Let My People Go 

Let My People Go

Composed by: Mordechai Ben David

Album: Let My People Go

Year: 1985

The Song

Mordechai Ben David stepped into political territory to lend his voice to worldwide demonstrations on behalf of Jews imprisoned in the Soviet Union for the crime of applying to leave for Eretz Yisrael. It’s a melody packed with energy, rhythm, and lyrics full of protest and hope. Some of the Prisoners of Zion are mentioned by name — Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky and Ida Nudel (who would be freed in 1986 and 1987 respectively), and Yosef Mendelevitch, who had already been released in 1981. The chorus, “Thousands shouting no, let my people go, enough of your bluff and your hurting,” is repeated almost like a chant, a protest slogan, fading into silence at the end of the song. The song elicits chills even today, more than 30 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The Backstory

Rabbi Yosef Mendelovitch

Where I was held, in the KGB’s special jail facilities, no songs ever reached us. I barely knew which day it was. The first I knew of the protest movement outside Russia was when Anatoly Sharansky was brought to the same prison as me. I had already been in jail for seven years when I heard a rumor that Anatoly had arrived there. He was arrested in 1977 and I met him in jail in ’78.

How could I speak to a fellow inmate in a maximum-security KGB prison? Well, the toilet pipes were connected to each other, so I spoke to him through the pipes. The first question I asked Anatoly was how he had gotten involved with the refusenik activities and come to be arrested. He replied that it was because of me and my friends. When he had seen our determination to get out to Israel and how we had lost our freedom because of it, he had decided that he had no right to peacefully continue studying for his doctorate — he too had to fight for Jewish freedom. And so he had landed in jail.

Next, I asked if there was any action taking place to try and secure our freedom. His answer surprised me. “Of course! There are organizations and protests all over the world. People are fighting to get Russian Jews released.”