Unfinished Journey: From Tyranny to Freedom [Paperback]

Nancy Rosenfeld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 1993

A significant contribution to our understanding of how grassroots American Jewish activism on behalf of Soviet Jewry helped 'open the iron door' of the U.S.S.R..— Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite its sometimes clumsy, sometimes hyperbolic prose, this book tells a most important story: how Rosenfeld, an upper-middle-class, suburban Chicago housewife turned fervent activist, spearheaded a five-year, grassroots campaign (1982-86) to gain freedom for the Ukrainian-Jewish scientist and poet Yuri Tarnopolsky. Tarnopolsky had been imprisoned on trumped-up charges and denied permission to emigrate for years. Rosenfeld and other volunteers at the Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry applied the political equivalent of a "full court press"--using letter-writing campaigns and lobbying in coordination with similar efforts throughout the U.S. and in France--generating so much international attention that the cost of retaining Tarnopolsky finally came to exceed that of allowing him to leave. Rosenfeld also writes movingly of the price her husband and two sons paid for her "compulsory activism," and of her disorientation and depression when this activism waned after Tarnopolsky was freed. Rosenfeld makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how grassroots American Jewish activism on behalf of Soviet Jewry helped "open the iron door" of the U.S.S.R. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

...this book tells a most important story. Rosenfeld makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how grassroots American Jewish activism on behalf of Soviet Jewry helped 'open the iron door' of the U.S.S.R. (Publishers Weekly )

Product Details

• Paperback: 294 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of America; First Edition edition (September 2, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819191965
• ISBN-13: 978-0819191960
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,345,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How grassroots effort helped open the Iron Door of the USSR, June 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Unfinished Journey: From Tyranny to Freedom (Paperback)

Nancy Rosenfeld, a Chicago suburban housewife who became involved in the rescue of Soviet Jews after her trip to the USSR in 1982, describes a personal journey. In the Ukraine she met a refusenik scientist and poet, Yuri Tarnopolsky, who was later arrested and sent to a Siberian labor camp. A human bond grows and develops between them, though they live in two distant and different worlds, and they become obsessed in their struggle over his freedom. Rosenfeld becomes involved with international affairs, finds access to prominent figures, and does everything possible and impossible to free Tarnopolsky from imprisonment. So much so, that after Yuri Tarnopolsky's ultimate release and emigration she suffers a nervous breakdown due to the void the triumph had left.

The author documents the work of the Chicago branch of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, a national grassroots organiztion that was determined to prevent a new tragedy by following the lessons of the Holocaust. Rosenfeld describes typical methods of conducting a campaign against the violation of individual human rights. This is the first time the Soviet Jewry Movement in America has been documented.

Publishers Weekly called Unfinished Journey, "A significant contribution to our understanding of how grassroots American Jewish Activism on behalf of Soviet Jewry helped 'open the iron door' of the USSR."

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, Harvard University, one of two international attorneys who participated on this case also authored the book's Foreword.