Identity Diaspora

A Collection of Essays by an American Daughter of Soviet Jewry

With my family, community and my own rich experiences in mind, I wrote a collection of creative nonfiction essays over a year. My collection focused on the many facets of my identity, specifically honing in on my Jewish, American, Ukrainian, and Soviet heritage and how they have informed my experiences as a woman, feminist and writer. These essays were distributed and shared with the community to gain feedback, critique, commentary and generally involved interested people in a conversation of what the collection was about and what immigration-focused pieces could be about. My process included:

1. Writing and publishing a first draft of an essay,

2. Submitting it for discussion, feedback and review through Medium,

3. Hosting a live Facebook video to have more discussion, comments and questions,

4. Applying the feedback to a second (“final,” if you will) draft, and

5. Publishing the final draft of the essay.

I wrote about International Women's Day, Rogers Park's old Soviet-Jewish refugee enclave, Jewish music in the Soviet Union, superstition in Judaism and the Soviet Union, food, and analyses of other Soviet Jew' experiences with their identities. You can read the essays here, or quicklink to the final drafts below:

1. Roses and Respect: Dissecting International Women’s Day in the Context of Soviet and Russian Jewish Women

2. An American Family: Time Capsules of the Fourth Wave of Soviet-Jewish Refugees Resettling in Rogers Park

3. Dance, Dance, and Twirl: Exploring the Roots of Jewish Music in the Soviet Union

4. Blessings and Borscht: Exploring the Mysteries of Superstition in My Ancestry

5. We Are Usually Eating: Exploring the Various Cuisines of My Family: Part I and Part II

6. Talking ‘Bout My Generation: Perspectives from Jewish People with Fourth-Wave Soviet Families: Part I

7. God is Nowhere: An investigation into Post-Soviet Jewish identity in the United States