Roots, #23
July-September 2004
The first section of Korni (Roots) Quarterly is entitled The
History of Jews in the Russian Empire. This section discusses the topic of
reforms in Jewish life in the first half of 19th century.
The first article is called Jews during the reign of Alexander the First,
written by Alexander Mindlin (Moscow, Russia). Mindlin describes all of
the reforms and demonstrates the impact of the reforms in the history of the
Russian Jews.
The author of the second article, The Alexanders Reform of 1804: Pro
et Contra is Michael Savin (Volgograd, Russia). Savin continues and completes
the topic in the previous article. Savin describes in detail all the aspects of
the educational reform carried out by Alexander I. According to the new rules,
Jews were required to attend state schools, study the Russian language and
other general subjects. He explains why the Jewish people opposed these
reforms.
The next section of the quarterly entitled The History and Ethnography
of Communities contains the article Life and Customs of the Korsun Jews
by Klavdia Kolesnikova (Korsun Shevchenkovskiy, Ukraine). Kolesnikova
describes Jewish life in the Korsun region of the Ukraine during the 18th-19th centuries.
Irina Zubkova (Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia) in Trees can Grow
on Stones too briefly describes the history of the Jewish Community in
Nizhniy Novgorod. Zubkova writes that
the first Jews took up their residence in Nizhniy Novgorod during the reign of
Emperor Nikolai in the first half of 19th century.
They were drafted into the Tsarist Army and were called cantonists. In
her article, Zubkova, mentions the names of many famous Jews families from
Nizhniy Novgod, such as the Sverdlovs, the Zahoders, etc.
Professor Roman Trahtenberg (Rehovot, Israel) shares with readers
his experience of looking for a job in Israel.
He named his article Isnt a job like a wolf? Russians often quote the famous popular
proverb Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
This proverb means that one should not worry about ones job, one can always
put it off, because it cannot disappear. This proverb reflects the mentality of
lazy people. Trahtenberg describes how he managed to get rid of this soviet
mentality to become a successful professional in Israel.
The third section of the journal is entitled Thought about Origins. Aaron
Mentz (Arkhangelsk, Russia), dedicates his article Jewish Thoughts
to his young son. The author recalls his grandfather and parents, and recounts
how the traditions of his family influenced his character and Jewish
self-consciousness. He illustrates his story with some of his own poems.
Vera Belova (Carmiel, Israel) describes in her
article, Queen Sabbath, the celebration of Sabbath by her family. Vera
did not know why her mother behaved differently on Saturdays and why she asked
her daughter not to work on Saturdays. When Vera grew into adulthood, she came
to understand and it helped her to love and remember that most important Jewish
holiday Sabbath.
Abraham Kratser (Moscow, Russia), in his article, Once
again about the Russian Jew, describes his attitude towards the problem
of the Russian Jew. The author proffers an explanation of what kind of Jews
are considered a Russian Jew.
In the fourth section of the journal, called History of the Victory, Gregory
Svirskiy (Toronto, Canada) wrote the article The Feat of Engineer Leonid
Sheinker. Svirskiy writes about a WWII veteran, Leonid Sheinker. Mr.
Sheinker, a Canadian, collected information about Jews who had served in the
Red Army during the WWII. He created a museum dedicated to memory of these
Jewish heroes. Mr. Sheinker has also published several books about these
heroes. Svirskiy describes the difficulties, which Mr. Sheinker encountered
when he was writing his books.
Alexander Gogun, (St Petersburg, Russia), in his article The
Means of Nazi Propaganda in Psychological War explains why the fascists
propaganda was so successful and why the Germans and other people believed it.
The fifth section of the journal is called War and Destiny. Victor
Gekht (Moscow, Russia), in his article Without Childhood writes how
he and his family attempted to survive during the fascist occupation of their shtetl
a Galician town of Buchach, Ukraine.
Maya Kofman, (Moscow, Russia), in her article Ways
of the Teheran Children. Kofman recounts a story about Polish Jewish orphans
who were in the Soviet Union during WWII. They lived in a Jewish orphanage.
They wanted to escape to Eretz Israel. The author describes their journey to
the Promised Land through Siberia, Uzbekistan, Iran, India and Egypt.
The sixth section of the journal is called Jewish Literature. Carol
V. Davis (USA) in her article Philip Roth a major US author
writes about the works of Philip Roth. Roth, a well-known author has had
several of his books translated and published in Russia.
Ekaterina Libinzon, (Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia), in her
article Lets Talk about Gregory Kanovich recounts her meetings with the
famous author Gregory. She and her husband Professor Zalman Libinzon, also
corresponded with Kanovich. She includes many of Gregory Kanovichs letters.
In the seventh section, entitled The Psychology of Community Work.
Psychologist Ilia Shteinberg, (Saratov, Russia) works for the welfare
organization Hasdei Yerushalaim. He wrote the article Exhaustion through
Sympathy. In this article he describes situations of welfare organizations
employees, who become burned out and begin to detest their work. Shteinberg
provides advise on to how to act to prevent such situations.
The eighth section of the journal is called In Memory of the Friend. Anna
Novozhilova (Ivanovo, Russia) writes about her husband and friend Ilia
Novozhilov. He was a director of the Ivanovo Department of the Public
University for Jewish Culture for many years.
The last section of the journal is called Readers Conferences Materials.
This section contains two conference speeches and an article about a meeting of
a book club of Russian speaking Israeli students in North America La Merkhav.
Students held discussions of the quarterly Korni articles. The authors
of this section are Ekaterina Ysupova (Biysk, Russia), Liudmila Kafra (USA) and
Marina Pashton (Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia).