This artwork was presented to Temple Beth Elohim by CJP and the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts in September 1991 for their participation in Operation Exodus, the campaign to rescue and resettle Soviet Jews.
TBE member Dan Tarsy writes about TBE’s participation in Operation Exodus:
In 1987, Temple Beth Elohim joined in an effort on behalf of a group of Soviet “Refuseniks” who were determined to leave the Soviet Union to emigrate to the United States.
This experience began with Rabbi Ronald Weiss, who first journeyed to the Soviet Union in 1983. On his return, Rabbi Weiss announced that TBE would be “adopting” as honorary members of the temple community the Soviet Jewish Refusenik families of Misha Fuchs-Rabinovich, Lev Gandin, Leonid Dikii, and David Laikhtman, all of whom were prominent meteorologists in their cities. A group of TBE members mobilized a plan of support and advocacy for the families, wrote letters of friendship to the family members, sent letters of protest to Soviet officials asking that they be released, and lobbied senators, governors, congressmen, and mayors as well as various professional societies in the U.S. to demand that Soviet officials release these families.
Several TBE families traveled to the Soviet Union to visit our Refusenik families. They brought messages of support, clothing and books, medicines, Jewish materials, and items the families could sell or barter to help support themselves. They met three of our families and learned that many of our letters were never received and the families did not know they had been adopted!
One of the Refuseniks, Misha Fuchs-Rabinovich, had a son who was approaching bar mitzvah age and was determined to celebrate this occasion in the United States. Misha went on a hunger strike that led to a furious blitz of efforts to get the family out. Finally, in April 1987 the family was allowed to leave and arrived in Wellesley, eight years after making their application to emigrate. As Rabbi Weiss wrote, “In June 1987, in the presence of more than 500 people gathered not only from our congregation but from all over America, Mishka read eloquently from the Torah and was addressed by his father, as 500 people openly wept…Neither before nor since have so many members worked together so devotedly and enthusiastically for such a joyous occasion.” Many area leaders and other notables were in attendance, including Governor Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, who had an aliyah during the ceremony. The unusual and outstanding event was widely covered by the media.
The efforts made on behalf of our first few families became a model for how the temple and individual congregant families helped other Refuseniks. A massive program was launched, involving many TBE members. The Temple’s Committee on Soviet Jewry was renamed the Committee for New Americans. With the help of Action for Soviet Jewry, Dan and Louise Tarsy, Susan and Michael Brown, and other temple members traveled to the Soviet Union to meet with Refusenik families and, on their return, made phone calls, wrote letters, and lobbied for the Refuseniks’ release. By the late 1980s, our four adopted families, together with many other Jewish families, had arrived in the Boston area. Susan Slavet worked tirelessly with other congregants to collect used furniture and to assist these families in securing medical care, schooling, and religious education. She also taught them the basic skills they needed to get properly settled, including how to deal with unfriendly landlords.
Years later, our adopted families and others whom we helped have done very well. TBE continues to be committed to the work of helping refugees. Learn more about our refugee resettlement efforts in recent years, including Syrian families and Afghan families.
