Jewish Currents presents The Soviet Issue, a special double issue dedicated to the experiences of post-Soviet Jews, developed in collaboration with a special committee of academics, artists, and activists. Inside the issue: Linda Kinstler reports on Holocaust memorial efforts at Babi Yar in Kyiv. Bela Shayevich tells the story of her so-called salvation at the hands of Jewish resettlement organizations. Egina Manachova reflects on fleeing one system of mass incarceration for another. Victoria Lomasko explores the contours of oft-buried Jewish identity in contemporary Russia. Valeriya Nakshun and George Prigov discuss Juhuri language activism. Eli Rubin finds a challenge to the ubiquitous coupling of secularism and socialism in a mid-century rabbi’s Yiddish fiction. Rotem Rozental offers a mid-career survey of the work of Israeli artist Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi. Zoé Samudzi reflects on the promises and disappointments of the Soviet Union for Black revolutionaries through an archive of Soviet images. Helen Betya Rubinstein reviews Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory, and asks who benefits when we decide that memory is impossible. A special section reexamines the Soviet Jewry movement, with contributions by Tova Benjamin, Anna Shternshis, Olesya Shayduk-Immerman, Hadas Binyamini, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Emily Tamkin, and Lawrence Bush. Millennial post-Soviet Jews discuss the left’s blind spots regarding the Soviet diaspora. Plus: fiction by Yelena Moscovich, art by Jenny Yurshansky, poetry by Eugene Ostashevsky, a Cheburashka Collective zine, and more!
(Vol. 76, No. 1)