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ABSTRACT
This article is a first-hand report of a participant and leader of a number of underground initiatives within the “refuseniks’” community which aimed to encourage Jewish studies. These underground initiatives involved seminars (scholarly as well as public), excursions through Jewish historical sites, and the publication of a samizdat journal. In short, these initiatives sought to recover and disseminate knowledge of Jewish history and culture.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Michael Beizer was active in the Jewish national movement in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. At present he is a research fellow at the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a historical adviser to the Remember and Save Association of the Jewish Aliyah Movement in the USSR. His field of expertise is the history of Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union, particularly the Jews of St. Petersburg, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Russia, and the USSR, the Jewish National Movement in the Soviet Union.
His books include The Jews of St. Petersburg: Excursions through a Noble Past (published in English and Russian), The Jews of Leningrad, 1917–1939: National Life and Sovietization (in Russian and Hebrew), Our Legacy: The CIS Synagogues, Past and Present (in English and Russian), The American Brother: The “Joint” in Russia, in the USSR and the CIS (co-author with Mihkail Mitsel, in English and Russian), and Relief in Time of Need: Russian Jewry and the Joint, 1914–24 (in English). He has also edited a number of books, including the 3rd volume of a trilogy History of the Jews in Russia (in Hebrew and Russian).
Notes
† This article is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Avraham Greenbaum, the author of the world’s first dissertation and book about research in the field of Judaic studies in the USSR. He was my teacher, colleague, and friend.
1 Detailed bios are given primarily for the active participants in the scholarly seminar described here.
2 Shpeizman, Yuri (1932–1987), a topographer and member of the refusenik movement. He and his wife, Nelly Lipovich-Shpeizman, were refuseniks from 1977 through 1987. Yuri suffered from lymphosarcoma and died in Vienna on his way to Israel. Lein, Evgeny (b. 1939, Leningrad), was a mathematician, prisoner of Zion, and refusenik from 1978 through 1989. Evgeny was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to two years of forced labor in exile (Khakassia). He now lives in Ma’ale Adumim.
3 Grigory and Natalia Kanovich, interview by Aba Taratuta, Soviet Jews Exodus, November 19, 2005, http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/Interview_s/InterviewKanovich.shtml. For more information about the seminar see also Lev and Natalia Utevsky, interview by Aba and Ida Taratuta, Soviet Jews Exodus, January 2005, http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/Interview_s/InterviewUtevsky.shtml; Zvi Wasserman, interview by Aba Taratuta, Soviet Jews Exodus, February 2004, http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/Interview_s/InterviewVasserman.shtml
4 See Lein, Lest We Forget.
5 Gorodetsky, Yakov (b. 1946) was a leading figure in the refusenik movement in Leningrad. He was one of the founders of the Leningrad Society for Jewish Culture (1982), which, of course, was never registered with the local authorities. He was also among the initiators of LEA (1982). On a number of occasions, Gorodetsky resorted to risky forms of protest, risking his own freedom and urging his followers to do the same. He emigrated to Israel in 1986. He now lives in the United States.
6 Salman, Mikhail (Michael) (b. 1957, Leningrad) attended the Leningrad Medical Institute of Hygiene and Sanitation from 1974. He was expelled in 1978 when he submitted his application to leave for Israel. During his refusenik period Salman studied Jewish history, lectured at various home seminars, participated in the seminar led by Michael Beizer, and published articles in LEA. In 1987, he emigrated to Israel. There he received his PhD in biochemistry and from there he subsequently emigrated to the US. Salman resides in Maryland and works in the pharmaceutical industry.
