The popular Jewish anthem, "Am Yisrael Chai" (The People of Israel Live), was written and first performed in the mid-1960s by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at the request of Jacob Birnbaum, the founder of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ).

Nathan Birnbaum, often forgotten in the history of Zionism, played a significant role in the early movement.