Soviet-Jewish History

Walking to the site of a Holocaust mass grave in Romanow, Ukraine

On #FirstSurvivor and the Russian-Jewish Holocaust experience

Personal Essay, Soviet-Jewish History /

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day—sharing some thoughts on the Russian-Jewish Holocaust experience. There’s a thread making its way around Twitter about #FirstSurvivors, asking people about the first survivor they ever met. This was my response, which I’m posting here too, with some tweaks, before it disappears into the abyss of updates. Like many Russian-Jews, there is no “First Survivor” in my family, because the Holocaust […]

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My grandfather and his siblings as a Red Army soldier at the outset of WWII, in approximately 1941.

Looking to the Soviet past to understand Remembrance Day

Personal Essay, Soviet-Jewish History /

I properly met my maternal grandparents for the first time shortly before my 10th birthday. Until then, they had been photographs and letters I couldn’t read and Russian storybooks that arrived periodically in the mail. They were the sound of my parents shouting down the telephone line, because in the long ago 1980s people sounded as far away as they really were and did not

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Has the Soviet Jewry movement anniversary forgotten Soviet Jews themselves?

Soviet-Jewish History /

Have you joined the virtual march to commemorate the real march for Soviet Jews yet? On December 6, 1987, some 250,000 people rallied in Washington, DC, to demand immigration rights for Soviet Jews. If you missed it, you can “remember” by joining the virtual march. There are a lot of people talking about the Soviet Jewry movement. But not so many talking about Soviet/Russian Jews

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Statue of Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, representing a history of Russian antisemitism

An A-Z of Russian hospitality to Jews: A history of Russian antisemitism

Soviet Life, Soviet-Jewish History /

You might have heard something about Israeli President Shimon Peres and the Jewish museum in Moscow? It’s just opened and Peres was among the important so-and-so’s in attendance. At some point in the proceedings, overcome with emotions dredged up from childhood, he opened his mouth and and the following came out: “My mother sang to me in Russian, and at the entrance to this museum, memories of

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Monopoly ship piece representing teaching history through games

Teaching history through games: Are some things off-limits?

Soviet-Jewish History, Tech Meets History & Totalitarianism /

In my last post, I talked about a new Monopoly game in Poland, which is being used to teach children about communism. I also talked about a role-playing game I participated in at summer camp, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, where we played Soviet Jews trying to escape the country. Come to think of it, it’s the the only time I ever

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Monopoly board for educational history games

Summer camp is for history games (mud optional)

Soviet-Jewish History, Tech Meets History & Totalitarianism /

Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (an Orwellian-sounding name if there ever was one) has just launched a communist-style variation of Monopoly, to help teach kids about life under communist rule. Lots of waiting in lines, lots of squabbling over basic necessities, lots of random shortages—”Go to end of line. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 zloty.” It’s an interesting (/bizarre) twist on the

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Russian Jews Holocaust fund fraud

Caught between Stalin and Hitler: On not bridging gaps between old and new

Soviet-Jewish History /

The poison inside the people who allegedly defrauded the Holocaust fund would be inside you, too, if you had lived as Jews in the Soviet Union. Whatever their sins, these people are heroes, too, for having survived it. The struggle to defeat its legacy requires a daily application of conscience and will, even for members of my generation… For some, in real life, it’s simply

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Circumcision and Russian Jews: the tools

Circumcision and the irrational moments of life

Immigrant Experience, Soviet-Jewish History /

So circumcision. Or, circumcision and Russian Jews, specifically. I’ve been neglecting this blog lately (vacations, dead computers, more vacations…), and why not jump back in with something that’s sure to upset someone, somewhere. In a post titled “Taking On The Difficult Obligation of Brit Milah,” on The Forward‘s Sisterhood blog, Debra Nussbaum Cohen defends the practice, characterizing it as an obligation to our children to

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