IsraelCast Episode 128

For Jews living in the Soviet Union, identity was a complicated and sensitive issue. Though many Jews assimilated into Soviet culture, they still forged their Jewish identity through shared cultural interests, get-togethers, and the necessity to stand together in the face of anti-Semitism. In this episode, host Steven Shalowitz sits with Izabella Tabarovsky, Program Associate to the Kennan Institute, Contributing Writer at Tablet Magazine, and expert on Soviet Jewry, who talks about her experience growing up in the Soviet Union, what Americans can learn from the modern Refusenik movement, the importance of Russian-speaking Jews in the Zionist movement, and what Israel means to her personally.

Izabella Tabarovsky is a Senior Program Associate at the Kennan Institute of the Wilson Center and a contributing writer at Tablet Magazine. Her expertise includes Soviet Jewry, Soviet anti-Zionism and contemporary left anti-Semitism, Holocaust in the USSR, Stalin's repressions, and politics of historical memory. Her writings have appeared in Tablet, Newsweek, The National Interest, Forward, Wilson Quarterly, Times of Israel, Fathom, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and others.