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This book gives a broad view on Soviet Jewish literary life, and on the repression suffered by Yiddish writers under the Stalinist rule. It is written as a group biography of five authors, whose literary home was in Kyiv, the capital of Soviet Ukraine from 1934 to 1991.

In the midst of the violent conflicts of 1918 ambitious plans for new cultural formations emerged on the territory of the former Russian Empire. The most important Jewish community organization was the Kultur-Lige. Founded to 'organize the Jewish masses and develop Yiddish culture', the association's first meeting took place at the Kyiv apartment of the Yiddish writer David Bergelson. 'Leagues for Yiddish culture' were simultaneously founded in such places as Vilna (Vilnius), Warsaw, Moscow, Berlin, and New York. Scores of Yiddish books came out under the imprints of the Kultur-Lige publishing houses in Kyiv and Warsaw. However, it is less well known that he activity of the Kultur-Lige covered not only literature, journalism, and linguistics, but also the visual arts, music, theatre, and education. The goal of the Kultur-Lige was nothing less than the development and stewardship of Jewish secular national culture in its entirety.

Berlin emerged from the First World War as a multicultural European capital of immigration from the former Russian Empire, and while Russian emigres spread westward in the 1920s, a thriving East European Jewish community remained. Jewish intellectuals and activists participated vigorously in German cultural and political debate.

The book is based on the papers presented at the Mendel Friedman Yiddish conference held at St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, in August 2012, revisits the rich and diverse legacy of the Yiddish writer Pinkhas Kahanovitsh, known by his penname Der Mister.

Children have occupied a prominent place in Yiddish literature since early modern times, but children's literature as a genre has its beginnings in the early 20th century. Its emergence reflected the desire of Jewish intellectuals to introduce modern forms of education, and promote ideological agendas, both in Eastern Europe and in immigrant commun

In the early decades of the twentieth century, tens of thousands of Yiddish speaking immigrants actively participated in the American Socialist and labour movement. They formed the milieu of the hugely successful daily Forverts (Forward). This book focuses on the newspaper's reaction to the political developments in the home country.

Der Nister (Pinkhes Kahanovitsh, 1884-1950) is widely regarded as the most enigmatic author in modern Yiddish literature. His pseudonym, which translates as 'The Hidden One', is as puzzling as his diverse body of works, which range from mystical symbolist poetry and dark expressionist tales to realist historical epic.

Yiddish-speaking groups of Communists played a visible role in many countries, most notably in the Soviet Union, United States, Poland, France, Canada, Argentina and Uruguay. The sacrificial role of the Red Army, and the Soviet Union as a whole, reinforced the Left movement in the post-Holocaust Jewish world.

This book explores the rich treasury of Sholem Aleichem translations, focusing primarily on the European context. It suggests that the many-faceted issue of translating Sholem Aleichem can be considered from the different perspectives of history, politics, and art.