The People of the Book in the World of Books is a Russian bimonthly publication for serious readers with Jewish interests. Our English website includes only the summaries of the published articles. To access the complete text of them, please visit the Russian version of this website.


104

June 2013

This issue of the magazine includes:


• In Memoriam: Mishe Lev (1917–2013)


During World War II, Yiddish novelist Mishe (Michael) Lev fought in the Soviet army, was taken prisoner by the Germans, escaped, and joined the partisans. His wartime experiences and Jewish heroism in the struggle against Nazism were the main themes of his prose. In particular, he was one of the first to write about the famous uprising of prisoners at the Sobibor concentration camp. In the Soviet Union, Lev published several books in Yiddish and in Russian translation. In 1996, he moved to Israel, and it was there, in the town of Rehovot, that he recently died aged 95. His close friend and colleague Petersburg Yiddish and Russian writer Maria Rolnikaitė has written this memorial article about Mishe Lev.


New Dimensions: On David Goberman’s Still Lifes


The centenary of the birth of David Goberman (1912–2003), prominent art scholar and artist, was commemorated with several exhibitions of his paintings, drawings, and photographs in various museums and galleries in St. Petersburg. These exhibitions have inspired the author of this essay to analyze the philosophical and even religious sources of Goberman’s art, more specifically, those of his still lifes.


Survey: The New Stage of Yiddish Lexicography


Over the last five years, four new dictionaries aimed at readers of Slavic languages have replenished Yiddish lexicography. Alexander Astraukh’s Yiddish-Belarusian Dictionary was published in 2008. Three comprehensive Yiddish-Russian dictionaries, compiled by Alexander Soldatov, Boris Vainblat, and Dmitry Tischenko, respectively, appeared between 2011 and 2013. This “lexicographical boom” has been the result of the late- and post-Soviet revival of Jewish philology. This survey analyzes all the Yiddish‑Russian, Yiddish-Ukrainian, and Yiddish-Belarusian dictionaries published worldwide since the 1980s, with a special critical focus on the latest contributions.


Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: July–August 2013


Bibliography: 15 New Books