Why does a Jew Borukh Gorin have a Russian surname? Borukh Gorin: “Translating classical texts is a heavy burden
Publicist Borukh Gorin, head of the public relations department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR), blamed “Stockholm syndrome” on Jews who do not agree with the dogmas of Kremlin propaganda regarding the Holocaust.
“I don’t know whether it’s worth repeating for the thousandth time: of course, it was not the Polish or Ukrainian people who actively participated in the extermination of Jews, but specific Poles or Ukrainians. And questions arise today for the Polish or Ukrainian state as being responsible not for the past, but for the present and future. And for the memory that it tries to “regulate”.
And for the Jews, who are in the forefront this time too, there are fewer and fewer questions. Stockholm syndrome, as it was said,” Gorin writes on March 21 in his next article on the website of the Lechaim magazine, of which he is the editor.
One could ignore another opus of this kind, but at the beginning of the article, the anti-Zionist Gorin, who, like his like-minded people, is doing everything possible to perpetuate the presence of Jews in the “glamorous” Moscow galut, again uses the “Israeli trump card” in order to his article seemed more convincing.
First of all, I would like to note that the native Odessa Muscovite Borukh has no right to broadcast on behalf of Israel, where he does not live and where, apparently, he has no intention of repatriating (until those anti-Semites really “ask” him to which, in his opinion, “do not exist” in Russia - at least at the state level).
Let us also recall that Stockholm syndrome (according to Wikipedia) is a term popular in psychology that describes a defensive-unconscious traumatic connection, mutual or one-sided sympathy that arises between the victim and the aggressor in the process of capture, abduction and (or) the use or threat of violence.
“Under the influence of intense experience, hostages begin to sympathize with their captors, justify their actions and ultimately identify with them, adopting their ideas and considering their sacrifice necessary to achieve a “common” goal,” says an article on the topic.
The last paragraph very well describes the background of a new kind of “Stockholm” syndrome, which can be called Jewish-Kremlin.
Since Borukh Gorin writes that “questions arise today for the Polish or Ukrainian state as being responsible not for the past, but for the present and future,” then we will not recall in detail that from September 1939 to 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union helped Nazi Germany in the defeat of the independent states of Europe and turned a blind eye to the creation of Holocaust infrastructure in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Therefore, I would like to wish the Kremlin Jews to be as brave and decisive not only in condemning Poland and Ukraine. And, above all, do not brush aside inconvenient questions - for example, about why they are not protesting while modern Russia helps build a nuclear reactor for Iran, whose leadership openly declares its intention to destroy Israel.
Where does their anger and indignation disappear when the Kremlin emphasizes again and again: Hamas and Hezbollah are “non-terrorists?” Why does Russia vote again and again at the UN and UNESCO along with those who deny the connection of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount not only with Israel, but also with the history of the Jewish people?
Kremlin syndrome, as was said...
Interview with the editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Knizhniki" and the general director of the publishing house of the same name, Borukh Gorin
Interview: Mikhail Vizel
Photos courtesy of the publishing house
The epithet “people of the book” has been applied to Jewry since the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the subsequent Dispersion - when the Jews really had to look in written sources - holy books and multi-layered interpretations on them - for a full-fledged replacement for the lost religious center around which they could rally in order to maintain their identity. In the 20th century, the situation turned upside down again: after the terrible catastrophes of its first half, the threat of complete physical destruction, fortunately, receded. But at the same time she retreated and a vital necessity the same rallying around the book - which precisely leads to the erosion of identity. The Knizhniki publishing house and the publishing house created on its basis are trying, and not without success, to prevent this. As this happens, we talk with the key figure of the “Scribes” Borukh Gorin.
So, the publishing house “Knizhniki” appeared in 2006...
Borukh Gorin: It was conceived in 2006. First, the magazine “Lechaim” appeared, which itself published a number of books.
Then let's take another step back. So, the magazine “Lechaim” appeared...
Borukh Gorin: In 1991. The magazine "Lechaim", it must be said, is completely different from its counterparts in France, America or Israel. Essentially these are five magazines under one cover. It is at the same time a literary magazine, a magazine of political analytics, religious education, cultural studies plus an academic one, which is completely unnatural. This cannot and should not be the case. But that's a given. We cannot publish five magazines and not others.
And under him, we published some books from time to time, one or two a year. Long before the “Scribes,” “Masters” was published Bernard Malamud. "Nadezhda" was published Herman Wouk.
The same thing happened with the Knizhniki publishing house. We wanted, but could not become a publisher of only religious literature.
And secular literature, I am convinced of this, serves as a link, a connection between generations.
Simply because this link does not exist, and without atmosphere there is no tradition. Our parents were raised in a secular society, outside the Jewish tradition. But they had grandparents who were brought up in the tradition. But we and our children do not have such grandparents. I think a good book can act as such grandparents.
That’s why it was so important to start with the stolen layer of Jewish culture, with exactly what the Soviet people were deprived of.
First of all, this is literature in Yiddish. An absolute disaster happened to Yiddish. It must be understood that in the 1930s Yiddish literature was not just promising. It was at such incredible heights that it was impossible to imagine that in twenty years there would not be even ten major writers left who would write in this language, and no more than a hundred thousand - after tens of millions - who could read it. It's not just about the Holocaust, as you might think. American Jews did not stop reading Yiddish because of the Holocaust. They had a completely voluntary assimilation, a desire to leave the knapsack with which their grandfather came to Ellis Island, forever in the past, become real Americans.
This is one level of disaster. And the other, already purely Soviet: these books simply ceased to exist in the context of Soviet literature, Soviet books.
And this was the first task - to present to the world that Jewish literature did not end there.
What were great Chaim Grade, great Bashevis-Singer- unknown, even despite .
