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Playing a part in Soviet Jewry movement
Defining moment in our lives
In the summer of 1985, my husband Julius and I visited refusenik Yakov Rabinovich in Leningrad. We were warned not to do this by several Clevelanders who had already made similar trips.
At the time, I wrote the story of our trip for the Cleveland Jewish News. I said, “To attempt to visit a refusenik requires patience, a modicum of courage, more than a modicum of chutzpah, and the innate ability to make a quick decision.” As I read the stories in the CJN now, I realize our community has been extremely caring and actively involved in aiding so many Russian Jews.
There is a tremendous kinship among those who undertook visits to refuseniks. For each of us, what we did has become a defining moment on our life’s journey.
We understand how lucky we were to take part, in small measure, in tikkun olam (repair of the world).
Barbara Wolpaw Drossin, Beachwood
I never could imagine …
This year we will celebrate 30 years in America, and I will celebrate my 40th birthday. My family and I live in Solon and were one of the founding families of Congregation Kol Chadash three years ago. My daughter attends Hebrew school and Russian school.
We had no religion whatsoever in Russia, and all I ever knew of my faith was that my mother fasted once a year and snuck out sometimes in the spring to bring home what I now know to be matzah.
My own family practices Judaism freely and openly, and my daughter is immensely proud of her religion, telling anyone who will listen how great it is to be Jewish.
Aside from our religious identification, I have succeeded personally to a level that just wasn’t possible as a Jew in the FSU.
Regina Olbinsky, RCC, PHR, MBA
president, The Career Group, LLC
Helping family move to Israel
In 1971, when I was president of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple’s Young People’s Congregation, we decided to have a social-action project involving Soviet Jewry. We contacted the Jewish Community Federation, who gave us the names of five refusenik families.
We wrote to all five but received only one reply. It came from the Girshas family of Kaunas, Lithuania. We reached them by phone and listened to their awful plight. They needed $5,000 as “ransom money” to leave the USSR and go to Israel.
We then decided to have a benefit concert at Fairmount Temple with Theodore Bikel. We sold 1,600 tickets, which paid all expenses and left us with $5,000 for the family.
The family continued to receive more refusals from the government, but their 18-year-old daughter Mila was allowed to immigrate to Israel. Within six years, we were able to contact Mila and bring her to Cleveland to campaign for her family. In 1977, the family was allowed to move to Israel.
We were able to give the Girshas family the money we had raised to help them settle in Jerusalem. We are still in touch with the family and visit them in Israel almost every year.
Nate Arnold, Beachwood
I taught English to Soviet Jews
in the
’70s and ’80s
In the 1970s, I taught English as a Second Language to newly arrived immigrants from the Soviet Union. I became involved with many of them on a personal basis. I often attended parties at their homes, and they came to our family events.
In the 1980s, I worked for the Jewish Community Federation as a “Soviet Jewry identity specialist.” My function was to help newly arrived families learn more about their Judaism. I also helped send some of their children to Camp Wise. We held Shabbat services for them.
Sue Arnold,
Beachwood
In the summer of 1985, my husband Julius and I visited refusenik Yakov Rabinovich in Leningrad. We were warned not to do this by several Clevelanders who had already made similar trips.
At the time, I wrote the story of our trip for the Cleveland Jewish News. I said, “To attempt to visit a refusenik requires patience, a modicum of courage, more than a modicum of chutzpah, and the innate ability to make a quick decision.” As I read the stories in the CJN now, I realize our community has been extremely caring and actively involved in aiding so many Russian Jews.
There is a tremendous kinship among those who undertook visits to refuseniks. For each of us, what we did has become a defining moment on our life’s journey.
We understand how lucky we were to take part, in small measure, in tikkun olam (repair of the world).
Barbara Wolpaw Drossin, Beachwood
I never could imagine …
This year we will celebrate 30 years in America, and I will celebrate my 40th birthday. My family and I live in Solon and were one of the founding families of Congregation Kol Chadash three years ago. My daughter attends Hebrew school and Russian school.
We had no religion whatsoever in Russia, and all I ever knew of my faith was that my mother fasted once a year and snuck out sometimes in the spring to bring home what I now know to be matzah.
My own family practices Judaism freely and openly, and my daughter is immensely proud of her religion, telling anyone who will listen how great it is to be Jewish.
Aside from our religious identification, I have succeeded personally to a level that just wasn’t possible as a Jew in the FSU.
Regina Olbinsky, RCC, PHR, MBA
president, The Career Group, LLC
Helping family move to Israel
In 1971, when I was president of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple’s Young People’s Congregation, we decided to have a social-action project involving Soviet Jewry. We contacted the Jewish Community Federation, who gave us the names of five refusenik families.
We wrote to all five but received only one reply. It came from the Girshas family of Kaunas, Lithuania. We reached them by phone and listened to their awful plight. They needed $5,000 as “ransom money” to leave the USSR and go to Israel.
We then decided to have a benefit concert at Fairmount Temple with Theodore Bikel. We sold 1,600 tickets, which paid all expenses and left us with $5,000 for the family.
The family continued to receive more refusals from the government, but their 18-year-old daughter Mila was allowed to immigrate to Israel. Within six years, we were able to contact Mila and bring her to Cleveland to campaign for her family. In 1977, the family was allowed to move to Israel.
We were able to give the Girshas family the money we had raised to help them settle in Jerusalem. We are still in touch with the family and visit them in Israel almost every year.
Nate Arnold, Beachwood
I taught English to Soviet Jews
in the
’70s and ’80s
In the 1970s, I taught English as a Second Language to newly arrived immigrants from the Soviet Union. I became involved with many of them on a personal basis. I often attended parties at their homes, and they came to our family events.
In the 1980s, I worked for the Jewish Community Federation as a “Soviet Jewry identity specialist.” My function was to help newly arrived families learn more about their Judaism. I also helped send some of their children to Camp Wise. We held Shabbat services for them.
Sue Arnold,
Beachwood
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| Pioneering refuseniks lead polarized lives in USSR | Struggled to come out on top |
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