“Lisa Paul’s devotion to a friend in great need is a gripping, uplifting read that deserves serious attention. To read this most compelling book, is to gain an insight into how the brutal inhumanity of the Soviet system destroyed the lives of many decent people, but could not extinguish their courageous hope.”
– William G. Miller, former U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine
“Swimming in the Daylight, with its sharp focus on the commitment of a heretofore non-political young American to assist Inna and Naum Meiman in their fight to leave an oppressive society, reminds us of what was required to make the broader Jewish Emigration Movement succeed.”
– Joshua Rubenstein, Amnesty International USA, The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
“Having been an eyewitness to and participant in the Soviet Jews’ struggle for freedom and national identity, I can say that this story is one of the most touching examples of that historical movement.”
– Aba Taratuta, known as the father of the Leningrad refuseniks
“Lisa Paul is in a rare position. She was a witness at the end of the Soviet Union and knew Inna Meiman better than most. Inna was one of the most interesting members of the human rights community in the 1980s because she was so open about how she got there and what she thought. This story provides a personal window into that world, and what it took for those who lived in it to survive. In today’s Russia this story is ever more powerful as memories die, and authoritarianism comes back.”
– Anne Garrels, Senior Foreign Correspondent for National Public Radio; former ABC Moscow correspondent, 1982; author of Naked in Baghdad
“Deeply touching and profoundly moving. This inspiring account of the improbable link between an ailing Soviet Jewish refusenik from Moscow and a young woman from the American heartland sheds light on the cruelty of the Soviet system — and the compassion of the human heart. What a story!”
– David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee
“The Inna Meiman story is an interesting one. She is one of the names of those seeking to emigrate from Russia that I gave to Gorbachev in 1986 and he subsequently let her come to the U.S. She was a well known figure in Russian and American Jewish circles.”
– Former U.S. Senator Gary Hart
“Lisa Paul has written an incisive and uplifting book about her friendship with Inna Meiman, a courageous Soviet woman who fought valiantly for human rights and her own freedom. This moving account is both the story of a mentor, who shows us all how to meet life’s adversities head-on without self-pity, and her student, who learns how to stand up and fight for what she believes in.”
– Nancy Traver, former Time Magazine Moscow correspondent, 1983 to 1987; author of Kife: The Lives and Dreams of Soviet Youth
“Swimming in the Daylight is an example of a human rights success story that will inspire new generations of students to take social action and stand up for the causes they believe in. The story of Lisa Paul and her work on behalf of Inna Meiman shows the commitment and passion it takes to make an impact on the world and in the realm of human rights.”
– Professor Barbara Frey, Director, Human Rights Program, University of Minnesota
“Swimming in the Daylight is a story about universal human rights values as portrayed in the plight and heroism of Inna Meiman, an internationally famed and revered Soviet refusenik, who died in Washington, D.C., in February 1987. It is also the story of author Lisa Paul, an American and former student of Inna’s in Moscow, who embodied the not-so-universal but eternal virtue and religious imperative of rescue. The threats to the abridgement of freedom in today’s Russian Federation, throughout the former Soviet Union, and the world make this story of vital interest to the same readers who were among the millions of supporters of the Soviet Jewry Movement.”
– Micah Naftalin, National Director and CEO of the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
“As a professor of modern Russian culture who is constantly looking for ways to bridge the large gaps in experience and history between my twenty-first-century American students and the Russians they study, I am excited by the opportunities Lisa Paul’s moving and inspiring story presents. Reading of the impassioned efforts of an American student, particularly one motivated by her personal faith, to help a Soviet dissident gain the medical assistance she so desperately needed, will help to bridge those gaps, as a far-away culture becomes infinitely closer and more comprehensible through the story of these two very human and deeply impressive women.”
– Dr. Judith E. Kalb, Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina; author, Russia’s Rome: Imperial Visions, Messianic Dreams, 1890-1940.
“Lisa Paul has written a powerful memoir about hope, courage, and faith–the faith that one person’s actions can still make a difference in the world. Through her devotion to the Soviet era human rights activist, Inna Meiman, Paul challenged a totalitarian system, moved leaders of the US government to action, and liberated her friend from a cruel and absurd captivity. I well remember meeting Inna Meiman and her husband Naum in Moscow in 1986. She was an extraordinary woman, firm in her convictions about human rights and human dignity, and paying a dreadful price for her beliefs. Lisa Paul, who began her friendship with Inna as a young college student from the American Midwest, carried Inna’s case to the highest corridors of power and used the power of her own moral integrity to change history. The lessons of this book are urgently needed today.”
– Dr. Alan Mittleman, Chair, Department of Jewish Thought, The Jewish Theological Seminary; author, Hope in a Democratic Age
