Ebook476 pages8 hours
Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin: A Memoir
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Many years after making his way to America from Odessa in Soviet Ukraine, Emil Draitser made a startling discovery: every time he uttered the word "Jewish"—even in casual conversation—he lowered his voice. This behavior was a natural by-product, he realized, of growing up in the anti-Semitic, post-Holocaust Soviet Union, when "Shush!" was the most frequent word he heard: "Don't use your Jewish name in public. Don't speak a word of Yiddish. And don't cry over your murdered relatives." This compelling memoir conveys the reader back to Draitser's childhood and provides a unique account of midtwentieth-century life in Russia as the young Draitser struggles to reconcile the harsh values of Soviet society with the values of his working-class Jewish family. Lively, evocative, and rich with humor, this unforgettable story ends with the death of Stalin and, through life stories of the author's ancestors, presents a sweeping panorama of two centuries of Jewish history in Russia.
Author
Emil Draitser
Emil Draitser is Professor of Russian at Hunter College of the City University of New York. In addition to his twelve books, his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Partisan Review and the North American Review.
Related to Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin
Related ebooks
Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJourney to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Confessions of the Shtetl: Converts from Judaism in Imperial Russia, 1817-1906 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Her Hands: The Education of Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Woman's Quest for Peace Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Choosing Yiddish: New Frontiers of Language and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1884–1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Jewish Revolution in Belorussia: Economy, Race, and Bolshevik Power Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Evacuation To Central Asia (Jews Escape from the Nazis and Soviets) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yiddish Writers in Weimar Berlin: A Fugitive Modernism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCity of Rogues and Schnorrers: Russia's Jews and the Myth of Old Odessa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Exit Berlin: How One Woman Saved Her Family from Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jabotinsky's Children: Polish Jews and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Together and Apart in Brzezany: Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Will Write Our History?: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTubercular Capital: Illness and the Conditions of Modern Jewish Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945-1962 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiterary Passports: The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYiddishlands: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTravels in Translation: Sea Tales at the Source of Jewish Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTears Over Russia: A Search for Family and the Legacy of Ukraine's Pogroms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemories of Two Generations: A Yiddish Life in Russia and Texas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Jewish Refugee in New York: A Novel Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Reviews for Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin
Rating: 4.2999999 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exploring the Damaged PsycheIn this part memoir, part religious autobiography, Emil Draitser explores the psychological effects of generations of antisemitism growing up Jewish in postwar Russia and the Ukraine. The book is less about anything Stalin did, and more about the sociological factors behind why he and other Jews like Draitser grew up feeling inferior to their Russian peers. The title of the book "Shush!" refers to his mother's constant reminder to be quiet, to stop speaking Yiddish, for fear of being punished. Draitser reminds us that the effects of antisemitism stretch beyond the Holocaust, that the 'damaged psyche' was generational and caused Jews to be inconspicuous, losing their history, culture, and identity.The book is written as a series of stories, so it is less autobiographical and more memorial. Very cleverly, Draitser is very philosophical yet not overtly so. For example, he explores the social construction of language and race through stories about being made fun of in school for his ethnic name. Or his adoration for Russian girls, anything but Jewish as a way of protesting against dividing people according to the principle of religion and race.I said the book is part religious autobiography because throughout the stories, you feel Draitser's connection with Judaism. Growing up, he learns Yiddish, partakes in the major rituals of Bar Mitzvah, celebrations like Yom Kippur and Passover. There are discussions of theology with his Mother and other relatives about the Talmud. Though I would not necessarily characterize Draitser as a devout Jew, or Hasidic, he certainly is Jewish both culturally and spiritually. Being Jewish is an important part of his identity, one that was purposely suppressed as a result of his environment.Taken as a whole, Draitser reminds us that structural violence can be just as destructive as physical violence. Draitser himself was not a victim of the Holocaust, or the pogroms of the nineteenth century. However, the result of the institutional racism such as segregation causes children to grow up with damaged psyches. They grow up with their "heads down and hunched under their shoulders." This is a very well-intentioned and intelligent memoir. It deals with some of the most complex social and philosophical issues in a very colloquial way, through these stories. I can easily see this book used in an undergrad course in either Jewish studies or even postwar Europe.
1 person found this helpful
Book preview
Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin - Emil Draitser
INa book_preview_excerpt.html }ےF寀z̲wfm%iER%R2%-% @%O0{s#,Rcc*f&@vx͛Oq?1TV/\h}S:WtcF~.Jǿ7Un~}z_ݣMMqB?'<aLSuoϕmGUG_nPj>TuZx[J(?m16rEjFwrjpE'_Ox
VU\u14M뫸Cڰ&?Vѵܧ嶻4nҦڏ]iQڵ|'w'~w1)t=^&uLL}Hꝯ$K)?\.:ʸ8U'LEzyO o/4Zwʥ䏹B[Uw)L=6;o-/3(_d6Scl!qAgOED8箧Plɛj;AV1Uѧ\ 9"lr׃X*t"'jO?|2ɰ;ndȔC &y'mjeIqB#4Kwz(S'W^&8$tHG7`M5DQ;cx7ٍ_QUźEv%ע(R&)U]Ub.c
ѕiQrk5B&ڷ2~7g`3>Ý_Qv{ bmLПN>] w2}Qm'q-5㷵O c