The album is a collection of photographs of graves and gravestones of Jewish sages and tzaddikim who lived in Russia. In 1988, the work of restoration was carried out on these monuments. The album contains also portraits of such great tzaddikim as Baal Shem Tov, Shneur Zalman from Liadi, Dov Ber from Lubavichi, and others. It is very interesting to compare the archive pictures of old synagogues and the legendary Jewish shtetls with the modern photographs. The maps on the fly-leaves of the album show the sites of the 1988 restoration works.

The author is convinced that there is no contradiction between the what is called scientific world outlook and the belief in God. The book is thought provoking and leads the reader to contemplate the basic concepts of the universe while perceiving the indivisible source of all knowledge. It will find response with all thinking readers, believers and non-believers alike.

Martin Buber (1878 – 1965), a renowned religious thinker, a philosopher and ideologist of Zionism, the first President of the Academy of Sciences of Israel, organized the material of this book, the laconic and expressive sayings by famous Hassidic sages of XVIII – XX cc., according to the traditional “ten rungs of holiness”. Whatever subject these aphorisms touch upon, they are all inspired by one great question: the place of man in this world.

Shabbat songs, Zmiroth, are, in fact, a continuation of Jewish prayer. They are usually sung during the Shabbat meal. Among their authors were some of the greatest Jewish sages and poets. The reader will find in this collection some of the best known Zmiroth, both in the original Hebrew, and in Russian transliteration. Also included in the book is a short essay on the meaning of the Jewish Shabbat.

The teachings of the famous Hassidic Rabbi Nachman from Breslov are still being spread among his followers by word of mouth, even though much of his work has appeared in print. “The Seven Pillars of Faith” tells about the meaning of the seven basic concepts of these teachings. Also included in the book are Rabbi Nachman’s sayings, and an essay by A. Greenbaum on the history of the Breslov Hassidic movement and its condition today.

This is the record of the discussion between Nachmanides (in Hebrew tradition, RAMBAN) and the Dominican monk Father Pablo, a baptized Jew, which took place in the year 1263 in Barcelona. The dispute concentrate on the basic concepts of the Christian and the Jewish faith as well as on the Messianic problem. The brilliant logic, the freedom of thought, and wit of Nachmanides’s arguments are deeply impressive. The second half of the book contains an essay by B. Khaskelevich, “On the Distortion of the Bible in Translation, and on Preaching Christianity to the Jews”, which is an interesting work in its own right.

The book helps young Jewish boys and girls prepare for bar- and bat-mitzvah, the rite of coming of age. In simple terms it reveals the meaning of the basic moral and philosophical tenets of Judaism. Essentially, it is a manual for helping a Jewish family prepare their children for entering the Jewish community as its full-fledged members. The book is supplied with illustrations, photographs, texts for family discussions; at the end of each chapter, there is a list of recommended studies. Short bibliography concludes the book.

The book explains fifteen selected passages of the Shabbat morning prayer. It is, in fact, a manual which explains the concepts underlying the prayer. Also included is the “Lexicon of the Jewish Way of Life” intended chiefly for home study. It is a useful aid for the beginners in Hebrew and Judaism.

The newest translation into modern Russian of the Pentateuch (the Torah) with the classical Soncino commentary. The edition includes also the Haftarot, passages from the Prophetic books of the Bible, which are read in the synagogue on Shabbat, on holidays, and during fasts. The commentary ion the Torah and haftarot was written by Rabbi Joseph Hertz (1872 – 1946), Chief Rabbi of the British Empire. While obviously building his commentary on classical Jewish commentaries of the Biblical texts, r. Hertz also takes into account contemporary discoveries in history, archeology, philosophy; and carries an argument with Christian and Moslem theologians. This edition of the Pentateuch can be used widely: at the synagogue during the service, as an educational aid at school and at university, both religious and secular, as well as for independent study.

Far from being just a great collection of culinary recipes, this book reflects the very spirit of the Jewish life. Its leading theme is kashruth, the correct mode of nourishment for a religious Jew. Among the 900 recipes in the book, one will find dishes of both Ashkenazi and Sefardic cuisine, the food eaten by the Jews of North Africa and the Middle East. The book also offers a detailed description of commandments, rituals, and customs associated with Jewish holidays and important events. It includes also a short vocabulary of special terms, a list of herbs and spices as well as a subject index.

