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Der Nister (Pinkhes Kahanovitsh, 1884-1950) is widely regarded as the most enigmatic author in modern Yiddish literature. His pseudonym, which translates as 'The Hidden One', is as puzzling as his diverse body of works, which range from mystical symbolist poetry and dark expressionist tales to realist historical epic. Although part of the Kiev Group of Yiddish writers, which also included David Bergelson and Peretz Markish, Der Nister remained at the margins of the Yiddish literary world throughout his life, mainstream success eluding him both in- and outside the Soviet Union. Yet, to judge from the quantity of recent research and translation work, Der Nister is today one of the best remembered Yiddish modernists. The present collection of twelve original articles by international scholars re-examines Der Nisters cultural and literary legacy, bringing to light new aspects of his life and creative output

Abstract: The article focuses on the rise and demise of Chaim Gildin (1883/4–1943), one of the most vociferous Soviet Yiddish writers, a pioneer of proletarian poetry and prose. It is also aimed at providing a broader perspective on the perilous Soviet Yiddish literary terrain, especially during the Stalinist repressions. In 1936, Gildin lost his Communist Party membership but was spared from arrest. Nevertheless, the secret police came after him in 1940, generally considered as a "quiet year." His attempts to organize a collective protest—to compel the authorities to reverse the process of closing down Yiddish institutions—might have played a fatal role in his fate. It seems that Yiddish writers of proletarian persuasion generally tended to be more prone to activism than their former "bourgeois" counterparts, and this—rather than their writings—made them more vulnerable during the purges aimed to make the population fully obedient. Although Gildin's secret police file is full of diligently collected information about his "harmful" prose and poetry, his oeuvre clearly played a secondary role in the decision to prosecute him. It seems that this was the pattern for the entire period of Stalinist repressions: while Yiddish literati were not prosecuted specifically for literary motives, investigators would pay much attention to their writings, whose ideological "defects" helped them to make the indictment look more convincing.

ABSTRACT
A strict ban on organized Jewish activities apart from those of a limited number of religious bodies, coupled with the state monopoly on all publishing, simplified the Soviet Union's control over Holocaust-related publication. The appearance of any such work was an idiosyncratic event, associated with concurrent political and cultural contexts and official agendas. The relatively liberal climate of the first post-Stalinist decade raised the possibility of such events. Soviet publication of both the diary of Anne Frank and Masha Rolnikaite's I Must Tell reflected in part foreign policy considerations, but each played a rather different role in the Soviet cultural sphere. Anne Frank's diary—not reprinted for three decades—would be referred to as, and possibly read only as, an important anti-fascist narrative with distant relevance to wartime events in the Soviet Union. Masha Rolnikaite (Rolnik), a survivor of the Vilnius ghetto, would become a widely published belletrist "Soviet Anne Frank."