"Voices of Defiance: Soviet Jewry and the Refuseniks" Program Booklet
VOICES OF DEFIANCE: SOVIET JEWRY AND THE REFUSENIKS
January 2025
Wende Museum’s biennial symposium
on the topic of resistance movements of American and Soviet Jews during the Cold War and the enduring legacy of the Soviet Jewish Movement.
Location: Glorya Kaufman Community Center
As the events of the Soviet Jewry movement transition from recent memory to recorded history, this is a pivotal time –a ‘Wende moment’ –to shape the course of future scholarship of Soviet Jewry
As the events of the Soviet Jewry movement transition from recent memory to recorded history, this is a pivotal time – a “Wende* moment” – to shape the course of future scholarship of Soviet Jewry and to ensure that the significant contributions and experiences of those who led and guided the movement are preserved and accurately represented in historical narratives.
Launched at the Wende Museum in 2021, the Robin Center for Russian-Speaking Jewry works to deepen and expand awareness of the history of Russian-speaking Jews, Jews who lived in the Soviet Union, and the Refusenik movement through digitization, public partnership, acquisition of at-risk collections, and sustained, dynamic programming with an emphasis on engagement with archival materials through artmaking workshops and educational activities. With support from the Koum Family Foundation, the Wende is engaged in an unparalleled comprehensive, interdisciplinary project to illuminate this history for current audiences through public and educational programs.
To further these efforts, the Meyer & Renee Luskin Public History Program at the Wende Museum presents “Voices of Defiance: Soviet Jewry and the Refuseniks,” a one-day symposium dedicated to the examination of the resistance movements of American and Soviet Jews during the Cold War period and reflection on the enduring legacy of the Soviet Jewry activist movement. Convening esteemed scholars, students, community members, and key historical figures, the event will take stock of the movement as well as assess and possibly shape the direction of scholarship of a history that defined a generation of Jewish life globally and contribute to a celebration of its legacy.
*The term “Wende” is a German word that means change, turning point, or a watershed moment.
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
Morning Sessions
8:00am–9:00am
Registration & Welcome Reception
Opening Remarks
Setting the Stage for the Symposium
Speakers: Justin Jampol & Richard Robin
9:00am–9:15am 9:15am–9:45am
“My Fight for Russian-Speaking Jewry: Past, Present, Forever”
Speaker: Zev Yaroslavsky
Panel Discussion One
Topic: Refuseniks and Activists (USSR)
11:00am–11:15am
Morning Break
9:45am–11:00am 11:15am-12:30pm
Panel Discussion Two
Topic: Jewish Leaders in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement (USA) 12:30pm-1:45pm
Lunch Break | Victor Family Garden Terrace
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
Afternoon Sessions
1:45pm-2:15pm
Special Presentation
Topic: Unveiling a New Global Research Portal
Speakers: Julie Chervinsky and Dr. Brandon Schechter
2:15pm-3:30pm
Panel Discussion Three
Topic: Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
3:30pm-3:45pm
Afternoon Break
3:45pm-4:30pm
Closing Remarks
“Where Do We Go From Here?”
Speaker: Mark Levin
5:00pm-8:00pm
Sunset Drinks & Dinner | Victor Family Garden Terrace
Opening Remarks
JUSTINIAN JAMPOL
Setting the Stage for the Symposium
Justinian “Justin” Jampol, Executive Director, Wende Museum, is Founder of the Wende Museum in Los Angeles. His work focuses on visual cultural studies and the connection between contemporary art and Cold War iconography. A Los Angeles native, Jampol studied at UCLA before earning his doctoral degree in Modern History from Oxford University. The curator of several exhibitions, Jampol has also produced two documentary films on the Cold War, as well as urban art programs including The Wall Project. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Times of London. He is the author of Beyond the Wall: Art and Artifacts from the GDR, published by TASCHEN in 2014.
