This issue of the magazine features:

• Point of View: The Ambivalence of Jewish Identity in Oleg Yuriev’s The Zhidyatin Peninsula

The outstanding Russian writer Oleg Yuriev (1959–2018) would have turned sixty this year. His novel The Zhidyatin Peninsula is still generating buzz and heated conversations twenty years after it was published. A new contributor to our magazine suggests the novel’s central concern is the ambivalence of Jewish identity. He concludes his thought-provoking essay by arguing that the complex identity of Leningrad Jews papers over an emotional conflict unavoidable for people forced to straddle two powerful cultures, Jewish and Russian.

• Review: The Secret of Tasty Tea

The article discusses the new book Wissotzky Tea: 150 Years of History. The book tells the story of Kalonymus Ze'ev Wissotzky (1824–1904), a famous tea merchant, Zionist activist, and philanthropist, and his family, which produced numerous Russian revolutionary leaders. Our reviewer argues that the book’s subject is the “mystical connection between the tea trade and revolution.”

• Publishers and Publishing Projects: Local Jewish History Books from Mogilev

This section features a complete bibliography of Russian-language books on Jewish history published during the 2000s and 2010s in the Belarusian city of Mogilev.

• Synopsis: A New Album of Solomon Yudovin’s Art

The brief review introduces readers to Solomon Yudovin: Siege Graphics, recently published by the Russian Museum as a catalogue to a show of works by the famous artist, also known as an ethnographer and scholar of traditional Jewish art.

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: July–August 2019