The Gates of Our Exodus

By James Vendeland

The plight of Soviet Jews from the 1930s to late the 20th century is a story not well known in the West. We feel privileged to write the English translation of excerpts from Felix Kandel's The Gates of Our Exodus. As Clevelanders we are proud of the role played by Cleveland Jews in the 1970s to obtain the release of Soviet Jews wishing to immigrate to the United States. Moreover, one of us (E.L.) was born in Russia and lived through this difficult time of Soviet Jewish oppression.The persecution of Jews always existed in Russia, but in the time of Stalin discrimination and oppression of Jews became an everyday government policy supported with enthusiasm by the Russian populace. Elena's experiences, along with those of our author Felix Kandel, reflect the frustrations of millions of Soviet Jews in their struggle to leave the Soviet Union. This goal was finally achieved but was not easily accomplished. Often many years of waiting had to occur before this dream could become a reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Vendeland
• Release date: May 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301356614

James Vendeland

Jim Vendeland is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. For 35 years he practiced ophthalmology in Cleveland, Ohio and has been studying Russian for 20 years. For several years Jim and his teacher and coauthor Elena Levin, have translated a wide variety of Russian poems, opera librettos, musical romances, and prose into English. He is also an opera fanatic, a collector of rare medical eye instruments, and former president of the Ocular Heritage Society. Jim is married and has 3 children and 5 grandchildren.

Book preview

The Gates of Our Exodus

(LET US MEMORIZE AND RETAIN.)

BY Felix Kandel

(Excerpts)

English Translation by Elena Levin and James L. Vendeland

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Elena Levin and James L. Vendeland

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Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

At First They Killed King Lear

Moscow Synagogue on Arkhipov Street In the Year 1959

Fly with Aeroflot

About the Authors of This Translation

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all Soviet Jews who endured and finally triumphed in their efforts to leave the Soviet Union.

Preface

I was born in Moscow, the capital of the former USSR, two years prior to the German invasion. My family was not religious. It wasn't until I was four years old that I heard, for the first time, that I was Jewish. A boy near my house punched me and said that Hitler will soon finish me along with all Jews. I ran crying to my mother. She only hugged me and did not say a word. My father at that time was fighting in Stalingrad. He survived and returned home after the war with many military decorations.

But in my childhood and later in my life in the USSR, the bravery and devotion of Jewish fighters were never mentioned. The history of Russian Jews, given by the official historians, has been distorted, defamed, and falsified. During the hundreds of years of living in the Russian Empire and USSR, Jews have been proclaimed traitors and guilty of causing all people's bad luck. To be Jewish in Russia was an ethnicity and not a religion.

Throughout my 50 years of living in the USSR, I became fed up with dirty looks, unpleasant words, open hints and screams of kike! Then following the initial rejected petitions, my family finally obtained the long awaited permission to leave. I will never forget the relief I felt when a customs house agent at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport proclaimed pompously: Your foot will never step on our holy soil again! and then allowed us to proceed to departure.

We have never returned to Russia and have no desire to do so. We are happy to be American citizens. Our home is here. Our grandchildren have been born here and are happy and successful.

But it is still a difficult task to answer this question raised by my American friends and neighbors: Why did you and your husband, being so very well educated in the USSR, and having good, well-paid, permanent jobs, and a good dwelling, risk abandoning it all in order to move to the United States and begin life over again with nothing?

When I came across Felix Kandel's book The Gates of Our Exodus I felt it would be the best choice for answering this fundamental question. I asked JimVendeland to join me in translating this book into English. He agreed and we now offer to our readers the abridged edition as an ebook. If we see that readers are expressing an interest to read more of Kandel's story, then we will consider publishing a complete edition.

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Cleveland, April, 2013

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