Jewish-Soviet engineer Anatoliy Davidovich Daron might not have a name as recognizable as Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin or rocket engineer Sergei Korolev, but without the engine Daron designed, a Soviet rocket would not have sent that first man into space in 1961 — nor the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit in 1957. Daron, who died … Continue reading
Many Jews in Russia have long thought that life is better in America, but nowadays, they’re not so sure. Moscow resident Baruch Gorin, spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR), now finds his elderly parents’ residency in the goldene medina a cause for concern. Gorin’s parents are currently quarantined inside their New York apartment … Continue reading
BOSTON — When renowned Russian biochemist Vladimir Torchilin immigrated to the United States in 1991, he brought with him a degree from the Soviet Union’s most prestigious educational institution, Moscow State University. He was 45 years old, and his accomplishments included the development of a new medication to dissolve blood clots. The drug, called streptodekaza, … Continue reading
In the new Russian World War II documentary “Ost Front” (“Eastern Front”) Nazis are painted with their own very human brush. Stitched together almost entirely from official WWII Nazi propaganda footage, audiences are treated to scenes of Nazis skating peacefully on a frozen river, reading letters from home and passing around photos of their babies. … Continue reading
The Polish government is building a museum on the grounds of the former Sobibor death camp, home to one of the most daring escapes of the Holocaust. But despite the fact that the uprising was organized by a Soviet prisoner of war, the Russian government has been excluded from participating in the design of the … Continue reading
The game board looks like the map of Israel. On the west side, there are some high tech companies; in the south, near the Dead Sea, there is a medical center and a spa hotel. The rules are similar to Monopoly: It is an economic strategy game, where players buy companies and try to build … Continue reading
Since toppling statues of Joseph Stalin, post-Soviet Russians have taken to building monuments to a different national hero in recent years: Tsar Nicholas II, the last emperor of the Russian Empire. More than 25 shrines honoring Nicholas II have been erected since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Declared a saint and a … Continue reading
A recent Molotov cocktail attack on a Moscow Jewish community center can be attributed to a new movie about the Russian Tsar, the Jewish community believes. Security footage caught a man tossing two Molotov cocktails over the wall of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia building overnight on September 12. Fortunately, no one was … Continue reading
Credit: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters A Russian lawmaker speaking on TV recently described something amazing happening to a statue of the last Russian emperor in Crimea: The stone torso had begun to weep. PRI could not yet independently verify such an occurrence. But the symbolism of the politician’s remarks was weighty. “People bring their ill children to … Continue reading
This fall, the Jewish community in Russia is commemorating an often overlooked result of the Russian Revolution — the achievement of equal rights for the country’s Jews. Exactly one century ago, in 1917, the Russian government signed a decree establishing equality for all religions and ethnicities. The edict officially abolished the Pale of Settlement — … Continue reading
JULIE MASIS 