This article is dedicated to the outstanding figure of Russian-Jewish culture, poet, translator, publisher, and prominent Zionist, Leib Jaffe. The author's main focus is on an unpublished letter from thehistorian of philosophy and culture, translator, and musicologist, Yevsey Shor, to Leib Jaffe. Jaffe and Shor most likely met in Russia, but their closer relationship developed after both repatriated to Palestine: Jaffe in 1920 and Shor in the late 1934. Shor's letter, dated to the first half of the 1940s, addresses the pressing issue of the spiritual tasks and prospects for the development of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The letter primarily reflects questions about the cultural shaping of the Israeli state before its official establishment.

In the spring of 1928, three publications by American prose writer, playwright, and publicist Perets Hirshbeyn (1879–1948) appeared in the Moscow literary and artistic magazine “Krasnaya Niva,” translated from Yiddish into Russian. These included a sketch of life in Japan, impressions of a visit to Tahiti, and a pamphlet on South Africa. These publications were intended to serve as a calling card before the writer's extended tour of the USSR in 1928–1929. At the beginning of his literary career, Hirshbeyn, born in the “Pale of Settlement,” published several of his plays in Russian. However, for a decade and a half after leaving the Russian Empire, he lost contact with the Russian-speaking reading public. While better known as a talented playwright and having achieved success on the Russian theater stage, he now intended to maintain his reputation as an international publicist in the eyes of the Soviet public. However, as early as 1932, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia labeled Hirshbeyn “as an exponent of the nationalist bourgeoisie,” an “apologist for the Hasidic past,” and “a singer of the lonely, desperate Jewish intelligentsia.”

In his short stories, “Righteous” and “The Informant”, Sevela explores the theme of being an outsider in the society, a recurring motif in Jewish literature. This literary exploration aligns Sevela with well-known Jewish authors like Franz Kafka and Philipp Roth, who also hassle with the elaborateness of being an outsider. Georg Simmel’s theoretical framework on “the stranger” helps us understand Sevela’s characters. Simmel suggests that strangers have a unique social position, being both a part of and apart from the society. How
strangers are treated reflects broader social and ethical concerns. Accepting strangers fosters unity while rejecting them can lead to conflict. Sevela uses various markers to highlight an outsider within the society, with physical appearance playing a prominent role. Jankowski’s analysis of the characters’ feelings within the society reveals an inner conflict about official inclusion while feeling like outsiders. Drawing from personal experiences, Sevela sheds light on the broader struggles of Soviet Jews adapting to new environments. Sevela’s autobiographical novel, “Farewell Israel,” provides insights into his own transformation into a cosmopolitan outsider due to state-sponsored antisemitism.Collectively, these texts highlight the subtle exploration of the outsider’s identity in Sevela’s works. Whether viewed through Simmel’s sociological lens, Jankowski’s analysis of inner conflict, or Sevela’s personal reflections, the theme resonates with universal human struggles of displacement, identity, and the quest for belonging. In Sevela’s narrative, the outsider becomes a symbol of hope, kindness, and compassion — a potential catalyst for positive change in a world shadowed by darkness.

Yehuda Leyb Nevakhovich (1776-1831) seems to be almost forgotten in current research on Jewish literature and culture in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, among his contemporaries, he enjoyed a remarkable success in the realm of cultural production, and to some extent in the realm of imperial Russian society. Entangled between Hebrew, Russian, and European literatures, the scope of Nevakovich’s writing encompasses occasional poetry, emancipation treatises, and historical dramas. His understanding of literature was wide, interlacing the fields of literature, history and historiography. In his historiographical treatise “Remarks on a Review” (1806), the review being written by a German historian, Nevakhovich reflects on the state of Russian historiography and discusses the position of historiography and its meaning for the formation of a national discourse. He presents a polemic in favour of Russian scholarship that in its verve and gesture does not rank behind his emancipation treatise “Lamentation of the Daughter of Yehuda” (1803). With this treatise, he leaves the circle of Jewish intellectuals working in Hebrew. He now sees his place of speech primarily as one that is anchored in Russian imperial culture and attempts to install himself at this European interface as mediator. In his cosmopolitan mind set Nevakhovich was not acknowledged by later generations of Jewish thinkers and did not leave notable traces in the Jewish literature being created since the middle of the 19th century in Eastern Europe.

In the early 20th century, a wave of missions to exotic lands, including Mandate Palestine, sparked artistic exploration across cinema, painting, and photography. This article examines how painters on these expeditions aimed to express Jewish identity through their artwork. Drawing from exhibition reviews, it explores the transformative impact of these journeys on artists’ worldview and artistic expression, highlighting their role in bolstering Jewish self-awareness. Through examples like Artur Szyk, Adolphe Feder, and Mane-Katz, it demonstrates how travel to Eretz Israel shaped artists’ self-perception, enriching their artistic perspective while maintaining their deeply rooted ethnic identity.

Scholar Cornelia Aust analyzes the historical connection between the Jewish kaftan and the Polish aristocracy during the 17th and 18th centuries. This article expands on her work to illuminate the significant influence of the Ottoman Empire on Polish Sarmatian and, subsequently, Jewish fashion. The research will trace the slow provenance of the Hasidic kaftan, showing first the Polish Jewry’s adoption of aristocratic dress, then the Polish aristocracy’s imitation of Ottoman fashion a century earlier. This paper will subsequently examine Ottoman dress from the 15th and 16th centuries to show its original forms and stability over this period. Contemporary images and 19th century lithographs of Polish and Jewish kaftans will be compared with painted portraits from Istanbul in 1618. As Aust shrewdly describes eastern European Jewish fashion as “out of time;” this article shows Jewish dress as additionally “out of place.”

В честь тридцатилетия русско-израильского журнала "И.О.", его редакторы Гали-Дана и Некод Зингеры рассказывают в своем интервью о его основании и стоящих за ним идеях. Интервью предпослан исторический обзор журнала.