The Face of Survival

In the 1930s, almost five million Jews lived in central Eastern Europe. Ninety percent of these lives were lost in the Holocaust, and the most optimistic estimate puts the number of Jews in that region today at 150,000. Through words and pictures, The Face of Survival tells the story behind the statistics of Eastern European Jewry since the turn of the century, a story that is one of survival as well as destruction.

The Face of Survival combines over one hundred never before published photographs with narrative and autobiographical text to capture Jewish life, history and culture in Eastern Europe, revealing the vitality and fortitude of a people determined to survive in the face of enormous odds. Despite new ambiguities since the collapse of Communism, as well as intermarriage, emigration, and renewed anti-Semitism, Jews continue to live as Jews in Eastern Europe.

The photographs presented here attest to the survival of these communities, testimony to the tenacity and courage of individuals as well as to the strength of Jewish cohesiveness.