The book by M. Glazerson, a Jerusalem rabbi, a modern Kabbalah scholar whose works have been translated into several languages, combines under one cover two of his works. In the “Fiery Letters” he follows the tradition of medieval Jewish Kabbalists who saw in every letter of the Hebrew alphabet not just a notation for a certain sound but also a polysemantic symbol and, moreover, a unique converter of Divine energy which has created man and made his life on Earth possible. The second work contains an extremely interesting commentary to the book of Exodus, which reveals its mystic symbolism: not only every word but the number of words in each passage points at multiple and quite unexpected meanings.

The book (see above about the author) proposes to look at the question of human health through the prism of arcane qualities of the Hebrew letters. It offers also a collection of Talmud pronouncements on medical subjects.

The author uses the numerological method (Gematria) to analyze the phenomenon of music. The importance of music for achieving the prophetic state is often emphasized in the Torah, music was always a source of inspiration and emotions. King David says: “Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing” (Psalm 100:2). Using ingenious allusions and parallels, the author shares with the reader his knowledge of Kabbalah as applied to various spheres of modern life.

Like in his other books, the writer’s purpose is to familiarize the reader with fundamental concepts of Judaism, this ancient teaching which, as he sees it, is eternally new. Here he compares basic similarities and distinctions between the Jewish and the non-Jewish astrology. The main source of understanding of the Jewish astrology is “Sefer ha-Yetsira” (The Book of Creation) whose author, according to the legend, was our forefather Abraham himself. A significant part of the book’s space is taken by the chapter “On the Origin of the Names of Jewish Months” which analyzes the character and the destiny of persons born at this or that particular time of the Jewish calendar.

The work by Joseph Telushkin, an Orthodox rabbi of great renown and Professor at Yeshiva University, offers a compendium of fundamental knowledge on Jewish religion, history, and public life from the ancient times to this day. The book is divided into fifteen parts such as “The Bible”, “Modern Period. Western and Eastern Europe”, “Zionism and Israel”, “Antisemitism”, “Jewish Books”, and others. It can be used both as a history textbook and as a reference book of encyclopedic range. A “Short Bibliography” is provided. A useful book for teachers and students.

The book has had over 20 editions in the USA. The writer is an orthodox Jewish woman, mother of five, the wife of a rabbi. The popularity of the book is due to its simple, intimate style and to the writer’s thorough knowledge of her material. This is a book written by a woman for women. It tells about all aspects of the everyday life of a Jewish family (kashruth, the laws of family hygiene, birth, death, marriage, divorce, prayer, bringing up the children, Jewish holidays, etc.). The writer maintains that it is possible to live in strict accordance with the rules of the Jewish tradition without losing contact with the outside world. A short vocabulary of Hebrew terms, a index of persons and a selected bibliography conclude the book.

The book helps to prepare a Jewish home for Pessach and to celebrate the Seder in accordance with the Jewish tradition. It is beautifully illustrated with colorful drawings and photographs. The parallel texts of the Haggadah, in Hebrew and Russian, run on facing pages; detailed explanations are provided. In addition, the book contains recipes of kosher dishes for Pessach, holiday songs together with music, etc. The book was prepared by “Avida” Publishing (Jerusalem).

Elie Wiesel, author of about 30 books, a Nobel Prize for Peace winner, is a professor at Boston University. The main chapters in this volume are based on lectures delivered at the Sorbonne and Paris. This book “should be read by everyone concerned with the existential question, which is to say, by sensitive and thinking human being… It is a work of genius and of art – an extraordinary man's extraordinary effort to ‘humanize’ fate” (The New York Times Book Review).

The author is Beersheba University Professor Yoel Weinberg, a historian well known for his numerous publications who settled in Israel in 1992. In this book he follows the development of the ancient historical thought in the East using later Egyptian, neo-Assyrian, neo-Babylonian and Biblical sources. The volume is supplied with an extensive apparatus criticus. It will be of use to historians specializing in the Middle East, Bible scholars, historians of religion, philosophers, and to all those who wish to learn about the turning points in the life of the humanity.

The booklet describes two periods in the history of Jewish book-printing in Lithuania which at that time was a part of the Russian Empire; the first period lasted from the end of the XVII c. until 1836, and the second, the so-called “monopolistic” period, from 1836 – 1862. The writer, using previously unknown archive materials, focuses his attention chiefly on two famous Jewish publishing dynasties, the Romms and the Nakhimoviches. The book can be of interest to a wide circle of readers.

Vladimir Pavlovich Riabushinsky (1873 – 1955) was a scion of a great Russian commercial dynasty which belonged to the sect of Old Believers. Even impoverished and ill, he to the end of his days took an active part in public and religious life. The present collection is the first attempt to bring out under one cover Riabushinsky’s selected works which preserve their importance to this day. Besides the Old Belief, the essays in the collection touch upon such subjects as the Russian religious feeling of a master and a muzhik; the historical and cultural make-up of Moscow merchants, and many others.

