Five decades ago, a group of British Jews slipped behind the Iron Curtain. They’re still astonished by what they found
This is just a bit of what 249 men and women endured as they were dispatched to the Soviet Union by Ernie Hirsch of London and his grassroots Russian Religious Jews Fund (RRJ) between 1980 and 1990, the year before the Iron Curtain came down. Despite facing intimidation at every turn, these “tourists” sought out and assisted the many stubborn groups of Jews committed to living Yiddishkeit under the privations of Communist Russia. As the spiritual inheritors of the Jews who hid in caves in order to uphold Torah despite decrees of the ancient Greeks, Russian refuseniks wouldn’t be broken.
Decades later, these teachers, doctors, rabbis, businessmen and homemakers who encountered them share memories they’ll never forget
WEdo sometimes pay lip service to the idea that we have to be grateful that we live in a malchus shel chesed — a free society, but I’m not sure we always understand the alternatives. The stark difference between a free country and a reign of fear was vividly brought home to me on my trip to Leningrad in 1982, when I travelled there with Rabbi Joe Freilich. I’d already been to Russia in 1978, so this was a second visit to that totalitarian world.
Rolled up tight among all the Judaica items and essentials in our suitcases was a kesubah. A young Jewish couple, yichus approved by a beis din, was waiting in Leningrad for us to arrive and conduct their chuppah.
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