Riga

Latvia

September 6, 2014

                Diplomacy at the Belarus Embassy

“Sorry. Your passport photo is unacceptable.  Your passport photo is on a blue background.  We require a photo on a white background.”

“It’s a nice photo, isn’t it?” I inquired, hoping for a bit of flexibility that is probably non-existent.  (May I humbly say, “My looks and my demeanor usually go a long way in many countries.”)  But this young punk of a consular official was unimpressed.  “Yes, he agreed, “It’s a nice photo.  But it needs to be on a white background.”

Minsk (pop 2 million)

Republic of Belarus (pop 9.5 million)

September 7, 2014

Minsk: “The Old Country”

So after the drama at the Belarus Embassy in Riga, what can I expect from the Immigration officials when I arrive at the airport in Minsk?   Discrimination?  Suspicion?  Paranoia? 

Belarus has five neighbors:  Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.  Will the immigration officer display a Russian attitude, a Ukrainian or Polish or Lithuanian attitude, a Latvian attitude?   Or a unique Belarus attitude?

I approach the Immigration counter.  A young woman takes my Passport.  She’s blonde.  She’s gorgeous.  She scans the information page, stamps my visa, and with a bright and totally sincere smile welcomes me to Belarus!  The whole bit takes about six and a half seconds.  If this is a Belarus attitude, well, gloriousky!

Grodno (Hrodna, Гродно, גראדנ)

Grodno Region

The Republic of Belarus (Белару́сь)

September 10, 2014

The Family Lifschitz: “Ich Baink Noch Grodno”

In 1902, Jehoshua Lifschitz bought a one-way ticket.  All the Lifschitz Family purchased travel tickets.  “One-way!”  Jehoshua’s brother Schmuel bought a one-way ticket as did his brother Yitzchak, his sister Lena and Jehoshua’s wife Pesha Tziril. Lifschitz nee Lubitsch.  I think she was a relative of Ernst Lubitsch, the German motion picure director who was born in Grodno.

They left Grodno, their home town, traveled overland   across the Russian Empire (horseback? cart? train?) to the Baltic Sea where they boarded a ship (more than one?) bound for the dangerous, often disease-ridden “steerage” crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.   The Atlantic crossing took at least eleven days.

The Lifschitz Family was not alone.  Between 1900 and 1914, eleven million immigrants from Europe made the crossing, 85 percent of them in steerage.  Steerage was the lowest fare and passengers sometimes were housed below the main decks of the ship.

Immigrants landed in New York, or Boston.  If they were sick, they may have been refused entry.  So some stayed aboard the ship and traveled to Galveston, Texas.

They arrived.  Most stayed.  They never looked back.