The Fusgeyers: When Moldavia and Walachia united to become Roumania in 1858,
the new constitution granted citizenship to Christians only. Jews became foreigners
in their own country. To protest the plight of Jews in the country, in 1899, 78
unemployed Jewish artisans from Romania and Bessarabia undertook to cross
Europe on foot, then continue, by ship, to America. Although the authorities forced
this group of “Fusgeyers” (wanderers) to continue on by train at the Austro-Hungarian
border, they attracted much admiration. Soon thousands of Jewish men and women
were forming Fusgeyer groups, training in long distance walking, and leaving for North
America in the search for freedom and respect.One hundred years later, I crossed
Romania on foot, looking for lost Jewish communities, searching through the
European archives and tracing the immigrant trail from Vienna to Liverpool and
across America.

(In Preparation) Jews of the Great Hungarian Plain: In 1946,
Jewish Holocaust survivors living in the town of Kunmadaras, Hungary were accused
of killing Christian children and using their blood to make kosher sausage; this absurd
accusation of blood libel resulted in yet another pogrom. But how could this happen
after so much Jewish suffering in the death camps? The answer can be found in
a journey through Hungarian history, starting with the conquering Magyars and Jewish
Khabars, to a picture of daily life in villages where Jews and Christians lived side
by side for centuries.

Public Appearances Coming Up