Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin

July 28, 2008
Hunter College Russian professor Draitser recalls a post-WWII Odessa youth blighted by a pernicious and pervasive anti-Semitism that made him ashamed of being Jewish—so ashamed that decades after arriving in America, he still whispered references to things Jewish. A bewildered and reluctant observer of the rise of Russian chauvinism as the Cold War erupted, Draitser remembers how gangs of youngsters hunted Holocaust survivor children and permanently maimed his seven-year-old cousin; the discovery of his beloved Pushkin's hateful characterizations of Jews left him confused and disgusted with himself. He recalls the clouds of suspicion surrounding his mother's friend, a pediatrician, when Jewish doctors were targeted with trumped-up charges of sabotage in the 1950s “Doctors' Plot.” His parents' yearning to connect to their heritage is movingly portrayed: Draitser's father saved the peel from an Israeli orange, and his mother traveled to the boonies to surreptitiously purchase Passover matzos. This painful and acutely observed memoir will resonate with many readers; unfortunately, it ends with Stalin's death. How Draitser and his parents made their way to America and how they fared here are unexplored. 22 b&w photos.

August 15, 2008
Draitser's (Russian, Hunter Coll.; "Making War, Not Love: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Humor") Soviet childhood in his mid-20th-century Odessa community was heavily influenced by the harsh realities of rampant anti-Semitism and the resulting struggles of his family to preserve their religious and cultural heritage under repressive conditions. In this minutely observed and evocatively written memoir, he skillfully draws on the often compelling life stories of his grandparents and other relatives to weave a sprawling tale that ably depicts the harrowing history of Jews in Soviet-controlled Ukraine. With touches of humor and remembering his precocious earlier self, Draitser analyzes his growing boyhood awareness of his Jewish identity and his difficult struggles to come to terms with his place in a Soviet society where to have a Jewish name or to speak Yiddish was to become a target of ridicule. With a few overly cerebral and dense historical and linguistic tangents, this work will likely appeal most to serious readers or scholars interested in Soviet or Jewish history. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.Ingrid Levin, Salve Regina Univ. Lib., Newport, RI

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