Collective Memories of a Lost Paradise

Author's Visits to Ukraine Inform History and Inspire a Memoir. In April, 2011, Robert Belenky set off on a trip to Ukraine. His goal was to record the memories of Jews who survived the era spanning post-Revolutionary Russia, the Holocaust, and World War II. Belenky had a special interest in that period. It began with his father, Max, a Russian Jew who, barred from the land, longed to be a farmer. Max emigrated to the United States early in the 20th Century and, after the Revolution, he helped bring tractors to Jewish collective farms. And, as head of a tractor team, he taught people to use them. Jews were now encouraged to settle the land. Official anti-Semitism evaporated and optimism flourished.