Virtual Conversation with author Margarita Gokun Silver

Growing up Jewish in the Soviet Union, writer Margarita Gokun Silver knew nothing about Judaism. For her and the majority of Soviet Jews, Jewishness was a line in their passports, an ethnicity recorded in official documents, and a fact that elicited both institutionalized discrimination and antisemitic bigotry. In this talk, Museum Director of Interpretation Amy Consalvi will discuss with Margarita on growing up Jewish yet ignorant of Judaism and how she learned about the religion of her ancestors after emigrating to the US.

An award-winning freelance writer and artist, Margarita Gokun Silver’s work has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, BBC, the Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, and others. She is the author of I Named My Dog Pushkin (and Other Immigrant Tales), a hilarious, painfully honest, and sometimes heart-breaking account of life lessons she learns as she grows as both a woman and an immigrant, in a world that often doesn’t appreciate either.