Portland Public Library

Shush!, growing up Jewish under Stalin : a memoir, Emil Draitser

eng

autobiography

platesillustrations

no index present

non fiction

Shush!

191846918

Emil Draitser

The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies

growing up Jewish under Stalin : a memoir

"The old man wears a skullcap, and I m puzzled and secretly irritated: why declare to everybody that you re a Jew?" Growing up in Odessa in Soviet Ukraine in the post-Holocaust years, under Stalin, Draitser despises his Jewish identity. Mocked at school, he absorbs the virulent anti-Semitism. He hates Yiddish. Now a professor of Russian at Hunter College in New York, he looks back, blending historical overview with a present-tense narrative of how it feels to be a child taught to despise his culture. More than the commentary, the unforgettable drama--and the answer to the racism--is the celebration of Jewish family life and the richness of Yiddish, from the curse words to the endearments. Papa, a house-painter, is always looking for a famous Jew to celebrate. But the hero is Mama, labeled "dependent" on the official papers, but the true head of the family in their crammed one-roomed apartment, her cooking an expression of love, even when it seems excessive: "Take some more. It's good for you." Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews

How I failed my motherland -- Fathers at war -- Path to paradise -- What's in a name! -- Black shawl -- Us against them -- I don't want to have relatives! -- Friends and enemies -- The girl of my dreams -- How they laugh in Odessa -- Papa and the Soviets -- A dependent -- Without declarations -- Who's who -- A strange orange -- Who are you? -- One Passover in Odessa -- On commissars, cosmopolites, and lightbulb inventors -- Them! -- No kith, no kin -- Grandpa Uri -- Missing Mikhoels -- Black on white -- Time like glass -- The death of Stalin