RENAISSANCEJewish

VOLUME 10 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 2011

2 LETTERS 3 FROM THE EDITOR WHAT’S NEW

4 Judaica 21 5 Poem brings Jewish and Polish teenagers together 6 Renaissance in Muslim lands JEWS IN HM FORCES

7 Multicultural and Multinational

Emma Bondor talks to an army captain 9 Serving the Servicepeople 10 A Job like any Other

Janet Levin meets a Flight Lieutenant Letter from Kandahar Justin Salmon 11 Killed in Action Paul Mervis remembered EDUCA TION 12 The School Dilemma Deborah Brooks investigates the choices parents are facing

THE JEWS OF ST PETERSBURG

16 Timeline A Publishing Hub Alexander Frenkel 19 The St Petersburg Society and the New Jewish Music School

Jascha Nemtsov 20 Growing up in St Petersburg Rachel Bayvel, Mandelstam and Brodsky

21 Jascha Nemtsov, Lisa Zektser 22 RENAISSANCE

Shul Life Janet Levin 23 An-sky, Pushkin’s Nanny and the

Revival of Jewish Life in St Petersburg David G Roskies 24 Cultural Awakening

Janet Levin meets Alexander Frenkel, Eugenia Krilova, Inna Izumskaya and Alexander Gutman 26 Artists of The Pgishot

Regina Khidekel

MEZUZAHS RE-IMAGINED PAGE 43

JEWS OF ST PETERSBURG PAGE 22

DREAMS OF COEXISTENCE PAGE 38

JEWS IN HM FORCES PAGE 7

FILM 36 UKJFF on Tour Judi Herman reviews Yankles and Berlin 36 THEATRE

37 Judenfrei

Judi Herman talks to Kate Glover, author of a new play now at the New End MUSIC 38 Dreams of Coexistence Malcom Miller meets composer Tsippi Fleischer ART 40 Israel’s Modern Academist Dalia Manor assesses Ludwig Blum’s place in Israeli art 42 Pushing the Boundaries Angela Levine meets Ken Goldman 43 Mezuzahs Re-imagined BOOKS 45 David Herman reviews Wandering Soul, a biography of S An-sky, and Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution 46 Martin Sugarman’s Fighting Back reviewed by Ross Bradshaw 47 Saul Bellow Letters reviewed by Gerald de Groot 48 Sara Shilo’s Falafel King reviewed by Tsila Ratner 49 One person’s Book Week Agi Erdos reviews Being Jewish and Doing Justice by Brian Klug 50 Vesna Domany-Hardy reviews The Jews of San Nicandro by John A Davis Judith Mirzoeff reviews Roland Camberton’s Rain on the Pavements 51 Deborah Smith reviews We Had it So Good by Linda Grant David Clark reviews Person of No Nationality by Ruth Barnett

POETRY 52 Liz Cashdan chooses a poem by Anna Fojtel and reviews new collections by Norman Kreitman and Michael Baron PEARLS OF ISRAEL 53 Nitza Felix visits the vegetarian village of Amirim FOOD 54 From Bola d’Amour to Baklava

CENTRE SECTION: PAGES 27-35 THREE-MONTH GUIDE TO EVENTS

Jane Gerson on what cookery books tell us about Anglo-Jewry

Cover picture: Torah Crown by Ken Goldman See page 42