Opening Remarks
RICHARD ROBIN
Setting the Stage for the Symposium
Richard Robin, Advocate for Soviet Jewry and CoFounder of the Robin Center for Russian-Speaking Jewry, son of Edward and Peggy Robin, continues his family’s legacy of supporting Jewish causes. Robin has been a dedicated advocate for Soviet Jewry, actively participating in efforts to support Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union. He co-founded the Robin Center for Russian-Speaking Jewry at the Wende Museum, an initiative aimed at preserving and expanding awareness of the history of Russianspeaking Jews, particularly focusing on the Refusenik movement and Soviet Jewry.
Keynote Address
ZEV YAROSLAVSKY
My Fight for Russian-Speaking Jewry: Past, Present, Forever
Zev Yaroslavsky, Director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, is a prominent civic leader and human rights advocate, known for his enduring contributions to public service and activism. As a UCLA student in 1969, he co-founded the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, leading high-profile protests in Los Angeles to combat the oppression of Jews in the Soviet Union. His efforts drew national attention to the plight of Soviet Jewry, establishing a foundation for broader human rights advocacy. Yaroslavsky served as a Los Angeles City Council member representing the 5th District from 1975 to 1994 and as a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from 1994 to 2014. Over his decades-long career, he championed causes such as environmental protection, housing, and public health, earning recognition as a transformative figure in Los Angeles politics.
PANEL DISCUSSION ONE
Topic: Refuseniks and Activists (USSR)
This panel will be a platform for the personal stories of resistance, struggle, and triumph in the face of Soviet repression by Jews living in the USSR. Together, they will discuss the efforts within the Soviet Union that helped secure the freedom of Soviet Jewry and the lasting impact of this movement on human rights advocacy.
Panelists: Alexander Smukler, Marina Furman, Gennady Estraikh
Moderator: Shaul Kelner
PANELISTS
ALEXANDER SMUKLER
Refuseniks and Activists (USSR)
Alexander Smukler, Former President, National Coalition
Supporting Eurasian Jewry, is a Soviet-born American businessman and former refusenik who advocated for the rights of Jews in the USSR. In the 1980s, he was a central figure in the production and distribution of samizdat (underground) Jewish publications, expanding the variety of reading material available to Soviet Jews. He applied for an exit visa in 1983, but was refused permission to emigrate due to his parents’ position in Soviet military industry, leading him to support his family by giving chess lessons. In 1987, he became the editor of The Information Bulletin on Issues of Repatriation and Jewish Culture and joined the organizational committee Mashka, a covert group dedicated to supporting prisoners of Zion, producing samizdat, and establishing networks for teaching Hebrew. In 1989, Smukler presented author Leon Uris with an underground handmade copy of Uris’ novel Exodus in Russian, highlighting his dedication to preserving Jewish identity. He left the Soviet Union in 1991 and moved to the United States, where he continued his activism on behalf of Jews from the former Soviet Union. In 2008, he was elected president of the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ).
PANELISTS
MARINA FURMAN
Refuseniks and Activists (USSR)
Marina Furman, Director of National Major Donor
Advancement at Jewish National Fund-USA, was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and became a Refusenik at 19, enduring a decade-long struggle against the Soviet regime for the right to emigrate to Israel. Despite facing arrests and daily harassment, she remained steadfast in her activism. In 1988, Marina, her husband Lev—a prominent underground Hebrew teacher—and their daughter Aliyah were finally granted permission to take Aliyah to Israel. There, she worked as Director of Resettlement for the Mayor of Ra’anana and conducted over fifty speaking tours worldwide. In 1998, she became an Israeli emissary to Philadelphia, where she continues to reside with her family. For over two decades, Furman has been dedicated to advocating for Israel through her role at the Jewish National Fund-USA. Her remarkable journey has been featured in various publications and documentaries, including the full-length film A Long Way to Freedom. A play about Marina and her husband, titled Lev of Leningrad, has been presented in numerous theaters in Pennsylvania.
