Personal Stories

“Despite how difficult it was in Kyrgyzstan, I never considered applying for asylum before I came to America,” Julia Vinsky said. She calmly described a childhood that involved beatings, broken ribs, concussions and even a kidnapping. She sums up her parent’s attitude succinctly: “you are Jewish, so this is how it is.”

In a recent letter, Lev shared his mother’s reasons for leaving Ukraine. “I didn’t want to be afraid of the government anymore, to live in fear of them going to my home,” she told him. “I didn’t want to stand on the schoolhouse steps and worry to death about explaining to my 9-year-old son why being a Jew was bad.”