After the Six-Day War of 1967, relations between the USSR and Israel deteriorated sharply. Not surprisingly, Israeli literature was not welcomed. But were Yiddish writers more American than Israeli?
Borukh Gorin: There was simply no one to translate this huge layer of literature from Yiddish. But by 2006, there were already people who could translate from Yiddish. A school appeared. Only thanks to her we were able to launch the “Wandering Stars” series, more than thirty volumes. All the main things that were written in Yiddish prose, we have translated today.
This series stood out from another, larger one - from “Prose of Jewish Life”. Everyone knows the little blue series, in which there are one hundred and fifty volumes. At first it published translations from Yiddish, Hebrew, and other languages, and what was written in Russian. As it is called, it is - the prose of Jewish life. Came up with the name Asar Eppel, beautiful, in my opinion, in its ambiguity. Here there is prose as prose, and prose in the sense that we have before us the very real Jewish life of different diasporas in many languages. Translations from Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, and of course from English. Plus from German, from Yiddish, from Hebrew, from Polish. This is a very important series for us; it closes more or less Jewish literature of the 20th century. We have collected books that, in our opinion, and in the opinion of our experts, most fully reflect the life of the diaspora. There is even one book about the life of Jews in Iran and Syria. Wonderful books. They discovered for me the completely impossible and non-existent modern Arabic-speaking Jewry in my mind. And you realize that everything is not at all as you imagined. This is truly an entrance into someone else's civilization, into a world unknown to you. And entry is not as a tourist, but as an expert. You become one of. You are nearby, you see everything from the inside.
But in the “Prose of Jewish Life” series we have not only modern literature. These are mostly books written in the 20th century. They were not translated under Soviet rule, despite their highest level. For example, Philip Roth, one of the main American writers of the 20th century, was minimally represented in Russian. Saul Bellow didn't exist either, just one book. Malamud - almost nothing.
Here we must understand that these are not diaspora writers, these are outstanding prose writers. Saul Bellow- Nobel Prize laureate, - the only winner of all American literary awards. Bernard Malamud- teacher of the generation. They did not exist in Russian. And in parallel there was a second row of wonderful writers, English-speaking, but not American. Let's say Mordecai Richler, an outstanding Canadian novelist. For Canadian literature, this is one of the names in the first row, and maybe even the first. But no one here knew him.
Our “Prose of Jewish Life” filled this gap in ten years, and the result was even somewhat greater than could have been expected. Its own market has formed. The networks know that they need to take Jewish books from us.
But we ourselves did not expect that we would become the largest translated Jewish publishing house in the world.
In the world - not in Russia!
Then why didn’t Amos Oz and Etgar Keret come out with you?
Borukh Gorin: I’ll say right away: it worked out for us. But publishing a book is not enough; you also need to bring it to the reader and sell it. The bookselling system in Russia is structured in such a way that it is not easy for a small publishing house to survive. That is why, with the funds that supported us at the initial stage, in the first years we made it a rule for ourselves to publish all books together with a publishing house, which has its own distribution service. At first there were two publishing houses with which we collaborated - B.S.G.-Press and Text. When the director of "B.S.G." Alexander Gantman passed away, only “Text” remained.
And it was thanks to “Text” that Shalev in Russia became what he became. Here, of course, great credit goes to the outstanding translator Rafail Nudelman, and his wife Alla Furman. They did Shaleva Russian Jew. Both died, alas, within the last year. But what happened? This amazing coincidence effect arose. Unexpectedly for us, these first books by Shalev in the late 2000s fell in love with the then extremely popular Victor Shenderovich, he mentioned them many times on air.
Shalev was appreciated Ulitskaya, Bykov, and he became a widely read and beloved writer in Russia.
As we see, this did not happen with Oz. What I mean is that maybe at some stage we would have repurchased the exclusive. St. Petersburg "Amphora" quite quickly lost interest in him; apparently, he did not do well commercially as they expected.
And then what happened happened: it was published by Phantom Press. Our rule is: if someone publishes someone else, so be it. After all, we are not so much a commercial publishing house, but rather a cultural publishing house. If another Russian publishing house works with some Israeli author, this is very good.
So I'm happy for Keret. Of course, it should be on the Russian market. But if it’s not us who can do it, so be it.
I asked about Keret because he is a) a Hebrew-speaking writer, b) absolutely secular.
Borukh Gorin: How is Shalev different from him? He is more than secular and also Hebrew-speaking. In “Prose of Jewish Life” and in other series, both in fiction and non-fiction, most of our writers are secular. Philip Roth alone is worth it! Keret is a nun compared to him.
Meir Shalev / photo courtesy of the publishing house
With Philip Roth too interesting story. We weren't the ones who worked with him either. We once published “Goodbye, Columbus,” an excellent book with which he burst into American literature. And then Roth was not with us for a long time. Why? Of course, he is our writer. But it was published by St. Petersburg “Limbus Press” and “Amphora”. And again, he did not become what he was supposed to become in Russia. We were ready to publish it, contacted the copyright holders, and they told us that St. Petersburg had the exclusive. Three years ago the rights were released. I don’t know what happened to Limbus, but they stopped working with Roth’s books. On top of that, they disrupted the order in which the books were published. Roth himself and his copyright holders have this clearly stated: you cannot publish only what you want. If you want to publish this, publish this and that first. This is understandable; Roth’s novels are combined into cycles. But Limbus did not do this.
So we gladly bought this exclusive and started working. This year we are publishing six volumes by Philip Roth. Six volumes per year.
Borukh Gorin, Asar Eppel, Lyudmila Ulitskaya/photo courtesy of the publishing house
But, excuse the cynicism, he died.
