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Writer - Russian-Jewish food, history, immigration

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The Soviet Samovar – Russian-Jewish monthly newsletter
- Almost finished…
About
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Writer - Russian-Jewish food, history, immigration

Blog
Blog Archives
Contact
Events, Classes, and Talks
Lea Zeltserman – Homepage
Services
The Soviet Samovar – Russian-Jewish monthly newsletter
- Almost finished…
About
Writing

Blog Archives

This blog ran regularly from 2009 to 2014, and considerably more sporadically since then. A list of highlights and favourite posts and topics is below, or use the search if you're looking for something specific.

Some Favourites

Personal Essays

On #FirstSurvivor and the Russian-Jewish Holocaust experience
Lost in Immigration: People I Will Never Know
Looking to the Soviet past to understand Remembrance Day
Stumbling into Syrian cuisine while searching for a Soviet-Russian seder tradition
The Russian make-up brigade
Limmud FSU: That time I spent a weekend speaking Russian
Apparently, there are words I still don’t know in English. Like apron.
My KGB file – Yes, there was probably a file with my name on it
Soviet and Jewish and stateless

On Books and Movies

To Read and Watch

American dreams and the state of statelessness
A Soviet-Jewish nightmare comes true on The Americans
Why I can’t stop watching The Americans as a Russian-Jew
Tintin’s secret anti-Soviet propaganda roots
Operatsiya Y: A Soviet movie flashback. With kompot!
Appropriate Reading for Russian Vacations
A joke to die for: Old communists telling Soviet jokes
Not my perestroika: Shades of might have beens
On Russian tchotchkes and Soviet design
Exploring a haunting oral history of the Chernobyl disaster
So much to envy: Reading about North Korea
Soviet gulags just not sexy enough for the zeitgeist
Three generations, three languages: A former refusenik on language and identity

Watching Refusenik with Soviet-Jewish Immigrants

Refusenik Doc Screening 1: Defining Moments
Refusenik Doc Screening 2: The Rescuers and the Rescued
Refusenik Doc Screening 3: We Weren’t All Refuseniks
Refusenik Doc Screening 4: Soviet Dinner, or Sausage Nostalgia

Series - Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10

Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: On the Landing
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Through Soviet Jewish Eyes
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Little Failure
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: small things left behind
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Operation Wedding
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: A Replacement Life
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Breaking Stalin’s Nose
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: Yiddish Glory
Soviet-Jewish Decade Top 10: When They Come For Us We’ll Be Gone
Announcing the Soviet-Jewish Decade: A 2010s Top 10

Interviews

Operation Wedding: A conversation with Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov
Growing up Refusenik: A Q&A with Maxim Shrayer on his new memoir
An interview with Swimming in the Daylight author Lisa Paul
A Q+A on the Soviet Jewry movement with Gal Beckerman

On Life in the USSR

12 things I learned about Soviet childhood from my Bukvar
Russian Bukvar for beginners – How I almost didn’t learn Russian
Operatsiya Y: A Soviet movie flashback. With kompot!
What we really mean when we copy Soviet constructivism from Alexander Rodchenko
Soviet Propaganda Porcelain: Inside the Imperial Porcelain Factory
Vestiges of Empire – Tracking Lenin statues through Russia and Ukraine
An A-Z of Russian hospitality to Jews for Shimon Peres: The outtakes
A joke to die for: Old communists telling Soviet jokes
The Potemkin effect: Colour photos from Russia in the black-and-white days
Not my perestroika: Shades of might have beens
Live, in the kitchen, from Moscow
Do Russian and Soviet memorabilia an immigrant make?
On Russian tchotchkes and Soviet design
In which I am immersed in Russian music but would have preferred herring
Radio days of the revolution: Goodbye Soviet Russia, hello North Korea

On SovietRussian Jewish History

On #FirstSurvivor and the Russian-Jewish Holocaust experience
Looking to the Soviet past to understand Remembrance Day
Has the Soviet Jewry movement anniversary forgotten Soviet Jews themselves?
An A-Z of Russian hospitality to Jews for Shimon Peres: The outtakes
Teaching history through games: Are some things off-limits?
Summer camp is for history games (mud optional)
Caught between Stalin and Hitler: On not bridging gaps between old and new
Circumcision and the irrational moments of life
Soviet gulags just not sexy enough for the zeitgeist
Roman Vishniac’s photography: The impoverished life that wasn’t quite
Soviet and Jewish and stateless

