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On October 14 a virtual seminar on the subject "Russian-Jewish
Literature of the Late XIX - Early XX centuries" was held. Besides
us, teachers of the Jewish Tradition of Rimon JCC and Hesed Polina and
employees of the Jewish Republican Library, the list of participants also
included representatives of Moscow, St.-Petersburg, and Riga. Thanks to
the video camera of Almaty Hesed we got a chance not only to hear, but
also to take part in the discussion: to ask questions, express our opinion,
argue and agree.
Dr. Nelli Portnova's lecture made us forget about time
and tiredness. She told us about prerequisites for appearance of the Jewish
literature in Russian and about works of prominent Jewish writers: Lev Osipovich Levanda
and Badanis Gershon. Their creative activity began with articles,
sketches, and feuilletons published in various Russian newspapers and
magazines. They fought for improvement of the civil position of Jews in
the society, equal rights, and their complete fusion with the Russians
except for Judaism. Impracticability of their demands revealed in pogroms
of 80's in Ukraine and Moldova. Later on other Jewish writers, such as
Vladimir Zhabotinsky, also gave up their ideas of assimilationism
and became heads of the Zionistic movement.
It was interesting to find out about such an official position
as "learned Jew" instituted by the governer of Vilno. Lev Levanda
held that post. He had to inform the governer's office about current Jewish
events. It is an evidence of a relative autonomy of the Jewish community
of that period of time. By the way, besides his publicistic works, Levanda
also wrote a book "Hot Times. A Novel of the Last Polish Rebel lion".
Dr. Nelli Portnova pointed out the main problems of Jews in
the late XIX century that served as a source for their first books in
Russian. But that lecture was only the first one in the series devoted
to the formation and development of the Jewish literature in Russian.
We look forward to the continuation of the lecture and hope that one day
all Kazakhstani communities will have a chance to take part in such seminars.
Eugenia Karyakina
Irina Kopylenko
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