Highlighted Lesson
A HANUKKAH LETTER FROM MOSCOW
In this lesson, young students will be introduced to the idea that Jewish people in the Soviet Union were not free to express themselves as Jews or to emigrate to a different country.
Students will research different personalities from the Soviet Jewry movement. They will determine what motivated them, what happened to them, and what happened to them after the movement ended.
The Story Of the Refusenik Project
The Lookstein Center is continuously looking for educators, projects, and ideas to support, enhance, and disrupt the Jewish educational ecosystem. When we met Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, a renowned Israeli filmmaker dedicating her life to sharing the story of her parents and the population of Soviet Jews, an obvious partnership was born.
The story of Soviet Jewry is one of Jewish solidarity, of bravery, and of the power of individuals to effect real change. The process of igniting Jewish identity in the USSR and of liberating the population was one of the most defining and unifying events of the last 50 years for the Jewish community, and yet there are so few organized resources for teaching this period.
While researching for her film Operation Wedding, Anat witnessed first hand that Jewish solidarity can change the course of history. She found rare archives, interviewed former key KGB members, and uncovered a web of lies, rewritten facts, and political secrets. She found that the collective memory of the plight of Soviet Jews is fading and that there is little documentation.
The Lookstein Center has created a collection of lesson plans and educational activities to complement these findings, and to teach the next generation that all Jews are responsible for one another and that every single individual can make a difference.
We also opened a public call for additional educational materials. We have been overwhelmed by the responses, not only by educators, but by Soviet Jews and children of Soviet Jews wishing to share their own stories. We have curated the submissions of artifacts, photographs, first-hand accounts, videos, and resources and are excited to share this free resource with the Jewish educational community.
Thank You
The creation of The Refusenik Project would not have been possible without the support, commitment, and passion of our generous donors and partners. Thank you.
The Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation ● Morey Schapira ● Nativ ● June & Ron Daniels ● Peter Wexler ● Bob Gordon ● Adele & Joel Sandberg ● Jewish LearningWorks ● Glenn Richter ● Gail Raznick ● Sandra Spinner ● Pam & Leonard Cohen ● Gary Charlestein ● Wendy Eisen ● Sheri & Paul Robbins ● Frank Brodsky ● Enid Wurtman ● Union of Councils for Jews in the former Soviet Union (UCSJ)