The Fusgeyers were the thousands of Romanian Jews who, unwilling to tolerate anti-Semitism, left their country on foot between 1899 and 1907, and headed for North America. Destitute but resolute, they supported themselves by giving theatrical performances or selling stories and poems. In North America, some worked as peddlers, shopkeepers, café and restaurant owners, actors, and writers in the famous Yiddish theatre; others helped build the railway west, or worked in the gold and silver mines, or joined the Jewish agricultural communities.
Walking in their footsteps across Romania, and following the immigrant trail across Europe and North America, Jill Culiner's Finding Home is a detailed account of Romanian Jewish history and a touching reminder of the courage of our ancestors.
Finding Home in the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers won The Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum Prize in Canadian Jewish History, and was shortlisted for the ForeWord Magazine Prize Book of the Year Award.