25 Sara Suttin

Narrative Summary

Born on September 12, 1966, Yolla Levitt and her family experienced religious discrimination at the hands of the government, peers, and fellow Russians for being Jewish. Over time, it became increasingly apparent to the Jewish population in Russia that it was too dangerous to stay. Now living in Minnesota, the migration story of Yolla Levitt from her birth country of Russia to a refugee camp in Italy to finally settling in Minnesota shows the challenges and dangers faced by Jewish people even after the end of World War II.

Growing up in the Soviet Union in the late 1960’s, Yolla Levitt always knew that she and her family were treated differently than other families living in Moscow for being Jewish. Under a Communist regime, being apart of organized religion was seen as a threat to the States’ interest. While religion was not completely illegal, those that practiced religions, especially Judaism, were typically harassed, threatened, and discriminated against by peers, educators, and government officials. Throughout her time living in the Soviet Union, Yolla clearly recalls instances of facing discrimination for being Jewish. At the young age of four years old, Yolla was playing at her school’s playground when another student her age called her a “Kike”, which is a religious and ethnic slur for Jewish people. She remembers being infuriated by this and almost hit the other child over the head with a shovel. The mother of the other child went to Yolla’s home to complain to her mother, but only Yolla’s sister was at the house and would not let the mother enter their home causing the mother to scream behind the door, “all you Jews need to leave Russia“. When Yolla was in high school, her sister was beginning to take the entrance exams for university which required people to bring their passports to confirm their identity to the proctor. Yolla’s sister was initially doing very well, but at the end of the exam when the proctor asked to see her passport to verify her identity he saw that under “Nationality” it listed  “Jewish” not “Russian” and as a result crossed out the grades and put failing grades. For everyone in her family, this was a very eye-opening experience because the discrimination was so obvious and right in your
face. It wasn’t until Yolla and her husband Leon were in college though that they began to actively look for a way out of the Soviet Union, as it was apparent that it was becoming increasingly dangerous to practice Judaism since there were spies reporting those practicing to the authorities. An event that stands out to Yolla occured at the only synagogue in Moscow during the evening celebration of the finish of the Torah with many young Jews were partying outside. Large trucks began to ascend on the street and Yolla recalled that people began to hold hands and form a human wall between the trucks and the synagogue, but the trucks kept moving forward and were running over the young people in their way. That event was a tipping point for Yolla and her husband as they knew that they needed to leave.

During the Cold War period, the process of leaving the Soviet Union was very challenging because the only option available was to apply and receive a VISA to go to Israel. A few of their friends attempted this application process, but ultimately were denied by the Soviet government and faced repercussions for applying. Luckily these challenges were alleviated after President Reagan’s visit to the Soviet Union in May of 1988, when he discussed human rights and disarmament of the Cold War leading to the slow opening of Russia’s borders. Yolla and Leon, both at the age of twenty-two, immediately applied for and were granted permission to leave Russia with their one and a half year old son, Michael. The government’s conditions of them leaving were that they had to sign papers saying that they were traitors of the Soviet Union and they had to give up their right of citizenship for any chance of ever coming back to Russia. For the flight out of the Soviet Union, they were each allowed to bring two suitcases which they filled two of with clothing and necessities for Michael and the other two with items they could sell like ember, cotton sheets, and pans for cooking. After only have a day to pack and prepare, the Levitt family and their four suitcases left Russia by airplane for Austria where they spent six days before taking a train to a refugee camp in Italy.

In December of 1988, Yolla Levitt and her family arrived at a refugee camp twenty miles south of Rome in Ladispoli, Italy. The refugee camp was managed by the United States government and provided them with a small stipend of 550 Italian liras per month, access to apartments to rent, and schooling for children. For housing, the Levitt’s used 500 liras each month from their stipend towards renting an apartment in the camp. The apartment had two rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom that was shared between the Levitt’s and another family from Russia. The apartment was a very cramped apartment with seven people living in it and the walls were covered in mold. With most of their monthly stipend going towards a place to live, they could not afford much outside of necessities like food and clothing. It was challenging for Yolla and Leon to have a two year old child in that type of environment because they could not buy him toys and new clothes. In terms of food, Yolla would buy large turkey wings to make soup and various main dishes. Later on, an organization called Shalom Club hired Leon, who learned English back in Moscow, as a translator of movies for a small nominal wage from English to Russian to be played in the refugee camp. Through Leon’s employment with Shalom Club, the Levitt family was given access to a washing machine and dryer that the club had in their building which was very useful because they were having to wash all of their belongings by hand. The Shalom Club also gave Leon leftover food from U.S. delegation meetings that they hosted to bring home to his family. Yolla and Leon were very fortunate to have a source of income from the Shalom Club, as the Italian government prohibited refugees from working outside of the camp, and that income alleviated some of those struggles for the family.

