I AM VERY GRATEFUL

In 1969 we lived in Riga, Latvia. At that time, my wife Elfa and I were twenty-two, and we had a one-year young daughter. Latvia was part of the Soviet Union. Socialism and antisemitism were a part of our life. It is impossible to go back in time and to understand why we decided to immigrate to Israel. At that time, it was unfeasible even to think about it. Nevertheless, the next step of our life journey began. Our request to immigrate to Israel was refused. For the next three years, we became refuseniks, with many challenges connected with this status.

Elfa took it upon herself to fight with the state. She demonstrated with other refuseniks and was arrested twice, while I worked at a garage to feed our family. We were refused again and again, until January 1972, when our family finally received permission to emigrate to Israel. What we did not know at the time the extent to which the American Jewish Community demonstrated in support of the Soviet Jews with the slogan, “Let My People Go”, which made our liberation possible. After moving to San Francisco in 1980 and settling down, I joined “The Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews”, an organization which continued to help Jews, who still were trapped in the USSR and met the people who helped us.

I decided to write about this experience after attending a fundraiser for the “Soviet Jewry Movement Archives Project”. This event brought back memories from over fifty years ago. Our life in San Francisco has been very rewarding. We learned, we grew, we created a business and helped many people. Despite the fact that we lived and worked in different countries before, over the last forty-four years, we became Americans. And I am very grateful to be part of the best country in the world.

The three images are of the American flag that I have encountered in various places.

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