| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 301 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations |
| Series |
The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies |
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S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies.
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| Contents |
How I failed my motherland -- Fathers at war -- Path to paradise -- What's in a name! -- Black shawl -- Us against them -- I don't want to have relatives! -- Friends and enemies -- The girl of my dreams -- How they laugh in Odessa -- Papa and the Soviets -- A dependent -- Without declarations -- Who's who -- A strange orange -- Who are you? -- One Passover in Odessa -- On commissars, cosmopolites, and lightbulb inventors -- Them! -- No kith, no kin -- Grandpa Uri -- Missing Mikhoels -- Black on white -- Time like glass -- The death of Stalin |
| Summary |
"The old man wears a skullcap, and I m puzzled and secretly irritated: why declare to everybody that you re a Jew?" Growing up in Odessa in Soviet Ukraine in the post-Holocaust years, under Stalin, Draitser despises his Jewish identity. Mocked at school, he absorbs the virulent anti-Semitism. He hates Yiddish. Now a professor of Russian at Hunter College in New York, he looks back, blending historical overview with a present-tense narrative of how it feels to be a child taught to despise his culture. More than the commentary, the unforgettable drama--and the answer to the racism--is the celebration of Jewish family life and the richness of Yiddish, from the curse words to the endearments. Papa, a house-painter, is always looking for a famous Jew to celebrate. But the hero is Mama, labeled "dependent" on the official papers, but the true head of the family in their crammed one-roomed apartment, her cooking an expression of love, even when it seems excessive: "Take some more. It's good for you." Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Draitser, Emil, 1937- -- Childhood and youth
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Draitser, Emil, 1937- |
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Jews -- Ukraine -- Odesa -- Biography
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Social Scientists & Psychologists.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies.
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HISTORY -- Europe -- General.
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Childhood and youth of a person
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Jews
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Odesa (Ukraine) -- Biography
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Ukraine -- Odesa
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Odessa
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Juden.
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| Genre/Form |
autobiographies (literary works)
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Autobiographies
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Biographies
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Autobiographies.
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Biographies.
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Autobiographies.
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Biographies.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780520942257 |
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0520942256 |
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1306867266 |
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9781306867269 |
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