The Jew Who Died Twice

The Jew who died twice. The rabbi who became an artist. The eccentric old man, a half-wild sorcerer-elder who lived on roots and gathered old tree stumps, dwelling in a dugout on the outskirts of Alma-Ata. The best-known Soviet sculptor of the 1930s, who vanished into oblivion for many long years. After his arrest on a charge of espionage, his friends took him for lost in Stalin's camps. But he was fated to survive many hardships and to be born again.

Isaac Itkind lived a remarkable life, but not all the legends surrounding his name are true. Several books, a great many stories and articles have been written about Itkind, and documentary and feature films and broadcasts have been made. But the facts of his life are usually passed on in a distorted and heavily mythologised form, and so they appear on Wikipedia as well. Such is the charm of this silver-haired good soul that his story leaves no one indifferent