Lilian Gafni

Lilian Gafni worked for the Commission on Soviet Jewry, and during the 1970s corresponded with prisoners of conscience at the height of visa denials for Soviet Jews. She writes with passion about the experiences of displaced Jewish populations because she experienced it herself. Born in Cairo, Egypt, in a Sephardic family, and speaking Ladino Spanish (a mixture of Castilian Spanish and Hebrew spoken for many centuries since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492), she attended the non-denominational French Catholic School, St. Vincent de Paul. Jews had lived peacefully for centuries in Egypt; however, a dangerous current began coursing through the city that threatened the lives of Jews. They were forced to keep to their homes at night because of nightly riots in the streets.

Her parents moved the family in 1951 to the newly formed Jewish country of Israel, where they hoped to raise their children in peace and safety. As have many Jews before her, Lilian had to adapt to a new life, a new country, and a new language. She served the requisite two years in the Israel Defense Forces, which sent her to guard a Kibbutz (collective farm) in the region of the Negev. There she met American-born Joel, who later became her husband. After their marriage, they moved to the United States to his home state of California, where they raised their two children.

Lilian Gafni earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Portland State University in Oregon and Graduate Studies in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University in California.