From the 1970s to the 1990s Soviet Jews left the Soviet Union to escape antisemitism and to find better opportunities for themselves and their families. Cleveland's Jewish community played an active role helping Soviet Jews emigrate from the Soviet Union and resettle in the United States, and especially in Cleveland, from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism (CCSA) was a volunteer organization whose goals were to assist Soviet Jews to emigrate, to inform the American public about Jewish activities in the Soviet Union, and to monitor antisemitism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The CCSA, the first organization of its kind in the world, was established in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1963 through the efforts of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists Louis Rosenblum and Abe Silverstein, Veterans Administration Hospital psychologist Herbert Caron, and Rabbi Daniel Litt. The four men, members of Beth Israel The West Temple, were supported by the congregation which provided volunteer workers and office space for the CCSA.
The CCSA sought to educate the public regarding the plight of Soviet Jews at a time when the problem was not generally recognized. The success of the organization was recognized nationally and it became a model for other local groups. By 1969, five other councils had been established and in February 1970 the six organizations joined to create the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) to share information and to strengthen the movement nationally. In 1966, the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland became the first federation in the United States to support this issue by providing funds for the CCSA's educational activities.
In 1973 the Jewish Federation of Cleveland established a task force on Soviet Jewish refugees that urged the United States government to grant refugee visas to Soviet Jewish immigrants and lobbied for sanctions against the Soviet Union for restricting exit visas. The Jewish Family Service Association helped recent immigrants settle into life in the United States by helping immigrants find housing and get access to government programs. Other organizations, including the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish Community Center, and the Hebrew Free Loan Association, among others, also helped recent immigrants. During the early waves of immigration, Soviet Jewish immigrants settled in Cleveland Heights. Later immigrants began to settle in Mayfield Heights and the eastern suburbs.
In 2011, community leaders serving on the WRHS Cleveland Jewish Archives Advisory Committee began discussing how to record the stories of the region's Soviet Jewish immigrants. The Advisory Committee wished to recognize the important work of the CCSA and to learn more about the immigrant community that settled in Cleveland decades ago. Kathy Hexter chaired the Subcommittee for the Soviet Jewish Oral History Project. This Oral History Collection is the result of the subcommittee's work. The Subcommittee invited others in the community to participate in the planning of the project. Members of the Subcommittee included Sylvia Abrams, Ken Bravo, Cindy Bruml, Lois Goodman, Alan Gross, Norm Keane, Boris Kolker, Esther Kolker, Lisa Powers, Simon Rekhson, Kathy Rockman. Sylvia Abrams and Kathy Hexter designed the interview protocol, and the Subcommittee identified interviewees using their contacts in the Soviet Jewish community and recruited volunteer interviewers. The first test interviews were conducted in late December 2013, and training sessions for volunteer interviewers were held in March 2014. Most interviews were completed throughout 2014 and 2015.
The interviews, conducted using a digital audio recorder, vary in length, but most are about 45 to 60 minutes long. A total of 81 interviews were conducted from late 2013 to mid 2016. Eleven interviews were conducted in Russian. The Subcommittee arranged to pay for transcription and translation of the interviews conducted in Russian. In addition, many volunteers and interns, especially Lee Haas and John Clement, also transcribed interviews conducted in English. The interviews were then formatted for uniformity and consistency and then sent to both the interviewee and interviewer for correction and approval. Anna Rasshivkina, professional translator and daughter of interviewee Dora Margolina, translated most of the interviews from Russian.
Interviewees were encouraged to submit additional materials related to their family history and their emigration. Many did, and those materials, including photographs, family histories, and photocopies of emigration related documents, are included with their transcripts. The collection also includes administrative records related to the development of the collection.
The Soviet Jewish Oral History Collection, 2013-2016 and undated, consists primarily of abstracts, article drafts, correspondence, descriptions of the project, a dissertation, information sheets, interview protocols, lists, minutes, newspaper clippings, notes, oral history user agreements, procedures, programs, progress reports, reports, a script, a student paper, and transcripts.
This collection is of value to those researching immigration to Cleveland in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The collection includes oral histories of Jews from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics who immigrated to Cleveland from the 1970s to the early 2000s. This collection is also useful to researchers studying trends in Jewish religious affiliation and identity, Soviet history, Russian culture, and the history of Jews in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The collection provides information on education, nationalities policies, ethnic identity, and religious affiliation in the Soviet Union and on education and religious affiliation among Jews in the United States. Many of the interviews offer information about the Holocaust, the Soviet military, and World War II. Interviewees also provided details about the role of the Jewish community in the United States in aiding Soviet Jewry. Those with an interest in genealogy will also find the collection of value.
The collection is arranged in two series.
The researcher should also consult MS 4011 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism Records; MS 4926 Louis Rosenblum Papers; MS 5110 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism, Series II; MS 5156 Louis Rosenblum Papers, Series II; PG 287 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism Photographs; and PG 577 Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism, Series II.
Processed by Sean Martin in 2016.
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[Container__,Folder__ ] MS 5389 Soviet Jewish Oral History Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Cleveland Jewish Archives Advisory Committee, Western Reserve Historical Society in 2016.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.