Julie Masis is the editor and writer of the Russian Boston Gazette, a newspaper for Russian-speaking immigrants in Boston. She can also be a contract journalist who has written extensively about Jewish historical past. Her tales have been printed within the Occasions of Israel, Jerusalem Submit, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Montreal Gazette, Globe and Mail, and in different newspapers and magazines. She has taught English to Buddhist monks in Cambodia, organized excursions to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, and is at present studying to ice-skate. Julie holds a level in worldwide improvement research from McGill College and speaks, reads, and writes fluently in English, French, and Russian and may get by in Khmer. Her e-book How My Grandfather Stole a Shoe (And Survived the Holocaust in Ukraine), printed by Educational Research Press, has simply been launched.

Susan Blumberg-Kason sat down over Zoom with Masis to debate her new e-book, her journalism, and her years in Cambodia.

Susan Blumberg-Kason: Congratulations on the publication of your e-book, How My Grandfather Stole a Shoe (And Survived the Holocaust in Ukraine), which tells the story of how your grandfather Shlomo escaped loss of life various occasions. I really like how he mentioned he needed to outlive World Struggle II to search out out who gained. He appeared so vigorous and humor. Do you suppose his humor helped him dwell by such grueling circumstances?

Julie Masis: I believe so, however my dad has extra of a humorousness than my grandpa. My dad is totally proficient in the case of telling tales, and often they’re tales from actual life. The way in which he tells them makes unhappy issues humorous, so it’s humorous and unhappy on the similar time. One time after my great-aunt Lisa handed away right here within the US—she was ninetysomething years previous—we had been having dinner and remembering her. Unexpectedly the cellphone rang and other people requested who was calling. My dad mentioned it have to be Lisa calling us. And everyone began laughing. It was a approach of utilizing humor to take care of a very unhappy state of affairs, to get by it.

Blumberg-Kason: Do you suppose that’s a Jewish factor? It looks like a variety of Jewish humor takes darkish conditions and makes them into humorous ones.

Masis: I don’t know the way a lot it was Jewish, but it surely was additionally Russian. Russian humor could be very totally different from American humor. 

Russian humor could be very totally different from American humor. 

Blumberg-Kason: Your grandparents had been from Moldova, and through World Struggle II they had been despatched to a ghetto in Transnistria, part of Ukraine that was managed by Romania. Earlier than I learn your e-book, I’d by no means heard of Transnistria or the Jewish ghetto there in Obodovka. It simply goes to point out there are nonetheless so many Holocaust tales which have but to be instructed. What had been your foremost causes for writing your e-book?

Masis: Properly, my foremost cause was simply to protect different folks’s reminiscences. I’ve a very unhealthy reminiscence. Generally I don’t acknowledge folks or I don’t bear in mind what they instructed me final time I talked to them. So when my dad began coming residence within the night and telling tales, retelling what he heard from grandpa throughout his lunch hour when he visited, I felt like I needed to write it down. If I didn’t write it down, the story would simply disappear.

It’s oral historical past, and that solely stays for so long as individuals are alive or for so long as they bear in mind, in order that’s why I wrote it down. I additionally didn’t find out about Transnistria or the function that Romania performed throughout World Struggle II. I didn’t actually know that they had been on Hitler’s facet or that their angle towards exterminating the Jews was totally different from the German method, and that due to that, my grandparents survived. I’d by no means learn a e-book on that matter. After I just lately gave an interview to the Jewish Museum of Moldova, I requested if there have been different books written concerning the Holocaust because it pertained to Moldovan Jews, and so they instructed me no. I believe this e-book needed to be written for that cause. 

Additionally, typically historical past is instructed primarily based on what we expect ought to have occurred reasonably than what actually occurred, within the sense that every one Germans are unhealthy and all Jews are good. However in actuality, each particular person is a person and each story is exclusive. It was fascinating {that a} German soldier helped my grandmother survive within the camp. Additionally, I didn’t attempt to current my grandpa as an ideal particular person. He simply instructed it prefer it was, just like the story about him stealing a shoe.

Blumberg-Kason: I needed to ask you concerning the shoe! There’s a chapter in your e-book that can also be your e-book title. Are you able to discuss somewhat about that story and why you selected it to be your title? 

Masis: I needed one thing catchy and weird to pique a reader’s curiosity. I’m engaged on one other e-book about my different grandpa, and I need to title it How My Grandpa Fell from an Airplane, which can also be a real story. I simply needed one thing that will catch folks’s consideration. Throughout that point in 1941, footwear made a distinction between life and loss of life. My grandpa mentioned that they fed his complete household for a month when he exchanged these footwear for a bag of corn flour afterward. He took one shoe when somebody left it behind. He obtained the opposite shoe as a result of he noticed somebody with it and he instructed a police officer that it was his shoe. It was his phrase towards the opposite man’s. So he was simply fortunate. That was one of many different causes he survived. It was due to his wit. 

Throughout that point in 1941, footwear made a distinction between life and loss of life.

