For Jewish writers in the Soviet Union, the early decades of the revolution were the best of times—until they were suddenly the worst. Freed—at least in theory—from hundreds of years of ancestral prejudice, and the suffocating strictures of the Rabbinate, joyfully secular poets, playwrights, and novelists created a vast and vital literature in Yiddish. And Stalin helped by supporting institutions dedicated to fostering such “national” art—as long as the work was Kosher... More >>>