The current edition of the Korni (Roots) Quarterly opens with a section dedicated to the
memory of the Yiddish poet Zelik Akselrod (1904-1941). In the article Zelik Akselrod, his niece Elena
Akselrod (Israel), a famous poet in her own right, and the daughter of the
well-known Jewish painter Meyer Akselrod, recalls her uncles life and her
extended prominent family.
In Red Drops on White Snow, the Jewish writer Rivka Rubina (1906-1987),
Meyer Akselrods wife, describes in detail the creative work of Zelik Akselrod.
In this section readers can also
become acquainted with the poems of Motl (Matvey) Grubyan and Elena
Akselrod which are dedicated to Zelik Akselrod and poems by Zelik
Akselrod which were translated into Russian by Elena Akselrod.
The section From Zionisms History
contains three articles.
Jewish Identity and Zionism by Michael Chlenov (Moscow, Russia)
analyses the connection between the history of Zionistic ideas and the Jewish
identity. The author theorizes that Zionistic ideas could only appear, and they
have appeared in Eastern Europe (Russia, Romania, Poland, Germany). In
countries where the Jews have realized their national identity and have felt
that they were a nation rather than just a religious group.
In I am not an Enemy of Zionism by Ilia Yagniskiy (Belgorod, Russia), the author presents the
ideas of the prominent Russian philosopher and writer Mikhail Gershenson (1869-1925) about
Zionism.
Destinies of the Zionists in the Soviet Union by Maya Kofman (Moscow,
Russia) recounts the story of the people who stood up for their Zionistic
political convictions in spite of mass repressions and persecutions in the
Soviet Union.
who
The next section The History of the
Jews in the Soviet Period, Alexander Rashkovskiy (Kirov, Russia) asserts
that Josef Stalin prepared the Second Holocaust. Rashkovskiy argues that
Stalins national politics would confirm his assertion.
In the article The Fate of the Transnistria Jews by Semyon
Dodik (Moscow, Russia), Dodik analyses why so many Jews survived in
Transnistria, while so many perished at the hands of the Nazis everywhere else.
Transnistria, in Southeastern Ukraine, was a region occupied by the Nazis
allies the Romanian troops. The author was a ghetto prisoner in
Transnistria during the WWII.
Researchers of Jewish Heroism by Semyon Averbuh (Kiev, Ukraine)
documents the story of the people who gathered information about Jews who
became the Heroes of Soviet Union during the WWII despite the Soviet system
completely concealing such information.
Spiritual Opposition of Jewish
Communities of Podolia by Faina Vinokurova (Vinnitsa, Ukraine) describes how the Soviet
secret police kept track of and persecuted the Jewish religious organizations
in the Southwestern Ukraine.
The section History of Jewish Communities
contains two articles. Guram Batiashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) in 2600
Years Together writes about Jewish life in Georgia in the past 26
centuries.
Nugzar Ter-Oganov
(Israel) recounts little known information regarding the history of the
Jews in Persia during 19th and 20th centuries and the
role of the researcher Konstantin Smirnov in portraying the Jewish communities
of Persia.
Unique materials were gathered in
the section Destinies. In The Writers
Acquaintances by Leonid Slovin (Israel), the author writes about his
impression of fellow writers from the Moscow literature circles at the
beginning of his literature career. The author lived in the Soviet Union until
1990s.
Beloved Women of General Sharon by Zakhar Gelman (Moscow, Russia)
describes the world of sentiments of the Israeli politician Ariel Sharon.
In
Rozalia Markovna was the Wife and
True Friend of George Plekhanov by Alexander Berezhanskiy (Lipetsk, Russia), the
author recounts a story of Rosalia Bogorad, the wife of famous Russian Marxist
George Plekhanov.
In I Survived Auschwitz and
Mauthausen Dmitriy Tsvibel (Petrozavodsk, Russia) retells the life
story of Semyon Bekenshtein.
The Comments. Reviews. Criticism
section contains letters to the editors, comments and criticisms. The contributors
to this section are V. Krivonos (Samara), L. Khaes (Kemerovo), G. Vakulenko
(Penza), E. Libinzon (Nizhniy Novgorod), R. Trahtenberg (Israel), L.
Kerzhenevich (Kazan), L. Moshinskiy (Rybinsk), L. Mogilevich (Saratov), V. Geht
(Moscow), N. Medovaya (Novokuznetsk), B. Mershon (Zhmerinka), O. Vainshtein
(Vinnitsa).