My Mother’s Jewish Family Fled Tsarist Russia, And She’s Terrified Of Trump
By Alison Lanier
I opened my email this morning to a message from my mother, who I’d been surprised to hear nothing at all from during the debacle of election night:
I cannot express how scared I am for you my children, for our country, and for the world. I also want us to be strong in conviction through what promises to be a very scary time. On a last note, if history does repeat itself, and I know how alarmist this sounds, please make sure your passports are in order and you have means to get out.
The email was longer than that and clearly written with a great deal of painful control after the brunt of the shock had passed. The history she’s referring to is family history. My mother’s family is Jewish, and in 1911, we fled Tzarist Russia, its anti-Semitic draft policies, and its pogroms, exchanging names and bribes to escape to New York City. Maybe it’s something in the echoes of that history that led my mother to tell my brother and me, again and again, to keep our loved ones close during the election.
Get out is the phrase she uses now — and those were the first words to break through my own shock on November 9, when I woke up next to my partner, who, holding back tears, was prepping her military uniform to report to base for the day’s…
