Russian Silhouette. A Memoir of Activism and Identity by Daniel M. Jaffe

After Russian Studies at Princeton and a training as a lawyer, Daniel M. Jaffe decided to dedicate full time to his writing passion. Russian Silhouette, his ´memoir of activism and identity´, that I had access to in audiobook format, read by the author, is a testimony of his talent. 

It was a right decision to leave the dry world of law and dedicate to storytelling, especially when one has a story to tell. His is intertwined with a significant stage of the world history, especially Jewish history: the increased pressure of the then Soviet authorities against dissident and the stubborn efforts to block any attempts of Russian Jews from leaving the country. 

As a student, a bit naive, keen to improve his Russian skills, Jaffe who is himself Jewish, got to know the everyday life of the Soviet citizens, their deprivations and the enormous risks human rights activists undertook, involving the lives of other family members and friends. Jaffe, and we all, may learn about human dignity and values from those courageous dissidents. In his particular case, it also meant leading him to a more open acknowledgment of his own identity and ultimate coming out both to his family, friends and Soviet acquaintances. 

The story is told with so much humour, despite the clear restrictive circumstances, and relating the reader so directly, that I may be missing the characters at the end of the book. They felt so closed and their fate so tragic, reminding me always about the respect I have towards Russian Jews who often paid a high price for just not forgetting who they are. 

Russian Silhouette is an important testimony adding up to the bibliography about refuseniks nevertheless a story of resilience and accepting authenticity.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Audiobook offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

A Cold War Exodus by Shaul Kelner

From the early 1960s until beginning of the 1990s, the American public opinion mobilized in favor of the Jews living in the Soviet Union, requesting in various ways the authorities in Moscow to ´let them go´. Jews from the Soviet Union represented the noble cause of many politicians - Jewish or not - cultural and religious personalities, in the US and abroad. 

In October 1963, wrote professor Shaul Kelner in his forthcoming A Cold War Exodus. How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews, the members of a synagogue club in Cleveland, Ohio, established a Committee on Soviet Anti-Semitism. This will be the first American organization dedicated to aiding Soviet Jews. In addition to the efforts of the state of Israel herself to offer a smooth passage through Nativ and other initiatives more or less public, a whole network of organisations and movements operated in the US on behalf of them, both from the right and from the left.

What the book extensively analyses is the extent of the network and the strategies, including by tracing the specific alliances between some of those organisations with stake holders and non-Jewish organisations and initiatives. ´For a generation, this social movement shaped Jewish Amerians´ civic and religious culture´, mentions Kelner and his efforts are aimed at revealing important aspects for the general history of social and cultural movements during the Cold War.

Kelner´s book is an important contribution that tries to extract the lessons learned of the mobilization on behalf of the Soviet Jews in the US for the overall history of social movements. It uses fine anthropological and sociological approaches and sources of very diverse nature. A recommended book for historians of the Cold War as well as researchers in the field of Soviet Jewish studies.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Remembering the refuseniks