Mikhail Gorbachev dismantled the Iron Curtain — and allowed Russian Jews to live openly again
Gorbachev allowed Soviet Jews to study Hebrew, go to synagogue and be openly Jewish for the first time in decades
Soviet Union
The Latest
-
Opinion -
Culture So, how did Jews fare under Mikhail Gorbachev anyway?
Despite perestroika and glasnost, the former Soviet president had a mixed record concerning the Jewish people
-
News How the Highland Park shooter destroyed a Russian Jewish family’s American dream
Irina McCarthy, a Jewish Russian emigre, was killed along with her husband, Kevin. They leave behind two-year-old Aiden.
-
News Jewish? Soviet? Ukrainian? Russian? The war has American Jews asking, ‘Who am I?’
A long history of antisemitic violence and exclusion in the former Soviet Union complicates loyalties for expats in the United States.
-
Opinion Putin is no match for my Jewish Ukrainian babushka
With a little Krav Maga training, my grandmother is a force to be reckoned with.
-
Opinion Shocked by Russian war crimes? My father never forgot them
What Russians are doing to Ukrainians echoes what Soviet soldiers did to concentration camp survivors
-
Opinion I am a Ukrainian Jew. I have lost my mother to Russian disinformation
My mother has been brainwashed by Russian propaganda. Aside from a brief phone call during the first week of the war, I haven’t been communicating with her. It’s too painful to expend energy on reasoning with her while my people are getting killed at the front lines. I choose to spend that time and energy…
-
Opinion Soviet Jews built the start-up nation. Israel should rush to welcome Ukrainian refugees today
Over 2 million Ukrainians have fled their country in the 14 days since the aggressive Russian invasion began, creating the fastest refugee crisis in modern history. Ukraine’s neighbors — such as Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Belarus — have been the first destination for most of these refugees, as the rest of the world watches in…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV ‘Bojack Horseman’ creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg on his new, ‘unapologetically Jewish’ family affair
- 2
News ADL chief attacks Zohran Mamdani, but gets his facts wrong
- 3
Film & TV Who is Marty Reisman, the Jewish ping-pong star who inspired Timothée Chalamet’s new movie?
- 4
Culture It’s Jew vs. Jew in the fight over a Brooklyn bike lane
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward In the wake of a leadership shake-up, FIDF doubles down on a disputed claim to reassure donors
-
Fast Forward ‘Anne Frank, Superstar’? A satirical musical reimagines the Holocaust victim as a symbol of wokeness
-
Fast Forward After decades of conflict, Armenia-Azerbaijan peace plan gives Caucasus Jews new hope
-
Culture For barbraphiles and Streisand fanatics, a plethora of babtastic barbrabilia
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
