During the 1930s small groups of Jews living in the West immigrated to the Soviet Union, convinced it was the Promised Land. They were soon disappointed. By the 1970s a massive exodus began in the opposite direction as tens of thousands of Soviet Jews quit the U.S.S.R. for Israel, the U.S. and other Western nations. But it was no easier to depart the Soviet Union than to escape from jail.
Refusenik is the story of that exodus and a brief history of Soviet Jewry. The documentary by filmmaker Laura Bialis is an engagingly composed compendium of archival footage and interviews with Russian Jews who sought to leave and American Jews involved in the international grassroots effort to shame the Soviets into granting exit visas. British historian Martin Gilbert provides context.
Many Russian Jews greeted the Bolshevik Revolution with hope. After all, the czarist government shamefully permitted pogroms against its Jewish subjects organized by the most reactionary elements. Russian Jewry was soon disappointed. By 1930 organized Jewish life had become almost impossible under the Stalinist regime, which ran the Soviet Union as a vast prison house of nations, a rock pile of forced labor spanning a continent with a death row longer than the eye could see. Surprisingly, Stalin at first aided the nascent State of Israel against its Arab enemies but reversed course as Israel gravitated toward the U.S. Before long Jewish intellectuals were rounded up as "enemies of the people." Many were executed.
In the years that followed the Israeli secret service smuggled Jewish literature into the U.S.S.R. and covertly awakened a sense of fellowship and cultural awareness. During the 1960s young American Jews associated with the Civil Rights Movement in their own country began protesting on behalf of their Russians cousins. In a delicious play of cultural history, they borrowed the slogan "Let my people go" from the African-American spiritual whose inspiration was the Jewish exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt.
Under increasing international pressure, the Soviets permitted some Jews to leave. They arrested others on trumped up charges, forced many from their jobs and confined some to psychiatric wards. But the eyes of the world were on Russia. The Soviet regime and its stooges in the West were embarrassed by the bad publicity. More and more Jews were able to leave.
Refusenik is an inspiring true story of determination in the face of tyranny and the results that can be achieved by activists united in a righteous cause.
Refusenik screens 7 p.m., March 15 at Marcus North Shore Theater. A talk back with Laura Bialis follows. For reservations call (414) 967-8235.
