They endured, indeed. Your story not unlike mine, though my parents were first generation Americans, but both sets of grandparents escaped pogroms. Stories we must tell ... Also restacked a quote to help you get readers. You so deserve them.
Thank you so much for this post. Three parts of my life, Russian language and literature major with travels to the former Soviet Union in the '90s, marrying into a Jewish family with roots in the shtetks of Belarus and Lithuania, and converting to Judaism in my thirties which included spending a good portion of time in community with the adult and aging children of Ashkenazi Jewish emigres from Eastern Europe and USSR, I have maybe a little more than a limited outsider's view of the complex history of Jewish life in that corner of the world. Heavy emphasis on the outsider. But I mention my background to indicate I am familiar and appreciative and empathetic to the contents of this post. I was completely unaware of American emigration to the Soviet Union. And will have to look more into that. Thank you for the suggested additional reads.
I'm so glad that you wrote about this part of your history, and I look forward to hearing more of your father's story or whatever else on this subject that you share. This post certainly gives more context to the concept of thrownness and the degree to which the lives that come before us give shape and tenor to the lives that we lead today.
Ou-topos*
They endured, indeed. Your story not unlike mine, though my parents were first generation Americans, but both sets of grandparents escaped pogroms. Stories we must tell ... Also restacked a quote to help you get readers. You so deserve them.
Good last quote.
Thank you so much for this post. Three parts of my life, Russian language and literature major with travels to the former Soviet Union in the '90s, marrying into a Jewish family with roots in the shtetks of Belarus and Lithuania, and converting to Judaism in my thirties which included spending a good portion of time in community with the adult and aging children of Ashkenazi Jewish emigres from Eastern Europe and USSR, I have maybe a little more than a limited outsider's view of the complex history of Jewish life in that corner of the world. Heavy emphasis on the outsider. But I mention my background to indicate I am familiar and appreciative and empathetic to the contents of this post. I was completely unaware of American emigration to the Soviet Union. And will have to look more into that. Thank you for the suggested additional reads.
I'm so glad that you wrote about this part of your history, and I look forward to hearing more of your father's story or whatever else on this subject that you share. This post certainly gives more context to the concept of thrownness and the degree to which the lives that come before us give shape and tenor to the lives that we lead today.