We don’t know if the opposite man survived. My grandpa by no means used the phrase stole. That was my phrase. He by no means mentioned he stole the shoe as a result of that pair of footwear didn’t belong to anybody. It was one thing he discovered, however he sort of used his fast pondering to get the second shoe. Yelena [Lembersky] needed me to take that story out of the e-book as a result of she mentioned it doesn’t present my grandpa in one of the best mild. However I left it in as a result of I really feel that each particular person has good factors and unhealthy factors, and that’s what he needed to do to outlive.

Blumberg-Kason: I really like the way you mentioned that individuals are not all good or all unhealthy, that individuals are layered. There’s one other a part of your e-book that additionally I didn’t find out about earlier than. It was whenever you had simply come again from Ukraine to your e-book analysis, and you then discovered {that a} synagogue in Moldova was vandalized, which was stunning to the Jewish neighborhood. However not too lengthy after, that city elected a Jewish mayor who was born in Israel. After I learn that, I additionally thought of the way you mentioned you are feeling very uncomfortable being outwardly Jewish in Ukraine due to the anti-Semitism there. However there’s additionally the truth that Ukraine elected Zelensky as their president. So it’s sort of like Moldova has anti-Semitism and that city elected a Jewish mayor, after which Ukraine has anti-Semitism, however they elected Zelensky. Are you able to converse extra about this distinction? 

Masis: I bear in mind I used to be writing a narrative for the Occasions of Israel when Zelensky was first elected. I attempted to achieve out to his workplace to see if he would give an interview to the Occasions. At the moment no one in his workplace would affirm to me that he was Jewish. He refused to touch upon it, and so they didn’t need to say something about him being Jewish. He was a really well-known actor in Ukraine. There are conditions the place if an individual could be very well-known, folks will nonetheless elect them although they’re Jewish. However a variety of occasions once I was touring in Ukraine, I felt that as quickly as I instructed anyone that I used to be Jewish, hastily folks would simply see me as a Jewish particular person, and I didn’t all the time need to be seen as any sort of class since you don’t know when some folks may not like Jews. I simply didn’t really feel comfy with it. And simply because they elected a Jewish president, I don’t suppose it signifies that they don’t have an issue with anti-Semitism. We elected Barack Obama right here, and we nonetheless have racism.

Blumberg-Kason: Sure, that’s a very good level. I needed to speak about your dad as a result of he additionally grew up in the identical city as your grandfather. Earlier than World Struggle II, this Moldovan city had a inhabitants of three,000 folks, of which 2,500 had been Jewish.

Masis: It was like a shtetl.

Blumberg-Kason: Sure, and now all that’s left of the Jewish neighborhood is a cemetery. When your father was younger, different children would taunt him for being Jewish and would inform him to return to Israel. He was actually confused as a result of Moldova was his residence and he hadn’t been to Israel. Moldova was all he knew. How did he find yourself leaving Moldova? You had been born in St. Petersburg, so he should have gotten to St. Petersburg sooner or later. 

Masis: He went to school in St. Petersburg, and I believe he thought-about that it was simpler for a Jewish particular person to get right into a college in St. Petersburg or Moscow than in Moldova, for some cause. There have been quotas for Jews, and it might need been that Moldova had the next inhabitants of Jews, so it was tougher. 

Blumberg-Kason: I need to flip to the construction of your e-book and the work you embody with each chapter, all from Felix Lembersky, who can also be featured in his granddaughter, Yelena Lembersky’s, memoir. How did you resolve to make use of his art work, and had you all the time envisioned an illustrated e-book whenever you began interested by writing your loved ones story?

Masis: I need to present you this e-book I’ve had since I used to be little. It’s known as When Daddy Was a Little Boy, a Russian e-book by a Soviet Jewish creator named Alexander Raskin. This e-book was an inspiration for my e-book as a result of each chapter is brief and has somewhat illustration. I believe my e-book is comparable as a result of my chapters are very brief and their reminiscences of the previous are like a narrative instructed by a household elder. And since my chapters are so brief, I needed to have illustrations. It was prefer it got here from my unconscious as a result of after I wrote my e-book, I believed it jogged my memory of one thing. After which I spotted that Raskin’s e-book in all probability influenced it. 

Blumberg-Kason: Did Raskin’s e-book embody his Judaism, too? 

Masis: It was by no means talked about, however I do know he was Jewish. And the humorous factor was that at one level a 12 months in the past, I made a decision to lookup the creator on Wikipedia as a result of I used to be questioning about his life story. And on the day I seemed him up, it was in February and the precise anniversary of his loss of life. It was simply random. Now it’s simply previous the anniversary of his loss of life once more, as a result of he died on February 4, which was two days in the past. That different time once I seemed him up, it was the precise date, which was actually random. So I believed possibly he’s attempting to speak to me from the opposite facet that I ought to get my e-book printed. 

Blumberg-Kason: I need to go away the subject of the e-book for a bit. I’m actually concerned about your work in Cambodia as a result of I spent a few weeks there in 1991. However you lived and taught there and gave excursions to the Khmer Rouge tribunal. What sparked your curiosity in Cambodia? And do you suppose you had been drawn to a different war-torn space due to your loved ones historical past throughout World Struggle II and even your individual early years within the Soviet Union, when folks may very well be taken away with out warning?

