About
About
About Us
The Second World War Told By Jewish Soviet War Veterans
We wanted to make the veteran interviews and stories relatable to the reader and to show a glimpse of the wartime world of the former Soviet Union. To that end we turned to academic experts in the field to provide verified historical notes detailing Soviet wartime leadership , battles where the veterans participated, the significance of their medals, and an overview of the Jewish experience in Soviet/Russian society before and after the war.
During the course of our historical research we uncovered some remarkable and sadly forgotten facts. The most fascinating being the history of The Jewish Anti Fascist Committee (JAC) and a biography of its Chairman Solomon Mikhoels . Mikhoels and JAC raised over ten million dollars for the war against Germany in the largest pro-Soviet rally on America’s soil. Stalin turned on JAC after the war, executing most of its members and justifying his actions with an anti-Semitic conspiracy known as The Doctor’s Plot .
The information on this website is meant to draw attention to a neglected aspect of Jewish history. Together the videos and historical context honour Jewish soldiers’ sacrifice by making their story available and accessible for future generations. Please contact us for full transcripts of the interviews.
Acknowledgments
This project could not have been done without the organizational help of child survivor and partisan, Alex Levin, who sadly passed away in 2016. His liaison to the Russian-speaking Jewish veterans helped to bring this project to life. Please read more about him at the Azrieli Foundation and in his book Under the Yellow and Red Stars. The website would not exist without the hard work and dedication of the following people.
Project Team
Founder
Elen Steinberg — Award-winning entrepreneur and philanthropist, deeply committed to the preservation of cultural history.
Academic Expert
Dr. Anna Shternshis — Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish Studies and Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto. Her research interests include Jewish culture in the Soviet Union.
Research Assistant
Amy Di Nardo
Translation
Mila Bilenka
Video Editing
Artem Pashkevich
Volunteer Coordinators
- Nella Feldsher — Former Executive Vice President, Jewish Agency for International Development
- Galit Keren — Former Senior Campaign Associate, United Jewish Appeal
Administration
Liz Fernandes
Web Administrator
Roderick Thedorff
Fact Checkers
- Maris Rowe McCullough — PhD Student, Eastern European Studies
- Adam Schwartz — MA, English Literature
Videographers & Interviewers
- Alex Gershtein
- Mark Groysberg
- Bill Kerrigan
- Artem Pashkevich
- Len Pearl
With Thanks
We would like to thank the United Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto for their support with location resources and coordination of the Toronto portion of the interviews. We would also like to thank the Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, for archiving the veteran photos featured in the Toronto video interviews.
In the Permanent Collections Of
These testimonies have been accepted into the permanent collections of both institutions — preserved in perpetuity.