7 Sachar, The Course of Modern Jewish History.
8 Dvorkin, Ilya (b. 1954) received a degree in engineering from the Leningrad Northwestern Polytechnic Institute. Dvorkin participated in the Jewish cultural activities of the refusenik circle, including the seminar led by Michael Beizer. In 1989, he founded the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Jewish Peoples’ University, which later became the St. Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies. Dvorkin developed a curriculum for Jewish schools in Russia and organized ethnographic expeditions to the former Pale of Settlement. Since 1998, he has lived in Jerusalem. He organizes summer schools on Judaica “Sambation” in Ukraine. See “Dvorkin, Ilya,” St. Petersburg’s Jews: Three Centuries of History, http://jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/rus/main/sprav.php?id=1158
9 On LEA see Beizer, “Evreiskii samizdat v Leningrade v 1980-kh godakh,” 292–299; Zeltser, “Leningradskii evreiskii al’manakh,” 1013. See also Semyon Frumkin, interview by Aba Taratuta, Soviet Jews Exodus, April 28, 2004, http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/Interview_s/InterviewSemFrumkin.shtml
10 Kolker, Yuri (b. 1946, Leningrad) graduated from the Physics and Mechanics Department of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1969 and finished his doctoral studies in 1978. In 1980, he first applied for an exit visa. From then on he worked as a gas boiler operator. Kolker began publishing his poetry in Soviet editions in 1964, then (from 1980) in samizdat and abroad. In 1982–1984 he worked as editor and author on LEA. He made aliyah in 1984 and worked according to his training at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 1989 he has lived in London, where he worked at the Russian Service of the BBC until 2002.
11 Frumkin, Semyon (b. 1949, Leningrad) graduated from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute in 1971 and worked as a research fellow. Frumkin made several inventions before he became a refusenik in 1980. During the 1980s Frumkin actively participated in the various forms of the refuseniks’ struggle and Jewish life. He was one of the founders of the banned Leningrad Society for Jewish Culture in 1982. He attended seminars organized by Kanovich, Wasserman, and Utevsky, took part in the seminars led by Michael Beizer, and served as editor and contributor at LEA (pen-name Felix Noolin). He also organized annual Yom ha-Shoah gatherings at the Leningrad Jewish Cemetery, participated in staging Purim-shpils, etc. He emigrated to Israel in 1990 and worked as an engineer at El-Opt company until 2016. He now lives in Ma’ale Adumim.
12 Zapesotskaya, Rima (Rimma, b. circa 1949, Leningrad), is a poet, is Jewish by ethnicity, but Orthodox Christian by faith. She holds a degree in psychology from the Leningrad State University (LGU). She was a literary editor for LEA, where she also published her poems. Presently Zapesotskaya lives in Leipzig. For more information see “Rimma Zapesotskaya,” Za-Za Verlag, http://za-za.net/author/sapesockaja/
13 Birkan, Viktor (b. 1951, Leningrad) graduated with a degree in biology from LGU in 1974. He subsequently worked at several research institutes until 1982, after which he worked as a manual laborer. Birkan participated in seminars led by Michael Beizer, co-edited the LEA, and translated Jewish literature from English for Jewish samizdat. He also studied Hebrew and the Torah. Since 1987, he has lived in Beer Sheva, where he works as a computer technician.
14 Kolker, “LOEK, LEA, Purimshpil.”
15 For more on this see Beizer, “How the Movement Was Funded,” 359–391.
16 Dyomin, Avrom (Avraham) (born Nikita Sergeevich Dyomin, in Murmansk) was, according to one source, born in 1968. Dyomin studied biology at the LGU but was expelled in his third year for “Zionist activity.” He became a refusenik and participated in the Jewish movement from the beginning of the 1980s. He began living according to the Jewish Orthodox law and took the name Avrom after circumcision. After moving to Israel in 1989, he changed his surname to Smulevich (his mother’s maiden name). Shmulevich lives in Hebron and is a member of the World Council Bratslav Hasidim. He is known as a publicist and is also involved in far-right politics. He supports the creation of a Greater Israel and the restoration of the monarchical form of government. He advocates for the struggle against Islamic expansion among Jews and Russian nationalists. “Abraham Shmulevich,” Cyclowiki, http://cyclowiki.org/wiki/Авраам_Шмулевич.
