Shush! Growing Up Jewish Under Stalin By Emil Draitser University of California Press 338 pages; $24.95 In the long trail of tears that constitutes Jewish history, one of the few bright spots is the triumphant rescue of Soviet Jewry. Although there was supposedly no official anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, there was in fact considerable repression, especially directed toward those Jews known as "refuseniks" who sought to emigrate. Jews around the world rallied to their cause and diplomatic pressure was exerted. Eventually, 1 million Jews were freed to go to Israel and about 500,000 left for the US, Germany, Canada and other countries. The hardships experienced by Soviet Jews are poignantly described in this memoir by Emil Draitser, who managed to reach America in the late 1970s. He is now a professor of Russian in New York. Born in 1937, he concentrates on his life until 1953 when Stalin died and the Jewish doctors accused of being poisoners were declared innocent. Draitser joined the celebration, albeit somewhat hesitatingly since he had systematically tried to identify himself as a Russian rather than as a Jew. Beginning with his first day at school, his efforts to downplay his Jewish identity failed, since his classmates and his teacher taunted him as a Jew. He joined communist youth movements and saw himself as a "citizen of the USSR," but he continued to encounter anti-Semitism. At home, he was somewhat puzzled when his parents quietly observed Jewish holidays. His father taught him to root for Jews in the world chess championship, to take pride in the few Jewish winners of the annual Stalin Prize and to know that both Marx and Einstein were Jews. Confusion was intensified for Draitser when he was taught in school that Russians invented the steam engine, the light bulb, the radio, the telegraph, the airplane and the computer. More mixed messages came to him when he found anti-Semitic lines in the writings of his favorite Russian authors. Along with other Soviet youth, the truth about the Holocaust was kept from him. He was well into his 20s before he learned about the Jewish disaster. Fortunately for Draitser, he was able to come to the US and to learn how he had been victimized by Soviet propaganda. His narrative eloquently testifies to the persistence of Russian Jews in maintaining their identity, as well as to the value of the protest movement on their behalf. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of life in the Soviet Union and to the vital importance of speaking out against oppression. The writer is the founding dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University and dean emeritus of the School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.