This collection of documents from the Archives of Russian Academy of Sciences offers a unique opportunity for the investigation of history of the Jewish culture in the context of various disciplines, such as Hebraic studies, Semitics, ethnography, history of art, philology. Sadly, the publication of these materials is only now at its beginning. The first issue of the Index contains materials out of personal collections left by Jewish scholars in humanities, mainly Semitologists. The second issue contains data on Jewish scientific, educational, cultural and instructional institutions, societies, and associations that existed in the USSR in the 20-s and 30-s.

“The Jews of Odessa” by Steven Zipperstein, a professor at Stanford University and the head of the Jewish study program, won a special American prize for research in Jewish history. This is a comprehensive work on the Odessa Jewry in the period between 1794 – 1881. Rich in factual material, it describes the life of the Jewish community in Odessa, its history, its culture, and its public institutions. The reader is given an impressive, well-documented picture of the life and development of one of the largest and culturally active Jewish communities in Europe.

Maren Frejdenberg, a Professor at Tel Aviv University, is a prominent scholar specializing in the Balkan history. After years of academic studies he came to the conclusion that the history of the peoples of the Balkan peninsula cannot be fully understood without taking into account the contribution by the Jews who lived there. The study concentrates on the Jewish past in the Slavic countries of the Balkans, leaving, for the time being, Greece and Albania aside. This is the first work of this kind in Russian, and it will draw attention of all those who are interested in Jewish history.

Written by a known Israeli scholar, a Hebrew University Professor, this book offers a new insight into prophetic tales as a phenomenon of literature. The Russian translation has been done from the unabridged Italian original. The author considers the Jewish prophets as writers who created radically new literary genres. A reader, especially a philologist, will find here a subtle analysis of the narrative structures seen from unexpected historical and literary angles and a depth of penetration into the phenomenon of the prophetic religious experience. Those interested in the history of Judaism will notice the manifest influence of the prophetic tales on the Chassidic literary tradition, as well as the way in which the idea of prophetic devotion influences the political life. The book’s apparatus has been revised and supplemented with references to Russian-language sources.

In 1962, a Khazar letter in Hebrew written in Kiev in the X century was found in the Cairo Geniza. This discovery created a sensation among the historians specializing in Ancient Russia. This letter is the oldest authentic Jewish Khazar document coming from Kiev, and from the territory of Ancient Russia in general. It points at the part played by the Jews in the establishment of the state of Kiev Russia. Few are aware of the fact that the oldest sources of knowledge about the Kiev Russia were written in Hebrew. The Russian translation of this book familiarizes the reader with the newest research in the field which for long years remained a forbidden zone in Soviet historiography. The legendary Khazar history is becoming less mysterious yet hardly less intriguing. The authors are well-known American Hebraists.

This collection throws the first light on certain aspects of the history of the Crimean Jews. Its materials range in time from antiquity up to the 1940’s. The sources used in the research belong to the Kerch and Kherson Museums and to the Central State Archives of the Crimea. The papers in the book examine such subjects as the legal status of Jews in the Tavricheskaya province in the XIX century; the detention of the poet O. Mandelshtam in the Crimea in 1920; the survey of the monuments of Jewish culture in the Crimea, etc. The book is concluded with Personalia (together with biographical data), a list of Jewish personalities who made an essential contribution to the culture and science of the Crimea, of Jewish participants of the Civil war and the WW2, and others. The book was prepared in collaboration with the Scientific Institute for Crimean Studies in the city of Simferopol.

Lev (Leon) Poliakov comes from a well-known family of publishers in Odessa. In the 20-s he emigrated to France and fought in World War II. He attended the Nuremberg trial, and later gained access to the Gestapo archives in Paris. As a historian, he wrote some 20 books, all of which were translated into other European languages. “The History of anti-Semitism” is his main and best-known work. As he wrote in his foreword to the Russian edition, “This book is not just about hatred and the persecution of the Jews, it speaks about confrontations and contacts between cultures”. Volume 1 is dedicated to the period from antiquity to the Age of Enlightenment; Volume 2 embraces the time from Enlightenment up to the WW2. Lev Poliakov possesses the gift of combining the strictly scientific approach with a lively, absorbing manner of narration. The reader learns about the life of the Jews in many different countries, at various periods, from antiquity up until the middle of the XX century. Many historic personages, politicians and bankers, scientists, philosophers and adventurers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, appear on these pages in an unexpected and fascinating light. This fundamental work is a veritable mine of information for all those who are not indifferent to the problems of interrelation between world cultures.

