December 4 | 6:00 pm | Midtown Manhattan
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About Izabella Tabarovsky
Izabella is a scholar of Soviet antiZionism and contemporary antisemitism, a speaker and lecturer, and the author of the forthcoming book Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide (Wicked Son).
She is a fellow with the Wilson Center in Washington, DC; a senior fellow with the Z3 Institute for Jewish Priorities in Palo Alto; and a fellow with the Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa, the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (LCSCA), and the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
A contributing writer at Tablet Magazine, she has also published in Newsweek, Sapir, Quillette, The National Interest, Fathom, The Forward, and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Her essays have appeared in several edited volumes, including October 7: The Wars over Words and Deeds (Academic Studies Press); The Rebirth of Antisemitism in the 21st Century: From the Academic Boycott Campaign into the Mainstream (Routledge); Mapping the New Left Antisemitism: The Fathom Essays (Routledge); Sionismo y antisionismo: Un debate necesario (RiL editores); and Jewish Priorities: Sixty-Five Proposals for the Future of Our People (Wicked Son).
Born and raised in the Soviet Union, Izabella moved to the United States in 1989 at the age of 19. She holds an MA in History from Harvard University. She speaks Russian, English, and Hebrew. She currently lives in Jerusalem.
ABOUT HER UPCOMING BOOK – Be a Refusenik: A Jewish Student’s Survival Guide
Young American Jews face daunting challenges on campuses today. They are pressured to conform to an antisemitic reality, pass ideological litmus tests, and disavow crucial parts of their identity—their Zionism, their bond with Israel, and their link to the Jewish people’s larger story.
Half a century ago, young Jews in the Soviet Union faced a strikingly similar campaign of antizionist pressure and erasure. Known as refuseniks, they stood up to a regime intent on eliminating Jews culturally and spiritually as a people. They refused to comply—and their defiance changed history.
In “Be a Refusenik,” Izabella Tabarovsky brings the two stories together—those of the Soviet refuseniks and those of Jewish students and activists on today’s campuses. The systems are radically different, but the patterns are hauntingly familiar. This pathbreaking book draws on the lessons of the refusenik struggle to offer practical strategies for a new generation of American Jews to lead our people into a vibrant future.
The book tells the stories of refuseniks — Natan Sharansky, Marina Furman, Iosif Begun, participants in the Leningrad Hijacking plot, and the authors of the Georgian Jews’ Letter of the 18 — as well as those of today’s activists: Shabbos Kestenbaum, Eyal Yakoby, Adela Cojab, Noah Shufutinsky, Alissa Bernstein, and Lishi Baker.