Borukh Gorin: If you're talking about hype, then no. We released American Pastoral during his lifetime. They re-released it. And the book went. Honestly, I don’t see that sales have increased significantly since Roth’s death; there is no direct correlation. Of course, the market knows him. It's a shame that it was objectively poorly published, poorly promoted, and failed to make it what it was supposed to be. Roth is not just a great writer, he is a very Russian writer in a certain sense. Understandable to the Russian reader. Yes, the market is whimsical
but why should Shalev become a mega-phenomenon in Russia, and Oz or Roth not?
I don't know, but it's unfair, it shouldn't be like that. I hope Roth will be our second Singer, will be included in this series of forwards: Singer, Shalev, . Sorry, but from a sales point of view this is true.
We are currently actively publishing Nathan Englander. In America, this is a writer of the first rank. And this is the one who must conquer the market here.
You said that 150 books have been published in the “Prose of Jewish Life” series. For how many years?
Borukh Gorin: The first book was published in 2007.
For eleven years. Quite a serious portfolio, a serious catalogue.
Borukh Gorin: This is despite the fact that other series came out of it. “Wandering Stars” broke away from “Prose of Jewish Life” and exists independently; we publish Roth in the author’s series. We also do not publish Englander in “Prose of Jewish Life”; these are independently living books.
You anticipated my question: what other series do you have, besides “Prose of Jewish Life”?
Borukh Gorin: There is its non-fiction sister, The Chace Collection.
Sponsored by Chase Bank?!
Borukh Gorin: Think in the right direction. But no, not even a namesake: there’s Chase, there’s Chase. It was the Stanley Chase Family Foundation that supported this series of ours.
And I decided: there is the Tretyakov Gallery, there is the Bakhrushin Museum, so let there be a Chace collection.
Let a man go down in history who has the right to do so: he supported academic studies all over the world. One of the main sponsors of academic Jewish studies in the world in the 1990s. And in this series we publish serious academic works. We also publish biographies there. Such strong non-fiction, very good. Some books from the Chace Collection also became quite popular.
Which?
Borukh Gorin: Let's take The Aleppo Code, a wonderful investigative piece by Matti Friedman, the man who ran the Associated Press in Israel. A great documentary detective story about the disappearance of himself ancient list Masoretic Bible in Aleppo. There he proves that the state of Israel participated in the theft, of course, in a completely illegal way. Awesome study, it was very popular. This series also includes the famous “Book of the Khazar” (“Sefer ha-kuzari”) Yehuda Halevi. There is “Life as a Kvech,” a funny essay by a Montreal Yiddish professor. “Kvech” means grumbling, a state when a person is dissatisfied with everything. The book is about how the Yiddish language reflects the Ashkenazi mentality.
How did you come to children's literature? Naturally? Children were born, did they need books?
Borukh Gorin: It was completely natural: there was almost no Jewish children’s literature in Russian, and a demand for it had formed. It was clear that this was needed; we were asked about it at each fair many times. We tried, timidly at first, then more and more actively. Children's books are expensive to produce, but we have them, as we can see.
What do you mean by the concept of “Jewish children’s literature”? Are these books about Noah, about Abraham? About Purim?
Borukh Gorin: No. For us Jewish literature- this is literature about Jewry. About Jews as Jews. If the book is about Einstein, then not as a physicist, but as a Jew, about his Jewish experiences. Purely Jewish reflections related to Jewish tradition, Jewish history.
You probably want to hear about our failures. Please: we had such a series “Meeting Place”, we allocated it for reading. Detectives, love sagas - genre prose, in short. Excellent books were published there: “The Chosen One” Chaim Potok, "Immortelle" Belvy Plain, such as “Gone with the Wind”. I translated this book very well. There was also a collection of Jewish fiction edited by. It would seem that this is absolutely win-win literature. But these very good books did not sell.
And finally, our main contribution to the building of Jewish identity is the huge series “Library of Jewish Texts”, “BET”. The second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Second level after fiction and non-fiction, the next stage of Jewish self-awareness, advanced. There are already more than seventy volumes, and these are the most expensive and difficult books to produce. We have been preparing some of them for five years or more. These are translations of classic texts of the Jewish tradition, from the Bible and its commentary to the Talmud and beyond. Not just a translation, but also an extensive commentary. Books that were mentioned earlier: for self-study.
At the beginning of this year, Mikhail Grinberg proudly spoke to me about this kind of literature. They also publish annotated holy books. How do you and Gesharim “share the clearing”?
Borukh Gorin:“Gesharim” and I do not share the clearing in any way, we cooperate.
If I absolutely sincerely, hand on heart, said that I am happy when any good publishing house takes on Keret or Oz, then this is even more true when it comes to Gesharim. As soon as I know that Gesharim has taken on some extensive project, it is a relief for me because I can now take on something else.
If, God grant Mikhail Lvovich health and prosperity, he will publish academic works in fifteen to twenty years, great. If not, then we will publish them.
Academic projects and translations of classical texts are no longer just cultural waste, they are a heavy burden.
And if someone is ready to offer not just a shoulder, but at least a little finger, we are only happy.
You can still talk about “Prose of Jewish Life” and children’s literature in commercial categories, but the rest of what we do is not a commercial project at all. And they cannot be commercial; they do not exist anywhere in the world as commercial.
Therefore, they are grant-funded.
Borukh Gorin: We started with a grant to translate the Talmud. Everything else - the work of the designer, proofreader, printing - we pay for, and these are very serious costs. There are books that we translate using our own funds. Moreover, we are the only ones in the world who publish this without financial support from outside. Nobody does that anymore.
Let's say, a translation of commentaries on the Pentateuch. On the Pentateuch with translation Rashi we received a grant, and the Pentateuch with translation Ibn Ezra did it ourselves. This is a huge investment. We publish the Midrash entirely ourselves. It would be great to get a grant for this.
But our patrons don’t really understand why book publishing needs to be supported. Donating to an orphanage or the construction of a synagogue - yes. Why use books? They will also be sold.