On the Intersection of Tech, History & Totalitarianism

Kristallnacht on Twitter seems hopelessly naive
An Instagram worthy of royalty and madmen (with video!)
Can you Photoshop that? Our tone-deaf response to the Kim Jong-Uns of the world
With so many ways to keep in touch, let’s never talk again
People of North Korea (and the world), we are looking at you
Google turns the lights on in North Korea
The social media revolution, World War II, Syria, and oh, Walmart
Public and private during war: YouTube vs Soviet street announcements
The Potemkin effect: Colour photos from Russia in the black-and-white days
iPhone rumours, or outsourcing the rumour mill
Radio days of the revolution: Goodbye Soviet Russia, hello North Korea
The digital afterlife and the lies we’ll leave behind
Twitter revolution? Sorry, the revolution is not being tweeted
Teaching history through games: Are some things off-limits?
Summer camp is for history games (mud optional)
A good old US penny
On technology and activism, and the rest of the world
Retro research: Squinting, scanning, scrolling
Twitter highlights the banal in food
Baby dictator photos art project explores nature of evil and motherhood
The Holocaust and Facebook – When Anne Frank got her own page

On the Immigrant Experience

Lost in Immigration: People I Will Never Know
No Air Canada, I don’t want a Russian flag on my face
American dreams and the state of statelessness
12 things I learned about Soviet childhood from my Bukvar
Russian Bukvar for beginners – How I almost didn’t learn Russian
Limmud FSU: That time I spent a weekend speaking Russian
With so many ways to keep in touch, let’s never talk again
Apparently, there are words I still don’t know in English. Like apron.
My KGB file – Yes, there was probably a file with my name on it
Hiding out in the ‘burbs
Do Russian and Soviet memorabilia an immigrant make?
In which I am immersed in Russian music but would have preferred herring
On technology and activism, and the rest of the world
No frills, but plenty of multiculturalism
Circumcision and the irrational moments of life

On Immigrant Household Decor - Guest Post Series

Immigrant household decor: Your stories wanted!
Immigrant Decor: The faux Persian rug, crowning glory of every Russian home, by Jennifer Eremeeva
Immigrant Decor: A suitcase full of matryoshkas and salami, by Anna Tarkov
Immigrant Decor: Hindu gods, the Alberta way, by Scaachi Koul
Immigrant Decor: The weight of an English chesterfield, by Navneet Alang
Immigrant Decor: When all is fleeting anyway, food becomes everything, by Katrina K

On Food Culture

Stumbling into Syrian cuisine while searching for a Soviet-Russian seder tradition
Russian Kompot: I’m probably doing it wrong (with recipe)
Still keeping your coffee in the freezer? Tut, tut
Twitter highlights the banal in food
No frills, but plenty of multiculturalism
Sometimes, a chocolate bar is just a chocolate bar
Food police: Whither the voice of reason?
Professional kitchens get gentrified while foodies pretend to be ordinary folk
Don’t worry, we’ve got our best minds on it!
Caffeinated conspiracies and indie economics (2)
Women! Chefs! Sexism!
Caffeinated conspiracies and indie economics (1)
Edible authenticity puts class politics on the plate
Crimes against language: A guide to gendered food terms
The kitchen-bot revolution 2—And a robo-chef in every kitchen
The kitchen-bot revolution 1—this ain’t your mama’s kitchen

On Gender & Parenting

The mommy wars vs the reality of working motherhood
An open letter on so-called parenting privilege in the workplace
Study says… "Blame mom!"
Baby dictator photos art project explores nature of evil and motherhood
Women! Chefs! Sexism!
Hating Mother’s Day is as damaging as sentimentalizing it
Crimes against language: A guide to gendered food terms
The kitchen-bot revolution 2—And a robo-chef in every kitchen
The kitchen-bot revolution 1—this ain’t your mama’s kitchen

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