PANELISTS
GENNADY ESTRAIKH, PhD
Refuseniks and Activists (USSR)
Gennady Estraikh, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Judaic studies, New York University, experienced a radical life change in October 1989, after he and his wife, then young Moscow residents, applied for emigration to Israel and twice received a refusal. In 1981, he joined the Jewish Historical and Ethnographical Commission, a group of independent Jewish scholars. Beginning from 1986 his stories and articles appeared in the Moscow Yiddish journal Sovetish Heymland and, later, in other Yiddish periodicals, most notably the New York newspaper Forverts. From 1988 to 1991, he worked as Managing Editor of Sovetish Heymland, and later settled in England, studying for a doctoral degree at the University of Oxford and then working at the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies and, in London, at the School of Oriental and African Studies. In 2003 he began working at New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. His most recent books are: Jews in the Soviet Union. A History: After Stalin, 1953-1967 (2022); The History of Birobidzhan: Building a Soviet Jewish Homeland in Siberia (2023); and Yiddish Literature Under Surveillance: The Case of Soviet Ukraine (2024).
MODERATOR
SHAUL KELNER, PhD
Refuseniks and Activists (USSR)
Shaul Kelner, PhD, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University, specializes in the sociology of American Jews, with a focus on how culture and politics shape Jewish life. His latest book, A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews (2024), examines the mass mobilization tactics of the Soviet Jewry movement and was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. His first book, Tours That Bind (2010), won the Association for Jewish Studies’ Jordan Schnitzer Book Award. A former fellow at institutes of advanced study at Hebrew University and the University of Michigan, Kelner has also served on the boards of the Association for Jewish Studies and the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry.
PANEL DISCUSSION TWO
Topic: Jewish Leaders in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement (USA)
This panel will bring together American activists who played key roles in the Soviet Jewry movement. Demonstrating transnational solidarity through coordination with Refuseniks, aid travel to the USSR, and organizing pressure campaigns against US politicians, these leaders played an outsized role in amplifying the cause of Soviet Jews and setting a powerful precedent for grassroots activism in human rights movements globally.
Panelists: Frank Brodsky, Alan H. Molod, Morey Schapira
Moderator: David Waksberg
PANELISTS
FRANK BRODSKY
Jewish Leaders in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement (USA)
Frank Brodsky, Former Co-Chairman of the Soviet Jewry Council of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia, is a dedicated activist known for his significant contributions to the Soviet Jewry movement. As part of his work on the Soviet Jewry Council in Philadelphia, Brodsky made several trips to the Soviet Union in the 1980s, including a notable visit in 1989 with Leon Uris, the renowned author of Exodus, a pivotal book clandestinely shared with Refuseniks to inspire hope and resilience. In 1986, just three days after returning from the Soviet Union, Brodsky joined a special delegation to the Reykjavík Summit in Iceland, amplifying the plight of Refuseniks on an international stage. In 2000, he was honored by the Chief Rabbi of Russia in Moscow for his activities on behalf of Refuseniks.
PANELISTS
ALAN H. MOLOD
Jewish Leaders in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement (USA)
Alan H. Molod, Attorney and Advocate for Soviet Jewry, has built a distinguished career in business law and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been recognized for his contributions to the practice of business law in Pennsylvania, including receiving the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s W. Edward Sell Business Lawyer Award. Molod is an Honorary Life Trustee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and served on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Philadelphia. He has been involved in the Jewish Campus Activities Board (renamed Hillel of Greater Philadelphia), the American Jewish Committee, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and many other organizations pertaining to Israel and to Jewish affairs. Molod and his wife Shirley were active participants in the Soviet Jewry movement, visiting the Soviet Union in 1977, 1978, and 1981 to meet with refuseniks and document their struggles for emigration and religious freedom.
PANELISTS
MOREY SCHAPIRA
Jewish Leaders in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement (USA)
Morey Schapira, High-Tech Executive and Soviet Jewry
Activist, is a Silicon Valley executive and a prominent leader in the Soviet Jewry movement. He served as president of the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jews, co-founded Action for Soviet Jewry of Boston, and led the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews from 1984 to 1986. Schapira also testified before Congress on issues related to Soviet Jewry while building a successful career at companies like HewlettPackard and Broadcom. His leadership in advocating for Soviet Jewish emigration helped shape a global human rights movement.