People don't understand that in America not a single academic book on Jewish studies has been published without a grant. And a huge grant. The author or translator sits on this scholarship for two years. We don't have anything like that here. And we are obliged to pay as much as this work costs. A person who translates a classic text with commentary, how much will he translate in a month? He can translate three sheets of paper efficiently, no more. And that’s all he’ll do all the time. This means that we must pay him at least two thousand dollars, if he lives in Israel, it simply cannot be less. With taxes, that's three thousand dollars. In other words, in the book we must budget sixty thousand dollars for the author alone. Let there be a circulation of a thousand copies, then the cost of royalties alone for each book will be sixty dollars. Plus layout, printing, delivery - such a book will reach the store for more than a hundred dollars. Who can afford to buy it for that kind of money?
How is all this accomplished?
Borukh Gorin: By God's providence. We are a relatively large Jewish publishing house. We earn money in one place and invest in another. There is no talk of any decent profit that might interest a businessman, you can believe me.
Fortunately, there is always, or almost always, someone who is willing to share this burden with us. We began publishing “Prose of Jewish Life” with the American-Israeli Avi Chai Foundation. They were the sponsors of all the high-quality academic Jewish life in Russia: “Eshkolot”, the programs of the “Sefer” center - this is largely their merit. They also actively supported us, thank them for that. But they supported us and left, and then we were left on our own.
Why did you leave?
Borukh Gorin: Because no fund lasts forever; any one of them ends its activities in Russia at some point. There are no eternal funds. The Chace Foundation existed for decades, but it too closed. Most American charities live on a trust, which is left as an inheritance. A will usually states how many years it is to be distributed, and at some point those years end. This is not a Nobel Prize, which can live for centuries; there is no endowment here. So there was an “Avi Hai” foundation in Russia, but now it’s gone. Almost not.
Is this not related to our changed political situation?
Borukh Gorin: No, there is no direct connection. But Avi Hai left the grant market, and we were forced to look for other sources of survival. Yes, the publisher’s first priority is to prepare texts. But to support one expensive book, you need to publish at least ten profitable ones. Although this is still a utopia.
Fortunately, we found like-minded people and created a board of directors whose members are ready to invest in books.
The creator of this board of directors, Vadim Markovich Aminov, is engaged in railway transportation, for him it is charity. Of course, professional charity is when it’s not just taking money and feeding the hungry, but working with him to figure out how he can develop. This is an investment not so much in books, but rather in infrastructure and distribution systems. We are actively doing this in the hope that we will be able to stand on our own two feet so firmly that if another fund leaves, another sponsor fizzles out and grants run out, we will still be able to survive on our own. To survive not only to support our commercial projects, but also to remain cultural leaders. There is no way without this.
Technical question. What is the staff of the publishing house and the range of freelance workers?
Borukh Gorin: Staff is an outdated concept these days. How many people have brought a work book to the publishing house? About seven people including me. And hundreds are preparing books. First of all, this is the Israeli editorial office: coordinators, translators, editors, commentators - in total there are seventy to eighty people who make the “Library of Jewish Texts”. Of course, they are not full-time employees, but freelancers. They have the right to spend two mornings at the university.
Quite a large staff.
Borukh Gorin: Certainly. I’ll tell you more: I think all Russian-speaking specialists in Jewish studies work with us. I don’t think there is even a single specialist in Israel who has passed through this cup.
Donetsk, February 2. Journalists from leading Russian, Ukrainian and Western television companies froze in anticipation. The leaders of the DPR and LPR take the stage.
Transcript of "Jewish" excerpt from the press conference:
« Zakharchenko:And I also want to say: I don’t remember something in the history of Ukraine where the Cossacks were ruled by... well, not exactly the same people who never ran with a saber in their lives.
Plotnitsky: Why...
Zakharchenko: Well, I’m talking about the Jews.
Plotnitsky: Yes, somewhere on YouTube let them look, there’s even a song there« When the Jewish Cossacks rebelled» .
Zakharchenko: Well, these are far from Jewish Cossacks, these are pathetic representatives of a very large and great people. And they certainly didn’t rule the Cossacks. I think Taras Bulba and Taras Shevchenko will turn over in their grave more than once because of such rulers of Ukraine.”
The transcript is, of course, good, but you have to see it. Facial expressions, facial expressions, shoulder twitches, smiles. The rest is as usual: a business suit on the Lugansk resident, camouflage with St. George's crosses on the Donetsk resident.
Is anyone surprised? Did anyone believe that these irreconcilable fighters against Ukraine were driven solely by the ideas of internationalism? They, of course, slow things down a little: it’s good to come to power based on such reasoning, but then it’s worth hiding them. You can learn this from the Maidan battalion commanders currently sitting in the Rada. But a sage learns, and experts on the Taras’ creativity do not shine with special wisdom. It’s okay, maybe someone will tell me: for Moscow impartial observers, such rhetoric somewhat complicates the anti-fascist pathos. However, I’m afraid that these arguments will no longer spoil the reputation of the militias.
But the topic is good! It has been trampled on by both sides since the very beginning of the armed confrontation. Not disdaining direct forgeries. Suffice it to recall the revealing stories on Russian TV channels about the Jewish origin of the Maidan leaders. Pearls of the Donetsk leader - they are from there. From a deep, unfounded conviction that coupons can be cut off from the Jewish theme. How well the stories about the beatings of Jews in revolutionary Kyiv, about anti-Semitic terror in Odessa went! Lieutenants of Kizhe from Jewish communities appeared- unknown to anyone« leaders of Odessa Jews» threatening almost armed resistance"Bandera" . In turn, the real Dnepropetrovsk governor never refuted the telephone intimidation of the Jewish black mark against Tsarev.
Where should poor Jews go? Jewish organizations have a ready answer on this matter. To computers - declare!
