 books of criticism and biography, fiction and nonfiction, and poetry. His books include The World of Nabokov’s Stories, Russian Poet/Soviet Jew, Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, Bunin and Nabokov: A History of Rivalry (which was a bestseller in Russia), Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story, and, most recently, Antisemitism and the Decline of Russian Village Prose and Of Politics and Pandemics: Songs of a Russian Immigrant. He is the editor of An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature and Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature. Shrayer is a Guggenheim Fellow and the winner of a National Jewish Book Award. Shrayer’s works have appeared in ten languages.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration, Spelling of Names, and Dates
Note on How to Use This Book
General Introduction: The Legacy of Jewish-Russian Literature, by Maxim D. Shrayer

Early Voices: 1800s-1850s
Editor’s Introduction
Leiba Nevakhovich (1776-1831) from Lament of the Daughter of Judah (1803)
Leon Mandelstam (1819-1889) “The People” (1840)
Ruvim Kulisher (1828-1896) From An Answer to the Slav (1849; pub. 1911)
Osip Rabinovich (1817-1869) From The Penal Recruit (1859)

Seething Times: 1860s-1880s
Editor’s Introduction
Lev Levanda (1835-1888) From Seething Times (1860s; pub. 1871-73)
Grigory Bogrov (1825-1885) “Childhood Sufferings” from Notes of a Jew (1863; pub. 1871-73)
Rakhel Khin (1861-1928) From The Misfit (1881)
Semyon Nadson (1862-1887) From “The Woman” (1883)
    “I grew up shunning you, O most degraded nation…” (1885)

On the Eve: 1890s-1910s
Editor’s Introduction
Ben-Ami (1854–1932) Preface to Collected Stories and Sketches (1898)
David Aizman (1869-1922) “The Countrymen” (1902)
Semyon Yushkevich (1868-1927) From The Jews (1903)
Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940) “In Memory of Herzl” (1904)
Sasha Cherny (1880-1932) “Judeophobes” (1909)
S. An-sky (1863-1920) “The Book” (1910)
Samuil Marshak (1887-1964) “Palestine” (1916)
Sofia Parnok (1885-1933) “My anguish does the Lord not heed…” (1913-22)
   “Hagar” (1913-22)
   “Not for safekeeping for awhile…” (1913-22)
Leonid Kannegiser (1896-1918) “A Jewish Wedding” (1916)
   “Regimental Inspection” (1917)

Revolution and Emigration: 1920s-1930s
Editor’s Introduction
Veniamin Kaverin (1902-1989) “Shields (and Candles)” (1922)
Lev Lunts (1901-1924) “Native Land” (1922)
Vladislav Khodasevich (1886-1939)“Not my mother, but a Tula peasant woman…” (1917; 1922)
   “In Moscow I was born. I never…” (1923)
Andrey Sobol (1888-1926) “The Count” (1922-23)
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967) “The Teacher's Prophecy Concerning the Destinies of the Tribe of Judah” from The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Disciples (1922)
Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) From Zoo, or Letters Not about Love (1923)
Matvey Royzman (1896-1973) “Kol Nidrei” (1923)
Mark Aldanov (1886-1957) “The Assassination of Uritsky” (1923)
Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) “Judaic Chaos” from Noise of Time (1925)
   “One Alexander Herzovich…” (1931)
   “Say, desert geometer, shaper…” (1933)
Evgeny Shklyar (1894-1942) “Where’s Home?” (1925)
Dovid Knut (1900-1955) “I, Dovid-Ari Ben Meir…” (1925)
   “A Kishinev Burial” (1929)
   “The Land of Israel” (1938)
Isaac Babel (1894-1940) “The Rabbi’s Son” (1925)
   “Awakening” (1931)
Vera Inber (1890-1972) “The Nightingale and the Rose” (1925)
Elizaveta Polonskaya (1890-1969) “Encounter” (1927)
Viktor Fink (1888-1973) “The Preachers” and “The New Culture” from Jews on the Land (1929)
Semyon Kirsanov (1906-1972) “R” (1929)
Eduard Bagritsky (1895-1934) “Origin”(1930)
   From February (1934)
Mark Egart (1901-1956) From Scorched Land (1932)
Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) and Evgeny Petrov (1903-1942) “The Prodigal Son Returns Home” (1930) by Ilf
   From The Little Golden Calf (1931) by Ilf and Petrov
Raisa Blokh (1899-1943?) “A snatch of speech came floating on the air…” (1932)
   “Remember, father would stand…” (1933)

