Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture 1918-1930.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. First Edition. Hardbound. Octavo in dust jacket, x, 300 pp., a few b/w illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. Very Good. Item #51391
ISBN: 9780521826303

"Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture changes our perception of Jewish cultural history by giving voice to those pioneering activists who created a vibrant Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Empowered by the Soviet state and the Communist Party to create a secular culture for the “new” Soviet Jew, these activists sparked a cultural flowering in the official national language of Soviet Jews: Yiddish. The writers, artists, and intellectuals chronicled here founded Yiddish-language schools, wrote for Yiddish newspapers, published scholarly works, and dedicated themselves to an unprecedented burst of secular Jewish artistic and cultural expression.

David Shneer explores the role these Jewish activists played within both Soviet and Jewish history. These activists deeply engaged widespread Jewish cultural trends of the era while simultaneously building the Soviet state and spreading its ideology. They were not passive objects of Soviet policies toward Jews, but rather they actively participated in the creation of these policies. Shneer shows how these activists were an integral part of twentieth-century Jewish history, and at the same time he addresses some of the painful truths about their involvement in the propagation of the Soviet system." CUP web copy.

Price: $39.95

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