Allan Alexander

Allan Alexander was born in Moscow and grew up in a totalitarian state. He was a published poet by the age of eighteen and beat the odds of Jewish admission quotas by being accepted by the Medical School. His collaboration with an avant-gare literary magazine ended with a six-month, politically motivated incarceration. After his release, he returned to his medical studies and became intricately involved in the Soviet Jewry struggle for freedom to emigrate. In 1975 Alexander, his wife, and their young son left the Soviet Union, arriving in the United States with just a couple of suitcases, a lot of aspirations, and thirty-three dollars in their pockets. Today all three of them are successful practicing physicians in St. Petersburg, Florida.