Title: Women of the Refuseniks

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One of the greatest emigration stories of the 20th century is that of the Refuseniks, the Jewish men and women caught behind the (Soviet Union’s) Iron Curtain who fought their oppressors and eventually made it to Israeli soil. There are a lot of well-known male Refuseniks, but there were just as many female Refuseniks, who were equally as important, if not as famous. Avital Sharansky, Raissa Palatnik, Ida Nudel, and Sylva Zalmanson are just a few of of these heroic women without whom Soviet Jewry’s fate would look extremely different.

In today’s episode, we’ll dive deep into the fascinating story of the women of the Refusenik movement. We’ll focus on the heroes, pitfalls, and forgotten figures of this fascinating part of Jewish history.

The Soviet Union’s relationship to the approximately 3 million Russian Jews in the days leading up to the formation of the state of Israel was troubled. The advent of Zionism during the 1920s and 1930s, with its focus on Jewish self-determination and national statehood, threw a malatok (insert picture of Russian-looking tool) in the Soviet’s vision of what their people should be like.

Jews were the Soviets’ preferred scapegoat not only because of that classic mid-twentieth century anti-Semitism, but also because many leading members of the Communist party were born Jewish, so any slight anti-Soviet, pro nationalist sentiment hit close to home. Similarly, the Soviets were the second country to recognize Israel's independence. But this was less in support of Jewish nationalism and more  of an attempt to lure the country into what essentially was a socialist coalition against the capitalism of the west.

But the official position of the Soviet Union and its satellite states was that Zionism was a tool used by the Jews and Americans for "racist imperialism." This led, in the 1950s, to anti-Semitic campaigns and anti-Zionist propaganda, as well as grand governmental declarations that all Zionists were enemies of the state.

For more information about the Soviet relationship with Israel, check out the episode we did on 20th century Soviet Jewry

The Six-Day War kickstarted a new era in Soviet Jewish consciousness.

The USSR government had supported many of the Arab countries warring with Israel and had outfitted some with Soviet arms, which felt like a betrayal to the many Soviet Jews hoping to move to Israel. These people dreamed of moving to Israel, but converting that dream into a reality was nearly impossible, since Soviet Russia was not a free state. You needed approval from the government to emigrate and pretty much every Jew who applied to leave was rejected without explanation, though some would-be emigrators were fed bogus “reasons” that they couldn't leave because they might spread “state secrets.”

As you might imagine, life was extremely difficult for these “rejects,” or “Refuseniks” as they came to be known. A rejected applicant was placed in a “state of refusal,” a period that could last months or years, and occasionally even decades. Many Refuseniks lost their jobs, their homes, and were followed and bullied by the Soviet secret police, the feared KGB. Many of them were arrested and imprisoned for “Jewish practice” or “pro-Zionist activities,” and came to be known to the outside world as “Prisoners of Zion.”

News of these “Prisoners of Zion” spread overseas and catalyzed the formation of global pro- Refusenik movements. The first grassroots movement was made up of young Jews from New York. In 1964, Jacob Birnbaum, a student in Manhattan, created the “The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry,” or “SSSJ.” The SSSJ brought thousands of young Jewish protesters together outside the Soviet mission to the UN and demanded freedom for Soviet Jews. A popular cry at this and other “Save Soviet Jewry” protests was “Let My People Go!” which of course echoed Moses’ call for freedom for the Biblical Jews who were enslaved by Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.

The rallies kept growing. Over 10,000 people attended a rally at Madison Square Garden later that year in support of Soviet Jews. A number of rabbis at the rally blew the shofar, which symbolized freedom from oppression. Around this time, Shlomo Carlebach, the charismatic if controversial musical rabbi, composed the tune that would become an anthem for imprisoned Soviet Jewry: “Am Yisrael Chai,” or “The Jewish people live!” The song was so popular that it quickly spread around the world and was chanted by Soviet Jews in synagogue.

The two biggest male names that came to symbolize the Refusenik movement and put a face on it were the activists Yosef Mendelovitch and Natan Sharansky. For many, Sharansky came to personally embody the struggle of Soviet Jewry. Sharansky was sent to prison on trumped up charges, but while there he met Mendelovitch, another well-known Refusenik. Mendelovitch himself had been imprisoned in 1970 for his role in trying to steal an aircraft with other Refuseniks in order to flee Soviet oppression. More on that soon. Together, the two men would come to symbolize the unbroken spirit of the Refuseniks.

Both of these Refuseniks and all of the aforementioned sympathizing rabbis were critical in freeing the Soviet Jews, but there were many specific women who were equally as crucial. Let’s unpack their stories.

We have to remember how large and formidable the Soviet Union was back then, a true global power, and how small the Refusenik movement was - just a few hundred people initially.

But in the 1960s and 1970s, movements to save Soviet Jewry arose in Australia, Canada, and England, and proliferated throughout the United States, with “chapters” opening in Washington DC, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. In addition to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, organizations popped up with names like the National Conference for Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils on Soviet Jewry.

In 1971, a few women in England heard the news that thirty-five-year-old Raissa Palatnik, of Odessa, had been apprehended by the KGB. They decided to hold a night vigil protest outside the Soviet Consulate. This single act inspired thousands of women in the United States, the United Kingdom, and all across the world to get more involved in these movement to bring down the Iron Curtain. The Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry, commonly known as “The 35’s” in honor of Palatnik, came into being in May 1971. The “35’s” set up meetings between Refuseniks and Jewish visitors to the Soviet Union, some of whom smuggled in forbidden items like food and religious artifacts. They also sponsored concerts on behalf of Soviet Jewry by performers that included Carlebach and the folk singer Theodore Bikel.