17 Kelman, Boris (b. 1941, Leningrad) worked as a shipbuilding engineer and submarine designer. After he received his PhD he realized that his career was limited because of his Jewishness. As a result he abandoned his position and began working as a driver. In 1979 his family became refuseniks, which led Kelman to get involved in the life of refuseniks. He began learning about Jewish tradition and culture, meeting with foreign visitors, and taking part in organizing celebrations of Jewish holidays for children and other activities. His apartment became a meeting place for dozens of fellow refuseniks. In 1989, during perestroika, Kelman was elected chairman of the Leningrad Society for Jewish Culture, which was granted official registration. Kelman considers his greatest achievement to be the organization of a concert tour of Shlomo Carlebach and his entourage to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Uman. He emigrated to the United States and lives in Silicon Valley. Boris Kelman, interview by Aba Taratuta, Soviet Jews Exodus, http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/Interview_s/InterviewKelman.shtml
18 Romanovsky Daniil (Daniel) (b. 1951, Leningrad) graduated from the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics at LGU and worked as a computer programmer. In the early 1980s he began studying the topic of the Holocaust. With his wife Elena, he joined Beizer’s seminar. He published his articles in LEA under the pen-name Itsik Tserelzon. He was among the speakers at annual Yom ha-Shoah meetings and was the first to travel to East Belorussia to gather interviews on the Holocaust there. After his arrival in Israel in 1989, Romanovsky studied Jewish history at the Hebrew University. He lives in Jerusalem and works at Yad Vashem. Romanovsky, Elena (Ilana) (b. 1953, Leningrad) graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute. Along with Tatyana Makushkin, she was a librarian of the refuseniks’ underground Jewish library. Together with Makushkin and Frumkin she wrote scripts and staged Purimshpils and Chanukashpils for children. She now works as a nurse at Jerusalem Hadassah Hospital. “Romanovsky,” St. Petersburg’s Jews: Three Centuries of History, http://jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/rus/main/sprav.php?id=1185
19 Makushkin, Mikhail (Michael) (b. 1951) was a historian, teacher, and researcher. He was a refusenik from 1981. He converted to Judaism in 1984 and participated in the seminar led by Michael Beizer from the beginning. He served as scriptwriter, actor, and producer of several Purimshpils for children. In Israel, he changed his surname to Ezer. He now lives in Samaria. Makushkin, Tatyana (born Oizerman, 1955, Leningrad) is Mikhail’s wife. Tatyana graduated from LGU with a degree in history. She worked at the Library of the Academy of Sciences. Like her husband, she was a refusenik. Together they participated in Beizer’s seminar and organized celebrations of Jewish holidays for children. Like him, she also converted to Judaism. Tatyana was a librarian, together with Elena Romanovsky, of the refuseniks’ underground library. In Israel, she changed her name to Avital Ezer. She lives in Kidumim (Samaria) and works as a tour guide. “Makushkin,” St. Petersburg's Jews: Three Centuries of History, http://jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/rus/main/sprav.php?id=1186
20 Leybman, David (b. 1950, Leningrad) graduated from the Department of Physics and Mechanics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1973. Until 1980 he worked at the Institute of Evolutionary Biochemistry and Physiology. Leybman prepared his PhD dissertation, but did not get a degree because he had applied for repatriation to Israel. He participated in Beizer's seminar and in other refusenik cultural activities. In 1987, Leybman emigrated to the United States with his family. He now lives in Columbus, Ohio and works at the Chemical Abstracts Service. (Received from D. Leybman in April 2017.)
21 Goldin, Marina (born Vaynshtein, 1956, Severodvinsk) graduated from the Kharkov Music College in 1976 and the Leningrad Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 1983. From 1982 she participated in the Jewish Culture and History Seminar run by Michael Beizer. Her master's thesis focused on the history of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, which was highly unusual before perestroika. Parts of her thesis have been published as separate articles. Goldin emigrated to the US with her family in 1989. In 2002, she founded the Do-Re-Mi School of Music & the Arts in Livingston, New Jersey. (Received from M. Goldin in April 2017.)
22 Tsirelson, Mikhail (Michael) (b. 1956, Leningrad) graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Cinema Industry Engineers in 1978. That year he also became a refusenik. He then got involved in unofficial Jewish life: he took Hebrew lessons, attended gatherings around the Leningrad Synagogue, played in Purimshpils, and even made a few attempts to translate Hebrew poetry. In the spring of 1980 he was drafted into the army for one-and-a-half years. Upon returning from the army, Tsirelson got involved in the Jewish theater run by Leonid Kelbert, where he worked on turning a novel into a script for a play. He later participated in the seminars run by Michael Beizer. Tsirelson was a keeper of a secret part of the communal Jewish library. In early 1989 he arrived in San Francisco, where he still resides and works as a graphic designer. (Received from M. Tsirelson in April 2017.)