Masis: I’d say no. I’m a journalist, and I simply needed to work overseas as a result of I believed it could be fascinating. So, I began sending my résumé to totally different English-language newspapers around the globe. I had a want to discover and journey and to have extra journey in my life. I began with the Caribbean as a result of I needed to go to the tropics, however that didn’t work out. After which I attempted each newspaper in South America and didn’t get something there. 

Subsequent, I believed I’d strive Asia. I attempted India, however their web sites had been down, so a variety of the e-mail addresses didn’t work. After which I discovered a newspaper that was known as the Cambodia Every day. By the best way, the Cambodia Every day was based by a Jewish man, I believe a Holocaust survivor from Germany. The newspaper now not exists, however at the moment it was a day by day English newspaper and I obtained a job supply. I didn’t even know the best way to pronounce the capital of Cambodia, so I had no concept what I used to be entering into. However they supplied free housing in a villa, so I mentioned okay. I spent about 5 years there and miss it. Possibly I’ll transfer again sometime. I had a Cambodian boyfriend, which was in all probability the longest relationship of my life. It was from the age twenty-nine to thirty-four, so from 2011 to 2016.

I additionally taught English, and a variety of my college students had been Buddhist monks. And I did the Khmer Rouge tribunal tour. As a result of the Khmer Rouge tribunal was an hour’s drive outdoors the town and most vacationers wouldn’t know the best way to get there, I provided these excursions and employed a tuk tuk driver and did somewhat introductory discuss. I wouldn’t say that I went to Cambodia due to my curiosity in genocide, however I believe once I did study concerning the Khmer Rouge interval, it in all probability hit a nerve.

I wouldn’t say that I went to Cambodia due to my curiosity in genocide, however I believe once I did study concerning the Khmer Rouge interval, it in all probability hit a nerve.

I grew up with tales concerning the Holocaust, and once I would convey these teams to the Khmer Rouge tribunal there can be survivors testifying about what occurred to them. It was very highly effective. I’ve been to Auschwitz for the March of the Dwelling, and in comparison with the genocide websites that I’ve seen in Cambodia, I used to be simply utterly shocked by the dimensions of Auschwitz and the best way all the pieces was constructed and designed particularly with the intention of murdering the best variety of folks. It was on an enormous scale, and it was all very properly designed, very properly organized, versus in Cambodia the place all of it simply felt very random. It wasn’t like these colleges had been constructed particularly to homicide folks or that scientists had been arising with a plan of how they might kill the most individuals within the shortest period of time. To not say that one is best than the opposite or worse than the opposite, however I used to be simply shocked by the dimensions of Auschwitz once I noticed it.

Blumberg-Kason: Are you able to discuss somewhat extra about what you’re writing subsequent? You talked about earlier that you simply’re writing a e-book about your different grandfather. 

Masis: My different grandpa, now ninety-six or ninety-seven, lives in Boston. He’s the one one in my household who is definitely from Russia. He was within the Siege of Leningrad, and his father starved to loss of life within the siege, which you in all probability find out about. 1,000,000 civilians died from hunger. However the e-book is extra about my grandpa’s work in Soviet aviation for 50 years, which could be very uncommon. He had a really lengthy profession. Initially he was within the air power, after which he labored for Aeroflot, the civilian passenger airline. He was concerned in investigating all of the air site visitors accidents the place there have been no human casualties. He instructed me a variety of fascinating, humorous tales. There’s a real story about how he fell from the airplane. The airplane was parked on the bottom and he was on the wing servicing the aircraft. It was a chilly day, and I suppose the wing was froze, so he slipped and fell from the wing onto the bottom. It was fairly excessive up, so he grew to become paralyzed on one facet of his physique for some time. My grandpa was stationed within the Far East, very near Japan. He was on the very fringe of Russia, near the Pacific, and grandma was in Moscow. He wrote letters to her, and after his accident he couldn’t write as a result of his proper hand had develop into unimaginable for him to make use of. That was a narrative he instructed. There are different tales having to do with airplanes, and at the moment the Soviet Union was the primary to ship a person into house. 

And by way of plane, within the Nineteen Fifties they had been additionally on the forefront. Sooner or later that they had the one jet engine passenger aircraft on this planet, or the primary one. It really had a very horrible security report as a result of it was the primary mannequin. So my grandparents have a narrative about how they nearly died when my they flew again to the Far East with my mother when she was a child. For my e-book about my grandpa’s shoe, I wrote it about ten years in the past and self-published it for my grandpa’s one hundredth birthday. Now the Educational Research Press is republishing this e-book. It obtained good evaluations and other people favored it. It’s an previous challenge, however the one about my different grandpa is one thing extra fascinating to me now, and that’s what I’m ending up. 

Blumberg-Kason: I’m wanting ahead to studying it! Thanks for chatting with me about your fascinating books!