Memo to Mr Putin: Stalin was a tyrant By Colin Shindler, January 3, 2014 Follow The JC on Twitter Vladimir Putin’s jocular comment, floating the possibility of erecting a statue of Stalin in Russia — since one of “the cruel dictator”, Cromwell, stood outside the House of Commons — clearly went down well among Russian … Read more
From the play, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ with our under-fives grandchildren to a 95th birthday party. Michael Sherbourne was a pivotal figure in the Soviet Jewry campaign in this country. He maintained telephone contact with many activists throughout the long years of Soviet denial of exit visas. In a collective email, a role-call of … Read more
During the 1970s, there were always internal debates about how to help Soviet Jewry through demonstrations and protests. Indeed, the student organisers of the very first march to the Soviet Embassy in London in May 1966 did not inform the Board of Deputies, in case they tried to veto it, since they feared it would … Read more
Why improving Israel’s image is a tough job Following Gorbachev’s accession to power in 1985, I was able to visit Jewish refuseniks in Moscow, after many years of being refused a visa due to my work for Jews in the USSR. I met many remarkable people on that visit, including Yuli Edelstein, shortly after his … Read more
Isaiah Berlin and Vladimir Jabotinsky In his ‘personal impression’ of Chaim Weizmann in 1958, Isaiah Berlin made a passing reference to Vladimir Jabotinsky as ‘the leader of the extreme right wing Zionists’.1 In one sense, such a comment presupposes that a leader must hold the same opinions as his followers. In the case of Jabotinsky, … Read more
The files just released by the Public Records Office under the 30 year rule indicate that the Government of Edward Heath was unnerved by the possibility of disruptive Jewish demonstrations of cultural events and political visits by Soviet glitterati. Downing Street was quite taken aback in particular at the conveyor belt demonstrations staged by the … Read more
Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving Stalin’s Gulag (Simon and Schuster) by Janusz Bardach and Kathleen Gleeson The Israeli critic, Dov Sadan, symbolised the 20th-century experience as the nations of the world crowded together in a room. The Jews were squeezed in at a coiner of a table, but in the centre of the room. … Read more
The Gates of November: Chronicles of the Slepak family (Secker and Warburg) by Chaim Potok Ten years ago, the telephone rang in the Moscow apartment of Vladimir and Masha Slepak, veterans of the refusenik movement. They had finally been granted permission to emigrate to Israel. It was the end of 17 years of harassment, imprisonment, … Read more
Those Wonderful Women in Black: The Story of the Womens Campaign for Soviet Jewry (Minerva Press) by Daphne Gerlis Sometime in 1971, Yitzhak “Ijo” Rager, the diplomat at the Israeli Embassy unofficially responsible for Soviet Jewry activities in Britain, asked me to stand in for him and speak to a group of Jewish women who … Read more
Communism was deemed by its adherents to be eternal. Few could contemplate its decay and a final crumbling into the dust of ages. Its meaning was its existence. Most who lived under Communism accepted their lot, avoided trouble and got on with living their lives as best they could. Few possessed the courage and foresight … Read more