This is the first comprehensive research into the history of the relationship between the Jewish press and the Russian state censorship in the course of the years 1797 – 1917. The historical analysis is given in a wide political and ideological context. The framework of the research embraces such subjects as the religious literature, the Jewish periodicals from abroad, the Russian-Jewish press and the press in Yiddish, and even the special characteristics of the state censorship for Jewish theater and the part it played in its history. Among the Addenda appear such interesting items as, for instance, “Chronological List of Censors of Jewish Writings (1797-1917)”; “Instruction for Jewish Printmakers (1800); “Directions for Censors of Jewish Books in the Empire and the Kingdom of Poland (1853)”. The book is concluded with a large list of sources.

Joshua Trachtenberg (1904 – 1959), a history Professor, first published his book in 1943, at the height of the WW2. Since then it has been reprinted several times, both in English and in translation into other European languages. Its popularity is easily explained; by collecting and analyzing the rare medieval books and manuscripts, the writer finds a direct connection between the superstitious, mythical conception of the Jews in the Middle Ages, propagated, first and foremost, by the Church, and the ideology of the Third Reich, with its anti-Jewish occult philosophy: in other words, the roots of modern anti-Semitism are revealed as going back to those dark times. The book drew attention of George Orwell who wrote on it an essay (1944) a translation of which is included in the Russian edition. Also included is a paper by O. Belova, written especially for this publication: “The Jews and the Evil Spirit” (with the materials collected by the RAN folklore expeditions in the Bielorussian Polessye in the 80-s), as well as a paper by L Katsis, “The Devil and the Jews in Russian context”.

The compilation contains documents from various Russian archives and from the Hoover Archive, USA, as well as papers devoted to the role of the Jewish participants of liberation movements in Russia from the middle of the XIX to the middle of the XX centuries. Also included are such materials as VChK and OGPU documentation; a memoir by Savatikov, a social-revolutionary who was a witness at the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” court trial; letters exchanged between the members of the Duma, Shulgin and Maklakov, etc. The book is concluded with an article by J. Klier, a Professor at the London University: “The Great October: Good for the Jews, Bad for the Jews”.

The book was written on the basis of the author’s doctoral dissertation presented at the Hebrew University in 1997. This is actually the first fundamental study of the life of the Jewish community in Petrograd – Leningrad (1917 – 1939). The materials used include carefully selected excerpts from the press; documents from Israeli, Russian and other foreign archives; accounts by participants and eyewitnesses, and many other documents and facts. The writer describes and analyzes in detail all aspects of the life of the Leningrad Jewish community: public and political, social, religious, economical, cultural, etc. Hundreds of names of Leningrad Jews are mentioned in the book. It is accompanied by a solid apparatus: bibliography, a subject index and an index of names.

In a certain sense, this is the continuation of publications of Jewish documents begun by the Jewish Commission for History and Archeography at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in mid-30-s. In the 1930’s, the Commission was disbanded, all its workers were fired and suffered persecutions. The compiler found in archives some of the documents collected by the Commission, and she carefully studied them and wrote a commentary. Thus a new body of documentation to the history of the Jews of the Ukraine was created. She also included in the collection documents which tell the story of the destruction of the Jewish Commission for History and Archeography at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

By the XIV century, the practice of granting Privileges to the Jewish communities in the form of an official document became traditional among some of the European rulers. However, scholars believe that this particular Privilege differs from its predecessors in many essential points. The original text is lost; the remaining later copies from the 15^th – 17^th cc. serve the authors as the basis for a thorough examination and interpretation of this very old and meaningful legal document, very important in the history of the Jews in the Great Kingdom of Lithuania. This publication, the first of this kind, includes copies of the Privilege in Old Bielorussian, Polish, and Latin, as well as a substantial introduction and commentaries in Russian and English.

The work by Yuli Gessen (1871-1939), a well-known Jewish historian and essayist of his time, is a classical study of the history of the Jews in Russia in the period between the 20-s to 80-s of the last century. The book is, in the fullest meaning of the word, a monument of the Jewish historical thought, remarkable for its unique range of documentation, which definitely preserved its relevance to this day.

A fascinating and greatly informative memoir by Saul Borovoy (1903 – 1989) who was called “the last Soviet Jewish historian”. His lively, observant pen, his vast scholarly erudition, his background, his long life marked by a multitude of important events and personal encounters, all these combine to produce this remarkable result. The book offers a detailed panorama of the Jewish life in the Ukraine and in Russia in the XX century; it describes the process of gradual destruction of the Jewish national culture and of its best, most talented representatives. The author knew personally such prominent personages as M. Mocher Sforim, Ch. N. Bialik, I. Tsinberg, Yu. Gessen, L. Trotsky, and many others whose photographs appear on the pages of the book.

