Harriet Kruman

The Huddled Masses: Jewish History in the Former Soviet Union: First-hand Interviews with the ¿migr¿s Harriet Kruman

Against a backdrop of persecution, repression, humiliation and rampant anti-Semitism, Jews from The Former Soviet Union suffered a long and tragic history as the proverbial scapegoats of any societal, philosophical or turf issues. They were at the mercy of the whims or political stance of consecutive autocratic rulers. In 1979, a major phenomenon in Jewish history occurred when Soviet Jews, who were enslaved in a very real sense, began a struggle for freedom; they had defined goals to which the Jewish communities in United States and Israel responded, reaching out in tangible and effective ways on behalf of Soviet Jewry, beginning with our advocacy of human rights. Kruman takes the reader back to the beginning of Jewish presence in what evolved into the country of Russia, then subsequently the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, leading to an understanding of what factors led to the creation of the USSR, as well as those which led to its demise, and how these factors affected Jewish life specifically. Included are 14 personal interviews with Jews, now American citizens, caught up in the history of the Soviet Union, both fascinating and tragic.