The Dropouts: An Oral History of the Soviet Jewish Immigration Experience in the US, 1973-1980

• In Event: Soviet Jews: Survival and Flight

Abstract

In the 1970s, over 65,000 Soviet Jews, known as “dropouts,” immigrated to the United
States. While they are often treated as a single demographic group, these Soviet Jews represented
surprising diversity profiles across distinct waves of migration. In this presentation, I am going to use detailed oral history analysis to investigate how the political and personal lives of this unique group of emigrants were shaped by the experience of American immigration.

Author

• Adam Farkas, U of Toronto (Canada)