• Names: Mendele’s Manifesto and Last Testament

December 2017 marks the centenary of the death of Mendele Moykher-Sforim (Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh, 1836–1917). Mendele was the founder of modern prose in Hebrew and Yiddish, and Sholem Aleichem dubbed him the “grandfather” of Yiddish literature. To celebrate the occasion, the magazine features a Russian translation of the essay “Introduction by Mendele Moykher-Sforim on the Debut of His First Published Stories.” He wrote it in 1879 as an introduction to his first Yiddish work, the novella Dos kleyne mentshele (The Little Man). Much later, in 1907, Mendele considerably expanded and rewrote the essay. Ultimately, he detached it from the novella itself and made it the introduction to all his works in Yiddish. So, his first preface became his last preface: his manifesto and, simultaneously, his last testament. The essay has not been previously published in Russian.

• New Dimensions: The Venetian Ghetto’s Quincentenary

The vast exhibition Venice, the Jews, and Europe, 1516–2016 (June 19–November 13, 2016) was held in the august venue of the Doge’s Palace. A symbolic event, it was occasioned by an important anniversary: in 2016, five hundred years had passed since the founding of Venice’s Jewish ghetto. The magazine’s detailed review of the exhibition and its catalogue concludes as follows, “As Europe is currently undergoing a immigration crisis, the Venetian ghetto demonstrates that, no matter how high the walls separating people, they are still permeable and thus open to mutually beneficial cultural and intellectual intercourse.”

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

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: January–February 2018