The Huddled Masses

About the Book

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.

About the Author

Harriet N. Kruman has had extensive experience, on many levels, in the resettlement of Jews from the Former Soviet Union: she was the 1982 chair of The Women’s Plea for Soviet Jewry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a member of the Pittsburgh Conference for Soviet Jewry, with whom she visited the Soviet Union in 1990. Kruman has tutored Russian-speaking immigrants for over 25 years and has been the lay leader of The New Americans' Club of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh. She has also been active and involved in leadership roles in her synagogue and on the national board of the Conservative Movement. She has written about and spoken to various groups on Soviet Jewry, as well the history of the Jews in Hungary. She and her husband live in Pittsburgh, she has one son, his wife and four grandchildren.