MODERATOR
DAVID WAKSBERG
Jewish Leaders in the Free Soviet Jewry Movement (USA)
David Waksberg, Former Executive Director, Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (BACSJ), has been a prominent leader in the Soviet Jewry movement. He joined the BACSJ in 1981 as Assistant Director, becoming Executive Director in 1982. Under his leadership, BACSJ advocated for Soviet Jews through public protests, financial and legal support for refuseniks and prisoners of conscience, and the development of human rights and emigration bureaus in the Former Soviet Union. Waksberg also played a significant role in the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), serving as National Vice-President and founding the US-USSR Center for Jewish Renewal to revitalize Jewish life in the Soviet Union. His activism extended to personal protests, such as his 1983 wedding staged as a proxy for a refusenik couple.
Waksberg traveled to the USSR six times between 1982 - 1992. He was arrested and interrogated by the KGB during an attempt to meet with hunger-striking refuseniks in Kyiv in 1982.
His subsequent efforts to enter the USSR met with Soviet refusals from 1983 until he was finally re-admitted back into the Soviet Union in 1988. Waksberg was also involved in establishing “Human Rights Bureaus” in both Moscow and Leningrad in 1989 and 1990.
After leaving leadership roles in the Soviet Jewry movement in 1995, Waksberg spent twelve years as an executive in the software industry before returning to non-profit leadership as the CEO of Jewish LearningWorks, the communal agency for Jewish education in Northern California. He retired from that role in 2020. Waksberg currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Soviet Jewry Movement Archive Project.
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
Unveiling a New Global Research Portal
Presenters:
Julie Chervinsky and Brandon Schechter
JULIE CHERVINSKY
Unveiling a New Global Research Portal
Julie Chervinsky, Director, Blavatnik Archive Foundation, was born in St. Petersburg, emigrated to Israel, and then to the US. Julie has led the Archive since its founding, overseeing the exponential growth of collections and their direct contribution to new scholarship and public learning.
PRESENTERS
BRANDON SCHECHTER, PhD
Unveiling a New Global Research Portal
Brandon Schechter, PhD, Historian, Blavatnik Archives, is a cultural historian, whose scholarship focuses on the Soviet Union. Schechter’s first book, The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in the Second World War Through Objects (Cornell, 2019), received the Paul Birdsall prize from the American Historical Association in 2020. Schechter is currently writing a comparative history of chaplains in the US Army and Communist Party political workers in the Red Army during World War II. He serves on the academic advisory board of Refuseniks & Activists.
PANEL DISCUSSION THREE
Topic: Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
This panel will address the experiences of leading academics and institutional leaders in accessing and studying artifacts and archives of Soviet Jewry and the related activist movement. Discussions will highlight efforts made with available archival material, alongside reflections on challenges like restricted access and preservation concerns. The panel aims to give insight into ways these materials can be made more accessible for scholars and students in order to expand and deepen our knowledge of the movement and to draw connections between the past and the present.
Panelists: Ann Komaromi, Michael Beizer, Elissa Bemporad, Nadia Iermakov
Moderator: David Myers
PANELISTS
ANN KOMAROMI, PhD
Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
Ann Komaromi, PhD, Professor, Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, has focused her research particularly on late Soviet culture, samizdat (underground publishing), and dissidence in the former Soviet Union. Her research explores the formation of alternative publics and epistemologies in samizdat, focusing on dissident memoirs, Jewish activism, and their broader cultural implications. Current projects include studies of dissident memoirs and archives, a history of Jewish activism in Leningrad, and a study of trash and used objects in post-War visual art and museum exhibits. She is the author of Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society (2022), co-author of A Time to Sow: Refusenik Life in Leningrad, 1979-1989 (2025), and editor of We Are Jews Again: Jewish Activism in the Soviet Union (2017).
