Malkiel Ashurov Levy worked 55 years for a Communist government shoe factory. When the Communists lost power, Malkiel's pension lost its value. Now his clothes and his tubeteika (traditional Bukharian cap) are filthy and he gets his groceries from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Not to suggest conditions were rosy during the Communist period: "We locked the doors to celebrate the Jewish holidays," Malkiel remembers. "The non-Jews said we made matzah with people's blood," he says, recalling the "Blood Libel" common throughout the Former Soviet Union and elsewhere. "The government took all my grandfather's things in 1929 -- 15 wagons of his belongings. He fled and my mother was taken to prison." After a pause, Malkiel asks, "Will you take me to prison because of this interview? Who will read this?"

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