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Our Great Cause

JL;DR SUMMARY Deborah E. Lipstadt reflects on the influence of the Soviet Jewry movement, which mobilized American Jewish activists to aid in freeing Soviet Jews during the Cold War. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Soviet JewrySoviet UnionCold WarAmerican JewsActivismElie WieselJewish SolidarityBar/Bat MitzvahRabbi RackmanShaul Kelner

Places mentioned

Far Rockaway, New York, United States
"I was playing on the great expanse of lawn in front of Congregation Shaaray Tefila in Far Rockaway, when my father came out to call me inside to listen to the rabbis sermon."
Russian Federation
"had just returned with a group of American rabbis from a six-week trip to the Soviet Union."
Moscow, Russian Federation
"not long after being kicked out of Moscowit was not until I read Kelners brilliant social history that I understood that the end of the Cold War also marked the end of an era for American Jewry."
Israel
"been arranged and funded by a little-known semiclandestine bureau in the office of the prime minister of Israel. Known colloquially as the Lishkah (the office), it worked to bolster Jewish life in the Soviet Union and, whenever possible, assist Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel."
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
"A 1975 tree planting ceremony in Minneapolis in solidarity with Soviet Jews."
Red Square, Moscow, Russian Federation
"No, lets not call from RED SQUARE. Perhaps not this phone, directly in front of a police station either."
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 62759
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2025-09-30 05:31:39 UTC
Curated 2025-09-30 08:33:06 UTC