23 Kotler, Igor (b. 1956, Leningrad) graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railroad Engineers. He became a refusenik in 1980. He joined the Moscow JHEC led by Igor Krupnik and Mikhail Chlenov, and, with the help of Krupnik, legally published a couple of articles on Jewish topics. In 1985, he began attending the seminar led by Beizer, but abstained from contributing to LEA. Simultaneously, Kotler received a master's degree in psychology from LGU (1985–1986). He emigrated to the US in 1987. Currently he is the President and Executive Director of the Museum of Human Rights, Freedom and Tolerance, and Senior Research Fellow at Rutgers University. Information received from Kotler in April 2017 and also obtained from “About Igor Kotler,” Avotaynu Online: Jewish Genealogy and Family History, http://www.avotaynuonline.com/author/igor-kotler/
24 Yukhneva, Nataliia Vasilevna (1931–2013) graduated from the LGU with a degree in history. From 1957 until the end of her life she worked at the Institute of Ethnography (now the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography) of the Academy of Sciences (Kunstkamera). Yukhneva was the author of many publications on the history and ethnography of St. Petersburg/Leningrad and on the history of Russian Jews. During the 1980s, she actively participated in the Jewish cultural life of Leningrad and Moscow. She took part in Beizer’s seminars and was a member of the Moscow JHEC. She spoke at gatherings at the Jewish cemetery to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom ha-Shoah) and attended refusenik Purimshpils and other events. In 1987–1988 she led the struggle against the rising antisemitism in Leningrad academic circles. She was elected to the board of the Leningrad Association for Jewish Culture (1989) and the Federation of Jewish Communities and Organizations of the USSR. See also Beizer, “Nataliia Vasilevna Yukhneva v evreiskoi zhizni Leningrada 1980-kh godov.”
25 Sheinin, Aleksandr (b. 1956, Leningrad) worked as a family doctor after graduating from the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute in 1980. Although he was prevented from even applying for emigration, he joined the refusenik community and actively participated in its cultural and religious life and struggle. He attended Beizer’s seminar, studied Hebrew, served as a community mohel, and signed different protest petitions. He also taught and influenced the younger generation. He made aliyah in 1987 and served as a physician in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Sheinin now lives in Bat Ayin in Gush Etzion and works as a physician. (Received from A. Sheinin in April 1987.)
26 Dubrov, Boris (b. 1956) graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Aircraft Devices Construction and subsequently worked as a computer programmer. He joined the Jewish movement in 1983. He studied Hebrew, participated in Beizer’s seminar, and in 1985 made two slide films based on Beizer’s book Jews in St. Petersburg, which he showed to groups of young Jews. He was a refusenik from 1987 until he emigrated to Israel in 1989. He lives in Givat Shmuel and works at Migdal Insurance Company as a computer programmer. (Received from B. Dubnov in April 2017.)
27 Tverskoy (Tversky), Ilya (b.1954) graduated from Leningrad Technological Institute in 1977 with a degree in chemical engineering. He worked at the Russian National Aluminum–Magnesium Institute. Tversky was not a refusenik; however, from 1984 until 1988 he attended the seminar organized by Michael Beizer. Tversky is the author of two articles on the history of the Leningrad Jewish school (1922–1938) and the school's director, Zinovii Kisselgof. He also contributed to LEA. In 1990 he emigrated to Israel. At present, he lives in Haifa and works as a chemical engineer. (Received from I. Tversky in April 2017.)
28 Nemchenko, Naum (Nahum) Mikhailovich (1914–1987) graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railroad Transport Engineers in 1940. He fought in the Second World War. After 1949, he taught in higher education institutes in various cities. He retired from his work in Murmansk in 1983 and moved to Leningrad, where he worked in a boiler house. After meeting Aleksandr Sheinin in the Choral Synagogue, he began studying Hebrew and learning about Judaism. He also joined Beizer’s seminar. He gathered material on antisemitism in the Soviet Union both past and present, spoke at Yom ha-Shoah meeting on April 26, 1987, and was going to speak at a Moscow meeting against the rising antisemitism. Nemchenko was murdered in his apartment by intruders on the eve of his trip to Moscow. [Semyon Frumkin], “On vybral sebe psevdonim ‘Amiti’ – ‘Pravdivyi’. Pamyati Nauma Mikhailovicha Nemchenko.” See also Sheinin, “Ya zazhgu svechu.”
