>> boris fischman wrote a replacement life in which we have a young man who was born in russia and grew up in brighton beach in the large russian community in brooklyn and is trying to get out of there and divorce himself from the russian world. he moves to manhattan and is sort of sucked back into that world through a complicated plot around applying for holocaust restitution benefits. it's an example of the sort of being torn and trying to succeed in america which has its rules and ultimately formed by the russian experience. >> you have been a librarian for so many years. what do you make of this theme in the jewish community when we talk about writing and reflecting on experience for the reader of the push and pull between assimilation, becoming an american, retaining one's own culture and one's identity and yet living in the american world? >> i think that's the essential american dance for jews. when we have the opportunity to assimilate, it's a different sort of challenge than in other places where jews lived where the opportunity was largely closed off and there really wasn't th