Where the Jews Aren't

The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region

Nonfiction, History, Asian, Russia, Jewish, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book Where the Jews Aren't by Masha Gessen, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Masha Gessen ISBN: 9780805243413
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: August 23, 2016
Imprint: Schocken Language: English
Author: Masha Gessen
ISBN: 9780805243413
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: August 23, 2016
Imprint: Schocken
Language: English

From the acclaimed author of The Man Without a Face, the previously untold story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia that reveals the complex, strange, and heart-wrenching truth behind the familiar narrative that begins with pogroms and ends with emigration.

In 1929, the Soviet government set aside a sparsely populated area in the Soviet Far East for settlement by Jews. The place was called Birobidzhan.The idea of an autonomous Jewish region was championed by Jewish Communists, Yiddishists, and intellectuals, who envisioned a haven of post-oppression Jewish culture. By the mid-1930s tens of thousands of Soviet Jews, as well as about a thousand Jews from abroad, had moved there. The state-building ended quickly, in the late 1930s, with arrests and purges instigated by Stalin. But after the Second World War, Birobidzhan received another influx of Jews—those who had been dispossessed by the war. In the late 1940s a second wave of arrests and imprisonments swept through the area, traumatizing Birobidzhan’s Jews into silence and effectively shutting down most of the Jewish cultural enterprises that had been created. Where the Jews Aren’t is a haunting account of the dream of Birobidzhan—and how it became the cracked and crooked mirror in which we can see the true story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia.

*(Part of the Jewish Encounters series) *

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

From the acclaimed author of The Man Without a Face, the previously untold story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia that reveals the complex, strange, and heart-wrenching truth behind the familiar narrative that begins with pogroms and ends with emigration.

In 1929, the Soviet government set aside a sparsely populated area in the Soviet Far East for settlement by Jews. The place was called Birobidzhan.The idea of an autonomous Jewish region was championed by Jewish Communists, Yiddishists, and intellectuals, who envisioned a haven of post-oppression Jewish culture. By the mid-1930s tens of thousands of Soviet Jews, as well as about a thousand Jews from abroad, had moved there. The state-building ended quickly, in the late 1930s, with arrests and purges instigated by Stalin. But after the Second World War, Birobidzhan received another influx of Jews—those who had been dispossessed by the war. In the late 1940s a second wave of arrests and imprisonments swept through the area, traumatizing Birobidzhan’s Jews into silence and effectively shutting down most of the Jewish cultural enterprises that had been created. Where the Jews Aren’t is a haunting account of the dream of Birobidzhan—and how it became the cracked and crooked mirror in which we can see the true story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia.

*(Part of the Jewish Encounters series) *

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book Friend of My Youth by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Journey to the Abyss by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book The Accidental Tourist by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Angels and Ages by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Mrs. Sartoris by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Girl in Landscape by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book A Dark Matter by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Mountain Music Fills the Air: Banjos and Dulcimers by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book A Hologram for the King by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Fast Boat to China by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Spring Snow by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Satan, Cantor, And Infinity And Other Mind-bogglin by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book The New Biographical Dictionary of Film by Masha Gessen
Cover of the book Personal Politics by Masha Gessen
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy