Yefim Feldman is a Belorussian Jew who rose to the rank of major in the Belarus Army. But he came to America because, he says, the anti-Semitism in Belarus made it impossible for him to fulfill his dream of building a crystal wholesale business.

Feldman says unfair treatment by local inspectors drove him to seek political asylum in the United States. He arrived in 1999 and now owns North American Crystal, a wholesale supplier of crystal vases, chinaware and figurines based in Newark, New Jersey.

Feldan used a loan from the New York Association for New Americans (nyana.org), to expand his inventory. His sales have increased from $240,000 in 2001 to $850,000 in 2006.

Feldman says one of the biggest challenges in starting his business was adjusting to the American marketplace. "America is very multicultural," he says through a Russian translator. "It's hard to find a product that would fit everybody."
--Gabrielle Coppola