Roots, #19
January-June 2003
The magazine is opened by an article by permanent author of magazine Roots Ph. D. Alexander Kryukov (Moscow) Rusim, Gruzinim and other Jews which tells about such a phenomenon in life of Israeli society as humor and anecdote on the subject of ethnic differences.
Author of the next article Jewish Theme in Gogols
Story Taras Bulba, Prof. Vladislav Krivonos (Samara), analyses the
description of Jews, their life and traditions made by N.V. Gogol in the story
Taras Bulba from the point of view of internal world of this work but not of
ideological position as this was done before.
The section Cultural Heritage is opened by the article by composer and conductor Michael Leinvand (Israel) A Lullaby in Yiddish Folklore as a Reflection of Peoples Life which tells about Jewish lullabies in 19-20th centuries, how the lullaby reflected the hopes and expectations of Jewish mother, what important events and changes in the life of Jewish family and Jewish people were transferred into the song. The article contains numerous quotations from lullabies in Yiddish with translations into Russian.
The next article is Isaac Bashevis Singer, the author is Prof. Bronislav Tabachnikov from Voronezh. Author marks some personal aspects of life and creative work of famous writer and shows how these aspects were reflected in creations by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
The article prepared to publication by historians A.
Avrus and A. Novikov (Saratov) is called Russian in Jewish and Jewish
in Russian. The author of the article is Victor Chernov, famous
politician of Russia Empire, minister of agriculture in Provisional Government
of Russia (1917). V. Chernov was the author of some articles devoted to Jewish
question. One of them is published in our magazine.
The research worker of the house-museum of L. Tolstoy Yasnaya Polyana Nina Nikitina (Yasnaya Polyana, Tula region) is the author of the next article Lev Tolstoy. Between Old and New Testaments. The author tells about events of L. Tolstoy life pointed to Jewish theme.
The section The present and the History begins with the article by Ph. D. Nelli Portnova from Israel Jewish Education: History and Present where the author gives a review of history of Jewish education beginning from 18th century till second half of 1980s.
Prof. Alexander Yegorov (Ivanovo) continues the subject opened by N. Portnova. His work is called Maps of Distribution of Jewish Schools by Provinces and Regions of Russia (Late 19th Early 20th century) and contains maps reflecting the data on number of Jewish population in every administrative unit of Russian Empire as well as number of Heders, Talmud-Torahs and single-class Jewish colleges in them.
Next author of the magazine, Ph. D. Alexander Saran (Oryol) gives the information what Jewish organizations existed in Central Russia under the Soviet power in 1920-1930s, describes the conditions in which they worked. The article is called Jewish Public Organizations in Central Russia at the Border of 1920-1930s.
The section Israel by the Eyes of our Compatriots includes the article by Darya Shkolnik (Israel) Self-identity of Teenagers-Repatriates in Israel. The article is based on the research conducted by the author in the framework of school psychology course. The author tells in detail about peculiarities of absorption of teenagers-repatriates into Israeli life, about the difficulties the teenagers meet during this process.
The section Memoirs includes the article by Mirra Saxonova (Veliky Novgorod) My Mummoirs (word game mummys memoirs). The author tells about history of her family in such a way that the reader gets a chance to see how events in Jewish life in 20th century were reflected in the fate of members of separate Jewish family.
The article that opens the section Our Genealogies is called We couldnt Live Otherwise. It is the recent work by Maximilian Shertz (Cheboksary), creator and long-term leader of Jewish community in Cheboksary. This is a narrative about the fate of Eliezer Shulman from Israel, creator of unique methods of Tanach studying who lived in the USSR before his repatriation and stood for many years for his right for the life of his family in correspondence with national Jewish traditions.
The article by Andrey Muravyov (Uryupinsk, Volgograd region) Lets Go on Talking about Dostoyevsky is published in section Discussions. The author carries on polemics with Semyon Reznik whose article Dostoyevsky and the Jews was published in No. 17 of magazine Roots.
In the last section of the magazine Opinion. Reviews. Criticism thirteen letters by magazine readers from Moscow, Penza, Ryazan, Kostroma, St. Petersburg etc. are published.