Russian Silhouette. A Memoir of Activism and Identity by Daniel M. Jaffe

After Russian Studies at Princeton and a training as a lawyer, Daniel M. Jaffe decided to dedicate full time to his writing passion. Russian Silhouette, his ´memoir of activism and identity´, that I had access to in audiobook format, read by the author, is a testimony of his talent. 

It was a right decision to leave the dry world of law and dedicate to storytelling, especially when one has a story to tell. His is intertwined with a significant stage of the world history, especially Jewish history: the increased pressure of the then Soviet authorities against dissident and the stubborn efforts to block any attempts of Russian Jews from leaving the country. 

As a student, a bit naive, keen to improve his Russian skills, Jaffe who is himself Jewish, got to know the everyday life of the Soviet citizens, their deprivations and the enormous risks human rights activists undertook, involving the lives of other family members and friends. Jaffe, and we all, may learn about human dignity and values from those courageous dissidents. In his particular case, it also meant leading him to a more open acknowledgment of his own identity and ultimate coming out both to his family, friends and Soviet acquaintances. 

The story is told with so much humour, despite the clear restrictive circumstances, and relating the reader so directly, that I may be missing the characters at the end of the book. They felt so closed and their fate so tragic, reminding me always about the respect I have towards Russian Jews who often paid a high price for just not forgetting who they are. 

Russian Silhouette is an important testimony adding up to the bibliography about refuseniks nevertheless a story of resilience and accepting authenticity.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Audiobook offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Zelmenyaners. A Family Saga by Moyshe Kulbak translated from Yiddish by Hillel Halkin

A Jewish family saga set in Minsk, currently Belarus, The Zelmenyaners is a tragi-comical story of the inhabitants of a Jewish hoyf - or a courtyard, in Yiddish - faced with the violent settling of the new Soviet-driven reality. The hoyf is where the news are brought, where people go through as they come or as they go. There is always someone there ready to register the news. 

I laughed a lot, but also realised the diquieting signs of the new times coming. I knew what it will happen to many of them, what the newly order will bring to those Jews, other than the blessings of electricity and radio. It is the last breath of a world long gone. While reading the book I was able to imagine that hoyf and the interaction between the inhabitants, as well as their humour, fearlessness and most importanlty, their joy of life. 

The book was lately discovered and published in 2013 with an introduction and notes by Sasha Sanderovich. The book was initially serialized in the local Yiddish-speaking media of the time, hence the structure of the book chapters, that indeed look like separate story installments.

Kulbak, a former talmid at Volozhin Yeshiva in Belarus and primarily a poet, was killed at the Stalin´s orders during the Great Purge of Belarusian intellectuals when he was only 41. After the death of Stalin he, altogether with the other murdered intellectuals, was rehabilitated by the Soviet authorities.