Nadia Fradkova’s parents divorced when she was very young. She lived with her mother in a small town near Moscow. Although her mother was Russian, Nadia was considered a Jew because her father was Jewish. She did not know what the word Jew meant until she was taunted at school by the other children. At the time her mother was able to comfort her, but as she grew older, she found it more and more difficult to deal with the antisemitism she seemed to encounter at every turn. Yet when she decided to emigrate, she discovered she could not leave the country without her parents’ consent and neither was willing to give permission. Without their permission, she could not even apply for an exit visa. Her insistence on emigrating led to hunger strikes and long stays in a labor camp and a psychiatric hospital. She was unable to leave the country until the Soviet Union collapsed and restrictions on emigration ended. She settled in Israel for a few years and then made her way to the Boston area.