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WHEN THEY COME FOR US, WE'LL BE GONE
By: Gal Beckerman
The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 2010
On Sale: September 23, 2010
608 pages
ISBN: 0618573097
EAN: 9780618573097
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
At the end of World War II, nearly three million Jews were trapped inside the Soviet Union. They lived a paradoxβunwanted by a repressive Stalinist state, yet forbidden to leave. When They Come for Us, Weβll Be Gone is the astonishing and inspiring story of their rescue. Journalist Gal Beckerman draws on newly released Soviet government documents as well as hundreds of oral interviews with refuseniks, activists, Zionist βhooligans,β and Congressional staffers. He shows not only how the movement led to a mass exodus in 1989, but also how it shaped the American Jewish community, giving it a renewed sense of spiritual purpose and teaching it to flex its political muscle. He also makes a convincing case that the movement put human rights at the center of American foreign policy for the very first time, helping to end the Cold War. In cinematic detail, the book introduces us to all the major players, from the flamboyant Meir Kahane, head of the paramilitary Jewish Defense League, to Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky, who labored in a Siberian prison camp for over a decade, to Lynn Singer, the small, fiery Long Island housewife who went from organizing local rallies to strong-arming Soviet diplomats. This multi-generational saga, filled with suspense and packed with revelations, provides an essential missing piece of Cold War and Jewish history.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - October 30, 2010
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