Shining and Shadow is a translated anthology of Yiddish short fiction of the Lower East Side, the center of a vibrant Jewish (largely Russian Jewish) life. Waldinger's goal is to present both the past and present of a population forced by poverty and pogrom to leave its homeland, resettle in America, and adopt its ideals (and hopes) as well as its difficult urban realities, all while wrestling with the desire to preserve its cultural identity and system of beliefs and expectations.