Otar Sepiashvili – movie critic, scenarist, journalist, essayist, an outstanding contributor to the Georgian cultural landscape, and the author of numerous magazine articles, as well as fourteen books, three of which, such as Time and the Big Screen (1969), War on the Big Screen (1975), Charlie – A Small Man?, No, A Hero! (1991) were awarded the First Prize by the Cinematographic Union in the “Critical Analysis and Theory of Cinema”. He was one of the pioneers of professional movie criticism in Georgia and was responsible for its popularization in different forms of media, such as print periodicals and television. Following graduation from the University, he started working for the newspaper Tbilisi, and the magazine Soviet Art. In 1959 he became a member of the Soviet Journalist Union, in 1960 joined the Union of Soviet Cinematographers. For 12 years he presided over the “Critical Analysis and Theory of Cinema” department of the Union of Georgian Cinematographers. He was also a member of the popular science cinematography committee of the Union of the Soviet Cinematographers, the governing committee of the Journalist Union of Tbilisi, and the editorial board of the publishing house known as Art. For thirty years he taught the art of cinema at the Tbilisi University. He was the fi rst in the Georgian press to become an accredited correspondent to the international cinematographic forums and the fi rst to write reviews about movie festivals in Moscow, Cannes, Venice, and Delhi. In 1969 he became the chief editor for the Georgian State Television. There he organized editorial teams that were focused on tasks that were responsible for daily TV programming. He led this team for 26 years, during which he created many popular TV shows, especially the famous weekly Illusion, which he authored and anchored himself, airing over 750 episodes. His scripts were used for 10 documentaries and TV movies, among them was the three part fi lm Movie and Years, and Time for Gathering Stones, both of which were fi lmed in Israel in 1989. In 1996 he moved to New York where he currently resides and works for the Georgian and Russian press. In 2002 “Megilat Ester” and in 2005 a collection of historical-journalistic essays “Memory: Symphony – Chronicles and Intermediary or the Faith of Georgian Jews” were published in New York.

Jews and humor is, for most people, a natural and felicitous collocation. In spite of, or perhaps because of, a history of crises and living on the edge, Jews have often created or resorted to humor. But what is humor? And what makes certain types, instances, or performances of humor "Jewish"? These are among the myriad queries addressed by the fourteen authors whose essays are collected in this volume. And, thankfully, their observations, always apt and often witty, are expressed with a lightness of style and a depth of analysis that are appropriate to the many topics they cover. The scholars who contributed to this collection allow readers both to discern the common features that make up "Jewish humor" and to delight in the individualism and eccentricities of the many figures whose lives and accomplishments are narrated here. Because these essays are written in a clear, jargon-free style, they will appeal to everyone—even those who don't usually crack a smile!

With the composer's consent, the manuscript was smuggled out of Soviet Russia - but Shostakovich, fearing reprisals, stipulated that the book should not appear until after his death. Ever since its publication in 1979 it has been the subject of controversy, some suggesting that Volkov invented parts of it, but most affirming that it revealed a profoundly ambivalent Shostakovich which the world had never seen before - his life at once triumphant and tragic. Either way, it remains indispensable to an understanding of Shostakovich's life and work. Testimony is intense and fiercely ironic, both plain-spoken and outspoken.