[From Mosaic magazine]

Arrested in 1949 on charges of “anti-Soviet crimes,” the great Yiddish author Dovid Bergelson was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in 1952. Bergelson had fled the Soviet Union in 1921 for exile in Berlin, but in 1926 began to take a more pro-Soviet stance, arguing that the USSR was the best place for Yiddish culture to flourish, and he moved to Moscow in 1934.

Dara Horn writes:

[In the 1920s], Stalin’s effort to brainwash ethnic minorities involved the Soviet government’s financing of Yiddish-language schools, newspapers, theaters, and publishers, to the extent that there were even Yiddish literary critics who were salaried by the Soviet government. During World War II, Stalin used these loyal Jews to his advantage by creating a “Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,” a group of Jewish celebrities, including Bergelson, tasked with drumming up money and support from American Jews for the Soviet war…

[From The Guardian]

In the middle of a novel published in the Soviet Union in 1981, two young people are exchanging opinions about Russian poetry. After several names have come up, one asks the other, “And how about Yevtushenko?”, to which he gets the reply: “That’s another stage that’s already past.” An unremarkable exchange, of course, save that the novel (Wild Berries) was by the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko himself.

It indicates several things about Yevtushenko, who has died aged 84: his unquenchable self-regard, his ability to laugh at himself, his appreciation of the vagaries of fame. It also reminds us that there was a brief stage when the development of Russian literature seemed almost synonymous with his name.

Notoriety of a political sort first came Yevtushenko’s way in 1956, with the publication of his narrative poem Zima Junction, which encountered heavy criticism. The poem had no anti-Soviet message, but…

A Promised Land in the U.S.S.R. Masha Gessen’s book about a failed Soviet experiment asks searching questions about Jewish identity.

[From the New Republic]

The twentieth century did not bring an end to Jewish wandering. I’m a case in point: All four of my grandparents, originally from Poland, survived the Holocaust and made their way to Israel. There my parents were born. But the socialist ethos of Israel in its early years did not sit well with my paternal grandfather, and he did not feel safe there. He had seen the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the gas chambers of Majdanek. And having sent two of his sons to the Israeli army, he was not eager to send another two. His attachment to a Jewish state was strong, but his survival instinct was stronger. My grandfather continued to wander, looking for the safest place for his family to…

On 19th July 2016, 6:00-8:00pm, The Wiener Library’s new exhibition Finding Treblinka explores the Nazi labour and extermination camps of Treblinka using the ground-breaking research of archaeologist Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls and artistic responses to the topic curated with lead artist Michael Branthwaite, both of Staffordshire University. At this event, Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls will talk about the history and archaeology of Treblinka, a Nazi labour and extermination camp where between 800,000 and 1 million Jews, Poles and Roma from across Europe were killed during the Holocaust. The very few survivors and the almost total destruction of the camp by the Nazis have left a scant historical record, making Sturdy Colls’ non-invasive archaeological methods particularly appropriate for the study of the Treblinka. The talk will be followed by a tour by the curator Michael Branthwaite of specially commissioned artworks that respond to Sturdy Colls’ work and to the subject of…

On Thursday 8th September, 2016, 6:30-8:00pm, a lecture will be given at the Wiener Library by eminent composer and scholar Professor Adam Gorb of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester on the subject of the music scene at Theresienstadt concentration camp. The work of composers such as Viktor Ullmann, Hans Krasa, Gideon Klein and Pavel Haas will be considered. An original copy of the libretto (by Peter Kien) of Viktor Ullmann’s opera composed in Theresienstadt, The Emperor of Atlantis, is held in the library’s collections.

Venue of event: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, 29 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DP

Website Address: http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/Whats-On?item=267

Contact email: info@wienerlibrary.co.uk

Interesting take on different imaginations of the Second World War.

[From The Washington Post]

In the Western popular imagination — particularly the American one — World War II is a conflict we won. It was fought on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, through the rubble of recaptured French towns and capped by sepia-toned scenes of joy and young love in New York. It was a victory shaped by the steeliness of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the moral fiber of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the awesome power of an atomic bomb.

But that narrative shifts dramatically when you go to Russia, where World War II is called the Great Patriotic War and is remembered in a vastly different light.

On May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin will play host to one of Moscow’s largest ever military paradesto mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. More than 16,000…

Jews around the world are preparing for Passover, which begins tonight at sundown. David Schorr fondly recalls how he used to help his grandmother clean before the holiday.

Northumbria University: Thursday 22 January, 3pm, Sutherland Building Boardroom 1

Avril Alba teaches and researches in the areas of Holocaust and modern Jewish history. Prior to jointing the Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney in 2012, Avril worked as Education Director at the Sydney Jewish Museum where she also curated the permanent exhibition Culture and Continuity. She is currently the lead consulting curator for the redevelopment of the museum’s permanent Holocaust exhibition. Her monograph, The Holocaust Memorial Museum: Sacred Secular Space, will be published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan. In this heritage seminar, Avril will be talking about the intersection between her research and curatorial practice.

All welcome. Please RSVP  to helen.williams@northumbria.ac.uk