Sounds like a good read to settle in with during my recuperation. "Antin" is
the spelling?  Can you imagine how the Russian Jewish community felt about
Marxism after Stalin came to power?  I've always wondered how the Soviet
Union would have fared, and how its ethnic groups would have fared, if Lenin
had not died so early after the revolution.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kat [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 10:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Did I delete something important? Genia


Frankly, I don't know.  I'm in a Reformed Synagogue which is much more
liberal than an Orthodox Shul so I've no idea.  But maybe Meir could
enlighten
us. Meir...?

A lot of Jews supported Lenin because they were of the working class -
remember they were dirt poor and treated like peons - and so they saw a hope
of the end of the tyranny of the Tsars.  Remember that line in 'Fiddler on
the Roof,' in which the Rabbi says, 'May G-d bless and keep the Tsar...far
away from us!'  That was how they all felt about the Tsarist government and
they hated and feared the Cossacks, those horse soldiers of the Tsars who
would lead the pogroms.  So it was no wonder that young Jews turned so
eagerly to the new Socialist promises of a better and freer life.

For a fascinating portrayal of life as a Jew in Old Russia, I recommend
'The Promised Land,' by Mary Antin, still in print and available at Amazon;
it may be at your library.  It was published in 1918 and it was written by a
Russian Jewish immigrant whose family immigrated from Polotsk (where my
father's family was from) to Boston.

Kat