Top photo: celebrating Israel’s Independence Day under the watchful eye of the KGB at the Obrajki railway station in Moscow, USSR, 1978. Photo: Yigal Gorodetzky. The Oster Visual Documentation Center, ANU – Museum of the Jewish People. Courtesy of Yigal Gorodetzky
An event in honor of the new book by Yaakov Roi and Ilya Vovshin:
The Jewish Movement in the U.S.S.R. Through the Eyes of Its Members
Program:
- 16:00 (optional): a guided tour at the museum, focusing on the Jews of the former U.S.S.R.
- A panel with the authors and additional researchers: Yaakov Roi, Ilya Vovshin, Alex Valdman, Dina Moyal, Nati Kanterovich. Host: Vera Kaplan.
- A panel with the activists: Golda Akhiezer, Albert Karmi, Ira Dashevsky, Marina Temkin, Mila and Ari Volvovsky. Eli Valk, Yosef Raday. Host: Marina Kigel.
- Songs performed by the activists: Marina Kontsevaya and Lev Shogulev. Host: Yevgeni Finkleberg
Based on some 300 personal testimonies, the book tells the story of the Jewish movement in the Soviet Union: a national awakening movement that also engaged in cultural and educational activities, but whose main struggle was to leave the Soviet Union for the purpose of immigrating to Israel. 160,000 Jews arrived in Israel in the 1970s thanks to this struggle.
The event enables you to hear the story of the movement from its activists behind the Iron Curtain, those who rediscovered Judaism and Hebrew, those who were denied exit, and those who even suffered imprisonment for the desire to openly express their belonging to the Jewish people.
Event code for parking: 1290429. Please show the code at gate no. 1, from 15:30.
