On December 17, 1999 my entire family immigrated to the United States. We did so mainly for religious reasons since the people of Uzbekistan, a former part of the Soviet Republic and my country of origin, are much less tolerant of Jews than Americans are. One of the key rationales for our emigration from the relatively new-born “democratic” state was the fact that not that many Jews were able to receive higher education in Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is a country where English is a foreign language spoken only by a small minority of the population. Therefore, unlike many countries that encompass the melting pot of America, within the Republic of Uzbekistan, an English speaking person is a rarity