War and Shoah: 1940s
Editor’s Introduction
Boris Yampolsky (1921-1972) “Mr. Dykhes and Others”
   from Country Fair (ca. 1940)
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967) “To the Jews” (1941)
“Six Poems” (The January 1945 Novy mir cycle)
Ilya Selvinsky (1899-1968) “I Saw It”; “Kerch” (1942)
Sofia Sofia Dubnova-Erlikh (1885-1986) Two Wartime Essays: “Shtetl” (1943);
   “Scorched Hearth” (1944)
Vasily Grossman (1905-1964) “The Hell of Treblinka” (1944)
Pavel Antokolsky (1896-1978) “Death Camp” (1945)
Yury German (1910-1967) from Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Corps (1949)
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) “In the Lowlands” (1944)
   “Odessa” (1944)
   From Doctor Zhivago (1946-[1955]; pub. 1957)

The Thaw, 1950s-1960s
Editor’s Introduction
Boris Slutsky (1919-1986) “These Abrám, Isák and Yákov…” (1953; pub. 1989)
   “Of the Jews” (1952-56; pub. 1961)
   “Horses in the Ocean” (1956)
   “Prodigal Son” (1956)
   “Puny Jewish children…” (1957-58; pub. 1989)
Vasily Grossman (1905-1964) From Life and Fate (1960; pub. 1980)
Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996) “Jewish graveyard near Leningrad…” (1958; pub. 1965)
   “I'm not asking death for immortality…” (ca. 1961; pub. 1992)
Vladimir Britanishsky (1933-2015) “A German Girl” (1957-58; pub. 1993)
Yuly Daniel (1925-1988) From This Is Moscow Speaking (1961)
Emmanuil Kazakevich (1913-1962) “Enemies” (1962)
Yan Satunovsky (1913-1982) “Girls with golden eyes..." (1960; pub. 1990s)
   “You’re mistaken…” (1961; pub. 1990s)
   “It’s the end of our nation…” (1962; pub. 1990s)
   “My Slavic language is Russian…” (1963; pub. 1990s)
   “I’m Moyshe from Berdichev…” (1963; pub. 1990s)
   “Eve, a civilized Jewess…” (1964; pub. 1990s)

Late Soviet Empire and Collapse: 1960s-1990s
Editor’s Introduction
Vassily Aksyonov (1932-2009) “Victory: A Story with Exaggerations” (1965)
Aleksandr Kushner (b. 1936) “When that teacher in Poland, so as not…” (1966)
   “Letters” (1966)
Genrikh Sapgir (1928-1999) “In Memory of My Father” (1962; pub. 1999)
   “Psalm 3” (1965-66; pub. 1979)
   “Psalm 132 (133)” (1965-66; pub. 1988)
   “Psalm 136 (137)” (1965-66; pub. 1993)
   “Psalm 150” (1965-66; pub. 1993)
   “A Pole Rode” (1985; pub. 1992)
Semyon Lipkin (1911-2003) “Khaim” (1973; pub. 1979)
Yuri Karabchievsky (1938-1992) From Life of Aleksandr Zilber (1974-75)
Inna Lisnianskaia (1928-2014) “My father, a military doctor…” (1975; pub. 1980)
   “An Incident” (1981; pub. 1983)
Boris Slutsky (1919-1986) “Let’s cross out the Pale…“ (1970s; pub. 1985)
   “The rabbis came down to the valley…” (before 1977; pub. 1989)
Anatoly Rybakov (1911-1998) From Heavy Sand (1975-77; pub. 1978)
Yuri Trifonov (1925-1981) “A Visit with Marc Chagall” (1980) from The Overturned House
Lev Ginzburg (1921-1980) From Only My Heart Was Broken (1980)
Evgeny Reyn (b. 1935) “For the Last Time” (1987)
Sara Pogreb (b. 1921) “I’m going to see my grandparents. The cart…” (1986)
   “I'm bidding farewell to the slush….” (1989)
   Izrail Metter (1909-1996) From Pedigree (1980s)
Aleksandr Mezhirov (1923-2009) From Blizzard (1986-2000)
Bella Ulanovskaya (1943-2005) A Journey to Kashgar (1973-1989)
Aleksandr Melikhov (b. 1947) From The Confession of a Jew (1993)
Ludmila Ulitskaya (b. 1943) “Genele the Purse Lady” (1993)