« The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress expresses deep indignation at the statements of the heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, provoking anti-Semitic sentiments...
Such speculative statements appeal to the basest human instincts...
The EAJC strongly condemns..."
As they write on the Internet, PPKS, I subscribe to every word. The only question is: why? Why Jewish organizations"angrily condemn" ? I know the answer: to attract the attention of the world community. For what? Alas, often- to yourself. Because in this particular episode, the anti-Semitic maxims of the leaders of the armed groups, as already mentioned, are unlikely to open anyone’s eyes to them. If the monitoring of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is focused on« we won't miss it, we won't allow it» , then where are the statements about heroes"Azova" led by the most popular battalion commander in Ukraine, Biletsky, an ardent defender of the White Race and Purity of Blood? And he is now at the zenith of his glory, we should try to stop him. No? Therefore, it’s not a matter of monitoring.
EAJC is only archetypal here. I am a member of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. Just a few years ago and we " strongly condemned""revisionism" in the Baltic states and Ukraine. Yes, and my native Russian too.
But since the beginning of the Ukrainian events, when it became so difficult to distinguish fascism from anti-fascism, the main commandment of the press services of Jewish organizations, it seems to me, has become medical" do no harm " . Do everything to prevent people with machine guns from taking advantage of the topic. Is it working for us? Not good. The Crimean community asks for help- The chief rabbi of Russia is coming. Means,"krymnash" . The President of the country comes to the Jewish Museum on Holocaust Remembrance Day- and all television companies Russia is broadcasting his words about the parallels between the Holocaust and the events in Donbass. This is how this world works. Policy- the art of adapting whatever is possible to one’s needs. The information war for the sympathy of the electorate and influential public circles did not begin today and will not end tomorrow. The topic of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism has not yet cooled down- This means they will bask around her.
Jewish organizations cannot exist in an information vacuum. You can only try not to get ahead of the rest on your own initiative.
Until I was sixteen, I lived in Odessa. This biographical fact left an indelible mark: even now, having lived most of my life in Moscow, I feel like an Odessa resident. During the stagnant years of my childhood, mezuzahs hung in the house and Passover was celebrated according to all the rules. So I am an Odessa Easter Jew. Like every Odessa resident, I’ve settled down well: I make a living doing my favorite pastime. By reading. He published a lot, wrote something, translated something. The main event in life was the meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. First virtual, then materialized. His view of a person’s mission, superimposed on Odessa’s zhoviality, is what made me me. |
Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Museum - about Vladimir Putin's proposal to place the Schneerson Library in the museum.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed placing the Schneerson Library, which is now located in the Russian State Library, in the Jewish Museum. Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center Borukh Gorin told Izvestia what difficulties are associated with the implementation of this project.
Is the Jewish Museum ready to host the Schneerson Library on its site, as President Putin proposed?
Neither you nor I, no one knows what exactly the president said yesterday. I think the president himself does not fully know what he is talking about when he says “Schneerson library.” He suggested starting to study the issue. This is a fair approach. The President said that he proposes “to place the library in the squares of the center.” What does "place" mean? Donate to the Jewish Museum? Transfer for storage? Create a branch of the Russian State Library? The answers to these questions can radically change the approach to the problem.
But one thing is clear - we are talking about a lot of books that need to be stored somewhere.
This is a question that has no answer for specialists - what exactly to transfer and in what volume. This collection is not identified or described in the RSL collections. They talk about 12 thousand books, but it is known for sure that there were 411 pounds of books - this is how many were accepted into the balance of the Rumyantsev Library in 1918, in the future the Lenin Library. These volumes were arranged mainly by size: large to large, small to small. They are strongly assimilated among other books on Jewish studies in the Russian State Library.
Need to start cataloging the Schneerson Library?
If the presidential order is signed and transferred to the Ministry of Culture, if the Ministry of Culture implements it properly, if the Russian State Library does not sabotage this decision, then the painstaking work of expert bibliographers will begin to search for books from the Schneerson Library.
Do they not have appropriate seals and bookplates?
Some of the books have obvious signs of belonging to the library. The other has secondary signs: these are notes from the Schneersons in the margins, and a handwriting examination needs to be carried out. Another part of the books has only indirect signs: for example, the second volume of a two-volume set, where the first clearly belongs to the library. There will be a lot of controversial tomes. The process of allocating a library is not a matter of one day, and I suspect that in the end there will be much fewer books listed than the 12 thousand that the media are talking about. Moreover, in the 1920s, the library was plundered, the well-known Yakov Blumkin traded manuscripts in the Middle East, and cheaply, and today almost every major collection of Jewish studies contains copies from this fund.
Are all the books in the collection of bibliographic and historical value?
About 90% of books, I believe, do not have much historical value. Some are of bibliographic value, and only a small part are rare manuscripts, early printed books, and unique manuscripts. These three subspecies must have different storage and display conditions.
Let's return to the question of the center's ability to provide these conditions.
It is obvious that the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center - the most technologically advanced cultural platform in Moscow - can provide all these conditions better than the current Russian State Library.
There are technologies, but what about competent experts?
Specialists in Jewish bibliographic values can be counted on the fingers of one hand all over the world - in London, New York, Tel Aviv, Moscow. If the matter takes a practical turn, they will be involved.
Will relations with the Hasidim in America worsen if the library is transferred to the Museum?
Today, the first and main question is how the American plaintiff will react to the compromise proposed by the Russian President. If he accepts it, he will have to withdraw the lawsuit from the American court.
What if he doesn’t accept it?
If the American plaintiff categorically refuses President Putin's offer, we will not accept these books as their owner.
What if you accept it for safekeeping or become a branch of the RSL?
