Call for Participants: The Russian-Speaking Jewish Community

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) is conducting an oral history project focused on the history of the Russian-speaking community in the North Shore and the Greater Boston area. We are looking to record and preserve interviews with community members regarding their lives in the Soviet Union, their decisions to emigrate, and their experiences living in the United States. 

We will use excerpts from the interviews, alongside family photographs, portraits, and relevant artifacts, in a bilingual exhibit focused on the history of refuseniks and the Russian-speaking Jewish community. The exhibit is designed to introduce the public to the experiences of Jews and members of other ethnic groups under the Soviet regime, and document the challenges and successes of those who made the Greater Boston area their home. The full interviews will be transcribed and deposited in the Archives and Special Collections at the Frederick E. Berry Library at Salem State University for future access by scholars and members of the public.

Interviews will be conducted in either Russian or English. 

If you want to learn more about the project or would like to share your story, please email Regina Kazyulina at ctr_rkazyulina@salemstate.edu. 

This project is made possible by funding from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP) and Mass Humanities.