Informational Center of the Jewish Aliya Movement in the USSR

The trauma of the Holocaust, post-war state-sponsored antisemitism, and Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War all contributed to the emergence of a Jewish aliyah-centered movement in the USSR. This movement had enormous consequences for Soviet Jews themselves, for Israel, and for diaspora Jewry. Jewish emigration, which began as a trickle, eventually took on large-scale proportions. Soviet Jews emigrated not only to Israel but also to the United States, Germany, and other countries. Israel, having received a million new citizens, went from having the world’s third largest Jewish population to having the very largest. Russia, as a result of the emigration and the loss of its colonies, dropped from second place worldwide to only sixth place.

The borders of the Soviet Union did not open up on their own. Jewish emigration was enabled by the persistent struggles, sacrifices, and genuine heroism of aliyah activists. This struggle was aided by Jewish organizations in Israel and the West. The Jewish movement in the USSR, rooted in Zionism, also contributed to a national, religious, and cultural revival among its own participants and for Jews worldwide. A special role in the movement was played by long-term "refuseniks," i.e., those Soviet Jews whose requests for exit visas were denied by the authorities.

People pass away, documents are lost, events are forgotten...

Therefore, on April 22, 2002, former refuseniks, Prisoners of Zion, and aliyah activists created the "Remember and Save" Association — a Documentation Center of the Jewish National Movement in the Soviet Union. The goal of the Association is to collect and preserve materials and testimonies about our struggle and the struggle of our comrades, and to pass this knowledge on to future generations. Abba Taratuta, who made Aliyah in 1988 after 15 years as a refusenik and activist, was the leading force behind the creation of the Association. He served as its executive director until his death in October 2023.

The Association created and maintains this website, which publishes interesting documents, memoirs, research, and photographs from its collection.

In 2007 the Association initiated and oversaw a major exhibition at the Beit Hatefutsot Museum in Tel Aviv, "Jews of Struggle: The Jewish National Movement in the Soviet Union, 1967–1989." A colorful trilingual album-catalog was published especially for the exhibition.

The Association also produced brochures in memory of Lynn Singer (USA) and Baruch Ayal (Israel), who made great contributions to the Soviet Aliyah movement. It also published the memoirs of Aba and Ida Taratuta, “Cheerful Memories of Our Family, Life in Leningrad, and the Struggle for Emigration to Israel" in Russian, Hebrew, and English.

The Association remembers the founders and active contributors who are no longer with us, including: Shirley Goldstein (USA), Martin Gilbert (UK), Evgeny Abezgauz (Israel), and of course Aba Taratuta, to whom the Association owes its greatest achievements.

The Association's Board expresses its sincere gratitude for donations to the Association's fund. Among them:

Shirley and Leonard Goldstein (USA), who for many years were the main sponsors of the Association; Naftali (Anatoly) Men, who made a significant targeted donation in 2016; Andrea and Warren Grover, who provided great help in 2024; the NADAV Foundation, which funded the preparation of the exhibition "Jews of Struggle: The Jewish National Movement in the Soviet Union 1967–1989" at the Beit Hatfutsot Museum in 2007; and also: Alla and Boris Kelman (USA), Benjamin Goldberg (Israel), Bronislav Lainer (USA), Galina and Felix Levich (Israel), Enid and Stuart Wurtman (Israel), Iona and Nathan Shvartsman (Israel), Leila and Marvin Verman (USA), Ludmila and Ilya Simovsky (USA), Miriam and Robert Wolf (USA), Nina Preigerson and Zvi Freiman (Israel), Nora and Sergey Rotfeld (Israel), Pavel Tsimberov (USA), Riva Pechersky (Israel), Sara Frenkel (France).

We’d also like to thank to the (mostly Israeli) volunteers who donated so much of their time to the Association: Anatoly Shidlovich, Vladimir Brodsky, Vladimir Kremer, Galina Luchenko, Judy and Raymond Ben-Susan, Donna Wosk (USA), Ida Taratuta, Inna and Igor Uspensky, Irina Boguslavsky, Katya Likhtik (USA), Larisa Tarkovsky, Lyudmila Markov, Mara and Pasha Abramovich, Mina Khachaturov, Mikhail Lobovikov, Mordechai Stein, Ilana Romanovsky, Roman Levin, Sergey Komov, Tamara and Lori Brill, Tanya Levin.

The Association is currently in the process of renewal and rejuvenation. It welcomes new members in its ranks and wishes them interesting, creative, and fruitful work. In 2024, the Association was joined by: Lisa Wasserman-Slutsky, Dr. Leon Gershovich, Sonya Chudnovsky, Reuven Resnick, Anna Vasilevsky, and Shira Rosenstein.

The Association invites additional volunteers to participate in its work so that the history of the struggle of Soviet Jews for their freedom and aliyah is never forgotten.

Dr. Michael Beizer
Dr. Shmuel Kessler
Eduard Markov

U.S. tax deductible contributions of at least $25 may be sent (and must be made payable) to P.E.F. Israel Endowment Funds, Inc., 317 Madison Avenue, Suite 607, New York, NY 10017 with a recommendation that it be used for us.
You can find a donation form example here. Please print it out, fill and send to the a.m. address.

Association address: 55 Mordekhai Elkakhi Str. Apt. 8, Jerusalem 9380749, Israel
Tel. +972-54-667-5551
E-mail: michael.beizer@mail.huji.ac.il
Association bank account: Account 10-880-39834/06, Bank Leumi, Horev, Haifa, Israel