29 Ryvkin, Mikhail and Frenkel, Aleksandr worked at the Vedeneev Research Institute of Hydro-technics after graduating from the Polytechnic Institute. They were not refuseniks, but from 1985 to 1989 they repeatedly visited eastern Belorussian towns gathering oral evidence of the Holocaust. Ryvkin made aliyah in 1989 and presently lives in Petach-Tikva. He works as a professor in the machine-constructing department of Tel-Aviv University. Frenkel (b. 1961, Leningrad) learned Yiddish and remained in St. Petersburg, where he founded the Leningrad Jewish Association in 1990. Since 1992 he has served as the director of the Jewish Communal Center on Rubinstein Street. See “Ryvkin, M.,” St. Petersburg's Jews: Three Centuries of History, http://jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/rus/main/sprav.php?id=1216; “Frenkel, A.S.,” St. Petersburg's Jews: Three Centuries of History, http://jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/rus/main/sprav.php?id=1156; “Aleksandr Frenkel,” My zdes’, http://www.newswe.com/index.php?go=Pages&in=view&id=3598
30 Lukin Benyamin (b. 1951, Leningrad) graduated from the Bonch-Bruevich Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute of Communications. He began reading about Jewish history in the early 1970s. In 1987, after Beizer’s departure, he joined the seminar. From 1989 to 1990 he studied at the recently opened Jewish University, and published an article on the Leningrad Jewish Preobrazhensky Cemetery in the guidebook Istoricheskie kladbishcha Peterburga (Historical Necropolis of St. Petersburg). He participated in ethnographic expeditions to former Jewish towns in Ukraine. In 1990 Lukin made aliyah and has since worked at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, where he heads the East European Department. Under Lukin the archive became the most valuable holding of historical material on the Jews in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He lives in Jerusalem. “Lukin, V.M.,” St. Petersburg's Jews: Three Centuries of History, http://jewhistory.ort.spb.ru/rus/main/sprav.php?id=1234
31 On Yukhneva see Beizer, “Nataliia Vasilevna Yukhneva v evereiskoi zhizni Leningrada 1980-kh godov.”
32 Perchenok, Dmitri (b. c. 1957) is the son of historian Felix Perchenok. He lives in Israel.
33 “Lachlooch” (dirty – Hebrew) – a contemptuous nickname for a small subethnic Jewish group of Iranian origin in the Caucasus. Lachloochs were at the center of attention of the Moscow commission. For us they symbolized the marginality of the topics the members of the commission had to choose.
34 “Operation Wedding,” also known as “The Dymshits–Kuznetzov aircraft-hijacking affair,” was the unsuccessful attempt of a group of Riga and Leningrad Jews to hijack an airplane with the objective of fleeing to Israel. This event took place in Leningrad on June 15, 1970. The entire group was arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Two individuals, Edward Kuznetzov and Mark Dymshits, where even sentenced to be shot. After a wave of international protest, the sentence was commuted to 15 years of imprisonment. This incident gave the KGB a pretext to crush the Zionist movement in Leningrad, and repress dozens of people.
35 See Yukhneva, “Minuvshee prokhodit predo mnoi.”
36 Priceman, Leonid (b. 1949, Moscow) graduated from the History Department of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute in 1973 and worked in a technical school as a history teacher. From 1980 to 1985, he took an active part in the Jewish national movement in the USSR and the struggle for repatriation. He gave popular lectures on Jewish history at private apartments, and published in samizdat. He has lived in Israel since 1985. From 1987 until 2009 he worked as a scientific editor of the Jerusalem Kratkaya Evreiskaya Entsyklopedia (Short Jewish Encyclopedia). Priceman is the head of an authors’ group and the author of the textbook The History of the Jews in Russia. Over time, he moved away from Jewish themes and he now publishes books on the history of Russia. He lives in Jerusalem.