This issue will need to be studied. We are likely to agree to such compromises; it is important from a moral point of view. But in this case, only the moral, and not the legal, side of the issue will change: the Americans, as they prosecuted the Russian Federation in court, will continue to do so. Our maximum task is to stop the prosecution, since it is destructive both for the Schneerson library and for cultural contacts between Russia and the USA. Since Judge Royce Lambert's decision that it was illegal to store Hasidic books in the RSL, not a single Russian exhibition has come to the United States for fear of arrest. This did not happen even during the Cold War.
Does everything depend on the goodwill of American Hasidim?
It may not exist. In the event of a transfer of the library from the RSL to the Jewish Museum in the USA, there are procedures by which the State Department will oblige the Ministry of Justice to overturn Judge Lambert's decision. In this case, the conflict between the Russian Federation and the United States would be settled, and the plaintiff would be left with nothing.
Will the books, if transferred to the Jewish Museum, be used in prayer practice or only studied as a historical monument?
We don’t pray for books, and there are no Torah lists there. Books should be studied, and not only unique ones. Of greatest interest are the notes in the margins left by the Lubavitcher rabbis, leaders of the Chabad Hasidic movement. Perhaps among them there are unique manuscripts that have not been published. In New York, the library of the Lubavitch movement is several times larger than the controversial fund, and at the same time absolutely all the manuscripts of their library have been published. The Schneerson Library demands the same thing - a discovery for the general reader and researcher.
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The Schneerson Library is the largest collection of Hasidic literature, which was collected from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Russian Hasidim call it the second most important (after the Western Wall) surviving Jewish shrine.
Part of the collection was nationalized by the Soviet government in 1918 - it is now located in the RSL. Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson took the other part to Riga, then to Poland. During the war, it ended up in Germany and, along with other trophies, was taken by Soviet troops to Moscow. Now this part is stored in the Russian State Military Archive.
In 1998, US Vice President Al Gore formally approached the Russian Prime Minister with a request to return the library to the Hasidim. In December 2006, the Lubavitcher Hasidim filed a lawsuit seeking return to the federal district court in Washington. The addressees of the claim were indicated Russian Federation, Ministry of Culture of Russia, Russian State Library and Russian State Military Archive.
On January 16, 2013, the Federal District Court in Washington ordered the Russian authorities to pay a fine of $50 thousand per day until the Schneerson library “returns” to the United States.
I'm somehow confused.
Trump wonders after another scandal with monstrous congresswomen from the Democratic Party: how can Jews vote for Democrats. This is either, he says, poor information or disloyalty.
Disloyalty to whom? Well, obviously, for Jewish interests. That is, in essence, the most tweeted president is accusing American Jews of lacking dual loyalty. Almost like my grandmother used to say: vi dos vet zayn far di yidn, how will it be for the Jews?
A US president with the mentality of a Jewish grandmother, and a New York one at that, is, of course, a little funny. He refused to go to Denmark, because why meet with a client who does not want to sell real estate - Greenland.
But by some unimaginable logical construction, in this small-town tirade of his, the targets of the tirade still saw an accusation of double loyalty! How?!
If anything, I am for a person to have many loyalties - to his wife, children, family, ancestors, principles. Well, to the homeland, of course. Some kind of very multilateral loyalty is obtained, and we are not single-celled.
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I remember when the case of the Dnepropetrovsk rabbi, R. Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, I prepared it for publication in Lechaim.
Then, by the way, this photograph was discovered. There is also a profile there. The yarmulke was completed later. Before this, only one photograph of him was known - of a very old man. When the Rebbe brought the late photograph, on the back he signed “My father and teacher?” There are about three between them years. And interrogations, and prison, and a terrible exile in Chiili. Hunger, loneliness, fear and anxiety for my son in occupied Dnepropetrovsk.
One of the main points of the accusation is organizing the baking of matzah for the Jews of Ukraine. And help to the families of those arrested. He writes in his complaints: “You want Soviet people to do their work honestly. My job is as a rabbi, and I did my job honestly.” Who cared about this pure logic?
They demanded names from him. And he called. The indignant investigator noted: this one died, this one died in Palestine.
Even for them he was too weak to be wasted. And they sent him to the Kazakh steppe.
Everything was taken from him. But it was impossible to take the Torah away from him. And THERE he wrote his commentary on it. Almost until death.
Today is 75 years since the death of the great righteous Rabbi Levi Isaac Schneerson. May his suffering and his righteousness be a protection to his people!
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In the weekly parsha, Moshe conveys to the heads of the tribes the rules for canceling vows. It must be said that Judaism treats additional restrictions voluntarily assumed by people with deep wariness. “Isn’t it enough for you to do what the Torah has forbidden?!”
But why? What's wrong with asceticism? Maybe, on the contrary, it’s good to go through this life without touching the soul with carnality?
There is a logic to the fact that this topic is discussed before entering the Land of Israel. Ahead lies sweat and blood, crops and commerce. And the natural reaction is to protect yourself from all this, to lock yourself in “spirituality.”
By the way, the tribes of Reuben and Gad say exactly the same thing: “Don’t take us across the Jordan!”
And this is not fear or laziness, this, as already said, is a natural reaction of the “generation of Knowledge”. Let us note that this is not the first time that this is how they react to a bright future “on the other side of the Jordan.”
But, having learned that they were ready to participate out of necessity in the common cause of the people of Israel, “let us hasten to go ahead of the children of Israel and bring them to the place [prepared] for them,” Moshe agreed.
Yes, your personal spiritual path is important, you can and should think about your soul, but not at the expense of society! Having fulfilled your duty to your people, you can return to yourself. But not before.
Shabbat Shalom!
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Ambiguous character. If this reader's characteristic has any meaning, then it seems to have been created for Pinchas.
