This issue of the magazine includes:

• Survey: Architectural Photography and Synagogue Architecture

Synagogue architecture is the most impressive part of the Jewish material cultural heritage. At the same time, synagogue buildings that were built not long ago often figure in debates on the creative embodiment of Jewish identity. Hence albums with photos of synagogues are, perhaps, the most popular illustrated books of Jewish interest. The author of this survey selected only nine albums for his analysis, but his aim is not to analyze synagogue architecture itself. Instead, he examines, sometimes quite critically, the quality of the pictures and accompanying articles, commentaries, and historical information, in other words, everything that constitutes representation, seen as the combined intellectual efforts of photographers, historians and, last but not least, publishers.

• Looking Through Russian Literary Magazines: Novels and Articles of Jewish Interest

• Synopses: The Happiest Day by Alexander Vvedensky

Russian poet and playwright Alexander Vvedensky (1904–1941) was a legendary figure of the Leningrad avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s, a co-founder of the famous unofficial literary and theater group OBERIU. To earn his living, he worked in Soviet children’s publishing and wrote several children’s books of his own. Some of Vvedensky’s short stories for children have been published recently with illustrations by contemporary Petersburg artist Aron Zinshtein. The reviewer mocks the attempts of the publishers to make these outstanding “naïve” illustrations clearer for today’s children by using arrows and captions. He argues it demonstrates the “broad lack of understanding” of Vvedensky’s works.

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: July–August 2014

• Bibliography: 65 New Books