Although the KGB liked to dismiss the Refuseniks movement as “students and housewives,” the “35’s” helped begin to show the world that sometimes you should fear the housewives. Ultimately, these courageous women’s efforts helped unify Jewish people around the globe and free many of those imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain.

But it wasn’t just groups of selfless semi-anonymous women who came together to help Soviet Jews. Natan Sharansky’s wife, Avital, was one of the most tireless campaigners for her husband’s freedom and the freedom of the thousands of others just like him.

Avital had an interesting background. She learned that she was Jewish when she was 14 years old, and this revelation captured her heart, inspiring a lifelong love of Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel. She and her future husband, Anatoly as he was then known, attended Hebrew class together, which was a risky move in and of itself since Soviets were working to stamp out all religions. Avital was impressed by Anatoly’s proficiency with Hebrew and his kind offers to help her learn it. She and Natan, as he came to be known, married shortly before he was imprisoned. She left for Israel the day after their wedding in 1974, and Natan, who had been denied an exit visa, expected to join her shortly after.

Except he didn’t. He was thrown in jail on trumped up treason charges, which catalyzed Avital to do everything in her power to free her new husband, who she had only lived with for one day.

In the years that followed, Avital met with activists and political leaders across the US and around the world. She sat down with kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and Jewish leaders, including presidents and senators. She led marches and spoke at rallies, making sure to be present wherever a crowd gathered in protest of the Soviet government. And her activism paid off, in addition to mass lobbying and rallying by concerned citizens across the country. These efforts led to the signing of a “statement of conscience” by twenty-four hundred American scientists – including thirteen Nobel laureates – who pledged to avoid cooperating with the Soviet Union until Sharansky was freed.

Which he was. After 250,000 people rallied in Washington, DC that year, President Reagan turned up the pressure on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev agreed to release Sharansky in exchange for a number of Russian detainees. The Jewish world and the “Free Soviet Jewry” movements viewed this as a watershed moment in their activities, and for good reason. In February of 1986, Natan Sharansky, the face of the Refuseniks, was once more a free man!

After helping secure her husband’s release, Avital retreated from public view. She raised two children with Natan, who continued his political work and used his now-expanded platform to bring attention to similar struggles across the globe.

Another important female Refusenik was Ida Nudel. Nudel was born in the southern Russia, and studied economics in Moscow. In the early 1970s she tried to emigrate to Israel with her family, but was denied an exit visa under the false charge that she had been privy to state secrets. She stayed in the Soviet Union and became active in aiding Jewish emigration. Some people called her the "guardian angel" for how she cared for Jewish prisoners and their families.

She arranged demonstrations, correspondence, and meetings with foreigners visiting Moscow, and her work brought public attention to the Refuseniks’ struggles. In 1978, Nudel was sentenced to four years’ exile in Siberia for hanging a banner on the balcony of her apartment that read "KGB – Give Me My Exit Visa!” Her time in Siberia was as awful as you’d expect, with her tossed into a freezing, overcrowded, bad-smelling barrack in a “camp zone” surrounded by barbed wire fences and armed guards in watch towers.

She became perhaps the most famous Refusenik in the Western World and won the sympathies and support of Hollywood actresses, including Jane Fonda and Liv Ullman. Ullman even played Nudel in a film based on her life and experiences. In 1987, Nudel was permitted – finally! – to leave the USSR. She chose to settle in Israel.

Sylva Zalmanson is the third and final “Refusenik woman” we’ll talk about today. She was born in Siberia in 1944 and fled the Nazis with her family, ultimately settling in Latvia. She studied to be an engineer and long dreamed of living in Israel. However, when she and her husband tried to obtain visas to leave the Soviet Union, they were met with a firm no.

But instead of sitting around and waiting, they came up with a daring escape plan. They called their plan “Operation Wedding.” (Click here to see the trailer for a film about it) It was a simple hijacking attempt. The group of Refuseniks, which also included Yosef Mendelovitch, would buy tickets for a local flight, pretending to fly to a wedding, and while on board they would hijack the plane and pilot it safely over Soviet borders.

But before they could carry out their plan, the KGB caught wind of it and arrested Zalmanson, her husband, and the others who’d been involved. They were all charged with “high treason.” In her trial, Zalmanson spoke bravely on the stand, critiquing the Soviets’ unlawful practice of refusing Jewish emigration and quoting two of the most beloved Biblical verses about Israel: “Next year in Jerusalem” and “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.”

Zalmanson was sentenced to prison in a Soviet labor camp, but was released after four years in a Soviet-Israeli prisoner swap deal. She immediately emigrated to Israel, where she was joined soon after by her husband, who himself was released five years later. Today, Zalmanson is a working artist who displays her work in Israel and abroad.

Well, there you have it. The outcome of Soviet Jewry might have looked very different if not for these heroic women.

It might sound almost cliche, but when these women united in support of a common cause, they changed the course of history. Through their passion for getting the Refuseniks fair treatment, they slowly chipped away at the Iron Curtain until it all but cracked wide open.