Chapter 7 Summary

In June 1988, anti-Semitic incidents begin occurring, or reoccurring, in the Soviet Union. Anti-Semitism is not a new phenomenon in the Soviet Union. The pogroms, or state sanctioned massacre of Jews in the late 19th century and early 20th, are fresh in the memories of Jewish citizens. People are worried about the return of the pogroms or new incidents similar to the Doctors' Plot of the 1950s. In 1953, Stalin ordered the arrest of nine prominent physicians, six of whom were Jews. The doctors, accused of conspiring to poison Kremlin leaders, were arrested and imprisoned. Yakov Rapport, now in his nineties, is the only victim of the Doctors' Plot to survive to see Gorbachev's era of glasnost. When Stalin dies, Khrushchev grants Yakov freedom. Being persecuted for his religion is nothing new to Yakov. He remembers when he was six-years-old growing up in Crimea, and...