| Welcome to the Si Frumkin website | |
Si likes to say, “Every Jewish life is a novel”. Si’s life confirms this. Liberated from Dachau at the age of 14. Refugee camps in Germany and Italy. Schools in Switzerland and England, a B.A. from NYU and finally a home and family in California’s San Fernando Valley. A flourishing business neglected when Soviet Jews send a message to America: “Why have you forgotten us?” Si Frumkin the businessman becomes Si the activist. |
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The index of Anatoly Dobrynin’s autobiography, “In Confidence”, lists 19 references to the “Soviet Union, Jewish emigration from,” By contrast, Moscow’s Ambassador to 6 U.S. presidents mentions “U.S. Cultural exchanges” just 3 times and “Nuclear weapons non-proliferation” just once. If only we had known... Frumkin – and a handful of others – had the insane notion that we could take on the Soviet superpower and win. But win we did. The Soviet Union is no more. Over a million former Soviet Jews – and their children – now live in freedom. Frumkin’s life was never boring. He interpreted for Ronald Reagan. Met with Senator Scoop Jackson on the Jackson Amendment. Spent time in the Soviet Union knowing that the Soviets could arrest him as a treasonous Soviet citizen. Spent some time in a Los Angeles jail with his then executive director, Zev Yaroslavsky, for creating a disturbance at a Bolshoi Ballet performance – went to trial, was acquitted. Demonstrations, letter writing campaigns. Met good friends – and a wife – among Soviet immigrants. Lectures, foreign missions, TV appearances, thousands of articles written. Fighting for Israel, for Holocaust survivors, for fairness in the media. Causes won, others lost. Honors, titles, awards – and hate mail and threats – received. And now – a web site. It will feature the “Graffiti for Intellectuals” newsletter, archives of publications, reminiscences, pictures, funny stuff and serious stuff, advice and information and whatever else I can think of. Stay with us – share your impressions, agree or disagree, but I promise, you will not be bored. --- Si Frumkin |
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