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few things Shlomo did purely for enjoyment was listen to music on the radio. He was particularly fond of a Yiddish singer named Schulman. When a Schulman song such as "My Yiddishe Mama" came on the radio, Shlomo warned everyone to be quiet so he could listen. "Shhhh, Schulman is singing," Shlomo would whisper, and everyone quieted down. Shlomo imposed discipline by example. He rarely punished the children by hitting them. In fact, Iosif says, his father spanked him just once. He was six or seven years old, and while playing with his sisters they got into an argument. His sister Ida asserted her authority over her younger brother by taking him over her knee and spanking him. Little Iosif was so angry that he grabbed a dinner plate and threw it at her. The good news was that the plate missed Ida. The bad news was that the plate hit a mirror, shattering both. The children oze in fear. "When my father got home om work, he was very upset, and he spanked me for the first and last time," Iosif recalls. "That's it. Just one time. Nothing more was said out loud. My father was more upset at me throwing a plate at Ida than breaking the mirror. But he had issues about the broken mirror. Although he didn't like to talk about it, I think he was a little superstitious, and breaking a mirror is said to bring bad luck." And if there's one thing a Jewish family in Soviet Ukraine didn't need at that time, it was more bad luck. In the 1930s, life was getting increasingly difficult in Gorodok for Jews. The political ripples that started in Moscow aer the Russian Revolution were just then washing over remote Ukrainian villages such as Gorodok. The communists confiscated most private property, including the home of the Volsuns. Having lost their spacious house, the family moved to a smaller house and then an even smaller one, until they were finally crowded into a single room, forced to The lure of America to Soviet Jews was always present, even if it was unspoken. America loomed large as a beacon of the eedom and economic possibilities that were so curtailed in the Soviet Union. The Soviet authorities demonized America and made life difficult for Russians who corresponded with relatives there. Shlomo considered leaving Russia for America or Palestine many times, but could never make the decision to go. Eventually he got to be too old to change his life, and for this, Shlomo expressed regret. In fact, he later told Iosif, deciding against leaving Russia when he had the chance was one of the few decisions of his life that he wished he could take back. Many years later, Shlomo told Iosif that he had considered leaving Russia for America or Palestine around 1925 (Israel wasn't established until 1948, but many Jews immigrated to Jerusalem and surrounding areas). But circumstances were such that he would have had to go by himself, earn some money, and send for his family later. This model was a well-established way of getting poor families om one country to another. But Hava would hear nothing of it. "Either we all go together or none of us," Iosif 's mother would say. "By yourself I wouldn't let you go." It's hard to blame her. Her husband would be gone for an unknown number of months or years, and she would be the sole provider for their five children. Worse, everyone knew families that had tried this strategy only to be forever separated. Anything could happen. Borders could be closed, treaties could be signed, or war could break out. Any one of dozens of things could go wrong, and the children would never see their father again. Hava would not take the risk. For many years, whenever life was hard, Shlomo would say, "Why didn't we leave when we had the chance?" Hava may have been right in her caution. While the borders were relatively open in the mid-1920s, within a few years they were shut tight as the beginnings of the Iron Curtain began to confine the citizens of the Union. The Volsuns, like millions of their fellow citizens, were trapped. "My father told me many times, 'Get out when you can. Don't stay in the Soviet Union for one minute more than you possibly can,'" Iosif says. "I heard the regret in his voice for not following his own advice. I determined I would listen to him. It took many, many years, but I did." It wouldn't be until 1979, when his grandson Lev le Russia, that Shlomo's vision for his son would begin to be fulfilled. The Lure of America The Lure of America

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