The Jewish Exodus: 1970s-1990s
Editor’s Introduction
Lev Mak (b. 1937 [1939] “A Farewell to Russia” (1974)
   “August in Odessa” (1974)
Boris Khazanov (b. 1928) From The King’s Hour (1968-69; pub. 1976; 1980)
Ilia Bokstein (1937-1999) “Afánta-Utóma” (“Fantasia-Judaica”) from Glints of the Wave (late 1960s-1970s; pub. 1978)
David Markish (b. 1938) “The Appearance of Prophet Elijah, 1714” from The Jesters (1981-82)
Michael Kreps (1940-1994) “Cat with a Yellow Star” (1980s)
   “Call of the Ancestors” (1980s)
Philip Isaac Berman (b. 1936) “Sarah and Rooster” (1988)
Ruth Zernova (1919-2004) “All Vows” (1988)
David Shrayer-Petrov (b. 1936) “Chagall’s Self-Portrait with Wife” (1975; pub. 1990)
   “My Slavic Soul” (1975; pub. 1990)
   “Villa Borghese” (1987-90)
   “Hände Hoch!” (1999)
Marina Temkina (b. 1948) “1995: Happy New Year” (1995)
Dina Rubina (b. 1953) From Here Comes the Messiah (1996)
Friedrich Gorenstein (1932-2002) “The Arrest of an Antisemite” (1998)
Anna Gorenko (1972-1999) “The Golem” (1997)
   “Translating from the European” (1999)

An Outline of Jewish-Russian History by John D. Klier

Bibliography of Primary Sources
Index of Authors
Index of Translators
Index of Names, Places and Works
About the Editor

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is an enlightening, well-edited anthology, a partial answer to an eternally vexed question: what does it mean to be a writer with talent and Jewish blood in Russia?” —Ellendea Proffer Teasley, MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of Ardis Publishers

“For scholars of Jewish and Russian literature, Voices of Jewish Russian Literature is an indispensable vademecum.” —Patricia Herlihy, Professor Emerita of History, Brown Universityand author of Odessa: A History, 1794-1914

“Stunning work, Maxim D. Shrayer’s Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature … is not to be missed by anyone interested in the meeting of the Jewish and Russian spirit.” —Robert Louis Jackson, B.E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale Universityand author of Dialogues with Dostoevsky

“Moving beyond all essentialist and cultural definitions, Maxim D. Shrayer points to the elusive quality that makes this literature specifically Jewish and this anthology required reading for any Russianist. The quality Shrayer identifies lies in the truth this literature tells about Jewish history and life—the truth which a religious Jew may not look for and a non-Jew may not see.” —Roman Katsman, Professor of Literature of the Jewish People, Bar Ilan Universityand author of author of Nostalgia for a Foreign Land: Studies in Russian-Language Literature in Israel

“There is no living scholar better-equipped to examine the legacy of Jewish-Russian literature than Shrayer. His creative and editorial work in this field has both sustained and re-vivified its legacy for future generations.” —Holli Levitsky, Professor of English and Director of Jewish Studies Program, Loyola Marymount Universityand editor of Literature of Exile and Displacement

“This anthology is a major contribution to our understanding of key role played by Russian Jews in both Russian and Jewish culture. It is absolutely indispensable for anyone with a serious interest in the subject.” —Samuel D. Kassow, Charles H. Northam Professor of History, Trinity College and author of The Distinctive Life of East European Jewry