The book includes articles by such renowned Russian Jewish historians as S. Dubnov, M. Vinaver, I. Tsinberg, Yu. Gessen, B. Frumkin, and others. Originally, those works were published in magazines “Voskhod” and “Yevreyskaya Starina” as well as in the almanac “Perezhitok”. Unfortunately, they are very little known, due to the fact that today’s reader has hardly had any access to these publications. A basic reading not only for teachers and students but for all those who are seriously interested in Jewish history.

This fundamental tome offers a wealth of documentary material and research dealing with the infamous “affair” of Mendel Beyliss (1911 – 1913), easily the most notorious court trial in the history of the Tsarist Russia, in which an attempt was made to accuse the Jews of the ritual use of Christian blood. Among others, the book contains a reprint of a monograph by A.S. Tager, “Tsarist Russia and the Beyliss Affair” (OGIZ, Moscow, 1934). One will find here articles by contemporary scholars, as well as various documents, such as speeches by O. Gruzenberg and A. Zarudny who served as Beyliss’s counsels for the defense, V. Korolenko’s appeal “To the Russian Society. On the Subject of Blood Libel against the Jews” etc.

The Chronicles record vivid testimonies of those who witnessed the Chmielnitski uprising, the terrifying destruction of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in 1648 – 1649. The Russian translation of the Chronicles was prepared in the 30-s, but only now, six decades later, its appearance in print has become possible. The book represents an attempt, not just in the Russian language but the first ever, of introducing, in its fullest form, this important source of historical knowledge on the XVII century Ukraine into scientific circulation. The chroniclers state the purpose of their labor in the very first lines of the text: “So that everything is preserved in the memory of the future generations”. It should be added that the original Hebrew text is an excellent example of the Jewish religious book-lore, for the writers see a deep spiritual meaning in the tragedy of their people. The book is supplied with an extensive scientific apparatus, with an afterword by Prof. Y. Raba of the Tel Aviv University, and with a selected bibliography list. Also included in the book is the essay by Saul Borovoy “The Jews of Zaporozhskaya Sech”.

The monograph by a noted English scholar, the Professor of Ancient History at Reading University T. Rajak is devoted to the life and deeds of Josephus Flavius. There are hardly any books in the Russian language about this exceptional figure, even though there exists a vast potential readership deeply interested in the ancient history of the Jews, in early Christianity and in antiquity in general. In her writing, Prof. Rajak combines the modern scientific approach with a coherent and easily comprehended style of narration. The book is considered the best work on Josephus Flavius in the last fifty years and will certainly be of equal interest to both professionals and lay readers.

This is the first modern Russian translation from the original of Josephus Flavius’s “Judean War” (the 1900 translation by Ya. L. Chertok was done from a German version). A 90-page Index of biographical and geographical names is provided, for the first time in conformity with the Hebrew phonetics.

The central theme of the book is anti-Semitism in the ancient world. All three tracts in the book are linked by one historical event: the pogrom in Alexandria in the year 38 AD. Philo eyewitnessed the pogrom; Josephus, in the next generation, refutes the writings of Apion, one of the oppressions inspirer. The Alexandria pogrom is recognized as marking the rise of widespread anti-Semitism in the world. The introductory essay by A. Kovelman investigates the origins of pogrom as a historical phenomenon. Appended to the volume is a well-known monograph by Ya. Lurie “anti-Semitism in the Ancient World. An Attempt of a Scientific Explanation. Translation of the texts was done especially for this edition; Philo’s tracts appear in Russian for the first time.

From Heraclites to late stoics, philosophers always spoke about “the crowd”. It was considered impossible to understand or to describe a sage, a philosopher, for that matter any person of culture, without the notion of the crowd, a basic concept in Greek and Roman philosophy. Does it have a parallel in the Jewish learning of the Roman period? There is no doubt that our sages, the creators of the Talmud, faced the problem well. In the process of investigation of their approach to the relationship between the crowd and the individual, the author of this small book, a History professor from Moscow, comes to some interesting and important conclusions.

