Союз Белорусских еврейских общественных организаций и общин

Главный редактор - Аркадий ШУЛЬМАН

Дизайн обложки - Наталья ТАРАСКИНА

Корректор - Елена Гринь

Перевод на английский язык - Юлия Мандрик

Эмблема журнала - Лия Шульман

Интернет-версия - Михаил Мундиров

Журнал издаётся с 1995 г. Всего вышло тридцать шесть номеров.

© Мишпоха-2017 г. Историко-публицистический журнал.

Mнение редакции может не совпадать с точкой зрения авторов статей. Рукописи не возвращаются и не рецензируются. Редакция в переписку не вступает. При перепечатке ссылка на «Мишпоху» обязательна.

Выражаем благодарность за помощь в издании журнала «Мишпоха» (№ 36) Семёну Лупьяну, Яну Лупьяну, Аркадию Арфа, Малкиелю Горгодзе, Леониду Кривошею, Роланду Букенгольцу, Семёну Эпштейну; Холдингу "Аптека-Групп" (руководитель Леонид Томчин); АЕОРК «Джойнт», Витебской общественной организации «Городская еврейская община» (председатель правления Наум Линковский); ООО "Рубикон" (руководитель Виктор Фарбер).

Состоялись презентации журнала и встречи с читателями в Бобруйске, Борисове, Витебске, Минске, Могилёве.

Фотографии Аркадия Шульмана.  Рисунки Матвея Басова, Александра Вайсмана, Натальи Тараскиной, Бориса Хесина.

На обложке – картина Михаила Шульмана «Древо жизни».

