First Post

Welcome all, and thank you for selecting this blog post. Today is monumental. March 25, 2024, is the official launch date for www.etyawrites.com. A big shout-out goes to my talented son, Jeff Krichmar, who designed this site. Check out his work at www.krichmar.com.
     I have much to learn about managing my site because I am from a generation that did not grow up around computers. I am of a generation who played make-believe games in a country where the scarcity of toys was ever-present.  
     On summer breaks from the end of June until September 1, we entertained ourselves by playing Kazakhs and Robbers, climbing trees, going into the woods to seek adventures, reading, and playing sales games. To create the supply of goods, we collected pebbles, twigs, and wild berries, using tree leaves as currency.
     As kids, we loved to play this game a lot because everything was available for sale in our pretend world, unlike the real world of socialism we lived in. In our make-believe world, there were no queues, and the salespeople were polite and accommodating behind our made-up counters.
     Growing up in the former Soviet Union, a country of not enough, even silly pretend games took on a serious theme. Life was harsh under the auspices of the ever-watching Communist Party. The entire nation suffered from the shortage of everything. The country lived in fear of being betrayed by a friend or a neighbor. 
     Thus begins the prelude to my journey. I lived a childhood rife with injustice, disparity, and poverty. Mockery and hate speech became the soundtrack of my youth. The deep scars of discrimination, exacerbated by the birth of my daughter, propelled me and my husband to seek refuge in the United States in 1977. Fueled by a heavy heart and ignited by a glimmer of hope, we embarked on the daunting journey to freedom.
     Please follow me to learn what life in the USSR was about for a tiny minority of the Jews, who had experienced antisemitism not because they were Jewish by practicing Judaism but because the totalitarian regime stole the religious identity of their forefathers and turned it into their nationality.
     The word "Jewish" handwritten on the birth certificate of every Jew born after the Great October Revolution marked them as a target for religious persecution in a country where the religion was outlawed
So, welcome to my blog, where my readers' opinions are valued. It is a non-judging zone. It is a place where discussion is appreciated.