PANELISTS
MICHAEL BEIZER, PhD
Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
Michael Beizer, PhD, Former refusenik, Aliyah activist, and historian of Russian and Soviet Jewry, centers his research on the Jews of St. Petersburg/Leningrad, history of Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in the former Soviet Union, Jewish life and struggle of refuseniks, and the funding of the movement. Formerly the Research Fellow at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and historical adviser at Russian Department of AJJDC until 2018, Beizer currently heads Remember and Save Association for documentation of the Jewish movement in the USSR and serves a historical adviser to online encyclopedia “Jewish St. Petersburg” (in Russian). Beizer is the author of nearly twenty books in English, Russian and Hebrew, including The Jews of St. Petersburg (1989), The Jews of Leningrad 1917-1939, National Life and Sovietization (1999, in Russian), Our Legacy, The CIS Synagogues, Past and Present (2002), Relief in Time of Need: Russian Jewry and the Joint, 1914–1924 (2015), History of the Jews in Russia. Vol. 3. From 1917 (ed., 2015, in Hebrew), and A Time to Sow: Refusenik Life in Leningrad, 1979-1989 (2025). Beizer has lived in Israel since 1987.
PANELISTS
ELISSA BEMPORAD, PhD
Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
Elissa Bemporad, PhD, Professor of History and holder of the Jerry and William Ungar Chair in East European Jewish History and the Holocaust at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, specializes in the social and cultural history of Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union. Her notable works include Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk (2013), Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets (2019), and most recently the first volume of A Comprehensive History of the Jews in the Soviet Union (2025). She has co-edited volumes such as Women and Genocide: Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators (2018) and Pogroms: A Documentary History (2021). Bemporad is currently working on a biography of Ester Frumkin. She is a two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award and serves as editor of Jewish Social Studies
PANELISTS
NADIA IERMAKOV, PhD
Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
Nadia Iermakov, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, at Ariel University, Israel and a Research Fellow in the Institute of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), USA. Her research primarily explores History of Soviet Jewry Movement, Jewish Identity, and Antisemitism as reflected in her recent publications, Gendering the Struggle: Women’s Voices of Resistance and the Jewish Movement in the Soviet Union (2024) and Shadows of Identity: The Experience of Jewish Soldiers in the Ukrainian Military (2024). She is a member of the research group “Until Here: The Story of Soviet Jewry” at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and is actively involved in the establishment of an Academic Research Center for Jewish Identity Studies at Ariel University. Iermakov is the recipient of numerous awards, research funds and international fellowships for outstanding young academicians. In 2024, the Ariel University team, under her leadership, was selected by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs to lead a governmental project aimed at introducing delegations of international academic leaders to Israel, fostering collaboration, and advancing efforts to combat antisemitism.
MODERATOR
DAVID N. MYERS, PhD
Researching the Past: Opportunities and Obstacles to Providing Access to Scholars and Students
David N. Myers, PhD, Distinguished Professor of History and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA, focuses on modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history, with a focus on Jewish historiography, Zionism, and Jewish-Arab relations. He has authored or co-authored several acclaimed works, including ReInventing the Jewish Past: European Jewish Intellectuals and the Zionist Return to History (1995) and American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (2022), which won a National Jewish Book Award. Myers has served as director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy, where he connects historical scholarship to contemporary policymaking, and is a co-editor of Jewish Quarterly Review. He is also a prominent voice in Jewish communal affairs, having served as President of the New Israel Fund Board (2018-2023) and writing extensively on Jewish identity, diaspora, and contemporary politics. His current research examines mid-20th-century population displacements, focusing on their emotional and political implications.
Closing Remarks
MARK B. LEVIN
Where do we go from here?
Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of NCSEJ: National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, is a recognized expert on political and legislative issues affecting the Jewish community. In 1987, as a member of the “Freedom Sunday” Summit Task Force, Levin played a key role in organizing the Washington Mobilization on behalf of Soviet Jews, which brought over 250,000 people to the nation’s capital for the historic December 6 rally. In recent years, he has addressed numerous international conferences and has served as a Public Member of the U.S. Delegation to meetings of the Organization on Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on three occasions. Previously, Levin held leadership roles as Deputy Director and Director of NCSEJ’s Washington office. Before joining NCSEJ, he worked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), building a strong foundation in advocacy and public policy.
