Isaac Zelig Zieman (May 6, 1920-April 2, 2007) was born in Riga (Latvia). He grew up in an Orthodox household in the Latvian town Līvāni (Lievenhof). In his early teens, he joined Gordonia, a Zionist youth organization. When the German Army invaded Latvia in 1941, Zieman joined an antifascist militia and escaped to Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union, where he joined the Red Army. However, because of his Latvian origin, Zieman was later arrested and deported to Novosibirsk (Siberia), where he was interned in a forced labor camp. Upon his release he went to Kyrgyzstan and then to Poland, where he worked for the Polish Red Army. After the war, Zieman continued to do political work for Gordonia in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Later he helped Jewish Holocaust survivors with their emigration to Palestine in Austria, at the DP camp in Braunau am Inn, and with the socialist-Zionist group Nocham in Germany.
In 1945, Zieman learned that all the Jews of Līvāni, including his entire family (father, mother, two sisters, and brother), had been shot by Latvian fascists shortly after the German invasion.
Zieman remained in Germany and in 1949 began studies in psychology in Munich . In 1957 he immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City, where he became a practicing psychotherapist. In the late 1960s, Zieman became interested in the group therapy approach "theme-centered interaction" (TCI) and for the rest of his life led workshops focused on peace and understanding using this method. From 1973 to 1999, he conducted TCI workshops in Germany every summer. Zieman also lectured and wrote extensively about his experiences in the war, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and race relations.
From the guide to the Isaac Zieman Collection, Undated, 1945-2011, (Leo Baeck Institute)
