Presented by Ephraim Margolin

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Julius Margolin’s memoir, Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back, was written in 1946 in Russian, decades before the publication of other prominent books about life in the Soviet Gulag system. The memoir is now available in its first full English translation, by Stefani Hoffman, published by Oxford University Press.

Beginning with the Nazi and Soviet invasions of Poland in 1939, Margolin details his journey to the Gulags, his years spent as a prisoner, and his return to the west. Of life in the Gulag system, Margolin observes the conditions that he and his co-captives—millions of whom did not survive—were subjected to, chronicling and analyzing what he saw with extraordinary clarity and depth. He writes of the disappearance of the self, dehumanization, and sheer pointlessness that he witnessed and experienced. In doing so, Margolin also sheds light on the values of freedom, decency, and democracy in a way that feels particularly relevant in today’s world.

In this presentation, Ephraim Margolin will discuss his father’s life and the memoir that is his legacy.

Ephraim Margolin is the past chair of the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council, a retired adjunct professor at UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and for fifty-two consecutive years, the Yom Kippur lecturer at Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco. He is a graduate of Hebrew University and Yale Law School and served as Menachem Begin’s personal secretary in the late 1940s. His books include A Philosophy of Early Zionism and Oh Zion.

Co-presented by Congregation Beth Sholom.