Film festival stirs memory of ‘Holiday in Siberia’ to help Refuseniks

By Joshua Stampfer

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It was in the summer of 1977. I had received an invitation by Dr. Ziony of Los Angeles to undertake a mission to the Soviet Union to meet with and deliver material to Refusniks. Refusniks were individuals in the Soviet Union whose applications for exit visas to go to Israel had been denied by the Soviets.

The mere act of application meant that they forfeited their jobs and would be under constant surveillance by the regime for subversive activities. They desperately wanted to make Aliyah to Israel; our task was to reassure them that the Jewish people were aware of their plight, were supporting their efforts.

We were bringing them educational material to prepare them for Aliyah. We knew that there was some danger in the undertaking as the harsh regime was determined to prevent any contact with them.

My wife Goldie and I were provided with tickets to join a three-week tour called Holiday in Siberia. The tour would take us to the major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as Alma Ata, Bratsk and Irkutsk.

We went to Heinz Jacob, a dear friend and skilled tailor. He sewed secret pockets in our clothing in which we could hide contraband material. An agent of the Jewish Agency spent three days with us at a local motel to instruct us on to how to carry out our mission and to provide us with the names and addresses of our contacts.

One of the first problems that we would face was that the Soviet government had changed many of the street names and even address numbers that we had for those we wanted to contact. We had to find cab drivers who remembered the streets’ former names.

We flew from New York to Moscow aboard an Aeroflot plane. It was a harrowing flight. There were no seat belts. The flight attendant said that Soviet pilots were so competent that they didn’t need them.

In Moscow we began our visits. We did not speak Russian, so we had to hail taxis and show them the address on a piece of paper. In every case the apartment was heavily bolted, and the occupant suspicious until we began our conversation, which was usually in Yiddish.

They told us of the tremendous pressure that they endured and their determination to reach Israel. Their gratitude was overwhelming and their message was uniformly, “Tell the American Jews that they must bring every possible pressure on the Soviet government. We are willing to endure every hardship to escape and to join the Jewish world.

It was the most inspiring trip we ever took. To experience the utter harshness of Soviet life, to see brilliant and warm-hearted human beings subjected to grinding poverty for their faith,and to share in their in unremitting courage buoyed our spirits enormously.

Truly we felt that Am Yisrael Hai—the people of Israel lived.

Rabbi Joshua Stampfer is rabbi emeritus at Congregation Neveh Shalom and the founder of the Portland Jewish Film Festival.

Ed. Note: This year’s Jewish Film Festival includes “Refusenik,” a film about the effort in America to help Jews escape the Soviet Union. Rabbi Joshua Stampfer is one of a small number of verterans of that movement living in and around Portland.