Old Lives and New

One of the strengths of this book is its portrayal of individuals: their personal stories, struggles, dilemmas and achievements. Each story ... has lessons in it to illuminate and to inspire. -Sir Martin Gilbert, historian The twists and turns of Soviet Jewish lives are portrayed well by someone who has a deep understanding of their cultures, old and new. -Zvi Gitelman, professor of political science and Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan Old Lives and New paints an incredibly sweeping and human portrait of Soviet Jewry over the past century ... interweaving the stories of a number of Soviet Jewish families in a way that makes a whole community come to life. -Gal Beckerman, author of When They Come for Us We'll be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry

In the 1970s, Frankel interviewed a number of individuals shortly after they had left the Soviet Union for Israel and the United States. Twenty-five years later, Frankel interviews them again. Their experiences illuminate the complex history of Soviet immigrants and symbolize the universal tale of anyone who has ever emigrated.This is the moving story of a number of individuals who made the difficult and sometimes hazardous decision to leave their home, family, and friends and start new lives in Israel and the United States. Edith Rogovin Frankel interviews them twice: shortly after they leave the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and again, twenty-five years later, when they have long been settled in their new lives. Their experiences—from their formative years in the Soviet Union, to their decisions to leave, to their struggles to receive permission to emigrate—illuminate the complex history of Soviet Jews. The story of their emigration represents the universal tale of anyone who has ever migrated, hoping to find a new and better life elsewhere. Above all, this is the personal story of these men and women, of the desires that inspired them and of the dogged faith that kept them going.