This comprehensive – the fullest of all existing – anthology of Greek and Roman writers was compiled and supplied with commentaries by Menachem Stern (1925 – 1989), a Professor at the Hebrew University, a great expert in the Jewish history of the Second Temple period. Most of the texts in the anthology either appear in Russian translation for the first time, or have been translated anew. The work was done, specially for this edition, by a group of young historians and philologists attending a seminar for the technique of old texts translation headed by Dr. N. V. Braginskaya (Russian State University of Humanities). The book contains excerpts from 90 Greek and Roman authors who wrote on the subjects of Jews and Judaism. While the first volume ranges from Herodotes to Plutarch, the second half-tome embraces the period from Tacitus to late antiquity. The extensive academic apparatus of the anthology is intended for a specialist historian or philologist, yet its subject matter and the texts themselves are so fascinating that the book makes a very good and useful reading for everyone.

Autobiography of Menachem Begin, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement, a faithful pupil of V. Jabotinsky and Prime-Minister of Israel. The book describes a particular period in his life, between September 1940 when he was arrested by the Soviet authorities, and the winter of 1941 when the amnesty granted to Polish citizens set him free. The book, written as early as 1952, may be counted among the predecessors, not the followers, of the vast camp literature that came later. All the more impressive is the lucidity and the accuracy of the diagnosis given by the writer to the Soviet society and to the Soviet system as a whole. Another striking trait of the narration is the strength of Begin’s awareness of his belonging to one human community to the exclusion of all others, to the Jewish people.

The book opens with a large (100 pp.) biographical essay on Z. Jabotinsky, by his pupil and follower, a specialist in the history of Zionism, Prof. Nedava (1915 – 1988). The selected articles and speeches by Z. Jabotinsky, which constitute the second part of the book forcefully illustrate the image of this prominent Zionist personality as it emerges under I. Nedava’s pen. The publication of the book marks the 50 years since Jabotinsky’ death.

A voluminous and well-annotated collection of quotations from various writings and speeches by Vladimir (Zeev) Jabotinsky (1880 – 1940), one of the leaders of Zionism and the founder of the Revisionist movement. The quotations are grouped according to subjects, under headings such as “Nation and Nationalism”, “Antisemitism”, “The Land of Israel”, “Self-determination”, “The Obligation to the Nation” and many others, which provide the reader with an immediate, easy access to Jabotinsky’s ideas on a given question.

A compilation which includes nearly all statements made by Jabotinsky in his writings and speeches on the subject of the woman’s role in the society and, in particular, in the Zionist movement. The book also tells of women in the life of this prominent Zionist figure, as related by his friends and contemporaries. Also included are Jabotinsky’s poems and prosaic passages dedicated to women. The reader is offered a significant insight into Jabotinsky’s feminist views which acquired such relevance in our time.

Written by a known political figure, at present the Prime Minister of Israel, the book is devoted to the struggle of the Jewish people for independence, and to the problems of security and peace for the State of Israel.

A special publication dedicated to the centenary of the Zionist movement. The text on each page is accompanied by appropriate illustrations (black and white) on the opposite page, over 400 pictures in all. The album offers a consistent and clear idea of the historical development of Zionism in the 100 years since its inception.

A new translation of the novel by a known American writer, which tells of the struggle for the rebirth of the Jewish State. A world bestseller of long standing, the novel served as the basis for a Hollywood film. The present edition offers the first unabridged Russian version of the book.

The Bulletin is a periodic magazine publication which prints articles by Russian, Israeli and other scholars on subjects of Jewish history and culture. Each issue of the magazine contains the following sections: Sociology, History, Ethnography, Culture, Historical Portraits, Archive, Memoirs and Diaries, Critical Reviews, etc. The editors’ purpose is to create a forum for a wide and free exchange of opinions, which would be useful to every historian, philologist, sociologist or philosopher dealing with Jewish subjects. Each issue of the Bulletin contains approximately 260 pages.

This is a collection of essays by a renowned expert in modern Hebrew literature the Bar Ilan University Professor H. Fisch. The main essay is dedicated to the works of Sh.Y.Agnon, a Nobel Prize winner. Other articles offer analysis of the writings by A.B. Yehoshua, A. Appelfeld, Kh. N. Bialik, A. Kovner, Uri Zvi Grinberg and others. With a fine insight, the author brings out the distinctive qualities of each writer, while placing them in a wider context of the world literature. The book is eminently readable and is of interest to a wide circle of readers.

The central place in the book is taken by a large essay: “Jewish Scholarship and Scholarly Institutions in Soviet Russia, 1918-1953.” by the Israeli scholar Prof. A. Greenbaum. The work’s foremost value lies in the wealth of factual material collected by the writer, which demonstrates the tragic fate of Jewish science in the USSR of that period. As an addendum, the book contains an article by the same writer, “Judaica in the USSR. 1950 – 1990”. The book is concluded by an analytical paper, “The Problems of Historiography of the Jews in Russia (late 19^th – early 20^th cc.)”, prepared especially for this publication by two St. Petersburg scholars, R. Ganelin and V. Kelner. Among others, the paper analyses the contribution by the founders of the national Jewish historical school, such as S. Bershadsky, S. Dubnov, Yu. Gessen, and others.

