Jewish LearningWorks is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation located in San Francisco, California. JLW advances Jewish learning that enriches lives, and that enables the learner to flourish as a human being and as a Jew.
For over 100 years, JLW has served as an essential foundation for Jewish education in the Bay Area.
501(c)(3) EIN 94-1167406
dwaksberg@jewishlearningworks.org
Chief Executive Officer, David Waksberg:
"For some time, a number of Jewish educators and former Soviet Jewry activists have grumbled about the paucity of good educational materials that cover the Soviet Jewry movement and, not coincidentally, the receding knowledge among Jewish students (and teachers) about that chapter of Jewish history. It is fair to say that this chapter was among the most consequential events of 20th century Jewish history.
To address this, the folks at the Lookstein Center at Bar Ilan University developed a rich set of curricular materials covering the Soviet Jewry movement, which they placed online: www.refusenikproject.org
I am a big fan of the work the Lookstein Center did in creating these materials. And so, we at Jewish LearningWorks are supporting the folks who are distributing these materials.
Two important facts worth knowing about the materials Lookstein developed:
1. The quality is good; and
2. It’s all free of charge.
There are many reasons why knowledgeable Jews should know this story. Like many Jewish stories, from Egypt to Persia to Maccabean Judea, it is a story Jewish courage ultimately prevailing against overwhelming and hostile power. It includes inspiring models for us and for our students, not less than these older stories. And many of us and our students live in communities in which we rub elbows each day with people who came out of, or whose parents or grandparents came out of the Soviet Jewish experience – an experience we (and, among the younger generations, often they) barely understand.
I have also come to believe that teaching this history is more important than ever. Not because I think this chapter of our history is important for students to know (I do think that, but that has not changed). What has changed for me is the recent re-emergence of anti-Semitism, or to be more precise, the increased prevalence of anti-Semitic incidents and experiences of anti-Semitism among Jewish students.
As an educator, my chief concern is how young people might be internalizing these negative experiences, how this resurgent anti-Semitism is affecting Jewish souls. In this regard, the Soviet Jewry movement has much to teach us.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the event that put the Soviet Jewry on the world news map – the attempt of a small group to steal an airplane and flee the country. They knew they would be caught and they calculated that their arrests and trials would bring attention to the plight of Soviet Jews. When two of them were sentenced to death after brief show trials, their calculation proved accurate – it was the “shot heard round the world,” for Soviet Jews, mobilizing Jews and human rights activists around the world and gaining the attention of news organizations as well as world leaders, who ultimately pressured the Soviets to commute the death sentences.
Among the educational resources available is this film, Operation Wedding, about that effort. The filmmaker has also been involved in developing and distributing the curricular materials.