Facts, just facts: debauchery is happening in front of everyone in a more than taboo society. The libertine is not just anyone, but the head of the tribe. All this in the desert, where the Almighty spoke to them. Horrible and scary: G-d already More than once he punished people for this. And now there is pestilence. It’s unclear what to do. No one except Pinchas. He breaks into the tent of a dissolute high-ranking official and hits him with a spear. Quite biblical intensity of passions. And the pestilence stops. It seems that those who were terrible and scared should be grateful to Pinchas.
But a number of questions arise. Moses did not know what to do, many other authoritative people hesitated, but this one climbed across the father into the inferno. Where to go? They joked around and decided: it was a matter of genes - there were cruel people among his ancestors, and for a guy to shed blood - it would be like Churchill raising two fingers.
Then Sam intervened. Genetics, you say? Yes, it's her, but look in the wrong place. His determination was a consequence of the genes of his grandfather Aaron the High Priest, who sought peace between those who were quarreling - so Pinchas reconciled Me with you.
This story is about motives. If you see that someone has done something good, why look for the bad thing behind it? Envy silently if you haven’t done this yourself. Pull yourself up, become better - let it be a motivator, not a reason for gossip.
Shabbat Shalom!
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The week's chapter describes the ritual of cleansing the ashes of a "red cow" from contamination caused by contact with a dead body.
An absolutely irrational law. Death is naturally perceived by a person as “Zaporozhye”, something on the other side. The opposite of life. So the numerous taboos associated with it are natural. Contact with a corpse is the highest degree of spiritual impurity. And so Moses turned pale, having reached the laws of this level of “tuma”, uncleanness. Then the Lord told him the ways of purification. You should find a completely red cow, a two-year-old that has never been used on the farm. There have only been nine of these in history. The priest slaughters it, then the carcass is burned, the ashes are diluted in a special liquid solution, and by sprinkling from it they are subsequently “cleansed” of filth.
Quite a wild ritual. Complete mysticism.
King Solomon, who was “wiser than all people,” left this thought about this mitzvah: “I have comprehended all [the commandments of the Torah]. But the chapter about the red cow, despite the fact that I delved into it, wondered about its essence and sought out what was behind it, and my wisdom should have been enough for this - this chapter remained incomprehensible to me.”
One of the midrashim says that Moshe was the only person who was given an understanding of the law of the red cow. “I will reveal to you the meaning of this law; for all others it will be an incomprehensible essence.”
This law is the archetype of the commandment. The sages say that even mitzvot, which are completely comprehensible to reason, should be fulfilled like the law of the red cow. G‑d's will. Incomprehensible.
And it's clear why. Any “meanings” are limiting. Should we honor our parents? Ask the Khachaturian sisters!
Jabotinsky’s hero in “Five” says: “...Why not?” I assure you that no power of agitation can compare in its corrosive effect with this issue. From time immemorial, the moral balance of a person rests only on the fact that there are axioms: there are locked doors with the inscription “not allowed.” It’s simply “impossible”, without explanation, the axioms are held firmly, and the doors are locked, and the floorboards do not fall through, and the revolution of the planets around the sun takes place according to routine. But ask this question just once: why “not”? – and the axioms will collapse.”
Therefore, only Moshe was given an “understanding” of the meaning of the red cow law. For one person, just one person in history, this knowledge would not have hurt. Even for the wisest King Solomon, this door should be locked.
Shabbat Shalom!
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The chapter we read this week, Korach, is, appropriately, about Korach, the leader of the rebels against Moses and Aaron. And this, as usual, is the archetype of a revolutionary.
Korach is educated, well-born, rich. The speeches of this aristocrat are filled with calls for equality and justice. And Hasidic commentators also find in them deep, essential meanings of existence.
And at the same time, the Midrash claims that behind all this there is envy and personal grievances.
This fits together perfectly, mind you. It is stupid and dangerous to believe that only small souls are ready for meanness and abomination. No, it is from a height that they fall especially low.
And this is a great lesson: even if you are smart and noble, like Moses’ cousin, beware - envy and arrogance will open an abyss before you. No matter how beautiful and fair your arguments sound.
Shabbat Shalom!
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This week's chapter talks about the "sin of the spies." Sent by Moses to Canaan to check and report on the state of affairs there, they checked and reported: “This land is very, very good,” but did not take it. Don't get in! Will kill!
The Alter Rebbe in Likutei Torah explains this strange repetition “very, very” - they understood that the Holy Land was filled with holiness, and they were afraid that this increased background of Divine energy would kill them.
They were, in their own way, right - history has known and still knows precedents for accidents of this kind. But the bad fighter is the one who, having studied the danger, deserted, instead of drawing up an appropriate plan for a victorious offensive.
We may, with the best of intentions, avoid contact with matter. It's safer this way. But that would be desertion. Everything is stable in the desert, but you always have to go out into the world. And make it God's house. Shabbat Shalom!
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In our chapter, the children of Israel receive the commandment to offer Passover, the Passover sacrifice “in the second year” of the exodus from Egypt. Chronologically, this commandment was given before all the events described earlier in this book of the Pentateuch, and Rashi explains why it was pushed into the narrative “for later” - in order not to pay attention to the compromising fact that during the entire time they were in the desert, the Jews brought only one Passover sacrifice.
However, Rashi himself comments in another place that in general the Passover sacrifice should have been offered only after entering the Land of Israel, so that “in the second year” it was something exclusive and one-time. But then what is the “compromising evidence”?
The Rebbe offers a wonderful answer. There is no doubt that in the desert there was no obligation to offer Passover except in this exceptional “second year.” But this time, not everyone was able to fulfill the unique commandment. And further the Torah will tell us that they did not accept this. “Why should we be deprived?” - they told Moshe. Yes, there was force majeure. Yes, “God forgives hardship,” but “why should we be deprived?” The commandment is not only an obligation, but also a great gift from God to man. And God agreed with their logic, introducing an additional possibility of Pesach - Pesach Sheni, a month after the main one, for those who were on a journey or in a state of ritual impurity on the first Pesach.