For seven months, Yolla and her family lived in the Italian refugee camp before they were eventually approved to go to the United States after numerous attempts. About two and a half months into living in Italy, they were interviewed by the United States consulate for the first time about why they wanted to move to the U.S. and their reason for leaving Russia. The United States at this time had reached their quota of Russian Jewish refugees, so Yolla’s family and all the other refugees that had interviewed at that time were denied. The U.S. denying entrance to so many created an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and depression, and there was an increase in suicide within the camp from fear of being returned to Russia. Some refugees decided to shift their focus to moving to Israel instead of the U.S. in hopes of getting accepted there, but Leon had always dreamed of moving to America so they kept trying. While this was occurring in Italy, Yolla’s second aunt in the United States started a campaign to bring the Levitt family to America through
appealing to congressman, collecting signatures from people in the community, and having the Jewish Federation’s newspaper write an article about their struggle. Because of this campaign, Yolla and Leon were able to hire a U.S. immigration attorney to help them begin the immigration process from Italy to America. After completing a new interview, mental health, and physical health screening with the U.S. government in Italy, full background checks were performed on each member of the family where they had to prove their identities through their birth certificates. Yolla and Leon had ensured that they had their birth certificates and Michael’s, their marriage certificate, and their high school and college diplomas before leaving Russia. After seven months of being in Italy, they were finally notified of their approval to go to America and given plane tickets to leave the very next day for New York City.

On July 20th, 1989, Yolla and her family finally arrived in the United States of America after many months in Ladispoli, Italy. They were only in New York for a couple of hours to be  interviewed by a representative of U.S. immigration, receive their alien cards, and go through customs. They then boarded another plane to go to their final destination in Chicago, Illinois where a Jewish refugee assistance organization called HIAS was waiting to assist them in transitioning to life in the United States. HIAS provided Yolla’s family with financial assistance through a monthly stipend for three months, as well as rented them an apartment. The apartment was unfurnished so Yolla and Leon would go at night to the garbage alleys near the apartment and collect items like mattresses and fans to furnish the apartment and make feel like a home. HIAS also enrolled them in English Second Language classes at Truman College, which assisted Yolla in being able to attend Purdue University later on in Indiana. About a week or two into living in Chicago, Yolla’s aunt in Minnesota came to visit and brought them a dining room table, winter clothes, and an old 1987 Buick car that was the most useful gift ever given to them. Yolla and Leon taught themselves how to drive by practicing at night in the garbage alleys. During the day, Leon spent his time in the library looking for engineering jobs, as he studied engineering at university in Russia, and eventually was given an offer to work as a technician for a company. He worked there for a year and a half before they moved to Indiana for a better job. In Indiana, Yolla attended Purdue University and later pursued a job at 3M which she received and accepted an offer for. The job that Yolla accepted was located in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, so Yolla and her family packed up their belongings and moved to Minnesota where they reside today.

Since immigrating to the U.S., Yolla Levitt has returned to Russia only a handful of times for work and once with her son Michael for his eighteenth birthday. For Yolla the Twin Cities is where she feels most at home, not in Moscow where she and her husband have no remaining family members living there. Thanks to the U.S. family reunification program, fours years after Yolla and Leon immigrated to the United States they were able to bring over Yolla’s mother, grandmother, sister, and her sister’s husband and children from Russia to live in Minnesota. Currently, Yolla is Vice President and General Manager of the Separation and Purification Sciences Division of 3M. At the beginning of next year, Yolla, along with her husband and youngest child, will be moving to Germany to work as the 3M Vice President for Transportation and Electronic Business Group for the area of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. They are very excited for this upcoming step in their journey, but they know that Minnesota is there home.