Henry Rosovsky held for eleven years the post of the dean of the Humanities and Natural Sciences at the famous Harvard University. The book gives information on American universities and colleges, describes how they are managed and by whom and the kind of problems they encounter. The chapters of the book bear headings such as “Students”, “Professors”, “Administration”. It is full of useful tips, offered in a clever, light and witty manner: how to answer a ticklish question, what is the best way to ask for a donation, how to deal with various conflicts that crop up in the course of the educational process. It reads like an exciting novel whose main personage is “His Majesty the University”.

The collection opens with an essay by Prof. V. Moskovich, “Ukrainian Studies in Israel” (in Ukrainian). Thematically, the collection is divided in two parts: “The Bible and Ukrainian Literature”, and “Jewish-Ukrainian Cultural Relations”. In all, it contains twenty five papers contributed by Ukrainian and Israeli historians.

Shimon Markish, at present a Professor at the Geneva University, gained, while still in Russia, a considerable reputation for his slations from Plutarch and Apuleus, as well as of L. Feuchtwanger’s Josephus Flavius novels. His present book deals with personages of a different epoch which he, a son of a Jewish poet executed by Stalin, knows first-hand, such as Isaak Babel, Vassili Grossman, Ilya Erenburg, and others. The book contains also the essay “Russian Jewry: its Destiny, its Heritage”, a vigorous and insightful reflection on creators and persecutors of the Russian Jewish literature. As a whole, the book may be considered, in equal measure, as a philological, historical, and political study.

In H. Akselrod’s poetry, there has always been present the Jewish theme, this is why, until relatively recently, it was but rarely published. However, beginning in the late 80-s, the poet published extensively in such literary magazines as “Novy Mir”, “Yunost”, “Druzhba Narodov”, and others. She is also a translator of long standing, and writes poetry for children. Lately she settled in Israel. In the words of the preface by Dina Rubina, H. Akselrod’s poetry is “authentic, free and courageous”. It combines the high culture with musical artistry of the language and the true lyrical feeling.

The book is composed of nearly 300 Russian poetic works (XIX – XX cc) which, in various forms, touch upon the Jewish theme. The collection is divided into seven parts, hence the title, “Menorah”, the sacred Jewish seven-branched candelabrum. On these pages one finds poems by A. Pushkin and A. Khomiakov, by S. Frug and M. Tsvetayeva, by I. Erenburg and V. Mayakovsky, by V. Jabotinsky and A. Akhmatova. Next to the famous classical verses, there are poems never reprinted during the Soviet period, or even unpublished pieces which were found in archives. Some of the works could earlier be published only abroad, while others were written without any hope of publication and circulated in handwritten copies. In all, one hundred and seventeen poets are represented in the book. It is certainly of interest to the widest circle of readers.

Both novels in the book by the Polish writer of Jewish origin Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) have by now become famous all over the world. Each novel is composed of short tales of striking originality and graphic expressiveness. Now, for the first time, these novels have become available to the Russian reader. With a singular power they reflect the outlandish, lonely destiny of a Jewish genius. Not by accident, the writer earned the name of the Polish Kafka. The book is illustrated with several drawings by Bruno Schulz himself, who was a remarkable graphic artist as well as a writer.

The central figure of this book is the musicologist Moisey Beregovsky. During his folklore-collecting expeditions before the WW2 he recorded thousands of Jewish folk melodies as well as many best songs performed at Jewish folk theaters. The present volume contains his essays and letters, materials pertaining to his selfless labor as a collector, photographs, music and lyrics of songs from his collection, among them a unique full transcription of the “Golias-spiel” (based on the story of David and Goliath). His life was a permanent desperate battle yet he persevered, saving from oblivion many treasures of the East European Jewry’s wonderful musical culture.

Asar Eppel gained repute as a writer in the early 90-s when such literary magazines as “Novy Mir”, “Oktiabr”, “Druzhba Narodov” and others began vying each other in getting his writings published. Today he is considered among the most gifted contemporary Russian authors. His “Grass Street”, a collection of short stories, impresses with its meaningfulness and emotional depth even if it describes nothing more than the everyday existence of a Moscow suburb’s dwellers, Jews and non-Jews, whose life, however, is colorful, and sad, and full of mystery. The book has already been translated to several European languages.

