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Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who found himself at the center of a firestorm for his decision to report the infamous phone call that led to President Donald Trump’s impeachment, tells his personal story and the ways his background has informed his life of service in this Museum program moderated by CNN Senior Global Affairs Analyst Bianna Golodryga.

Vindman was born to Jewish parents in Soviet Ukraine and grew up in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. In his new memoir Here, Right Matters: An American Story, Vindman offers a stirring account of his childhood as an immigrant, his career in national service, and the decisions leading up to, and fallout surrounding, his involvement in President Trump’s impeachment.

Watch the program below.

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Explore the History of the Soviet Jewry Movement
Alexander Vindman was born to Jewish parents in Soviet Ukraine in 1975. At the same moment, activists in the United States were fighting for the rights of Soviet Jewish families like the Vindmans. Learn about the Soviet Jewry movement in this Museum program, which featured leading figures of the grassroots group Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.

Learn About the Holocaust in Ukraine
When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Nazi soldiers and their collaborators began a campaign of mass shootings known as the “Holocaust by bullets.” Learn about this little-known chapter of Holocaust history by watching the testimony of Fania Wedro, who grew up and survived the Holocaust in the Ukrainian town of Korets. 

Discover an Earlier Jewish Immigration Story From Ukraine
A century before Alexander Vindman left Ukraine for the United States, Bella Grubstein made the same journey. Born in the Ukrainian town of Letichev, Grubstein began caring for her younger siblings and running her family’s business after she became an orphan at the age of 16. Read Bella’s story in this Museum blog post.