My mama and me enjoying some borscht.
In February 2018, my application for the Tikkun Fellowship was accepted. The Tikkun Fellowship is an initiative of Jewish United Fund (JUF) of Metropolitan Chicago’s Russian Jewish Division (RJD) that helps develop and support projects created by Russian-speaking Jewish individuals ages 22 to 40. The word Tikkun means “to repair” and comes from the phrase Tikkun Olam – “repairing the world” (or “healing and restoring the world”). It suggests humanity’s shared responsibility (with the Creator) “to heal, repair and transform the world.” Tikkun Olam symbolizes social action and the pursuit of social justice.
With my family, community and my own rich experiences in mind, I’ll be focusing on creating a collection of creative nonfiction essays through February 2019. My collection, in particular, will focus on the many facets of my identity, specifically honing in on my Jewish, American, Ukrainian and Soviet heritage and how they have informed my experiences as a woman, feminist and writer. These essays will be distributed and shared with the community to gain feedback, critique, commentary and generally involve interested people in a conversation on what the collection is about and what immigration-focused pieces should be about.
Click here to read the initial article on the Identity Diaspora Medium page, which explains the project and process in detail. The full, plain text of the article can be viewed below, as well.
I recall memories that are not my own. They live and breathe in the minds of my parents, my family, and my friends.
I grew up with stories of waiting in long lines for toilet paper in the Soviet Union. Camping adventures through Ukraine and farm volunteer hours in Russia. How my parents came to know each other at 13 and love each other at 20. My family’s departure to America. How happy this country made them.
There are certain images that are permanently entangled in my own recollections. They are so vivid, so real, and yet, they are not quite mine.
In 1992, my parents arrived as Jewish refugees from Kiev to Chicago. They, along with my grandparents, were placed in a little apartment on Touhy Avenue. Their first years in America were adventure after adventure. All of these experiences were exciting and hopeful, no matter how frustrating or debilitating they could be at times.
My mother’s most vivid “American” experience was her first visit to the car dealership. She was in tears the first time her and my father approached the car dealership. The sheer quantity of cars, and the reality that they stood there silently, waiting to be bought and with no threat of theft… to her, it felt like she had landed on another planet.
When my mother found out she was pregnant with me, she had just started taking English classes at a school in Uptown. She told me that she never had a professor as brilliant as the one who taught her English. He savored teaching every word and reveled in the success of his students. While I was growing inside her womb, she was taking in every passionate lesson from this man. In a way, I’d like to think I was taking it all in, too.
With my family, community and my own rich experiences in mind, I’ll be focusing on creating a collection of creative nonfiction essays. Creative nonfiction, which is also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction, is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. I like to describe it as a true story told in the style of a fictional tale.
My collection, in particular, will focus on the many facets of my identity, specifically honing in on my Jewish, American, Ukrainian and Soviet heritage and how they have informed my experiences as a woman, feminist and writer. These essays will be distributed and shared with the community to gain feedback, critique, commentary and generally involve interested people in a conversation of what the collection is about and what immigration-focused pieces should be about. My process will include:
- Writing and publishing the first draft of an essay,
- Submitting it for discussion, feedback, and review through Medium,
- Hosting a live Facebook video to have more discussion, comments and questions,
- Applying the feedback to a second (“final,” if you will) draft, and
- Publishing the final draft of the essay.
I will then move onto the next essay. I am hoping to have six essays in total produced by February 2019.
Through personal recollection and self-analysis, I hope these essays will give insight into the mind of someone who grew up on stories of a culture. Someone who loves their family’s past. Someone who is hopeful for their future. Someone who is navigating some semblance of an “American dream,” while keeping the iron sensibility of their wise, Soviet Jewish mother in the back of their head.
For immigrants and children of immigrants alike, I hope these essays will ring true. I’m incredibly grateful and humbled and I can’t wait to get started.
Danielle Levsky 