Finding Home: In the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers

Since the Jewish Diaspora, the stereotype of the Wandering Jew has haunted the Jewish understanding of identity. In Finding Home: In the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers, author Jill Culiner has uncovered a largely forgotten corner of Jewish history. The Fusgeyers (the Yiddish word for "foot-goers" - wayfarers) were Jews who fled persecution in Romania in the early 1900s in order to find refuge, ultimately, in the New World. One hundred years later, Culiner retraces their steps in search of remnants of this lost epic journey. Culiner is a keen observer of eastern European culture, and her acerbic wit and stunning lyrical style have created a compelling chronicle of loss and discovery. The focus on Holocaust studies can sometimes tend to obscure the fact that the roots of anti-Semitism go back long before the Second World War. Culiner's astute perceptions reveal the origins and persistence of European anti-Semitism. Her encounters with the past and the present of the Jewish presence in Europe are both chilling and illuminating.