Posts Tagged: Soviet Jews
Somewhere in Between: A Look at the American Russian-Speaking Jewish Experience
On a gray weekday afternoon, on the Brighton Beach Boardwalk in Brooklyn, the rhythmic clatter of dominoes on plastic tables mingles with the scent of...
Reflections on the Jewish People Since Oct. 7: The Will to Never Give Up, and Protect Their Homeland
This year, the one year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacre fell on the Jewish High Holidays, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. What...
Counting Jews in Israel: The ‘Other’ Is Not Enough
On November 7, 2023, just one month after the Hamas massacre of Israelis and the onset of the war in Gaza, The Jerusalem Post’s Zvika...
Gorbachev: The Man Who ‘Let My People Go’ — With Some Prompting
In October 1986, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met for a summit in Iceland. A group of Soviet Jewry activists from the...
‘I See Your Face, You Are Alive!’: The Yiddish Poet Undergoing a Revival in War-Torn Ukraine
"Through fire and ash, through smoke and battle / You raise your shattered hands / A clot of blood covers your head / But I...
Yad Vashem Online Exhibit Emphasizes the Power of Family
JNS.org - The world will mark Yom Hashoah—Holocaust Memorial Day—on April 7-8 with particular attention on the 80th anniversary of a campaign against the Jews...
50th Anniversary of Leningrad Trial Sparks Memories and Education
JNS.org - On December 15, 1970, a small item appeared at the top of page three of The New York Times under the jarring headline,...
How Chess Helped Natan Sharansky Outlast the Soviet Union and Foster Jewish Unity
Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People by Gil Troy and Natan Sharansky (Hachette, 2020). In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident...
Another Passover — Examining the Movement to Save Soviet Jewry
As we approach Passover, we are reminded of a more recent "Let My People Go" in Jewish history -- that of the rallying cry of...
A 30th Anniversary, Soviet Jews and the Making of History
On December 6, 1987 -- 30 years ago -- more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington to call on the Kremlin to open the gates and let Soviet Jews...
Telling Our Children the Story of Russian Jewry
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Shalom, the oldest Orthodox synagogue in Washington, DC, has written a touching and powerful new children’s book, An Extra Seat. This easy-to-read picture...
Who Is a Jew? And Who Gets to Decide?
Since Israel's founding in 1948, one of its most contentious problems has been trying to define "Who is a Jew?" The premise behind Israel’s creation was to...
Former Soviet Union Jews Convene for Their First Major West Coast Conference
JNS.org - For one weekend at the Westin Pasadena hotel in the Los Angeles area, hallway conversations were conducted mostly in Russian and Hebrew, with English...
New Organization Helps Ukrainian Jews Make Smooth Aliyah to Israel
KIEV - Since last year, there has been a 35% increase in the number of immigrants who have made aliyah to Israel -- and one of the largest...