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The magazine of the Belarusian Union of the Jewish Public Associations and Communities “Mishpoha” has been published for 22 years. One of the oldest Jewish editions published in the Russian language, “Mishpoha” is the participant of national creativity festivals, folklore and literary festivals, and the winner of several international awards. In December 2016, “Mishpoha” was awarded a Diploma as one of the winners of the Republican Contest “Discover Belarus”.
The 36th issue opens with the traditional section “Autograph”, featuring poetry by the famous poet, translator and publicist Mikhail Sadovskiy. Our regular contributor has turned eighty and we express our congratulations on occasion of his anniversary.
“Mishpoha” features a wide array of established and emerging contemporary poets making their debut in the magazine. Among them is Evgeny Izrailskiy from Minsk, whose literary experience spans over forty years, Alexandr Stupnikov from Minsk, Natalia Kozhevnikova-Raskina from Mogilev, Zinaida Sinilova from Grodno, Rosa Levit from Vitebsk, now living in Canada.
Our readers know well the poems by Alla Levina and Elizaveta Polees from Minsk who are not only often published in “Mishpoha”, but also take part in presentations of the magazine in different cities of Belarus.
The poems by Konstantin Severinets from Vitebsk were first published in the first issue of “Mishpoha”. Since then, the poet has repeatedly shared his new writings with the readers.
One of the longtime authors of our magazine is Sergei Vaganov. The journalist and poet from Minsk presents his works on the family theme, which come as a kind of the author’s poetic genealogy.
“The Songs of the Jewish Shtetl” by Marc Lutskiy were published in the magazine a few years ago and were warmly received by our readers. In this issue of “Mishpoha” we resume the song theme of the shtetls.
Unfortunately, few prose writers and poets write in Yiddish today. The language spoken by our ancestors is becoming a thing of the past. We cherish the Yiddish literature with its centuries-old tradition and publish translations of the Yiddish works into the Russian language in every magazine. This issue presents translations of poetry by the contemporary poet Zisi Weizmann, now living in Israel. His rich biography has Belarusian pages; the poet lived and worked in Gomel.
“Mishpoha” offers a wide range of prose works to satisfy any taste.
One of the short novels is from our regular author Marat Baskin. The characters of his previous works, mainly immigrants, just as the author himself, come from a small town of Krasnopolie, the Mogilev region. They left for New York in the middle of life, again as the author himself, and the action in the novels took place across the seas. Baskin’s new novel “From the Stories by Star Traveler Reb Tovie Ben Yitzchak” takes the characters into deep space. They wander from one inhabited station to another. These stations are separated by huge distances, but they are very similar to and remind of the Belarusian shtetls...
The dramatic story “Two Death Notifications” by Lev Gurevich tells the readers about two school friends who helped each other more than once. One of the friends and his mother went to Israel in the 1950s. He fought for the independence of his country and died in the battle. The other successfully finished a military school in the Soviet Union, served as an officer in the army and got to the Middle East as part of military advisors. He was also killed after the Israeli air raid...
“Mishpoha” continues to publish “The Vitebsk Stories” by Mikhail Khaikin. “Horseradish for the Gefilte Fish” is the title of his new story taking place on Goncharnaya Street in the mid 1930s. The characters may seem funny and naive for today’s reader, but the writer depicts the reality of the time...
The short stories by Rami Yudovin are the episodes of the writer’s life in the mid of 1990s, before his emigration to Israel, and in more recent times, when Rami served in the Israeli army, lived and worked in Haifa.
Every town, every shtetl had its own Romeo and Juliet. The stories about them were put into legends that are passed from generation to generation, the names of the beloved were given to rivers and islands. Every issue of the magazine will present “Novels About Love”, which will later be published as a separate book. This issue includes novels by Margarita Yushkevich, Ida Shenderovich, Arkady Shulman.
The traditional section “My Shtetl” contains “Kilometres of Jewish History” from “Travel Notes” by Arkady Shulman. The author describes a summer expedition of ”Mishpoha” magazine, trips to Glubokoe, Braslav, Disna, Dunilovichi.
Researchers Elena Levitman and Tatiana Chizhik from Minsk tell the story of the Minsk Jewish hospital which is over two hundred years old. Many well-known medical practitioners worked there, the assistance to the hospital was provided by the rich people of the city. The buildings of the Minsk Jewish hospital, enlarged and renovated, are still taking patients of the “3rd Municipal Clinical Hospital named after E.V. Klumov”.
The famous archivist and historian Konstantin Karpekin publishes interesting documents about how the local Jews secured approval for building a house of worship in the shtetl of Parichi in the late 19th century. The approval was followed by dispute whether to keep the old building without constructing a new one or vice versa. The dispute was settled on 20 June 1885. The Construction Department of the Minsk Provincial Board weighed all the “pros” and “cons” and decided to pull down the building of Staro-Lyubavichskaya school, and not to construct a new one.
The leading researcher of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus Nadezhda Usova in her essay “From Leib Rabinovich to Leon Bakst: Three Surnames of Lev Samoilovich Bakst”, writes about the family of the famous painter that was linked with the Belarusian city of Grodno.
The “Archivist” section features the story “I Get Neither Money, Nor Reply From You... A Story of One Correspondence” by Anna Severinets about the Jewish writer Moshe Kulbak. The Belarusian writer describes the tragic days of 1937, when Kulback was arrested in Minsk and shot. The story appeared after the author’s work in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.
The essay by our regular author Semen Liokumovich “Other People’s Pain Is Your Own Pain” is devoted to the Jewish writer Mendel Lifshits. Semen Liokumovich has been fond of his creativity for more than 70 years. Their first encounter happened in 1937, when the writer was visiting the Ozarichi shtetl in Polesie where his mother, brother and sister lived. Mendel’s elder sister, Rachel, was Semen Liokumovich’s mother.
The historical researcher of the Belarusian city of Gorki Vladimir Livshits dedicates his essay “He Was Akter Akterych In Life” to the life and creative path of the composer and actor Boris Magalif. Boris came to live in Gorki in 1980, worked in the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy.
The essay by the film director Vladimir Orlov “Facing Six Thousand” is devoted to the creativity of the great artist Arkady Raikin.
The traditional section “Family Album” is devoted to the family of Tsilya Botvinnik-Lupian and her husband Avsei Lupian. The journalist Svetlana Gebeleva in her essay “Their Roots Gave Magnificent Tree Crown...”, portrays Tsilya Botvinnik, a brave underground fighter in the Minsk ghetto, and the front-line soldier Avsei Lupian. Their sons, Semen and Yan, are doctors, whose medical office is in New York. The Lupians have a big and friendly family.
Recently, there have been released a great album dedicated to the creativity of the famous Belarusian artist Mai Danzig. This event in the artistic life of Belarus is covered in the review “The Life-long Art” by Oleg Oistrakh. When the magazine was being prepared to be published, there came sad news about the death of the People’s Artist of Belarus Mai Danzig, aged 86.
Traditionally, “Mishpoha” publishes numerous notices related to the search of relatives, friends, and fellow soldiers.