This issue of the magazine includes:

• The Magazine in the World of Numbers

The editors congratulate themselves and all their readers on the occasion of the book review’s anniversary—100th—issue and present some statistics about the magazine. For example, the “New Books” section, which has existed from the very beginning, has published 5,268 bibliographical entries altogether. In particular, the subsection “Judaism” has included 514 entries; “Jewish History,” 1,876; “Anti-Semitism,” 77; “Manuals and Textbooks,” 287; “Biographies of Famous Jews,” 652; “Jewish Art,” 181; and “Fiction,” 1,681.

• Names: Nehama Lifschitz

The article congratulates Yiddish singer Nehama Lifschitz on her eighty-fifth birthday, arguing she was the central figure on the Soviet Jewish musical stage during the post-Stalin era. Discussing the question of how she achieved this status, the author suggests that the key reason was her performing style. Unlike most of her colleagues, she interpreted Yiddish songs not as elements within a larger theatrical show but as self-sufficient works with their own dramatic qualities. Another reason was that Nehama Lifschitz was for Soviet Jews a personification of civic courage and protest against the state’s anti-Semitic policy.

• Overview: Jewish Postcards Are Still Popular

While old Jewish postcards are among the most desirable objects for collecting, exhibiting, and publishing at the moment, the role of the contemporary Jewish postcards has to be interpreted in the context of today’s communications. The author of the article, after analyzing several postcard sets issued by different Jewish organizations in post-Soviet countries, concludes that such publishing projects are still popular in the Internet age because of their functions as souvenirs and collections—in other words, they help people to identify with the past.

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: November–December 2012