About the Author

Naomi B. Levine, lawyer, graduate of Columbia Law School, editor of the Columbia Law Review, expert in constitutional law, was formerly the National Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress. Currently she is Senior Vice President of New York University.

Reviews

A comprehensive and well-documented survey of Soviet Jewry up to the Gorbachev era by the author of several books on Jewish history. Based largely upon secondary and some primary sources, mainly in English, these volumes form a highly detailed and readable account for a wide audience. The many contradictory elements of Soviet policy are described, notably the repression of nationalities and religion, alleviated by periods of tolerance. Deep-rooted anti-Semitism is treated as the true basis of Soviet policy. Levin maintains that the Soviets have failed to examine their own anti-Semitism or to come to terms with minority cultural rights. Primarily a political and cultural history, this complements nicely Zvi Gitelman's photographic social history A Century of Ambivalence (LJ 1/88). An unmatched review of a people and era; for all collections of Jewish history and most general ones.-- Rena Fowler, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette