LOS ANGELES – “In Ukraine, we were Jews. In America, we are Russians. But in reality, we are from Ukraine, when it was part of the U.S.S.R.”
This is how Marina Yusim describes her pluralistic identity. As someone who is the product of multiple cultures (her mother’s family was from Odessa, a historic Ukrainian city on the Black Sea, and her father from northern Russia), her notions of identity and loyalty fluctuate.
A week after Vladimir Putin launched a military invasion of Ukraine, Marina stood over the stove at her home in Studio City, stirring a pot of shredded carrots, beets and chopped bell pepper. In another pot, chunks of potato and cabbage bobbed together in boiling water.
Marina, 65, was making her mother’s recipe for borscht, a soup made from softened vegetables and meat when it’s available. It’s served with a dollop of sour cream and, on the side, a few slices of dense, dark bread rubbed with raw garlic. It’s a dish she ate often as a child growing up in Odessa.
“In the wintertime, my mother made it a lot because potato and cabbage were the only vegetables we had and those are the main ingredients,” she said.