Who are the betrayers? That is the question I pose to you when you read the tight, compelling novel, The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis about a day or two in the life of Baruch Cotler. What is masterful is how Bezmozgis inspires sympathy for each character, every one imperfect. But then name a character in Genesis who wasn’t imperfect. This book gives credence to the idea that our heroes may be accidental and when they fall, we should not be surprised.
The story takes place in Yalta, a Crimean resort city that arguably has more historic legitimacy to be occupied by Jews rather than Russians. Baruch Kotler, a famous Israeli politician, originally a Moscow refusenik (modeled after Sharansky), is escaping with his mistress to avoid being in Israel when Israeli settlements are to be dismantled. Kotler disagrees with this current policy of the prime minister and has stated his objections. He...
Researching Jewish Luck led Leslie and me down many academic paths as we pieced together the Jewish world of Vera and Alla. If you glance at our extensive bibliography, you’ll discover that we investigated newer academic findings as well as checking sources written before the opening of the Soviet archives in the early 1990s.
When I began to read Yaacov Ro’i’s compilation of 14 scholarly articles in The Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union, I felt like the actor in the V-8 juice commercial—“I shoulda had access to this volume before we began researching!”
I enjoy a good novel, a thrilling mystery and a compelling memoir but I revel in an academic work that clarifies and explains. I raced through the articles soaking in the data and analysis and checking the footnotes to see if Leslie and I had read the same sources. About halfway through the volume, I began to wonder what... 
Perhaps because I was a high school teacher, the Soviet school system fascinated me. I enjoyed listening to Alla and Vera tell tales of their lives in their English language schools. Once we captured their stories, it was time for more objective research.
Although I’m grateful for the ability to research from my computer at home, I still feel the need to check the stacks at the university library just in case there’s a treasure awaiting discovery. Indeed, within fifteen minutes of arriving at Wilson Library, I felt like shouting “eureka!” There sat Inside Soviet Schools by Susan Jacoby—a study she conducted while Vera and Alla were students in their Leningrad special schools.
The detail Jacoby provided such as the curriculum guide and daily schedule for kindergarten offered context for Vera and Alla’s memories. Schools, Jacoby writes, “prepare for the serious business of life.” (73) Jacoby, however, does not write in... 
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya Von Bremzen. Crown Publishers: NY 2013.
Let’s begin with a few basic facts.
1. While we have grocery stores in the US, citizens in the Former Soviet Union have for decades waited in endless lines trying to “procure” food.
2. As Anya Von Bremzen states, “Inevitably, a story about Soviet food is a chronicle of longing, of unrequited desire.” (p.2)
Since we just completed two Passover seders, I must pose the question -- why is Anya Von Bremzen’s memoir different than all previous memoirs?
Other writers may be eloquent or witty, but this author is both. I love the comparison of her Mom’s dream life to black and white movies from Stalinist times “sleek cold war thrillers laced with KGB spooks; melodramas starring duty-crushed lovers.”
Second, because this is a shared memoir of Anya and her 79... 
Last year at this time we were anxiously anticipating our trip to New York City for the Jewish Book Conference where hundreds of Jewish authors present a short, oral synopsis of their book for an audience representing Jewish book fairs across the country. We focused on our presentation but we didn’t anticipate how it would feel to meet Jewish authors. After we received our name tags and directions, I looked up and saw David Laskin. The only other time I was as star-struck was at a US History Conference where I saw David McCullough descending on the escalator. Imagine teenaged girls spotting Paul McCartney in 1967 and you will have a sense of my excitement level. David Laskin, even jet lagged, is very approachable. He had just returned from a trip to see the Israeli branch of his family and was willing to talk to me. He also calmed my nerves... 
