Stories from Soviet Jews

By the New Zionist Congress

Photo via Pexels- Ofir Gafkovich

As many Jews may be aware, Russia is attempting to stop the Jewish Agency from operating within Russian borders. This is alarming for many reasons, but a main reason that sticks out from the rest is that Russia has a dark past regarding Jews. Many people may be aware of the vague incidents in the past of Soviet Jewry, but many people are ignorant of the painful specifics. We invite you to learn some of these stories with us.

Alan

My dad comes from a family of Jewish dissidents in Odessa. His family’s first real run-in with the Soviet government was in 1978. My father and his parents were approved for emigration but in an attempt to get an approval for his grandparents in Moscow, the Soviet agency cancelled all of their exit visas. Continuing to live in Odessa, emigration was still an aspiration amongst the entire family as there were virtually no opportunities for Jews. My grandmother was denied entry into any school for being Jewish, and although growing up secular and distant from his identity, my father’s Jewishness was made front and center in everything he did. Whether being randomly called a “Zhyd” (a slur for Jews) or “Birobidzhan” (in reference to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast) to being belittled and susceptible to microaggressions on the basis of his Jewishness being marked as his “nationality” on every single document. The family was finally approved for emigration in 1989, but for how much the Soviet Union prided itself as anti-religious and secularized, it made the Refusenik’s Jewishness the essence of their being. Learning about the closure of Russia’s Jewish Agency, it was unbelievable to how reminiscent it was to the experiences of my father and being barred from emigration by the Soviet Union. Growing up on stories of the mistreatment faced by my family, it conditioned me to be outspoken as a Jewish person. We cannot stay silent on matters like these ones that will negatively impact Russian Jewry. The reasoning for the closure of the agency is still unclear, and Russia is not disclosing steps that Israel can take to cease the closure. We must not let the country’s discriminatory and restricting history bleed into the present, and it is vital we speak up on such issues.

Leah Kogen Elimeliah

I came to the US with my family as a refugee in 1989 from Moscow through Vienna and Italy. We were already attempting to practice Judaism in Moscow two years before our departure. It was all done in secret and of course there some consequences we faced…

My family experienced severe anti semitism while living in Moscow and we were always worried for our safety. Once we arrived in the US we settled in nyc and became Orthodox Jews… the story continues so not sure how much to add here but our immigration story is one of uncertainty, pain, loss and hope

Nati Pressmann

My Grandfather's name is Moishe Kishinevski. He is my inspiration. I can share so many stories of suffering and death that my Jewish family faced in the Soviet Union. But I want to focus on a story of triumph. My Grandfather's story. I grew up very closely with my grandparents, and because of this, I grew close with my History loving Grandfather. Despite being young myself, he always told me about the suffering my family faced in the USSR. My Grandfather always dreamed of working in the film industry. But when he sat down for his entrance exams, the examiner looked at his ID. Under Nationality was the word "yevery," which directly translates to Hebrew but means Jew in Russian. The examiner looked into my Grandfather's eyes and said, "no matter how well you do on this exam, we will not be accepted, Jewish students." I do not view this instance as the catalyst for my Grandfather's actions, as I believe it was the decades and centuries of Antisemitism we faced even before the creation of the USSR. But I think that at this moment, my Grandfather realized that it would never get better for Jews in the USSR. As a result, he spoke about his experiences. He wrote letters to American Newspapers about life as a Soviet Jew. His parents were able to make Aliyah, but he continued to face persecution. In the evenings, he and my grandmother would host fellow Refuseniks for tea and share their thoughts. My Grandfather's activism later led him to be a target. Relentless, the KGB would knock down his door, ripping out floorboards looking for illegal western books. They never found them because my Grandfather kept them in plain view on his bookshelf. The KGB stormed my Grandparent's house a few times.

Once even when he was not home and was fishing, leaving my grandmother to fight them off with my mother, who was an infant in her arms. Shortly after my mother's birth, my Grandfather's story gained traction. In Israel, my great-grandmother wrote to Organizations in the states. Eventually, his case was shared at the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in Washington. And eventually, on March 24, 1976, his story was shared in the US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Two years followed, and my Grandfather was finally able to make Aliyah. In 1978, my grandparents boarded a train to Vienna and finally were able to enter the free world. After a plane ride, landing in Ben Gurion on a hot spring day, my family was finally home. My Grandfather then became one of the first people to live in Ariel. My family eventually moved to Canada, where he still lives today. Currently, my Grandfather is unwell. I attribute his condition to the stress he faced and the trauma inflicted on him and his family in the USSR. 

Rahel

My great great grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel Ben Hillel from the Mountain Jewish ex Soviet community, was unjustly sent to prison or a camp (we are unsure) in 1948 by the Soviet regime for being a Rabbi and ‘a Zionist’ as his father was a strong zionist who traveled to Israel in 1899 and built a bet knesset there and supported Jewish immigration to Israel. He died in prison. May his blood be avenged.

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