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In his captivating new book, author and scholar Maxim D. Shrayer offers a richly journalistic portrait of Russia's dwindling yet still vibrant Jewish community. This is simultaneously an in-depth exploration of the texture of Jewish life in Putin's Russia and an émigré's moving elegy for Russia's Jews.
List of contents
Prologue: "G-d gave me as a Jew such a place in life" 1. A Visit to the Museum 2. A Streetcar Named Oblivion 3. Gauging Russian Antisemitism 4. The Ambassador of Jewish Pride 5. Staying or Leaving 6. Almost Folklore In Closing: Jewish Clowns in Moscow Acknowledgments List of Photos Works Cited Index of Names
About the author
Maxim D. Shrayer, bilingual author and scholar, was born in Moscow in 1967 to a Jewish-Russian family with Ukrainian and Lithuanian roots and spent over eight years as a refusenik. He and his parents, the writer David Shrayer-Petrov and the translator Emilia Shrayer, left the USSR and immigrated to the United States in 1987. Shrayer received a PhD from Yale University in 1995. He is Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College. Shrayer has authored and edited over twenty books of nonfiction, criticism, fiction, poetry, and translations. Among his books are the literary memoirs
Waiting for America and
Leaving Russia and the collection
A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas. He is the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships, including a 2007 National Jewish Book Award and a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship. Shrayer’s publications have been translated into thirteen languages. He also edits the "Jews of Russia & Eastern Europe and Their Legacy" and the "Immigrant Worlds & Texts" series. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Dr. Karen E. Lasser, a medical researcher and physician, and their daughters Mira and Tatiana.
Summary
In his captivating new book, based on new evidence and a series of interviews, Maxim D. Shrayer offers a journalistic portrait of Russia's dwindling yet still vibrant and influential Jewish community. This is simultaneously an in-depth exploration of the texture of Jewish life in Putin's Russia and an émigré's moving elegy for Russia's Jews.
Additional text
In Maxim D. Shrayer’s study With or Without You: The Prospect for Jews in Today’s Russia, the complicated nature of what it means to live as a Jew in Russia is delicately addressed. ... Having written and translated numerous books, including two memoirs, Shrayer has become an expert in Russian-Jewish literature and culture.
