Yiddish and the Cold War

Leading Soviet Yiddish writers David Bergelson, Itsik Fefer, and Peretz Mazrkish were among the members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee who were executed in 1952 when Gennady (Yiddish studies, New York U.; managing editor, Sovietish Heymland, 1988-91) was an infant in Ukraine. While the loyalty of Jewish Communist intelligentsia was always suspect by their Stalin administration comrades, the Yiddish press was deemed a useful propaganda tool to reach Soviet Jews. He discusses internal conflicts in this press, Soviet Yiddish language experiments, and the plan for the Jewish autonomous region of Birobidzhan. The volume includes photos. Legenda is a joint imprint of the European Humanities Research Centre, U. of Oxford, and Maney Publishing. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)