I lived in Russia until 1980 but decided to leave because there was no future for us. I did not want my daughter to experience the discrimination that was life for a Jew in Russia.

Books have always been important to me, I used to spend any left over money buying new ones. However when my husband and I were preparing to leave we had to sell all our books to help pay for the tickets. Also it was forbidden to take books published prior to 1975 out of the country.

These books belonged to my daughter and are the same stories that my husband and I had as children. They were written by very clever men. They are funny and very positive in the ideas they express. They form part of a small collection we were able to bring with us and represent the Russian life that we left behind. Rima Sverdlin - Jewish Museum