And it would be expected that next year the people will again not agree so easily with depriving themselves of this gift, God's commandment. That they will ask for permission to make a thanksgiving sacrifice for leaving Egyptian slavery. But no requests were received, and this is a compromising fact.
This commentary is very important for understanding the correct approach to fulfilling the commandments of God. You can be a humble servant of God, and this great step. But much higher is the level of the son, fulfilling the will of the Father - with joy and inspiration. As they say, covering all roads.
Shabbat Shalom!
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Are you following the story of Kyle Kashuv?
Kashuv was among the teenagers during another American school massacre - in Parkland. Year and a half ago. Then many once again called for restrictions on carrying weapons, but Kyle, on the contrary, became an active defender of the Second Amendment. It just so happens that this is part of the general right-wing ideology. That is, not all defenders of the right to carry are ultra-right, but all ultra-right are actively in favor.
So for 16-year-old Kyle, this was part of his ideology. And then the whole set - kill n-gers, destroy railways.
In general, the moral code of white supremacist in the USA. But, what a surprise! - Kyle is Jewish, and his parents emigrated from Israel before he was born. Happens.
But now 18-year-old Kyle was first accepted into Harvard, and then, due to posts found on social networks from two years ago, the university reversed this decision.
Oh yeah - Kyle is also an ardent Trump supporter, which seems to be why Harvard was actively looking into his records.
Many Jews actively support the guy. Like, this is leftist terror, give Kyle a chance.
But I don’t know - in my opinion, this is a typical case of a relationship between a toad and a viper.
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The weekly chapter tells who carried the Sanctuary in the desert and how. 42 transitions from place to place. To assemble and then disassemble a rather monumental structure. And, most importantly, carry it with you. Partially - on yourself. Ark, menorah and altar.
For what? Why this torment? 40 years in the desert - with a noisy crowd.
Our teachers found in this a paradigm for the existence of the Jewish people, a wandering people. There was meaning and mystery in these endless wanderings. The Mystery of the Ark. The Torah must illuminate the whole world. With this ark on their shoulders, the Jews were to spread "to the west, east, north and south." This is the meaning. And this is the secret of existence - the Torah saved the Jewish people.
Shabbat Shalom!
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The fourth book of the Torah, which we began reading this week, is called the “Book of Numbers” in the Talmudic tradition because of the censuses it tells about. And already at the very beginning, in the first chapter of the book, Rashi explains the meaning of these calculations: “He constantly counts them [the sons of Israel] because of His love for them. He had already counted them when they left Egypt. When [many of them] died [due to the worship of the golden] calf, He counted them again so that they would know the number of those who remained [alive]. [And now] when He wished that the Divinity should remain with them, [He again] counted them. On the first [day of the month] Nissan the Sanctuary was made, and on the first of Iyar he counted them.”
Well, how they count treasures. But, hand on heart, what kind of treasure is this? Oh what came out of Egypt different people: “Oh, what kind of fish they served in canteens in Egypt!” Some of them even later created a calf.
But - “Count everyone.” We are talking about souls, about the unclouded essence of humanity. And love for her cannot be interrupted by anything.
Hundreds of thousands of people, but “like one man with one heart,” they stood at Mount Sinai. Such is the arithmetic!
Shabbat shalom and happy holiday of receiving the Torah!
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75 years ago, the Normandy Operation began when the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Once in England I lived in an unusual place. In Windsor. The hotel is located in the building of a former private school for boys. In the center of the school park is a monument to “The school boys who gave their lives for their country in the war of 1914-1918.” Below is another sign: “And to those boys who followed them into the war of 1939-1945.” And lists. Lots of names.
One school of old England.
In New York, from the Rebbe’s tomb to my grandmother’s grave, it’s very close to walk along the central alley. And in this small segment there are two burials with similar inscriptions under the names. 1925-1944, killed in action. Killed in battle.
This is not a military cemetery where fallen soldiers are usually buried. No burials in France in the plots of American military personnel. These are the Jewish graves of those whose bodies their parents brought home to lie next to their boys.
May their souls remain in heaven...
September 2 Classics-contemporaries Lion Feuchtwanger. Translation and publication by Lev Mirimov
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Alexander Donat and the book series “Holocaust Library”
In 1973, Donat prepared and published in Russian the anthology “The Burning Bush: Jewish Subjects in Russian Poetry” (New York, 1973. - 480 pp.) - the most complete and representative collection of poems on this topic written over three centuries. In 1977, he initiated the creation of the Holocaust Library, a non-profit program for the publication of books condemning persecution and violence. The series' advisory board included Elie Wiesel, Sam Bloch, Hadassah Rosenzaft and others. The council was headed by Alexander Donat.
August 30 Book talk Leonid Univerg, Leon Zweigenbock
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Commentary: Once again about Jewish “loyalty”. Reflections on Discourse
American Jews are not “disloyal” when they turn their backs on Israel and insult its friends and treat them as enemies, and when they treat its enemies as if they were our friends. No, at best - at best! - we are blind fools who do not see that only a turn of historical fate saved us from speaking Hebrew as our native language and riding on a bus towards, say, Mount Scopus - on a bus that would be blown up by a terrorist festooned with explosives, or flooded bloody terrorist with a knife.
August 27 Book talk![](https://i2.wp.com/lechaim.ru/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/lech329_Stranitsa_108_Izobrazhenie_0001-1.jpg)
Commentary: Israel and illiberal liberals
In the current, latest battle between universalists and particularists, liberals of the postmodern era indiscriminately ridicule Western nationalists, exposing them as xenophobic Trumpists. Alas, too many nationalists have become ultranationalists, confirming caricatures of themselves. More balanced, nuanced voices are drowned in these screams.
August 27 Book talk Gil Troy. Translation from English by Svetlana Silakova