The ten short stories in this collection (see annotation to his “Grass Street”), like all work by A. Eppel, impress with their penetrating awareness of the sense of life. His heroes are the inhabitants of a small Moscow dead-end alley; yet he describes their life in a manner that brings to mind such names as Chekov, Babel, Maupassant, and Sholom Aleichem.

The writer lives in Jerusalem since 1971. He is a member of the Journalists Union and a member of the Association of Prisoners of Zion. The book, a collection of essays, can be classified as a memoir. Margulis writes about the Stalin camps as a witness. He had to spend in them the years 1948 – 1953. Later on he took part in the struggle of the Soviet Jews for the right to return to their historical home. His pen is inspired by the noble desire to preserve the memory of the older generation of Zionists of whom so many perished in the tundra and the taiga and lie in nameless graves, buried under the Siberian snows.

Under the cover of this book there are collected, for the first time, all the translations from Hebrew by V. Khodasevich, a remarkable Russian poet of the “Silver Age”. The book includes also biographical essays on the Jewish poets whose works he translated (Kh. N. Bialik, S. Chernikhovsky, Z. Shneur, D. Frishman, and others) as well as his own verses translated into Hebrew and the music written to these translations in the Land of Israel. All the texts are given in both versions, Russian and Hebrew, printed on facing pages. The book’s design imitates the traditional Jewish printing art and includes nearly 40 illustrations some of which appear in print for the first time. It has been universally recognized that Khodasevich’s translations are quite often better than the originals, “they are musically subtle, a breath of something truly Biblical, of the Jewish sorrowful lyricism” (Roman Gul). In comparison with the 1922 publication of Khodasevich’s translations, this edition is notable for the thoroughness of its editorial preparation and for the wealth of the relevant material. It will find an honorable place on the bookshelves of both poetry lovers and specialists in philology.

A bio-bibliography index to the works of a remarkable Polish Jewish writer who only recently gained due recognition in the world culture of the 20^th century. The Index lists the following items: Bruno Schulz’s publications in Polish; literature on the writer and on his works in Polish and in other languages; translations and critical essays in Russian. The publication is illustrated with several drawings by Bruno Schulz.

This tale for teenagers recalls one of the bitterest pages in Jewish history, the forced army recruitment of Jewish boys, instituted by the Tsar Nicholas I in 1827. The tsarist authorities attributed special importance to the army service by the Jews, seeing it as a tool for their conversion into the Christian faith. Yankele, the book’s hero, not only manages to survive his spell in the Russian army but gains a moral victory, instilling his courageous spirit into his comrades, the Jewish conscripts.

Ten instructive stories set in Germany, in Spain, in the Czech and Polish lands in medieval times. Those were the times of the Crusades, of the Inquisition, of the blood libel, of the persecution of the Jews. While not departing from historical truth, these are intriguing tales where the hero, faithful to the Lord, always emerges the winner. The book is intended for secondary school students.

This small book is written in the genre of a parable, the favorite genre with Jewish men of wisdom. It is an amusing story taking place in a fairy-tale kingdom where people are so much in a hurry and so busy with themselves that they have neither the time nor the desire to get to know themselves and the world around them. An allegory of the modern society, it tells also about the wise laws given by God to the Jews so that they can make the choice between the sin and the virtue. The book is intended for children of secondary school age.

Very popular among the young Israeli readers, the book tells an exciting story of seven observant Israeli children who, escaping from a sinking ship in a lifeboat, manage to reach a small uninhabited island to which they give the name of Tarshish. Struggling with great courage and resourcefulness against all kinds of hardships, they create their own tiny religious community on the island where they keep the commandments, celebrate Jewish holidays, in a word, live a full Jewish life.

A unique publication whose pages are illustrated with drawings by Leningrad children, made in 1986-88 at an underground Jewish school which taught drawing as the main discipline. It is not an accident that this striking collection of drawings was produced at the time of persecution, just as it is not an accident that the Pessach Haggadah (tale, story) itself, which is mainly addressed to children, was created at such a time.

This small book familiarizes the reader with the famous Rothschild dynasty and, first and foremost, with Meir-Anshel from Frankfurt, the founder of the family banking business, a man of great commercial talent and integrity. His five sons continued their father’s enterprise; after Germany, Rothschild banks opened in England, in France, and in America. The book tells also of the family’s wide, continuing philanthropic activity.

The author of this book for teenagers is an Israeli journalist who came to Israel from Lithuania in the early 70-s. The book reflects his own difficult experiences as a young new immigrant. In a spirited and sincere manner, it describes the transformation of a boy who is full of longing for Vilnius, the town of his childhood, into a citizen of his new homeland.