Growing up during the Cold War, I was taught that the Soviet Union was
evil. They wanted to infect us with Communism or kill us with
nuclear missiles. In middle school, I heard the famous dissident
and Refusenik, Natan Sharansky, speak at my synagogue, and I was
moved to activism. My family participated in the March for
Soviet Jewry in Washington, D.C. in 1987. I carried a sign that
said “Let My People Go.” After Gorbachev finally let the Soviet
Jews leave, I met and later married Gene, an...