Leon Trotsky #2 - Trotsky’s Jewish Childhood?

Joshua Rubenstein presents the life and works of Leon Trotsky

Mr. Rubenstein was Northeast Regional Director, Amnesty International USA 1975 - 2012
and is an Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University


Mr. Rubenstein's works include:
Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary’s Life, Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press.
Soviet Dissidents, Their Struggle for Human Rights and Tangled Loyalties.
The Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg.
Co-editor of Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.
Co-editor of The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov.

Mr. Rubenstein was awarded the National Jewish Book Award, East European Studies

What was Trotsky’s childhood like?
• Raised in Southern Russia / Ukraine not in Pale
• Father was a very successful farmer
• Claimed that his parent did not peak Yiddish
• Attended a Cheder for 3 months
• No emotional connection to Jewish people & religion
• Driven by fanatical belief in revolution
• But, visceral reaction to physical attacks on Jews