Making the Soviet Jew

 What is the “Soviet Jew”? Is there anything distinctively “Soviet” about them? Jewish? These are just some of the questions Sasha Senderovich looks to answer in his new book, How the Soviet Jew Was Made. I got the chance to talk to Sasha during his recent visit to the University of Pittsburgh. He says that the “Soviet Jew” is a kind of recipe that combines elements of trauma, transformation, mobility, nationalism, Yiddish culture, among others. And you can see Jewish Soviet cultural producers wrestling with this figure in the 1920s and 1930s. What did they discover?–listen and find out. Guest: Sasha Senderovich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington. He’s the translator of Moyshe Kulbak’s Soviet Yiddish novel The Zelmenyaners: A Family Saga. And together with Harriet Murav, he translated the Yiddish writer David Bergelson’s Judgment: A Novel. He’s the author of How the Soviet Jew Was Made published by Harvard University Press. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/euraknot  Knotty News: https://eurasianknot.substack.com/ The Knot’s Nest: https://eurasian-knot.sellfy.store/  Website: https://euraknot.org/