Serhii Plokhy
“Did the Creator make a mistake by placing the Jews in the confines of the Russian Empire, asks one of Isaac Babel’s characters. Maxim D. Shrayer asks a different question: Did the Creator try to correct this mistake by letting the Jews out of Russia in the course of the last several decades? The answers Shrayer provides in his rich, multi-layered and thought-provoking book put into conversation two different narratives of the Jewish past, one of the Jews who have left, the other of those who have stayed. One cannot grasp the future of the Jews of Russia without reading Maxim D. Shrayer’s book.”
Luba Jurgenson
“In this concise and clear-headed book Maxim D. Shrayer has managed to convey all the complexity of the present-day condition of Russia’s Jewry. Sociological analysis is intertwined with a former refusenik’s acute personal observations; youthful memories of Moscow (all émigrés are forever frozen in the age when they left) are superimposed on adult ruminations of a father showing his eleven-year old daughter around his native city. A remarkable investigation, emotionally colored and unerringly precise.”
Anne Applebaum
“Lucid and insightful, Maxim D. Shrayer reminds why so many Russian Jews left the country they once called their own, and explains why those who stayed are still unsure if they belong. Clearly written and very readable.”
Alexander Etkind
“An illuminating first-person narrative about the minority of Russian Jews who have remained, against all odds, in their mother country—and also about Russia, a country continuously losing its Jews. At this point, we know more about the refuseniks of the past than about Russia’s Jews of the present. Any information about these remaining Jews—a peculiar crowd, vulnerable and powerful at once—is precious. This book does an excellent job in telling their collective and personal stories with the ease and humor of an experienced Jewish storyteller."
From the Publisher
“Lucid and insightful, Maxim D. Shrayer reminds why so many Russian Jews left the country they once called their own, and explains why those who stayed are still unsure if they belong. Clearly written and very readable.”
“An illuminating first-person narrative about the minority of Russian Jews who have remained, against all odds, in their mother country—and also about Russia, a country continuously losing its Jews. At this point, we know more about the refuseniks of the past than about Russia’s Jews of the present. Any information about these remaining Jews—a peculiar crowd, vulnerable and powerful at once—is precious. This book does an excellent job in telling their collective and personal stories with the ease and humor of an experienced Jewish storyteller."
“From the perspective of an émigré who spent his formative years in Moscow, Maxim D. Shrayer reflects on his visit to his native city in 2016. His interviews with several types of Jews and his own acute observations, those of an ‘outsider-insider,’ yield penetrating insights into the complex situation of Russian Jews today. No longer the objects of overt public antisemitism, their ties to Jewishness are ever more tenuous as their numbers continue to decline rapidly and as they, like many other diaspora Jews, ‘integrate’ ever more into Russian society.”
“In this concise and clear-headed book Maxim D. Shrayer has managed to convey all the complexity of the present-day condition of Russia’s Jewry. Sociological analysis is intertwined with a former refusenik’s acute personal observations; youthful memories of Moscow (all émigrés are forever frozen in the age when they left) are superimposed on adult ruminations of a father showing his eleven-year old daughter around his native city. A remarkable investigation, emotionally colored and unerringly precise.”
“For anyone with an interest in Russian Jewry or post-Soviet Russia this book is a must-read. Wonderfully written, it is full of thought-provoking insights about the past and future of what had once been the largest Jewish community in the world.”
“Did the Creator make a mistake by placing the Jews in the confines of the Russian Empire, asks one of Isaac Babel’s characters. Maxim D. Shrayer asks a different question: Did the Creator try to correct this mistake by letting the Jews out of Russia in the course of the last several decades? The answers Shrayer provides in his rich, multi-layered and thought-provoking book put into conversation two different narratives of the Jewish past, one of the Jews who have left, the other of those who have stayed. One cannot grasp the future of the Jews of Russia without reading Maxim D. Shrayer’s book.”
Samuel D. Kassow
“For anyone with an interest in Russian Jewry or post-Soviet Russia this book is a must-read. Wonderfully written, it is full of thought-provoking insights about the past and future of what had once been the largest Jewish community in the world.”
Zvi Gitelman
“From the perspective of an émigré who spent his formative years in Moscow, Maxim D. Shrayer reflects on his visit to his native city in 2016. His interviews with several types of Jews and his own acute observations, those of an ‘outsider-insider,’ yield penetrating insights into the complex situation of Russian Jews today. No longer the objects of overt public antisemitism, their ties to Jewishness are ever more tenuous as their numbers continue to decline rapidly and as they, like many other diaspora Jews, ‘integrate’ ever more into Russian society.”