37 Yoffe, David Vladimirovich (b. 1932, Leningrad) is the grandson of the spiritual rabbi of the St. Petersburg Choral Synagogue, David Tevel Katsenelenbogen, on his mother's side and the son of an outstanding microbiologist and immunologist, Vladimir Ilyich Yoffe. He studied Hebrew, Jewish tradition, and Jewish culture at home since he was a young child. In the second half of the 1980s, he wrote an essay “Yosif Amusin, a Man and a Scientist.” He also translated the poem by Chaim Lensky “On a Snowy Day” from Hebrew. Both were published in LEA. In 1989, the Yoffe family repatriated to Israel. Until 2016, David worked as a research associate at the Israel Chemicals Company in Haifa, where he lives. For more information see Ariel-Nahari, “The Jew Who Defeated Hitler and Stalin at the Same Time.”
38 Krupnik, Igor (b. 1951, Rostov-on-Don) was a Soviet, Russian, and then American ethnographer, historian, and anthropologist. He specialized in national minorities and Northern nationalities. In 1977 he got his PhD degree in history and in 1990 obtained his PhD in biological sciences. He was one of the founders of the Moscow JHEC and the journal Sovetish Heimland. During 1981–1987, he was the scholarly secretary of JHEC. He emigrated to the United States and has been the senior anthropologist at the Center of Arctic Research at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., since 1991. “Krupnik, Igor Ilyich,” Wikipedia, https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Крупник,_Игорь_Ильич
39 Starovoitova, Galina Vasiliyevna (1946–1998) was an ethnographer, politician, and stateswoman. She specialized in interethnic relations. From 1989 to 1991, she served as a people's deputy of the USSR. In 1990 she joined the Committee of the Supreme Council of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR) for Human Rights. From July 20, 1991 to November 4, 1992 she was an advisor to the President of the RSFSR on issues of interethnic relations. She was murdered on November 20, 1998. “Starovoitova, Galina Vasilyevna,” Wikipedia, https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Старовойтова,_Галина_Васильевна
Lyushkevich, Fanya Davidovna (1927 [Leningrad] to 2010 [Israel]) graduated with a degree in Iranian philology from the Eastern Department of the LGU in 1950. During 1951–1956, she worked as a tour guide. In 1956, she became a research fellow at the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and defended her thesis in 1976. She retired in 1989 and in 1990 emigrated to Israel. “Lyushkevich Fanya Davidovna,” Otechestvennye Etnografy i Antropologi XX Veka, http://ethnographica.kunstkamera.ru/Люшкевич_Фаня_Давыдовна
40 OZET existed in the USSR from 1925 until 1938.
41 Beizer, “OZE – the Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jewish Population.”
42 I referred to this correspondence in the following article: Beizer, “New Information on the Life of Izrail Tsinberg.”
43 Lev Vilsker (1919–1988), Gita Gluskina (1922–2014), and Klavdia Starkova (1915–2000) were Leningrad Semitologists–Hebraists of the older generation.
44 Iakerson, Shimon (b. 1956, Leningrad) is a Hebraist and Semitologist. In the 1980s, he gave private Hebrew lessons, though he was not a refusenik. Currently, Professor S.M. Iakerson is the head of the Department of Semitology and Geography in the Eastern Department of the St. Petersburg State University. “Iakerson, Shimon Mordukhovich,” Wikipedia, https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Якерсон,_Семён_Мордухович. See also Zelenina, “Mne udivitel'nym obrazom vsyo udalos’.”
45 Amusin, Iosif Davidovich (1910 [Vitebsk] to 1984 [Leningrad]) was a Soviet historian, Hebraist, and Qumranist. He graduated from the LGU with a degree in history. In 1949, he defended his thesis on the history of ancient Rome. He worked as a research fellow in the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Archeology, and in 1959 joined the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1965 he became a doctor of history. From the late 1950s, Amusin was engaged in Qumranistics, to which he devoted about 100 publications. He was the only Soviet researcher in this field to receive international recognition. His books served as an invaluable source of knowledge about ancient Jewish history, which was practically forbidden in the USSR. “Amusin, Iosif Davidovich,” Wikipedia, https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Амусин,_Иосиф_Давидович; see also Yoffe, “Iosif Davidovich Amusin, chelovek i uchyonyi.”
