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APRIL 17, 2019 | The Jewish Home
B A LT I M O R E J E W I S H H O M E . C O M
THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
MARCH 18, 2021
48
The Wandering
Jew
My Personal Yetzias Mitzrayim By Hershel Lieber
O
ur May 1979 trip to the Soviet Union began with purely touristic intentions but culminated as a mission on behalf of our struggling brethren behind the Iron Curtain. We were truly inspired by the community of refuseniks and dissidents who were in various stages of reclaiming their Jewish identities. We were privileged to connect with them and to offer them our empathy and much needed encouragement. What we did not expect, though, was that this trip would be the beginning of a change of direction in our own lives. Nor did we foresee the subsequent trips that we would make to that part of the world time and time again. In September 1979, I was asked by Rabbis Hershel Bronstein and Yakov Pollak of the organization Al Tidom to go to Warsaw, Poland, to be the chazzan for the yomim noraim there. I have previously written about my experiences during the Warsaw phase of this journey. In addition, they asked me to travel to the U.S.S.R., namely Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, to undertake several missions in each city. The sensation of intrigue and the excitement of an adventure overrode any thoughts of
The Choral Synagogue in Moscow
danger and fear, so I readily accepted. I traveled alone and was away from home for over two weeks. I spent Rosh Hashana in Warsaw which was on Shabbos and Sunday that year. I scheduled myself to leave for Moscow on Monday, Tzom Gedalya, so I could be in Kiev for Shabbos Shuva. I planned to return to Warsaw on Sunday, erev Yom Kippur. Mensch tracht ober Gott lacht, Man makes plans, but Hashem laughs.
Meeting with Refuseniks My arrival at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow presented my first challenge. I had taken along my tallis and tefillin, a siddur, a selichos, and a Gemara for my personal use. I also brought along a gift for R’ Eliyahu Essas, the leader and teacher of the fledgling baal teshuva movement in the Soviet Union: the new Hebrew sefer “HaChassidut” by Yitzchok Alfasi, written about the history of chassidus with short biographies of the Rebbes. I also took along dozens of Jewish calendars, which we received in the mail
from many organizations, to distribute to Yidden on my trip. When my suitcase was opened up for inspection, all these objects, written in a foreign language, were the subject of intense scrutiny. The clerk called his supervisor who sternly forbade me from taking in any written matter. My tallis and tefillin were all he would allow me to bring in. I spoke to them forcefully, but politely, that as a religious person I needed these books for prayer and study and that they should be more accommodating to my requirements. It took quite awhile until they agreed to let me enter with these items. The exception was the dozens of calendars which they rightfully questioned why I would need more than one. The most surprising items that they missed finding were the three Ezras Torah shul calendars which had a treasure trove of information and halachos about cyclical events throughout the Jewish year. These large calendars came in cardboard tubes which I put into the sleeves of the raincoat that I
From the window of my room at the National Hotel looking out to a foggy Red Square in Moscow
Breaking the Tzom Gedalya fast with Rabbi Sholem BerKowalski in Moscow
was wearing. I could not bend my arms while they were talking to me and worried that they would slip out. Baruch Hashem, they were not detected. That experience was somewhat unnerving, but I survived. By the time I arrived at the National Hotel across Red Square half a day was gone. My passport had to be left by the hotel desk to be registered with the police, which usually took about 12 hours. I needed it immediately so I could to go to the Polish Embassy and get a new visa to re-enter Poland for Yom Kippur. The clerk, a reserved, polite woman, obliged my request and
At the Museum of Religion & Atheism in Leningrad
