I visited him early on at home, as he was painting his experiences into his page.  Still unfinished, his creation literally took my breath away--away with  my memory of sailing out of New York harbor past Lady Liberty thirty years earlier, and with how full my heart still was with the vividness of that moment.

I suspect I would not have been alone.

To document the entire route of his escape, Mr. Kogan later added in the skylines of Jerusalem and New York.

Among the most poignant stories of emigration/immigration was that of painter Mikail Kogan, one of many New Americans who sought refuge in the 1980s in Israel and in America from an intolerant, often oppressive  Russian regime.

© 1991 The Public Book  

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