Igor Birman's story sums up the best of America and is testimony to
the exceptionalism of American founding principles, how they beckon to
oppressed people around the world, and how much those who come here
legally bring to our Nation. Igor was born in Moscow to parents who desperately yearned for the
fundamental rights they were denied in the Soviet Union. At the time,
they were called refuseniks, Russian Jews persecuted for their
religious beliefs and denied exit visas because of their technical
knowledge. Finally, after many years, as the Soviet Union began to collapse,
glasnost opened an opportunity for the Birmans finally to realize their
dream. Igor remembers hurriedly learning English on borrowed phonograph
records.