Personal Reflection

When I first learned about the Oral History Collection Project for Global Crises and Human Rights, I knew that I really wanted to interview someone that I knew personally and already had some sort of established relationship with. I decided to reach out to my boyfriend’s mother, Yolla Levitt, because I wanted to learn more about his family’s journey from Russia to America. With what we have learned throughout the course, I believe Yolla’s story shows the development of international law relating to refugees and the process refugees go through when immigrating to the United States from the late 1980s to the current process. Through my interview with Yolla Levitt, I learned many interesting facts from her refugee journey such as the systematic othering of Russian Jews through the nationality section of their passports, the influential role President Ronald Reagan played in the Soviet Union opening their borders for Jews to leave, and the campaign led by Yolla Levitt’s aunt to bring the family to the United States.

Due to me interviewing someone that I already had an established relationship with, the interview process was very casual and conversational. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion that I had with Yolla Levitt as I feel like I have a deeper understanding of what her family had to go through back in Russia and in getting to the United States. Hearing from her about the discrimination she and other Jewish families faced in Russia impacted me deeply for many reasons. My own family left Russia in the mid-1800s for France before some moved prior to World War II to the United States, so learning about experiences of Russian Jews felt very personal for me because I know my own family had similar experiences of discrimination for being Jewish back in Russia. Also through my own personal experiences with antisemitism, I know that antisemitism is very much alive today around the world and there are many people that turn a blind eye to this, especially within the human rights community, because of the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For these reasons, I wanted to interview someone fleeing a country because of antisemitism in order to show that discrimination against Jewish people did not end with World War II.

Throughout the interview with Yolla, numerous facts stood out to me and. In the story of Yolla’s sister taking the entrance exams for university, I learned that for Jews the nationality section of their Soviet Union passport listed them as “Jewish” and not “Russian”. When the exam proctor saw this in Yolla’s sister passport, he crossed out the passing grades he had already given her and replaced them with failing grades. At that time in Russia, a person’s passport was their main source of identification when interacting with the government. I was very surprised by this story because this experience with antisemitism prevented Yolla’s sister from attending college. I cannot imagine what that must have felt like for her and her family. The second fact that stood out to me during the interview was when Yolla told me how influential President Ronald Reagan was in the Soviet Union allowing Jews to leave Russia. Yolla began this part of her story with telling me how difficult it was to leave Russia, as approval from Russia had to be granted and a VISA from Israel had to be given to the person in order to leave. When President Reagan visited the Soviet Union in 1988, he brought with him the idea of human rights and disarmament of the Cold War. After his visit, Yolla saw a shift in Russia and eventually the Iron Curtain began to come down. This information was significant to me because it is an example of how influential government leaders from around the world can be on the domestic policies of a country. Also in terms of human rights, President Reagan played a large role in making human rights a priority within the United States through his policies. The Levitt family give credit to President Reagan for them being in the United States and have a photograph of him framed in their home. Lastly, the story of Yolla’s second aunt in Minnesota campaigning for Yolla, Leon, and their son Michael to be granted asylum in the U.S. really stood out to me. When Yolla and her family were in the Italian refugee camp, they applied for asylum but were denied because the U.S. had reached their quota for refugees at that time. This prompted Yolla’s second aunt to start a campaign in the U.S. for the Levitts where she collected signatures, spoke with government officials, and had articles written about them to spread awareness. For me, this campaign was significant because it shows how a community can rally together on an issue and influence the government to help people abroad.

Overall, the Oral History Collection Project was a very interesting learning experience because it gave me the opportunity to speak with someone who has experienced firsthand what we have been discussing in the Global Crises and Human Rights course. I am looking forward to reading the narrative summaries of my classmates and learning about the refugee experiences of their interviewees. It will be interesting to see the differences and similarities in experiences, especially pertaining to the refugee camps.

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Now My Future Begins: Stories of Resettlement Copyright © by Fall19 Global Crises and Human Rights Class. All Rights Reserved.

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