KBSU hosted a presentation of Joseph Brener’s book about former KBSU teacher Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman

History of Kabardino-Balkarian State University named after Kh.M. Berbekov, like any other university, consists of the fate of its teachers, staff and students who made their invaluable contribution to its formation and development. And the university carefully preserves the memory of its founders and graduates.

On September 28, 2023, at KBSU, on the initiative of the Department of Russian Language and General Linguistics and the Research and Educational Center of Russian Language and Culture of KBSU, a presentation of Joseph Brener’s book “Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman. Personal archive and Birobidzhan trace» (Birobidzhan, 2022), dedicated to the birthday of KBSU.

In the intellectual hall of the university library, students of the Philology department and the medical college gathered to pay tribute to the memory of the unique scientist and teacher who worked at the Kabardino-Balkarian State Pedagogical Institute from 1938 to 1948.

The evening was opened by Nadezhda Chaika, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Director of the Russian Language and Culture Research Center, and gave the floor to the author of the book “Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman. Personal archive and Birobidzhan trace” to candidate of cultural studies Joseph Brener.

It should be noted that at KBSU, Joseph Brener’s book was first presented by the head of the department of Russian language and general linguistics, Professor Svetlana Bashieva at a meeting of the university’s academic council on July 4, 2022. Svetlana Konakbievna informed her colleagues about how Esther Rosenthal-Shneiderman ended up in the Kabardino-Balkarian Pedagogical Institute in 1938 (since 1957 — KBSU), about her work as a senior lecturer in the department of pedagogy — lectures, practical classes, supervising the teaching practice of students in schools, and also activities to improve the qualifications of young teachers of the KBASSR at the Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers, opened in 1939.

And about. KBSU Rector Professor Yuri Altudov called Joseph Brener’s book a particularly pleasant gift to the university in the year of its 90th anniversary.

Thanks to the author for his work. This is quite an interesting page in the history of our university. And how many more pages are so dear to us! We will transfer the monograph to the library. I’m sure it will bring joy to everyone who reads it,

– said Yuri Altudov.

At the presentation, KBSU students were also interested to learn about the life and work of Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman from the lips of the author of the book of memoirs about her — historian and publicist Joseph Brener. In a conference call, Joseph Brener explained why he chose Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman as the heroine of his book:

Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman, best known for her four volumes of memoirs and her teaching work in the Soviet Union, was born in Poland as Tran-Estera Fuchs. She graduated from the University of Warsaw, but in 1926 she had to flee from the Polish authorities due to her communist affiliation. In the Soviet Union, under the pseudonym Sarah Shneiderman, she became a prominent Soviet Jewish educator and scholar in Ukraine, and after moving to Birobidzhan, she participated in the social, educational and cultural construction of the nascent Jewish Autonomous Region. Her memoirs and many articles shed light on the history of the region, including descriptions of anti-Jewish campaigns and portraits of Jewish scholars, writers, journalists and close friends. The works left by Shneiderman are an invaluable asset for researchers studying Jewish history and culture of the Soviet Union. Some scholars consider Esther one of the five largest Jewish memoirists of the late 19th–20th centuries.

Joseph Semenovich also noted that while working in the Central Archive of the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem, he discovered a collective photograph with Shneiderman (Nalchik, Pedagogical Institute, 1945) and turned two years ago to Svetlana Bashieva to assist in identifying other university employees and collecting materials about the years of work of Esther Shneiderman at the Kabardino-Balkarian Pedagogical Institute:

She helped me a lot in searching for traces of Shneiderman’s life and work in the Caucasus, in particular in Kabardino-Balkaria. I was able to process documents found in the KBSU archives concerning Esther’s educational and scientific activities. They were published for the first time in my monograph, in a separate chapter «Caucasus — Nalchik».

Vice-Rector for Personnel, Organizational and Legal Affairs Murat Gukepshokov, who participated in the meeting, thanked Joseph Brener for his titanic work on the monograph about the former KBSU teacher.

We are proud that such a person as Esther Shneiderman worked at our university,” he emphasized and expressed his gratitude to Svetlana Bashieva, whose selfless work in collecting and journalistically reflecting historical information about key events and personalities of the university resulted in the publication of books that are invaluable to the university : “90 years of KBSU: history in faces” and “Immortal Regiment of KBSU.

Addressing the students, Svetlana Bashieva recommended that they take more interest in the eventful and personal history of the university in which they study, and drew their attention to the fact that

The first decades of the formation of KBGPI were very difficult, but the teachers worked selflessly, generously shared their knowledge with students, and this is worth a lot.

I would also note that graduates of our pedagogical institute worked in many parts of our country. I hope that today you have enriched yourself spiritually and mentally. Study, read more good literature, study and preserve the great culture of our country,

– Svetlana Konakbievna summarized.