Borrow it
Coverart for item
The Resource Where the Jews aren't : the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish autonomous region, Masha Gessen

Where the Jews aren't : the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish autonomous region, Masha Gessen

Creator
Author
Summary
"The story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia as told through the strange history of the Soviet solution to the Jewish question. In 1929, the Soviet Union declared the area of Birobidzhan a homeland for Jews. In the late 1920s and early 1932, tens of thousands of Jews moved to Birobidzhan, chased from the shtetl by poverty, hunger, and fear. Birobidzhan was written about breathlessly by a small group of intellectuals who envisioned a home built by Jews for Jews--a place where Jews worked the land and where Yiddish would become the common language of a post-oppression Jewish culture. The short period of state-building ended in the late 1930s with arrests and purges of the Communist Party and cultural elite. After the Second World War, Birobidzhan, now called the "Jewish Autonomous Region," received a new influx of Jews. These were the dispossessed from what had once been the Pale, and most of them had lost families in the Holocaust. They had no one and no place to return to. Once again, in the late 1940s, a wave of arrests swept through Birobidzhan, frightening the Jews into silence and making them invisible. WHERE THE JEWS AREN'T is the story of the dream of Birobidzhan--and how it became a nightmare. In Masha Gessen's haunting and haunted account, Birobidzhan becomes the cracked and crooked mirror that allows us to see the story of the history of absence and silence that is the story of Jews in twentieth-century Russia"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First edition.
Extent
170 pages
Isbn
9780805242461
Instance
Label
Where the Jews aren't : the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish autonomous region
Title
Where the Jews aren't
Title remainder
the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish autonomous region
Statement of responsibility
Masha Gessen
Title variation
Where the Jews arent
Title variation remainder
the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russias autonomous region
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"The story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia as told through the strange history of the Soviet solution to the Jewish question. In 1929, the Soviet Union declared the area of Birobidzhan a homeland for Jews. In the late 1920s and early 1932, tens of thousands of Jews moved to Birobidzhan, chased from the shtetl by poverty, hunger, and fear. Birobidzhan was written about breathlessly by a small group of intellectuals who envisioned a home built by Jews for Jews--a place where Jews worked the land and where Yiddish would become the common language of a post-oppression Jewish culture. The short period of state-building ended in the late 1930s with arrests and purges of the Communist Party and cultural elite. After the Second World War, Birobidzhan, now called the "Jewish Autonomous Region," received a new influx of Jews. These were the dispossessed from what had once been the Pale, and most of them had lost families in the Holocaust. They had no one and no place to return to. Once again, in the late 1940s, a wave of arrests swept through Birobidzhan, frightening the Jews into silence and making them invisible. WHERE THE JEWS AREN'T is the story of the dream of Birobidzhan--and how it became a nightmare. In Masha Gessen's haunting and haunted account, Birobidzhan becomes the cracked and crooked mirror that allows us to see the story of the history of absence and silence that is the story of Jews in twentieth-century Russia"--
Member of
Tone
Writing style
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
http://library.link/vocab/ext/novelist/bookUI
10521880
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Gessen, Masha
Dewey number
957/.7
Illustrations
maps
Index
no index present
LC call number
DK771.B5
LC item number
G47 2016
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/resourcePreferred
True
Series statement
Jewish encounters
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Birobidzhan (Russia)
  • Jews
Target audience
adult
http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/titleRemainder
the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's autonomous region
Label
Where the Jews aren't : the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish autonomous region, Masha Gessen
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
23 cm.
Edition
First edition.
Extent
170 pages
Isbn
9780805242461
Isbn Type
(hardback)
Lccn
2015049370
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
map
System control number
  • 932001420
  • (OCoLC)932001420
Label
Where the Jews aren't : the sad and absurd story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish autonomous region, Masha Gessen
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Dimensions
23 cm.
Edition
First edition.
Extent
170 pages
Isbn
9780805242461
Isbn Type
(hardback)
Lccn
2015049370
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
map
System control number
  • 932001420
  • (OCoLC)932001420

Subject

Member of

Library Locations

    • James City County LibraryBorrow it
      7770 Croaker Road, Williamsburg, VA, 23188, US
      37.377573 -76.770995

Library Links

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Williamsburg Regional Library. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.