46 Raskin, David Iosifovich (b. 1946, Leningrad) graduated from the LGU in 1969 with a master's degree in history. Between 1970 and 2015, he worked in the Russian State Historical Archives, where he served as the head of the Department of Scientific Publications. Since 2004, he has worked as a lecturer and professor of archival studies/source Studies of the history of Russia at St. Petersburg State University. His scholarly interests include: the history of state institutions of the Russian Empire; history of estates, public service, awards, and pensions in the Russian Empire; history of Russian legislation, archival science, source study, socio-political history of Russia. During his academic career, Raskin has published more than 260 scholarly works. He is also the Deputy Chairman of the Board of St. Petersburg Union of Scientists and the author of three collections of poetry and several dozen literary publications (poems, translations, etc.). “Raskin David Iosifovich,” Sankt-Peterburgskiy Gosudarstvennyy Universitet, https://history.spbu.ru/istochn-sotrudniki/details/6/148.html
47 Chlenov, Mikhail Anatolievich (b. 1940) is a Soviet and Russian ethnographer, orientalist, and Jewish public figure. From the beginning of the 1970s, Chlenov participated in the activities of the independent Jewish national movement, first in the USSR and then in Russia. In 1972, he became a Hebrew teacher. He headed the JHEC in the 1980s along with Igor Krupnik. Currently he works as a professor and is the Dean of the Philology Department (Judaic and Hebraic Studies) at the State Classical Jewish Academy in Moscow. He is the Deputy Director of the Center for Jewish Studies and Jewish Civilization at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University. He is also a member of the Presidium of the World Zionist Organization, serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Agency, and is the Secretary General of the East Asian Jewish Congress. “Chlenov, Mikhail Anatolievich,” Wikipedia, https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Членов,_Михаил_Анатольевич
48 See Greenbaum and Beizer, “Yehiel Ravrebe.”
49 Zeiliger, Ivrit: phonetica, morphologia, orphografia i chtenie.
50 See Beizer, “Martin Gilbert and Soviet Refuseniks.”
51 My book, The Jews of Leningrad 1917–1939, National Life and Sovietization was based on my dissertation and recognized as the best foreign study on St. Petersburg published in 2000. It was awarded the Antsiferov Prize.
52 Zeltser, Arkady (b. 1961, Vitebsk) worked as an engineer after graduating from high school. In the second half of the 1980s, he collaborated with residents of Leningrad who collected evidence of the Holocaust in Eastern Belorussia. He also became interested in Jewish culture and studied Yiddish. He emigrated in 1991. In 2004, he defended his dissertation at the Jewish University. He subsequently published a book on the same topic: Jews of the Soviet Province: Vitebsk and Towns, 1917–1941 (2006). He is currently the Director of the Center for the Study of the History of Soviet Jews during the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute. “Arkady Zeltser,” Narod knigi v mire knig, http://narodknigi.ru/authors/arkady_zeltser/. Levin, Vladimir (b. 1971, Leningrad) studied history at Leningrad Pedagogic Institute and at the Jewish University. He made aliyah in 1992 and in 2007 received his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the work “Jewish Politics in the Russian Empire during the Period of Reaction, 1907–1914.” Since 2011 he has been a research fellow and the acting director of the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Dr. Vladimir Levin,” Israeli Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and East European Studies, http://iuap.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/fellowships-grants/former-fellows/32-2012-07-17-05-46-09/54-dr-vladimir-levin.html. Lurie, Ilya (b. 1964, Leningrad) is an Israeli historian of Hasidism and Eastern European Jewry in modern times. In 1986, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute, and in 1988 he emigrated to Israel. He defended his thesis on the topic “Lubavitch and Its Wars: Chabad Chassidism in the Struggle for Control of Jewish Society in Tsarist Russia” at the Jewish University of Jerusalem. He works at the Chase Center, where he teaches Jewish studies in Russian. He lives in Beit Shemesh. “Ilya Lurie,” Wikipedia, https://yi.wikipedia.org/wiki/איליה לוריא. Goncharok, Moshe (Mikhail, b. 1962, Leningrad) obtained a master's degree in history from the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute in 1984. He has lived in Israel since 1990. He works as a researcher at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. He is the author of three books on the history of the Jewish anarchist movement. Goncharok is also a recognized prose writer. Khaimovich, Boris was born in Leningrad in the 1950s. He lives in Israel and is a specialist in Jewish art.