Many years after making his way to America from Odessa in Soviet Ukraine, Emil Draitser made a startling discovery: every time he uttered the word Jewish--even in casual conversation--he lowered his voice. This behavior was a natural by-product, he realized, of growing up in the anti-Semitic, post-Holocaust Soviet Union, when Shush was the most frequent word he heard: Don't use your Jewish name in public. Don't speak a word of Yiddish. And don't cry over your murdered relatives. This compelling memoir conveys the reader back to Draitser's childhood and provides a unique account of midtwentieth-century life in Russia as the young Draitser struggles to reconcile the harsh values of Soviet society with the values of his working-class Jewish family. Lively, evocative, and rich with humor, this unforgettable story ends with the death of Stalin and, through life stories of the author's ancestors, presents a sweeping panorama of two centuries of Jewish history in Russia.

"Hunter College Russian professor Draitser recalls a post-WWII Odessa youth blighted by a pernicious and pervasive anti-Semitism that made him ashamed of being Jewish — so ashamed that decades after arriving in America, he still whispered references to things Jewish. A bewildered and reluctant observer of the rise of Russian chauvinism as the Cold War erupted, Draitser remembers how gangs of youngsters hunted Holocaust survivor children and permanently maimed his seven-year-old cousin; the discovery of his beloved Pushkin's hateful characterizations of Jews left him confused and disgusted with himself. He recalls the clouds of suspicion surrounding his mother's friend, a pediatrician, when Jewish doctors were targeted with trumped-up charges of sabotage in the 1950s 'Doctors' Plot.' His parents' yearning to connect to their heritage is movingly portrayed: Draitser's father saved the peel from an Israeli orange, and his mother traveled to the boonies to surreptitiously purchase Passover matzos. This painful and acutely observed memoir will resonate with many readers; unfortunately, it ends with Stalin's death. How Draitser and his parents made their way to America and how they fared here are unexplored. 22 b&w photos. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)