This photo shows Silva Zalmanson descending the stairs of an airplane after arriving in Israel in 1974. Zalmanson is waving to, presumably, the waiting crowds below. Behind her, dressed in a formal dark suit, is Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal Allon, who accompanied her on the flight to Israel.
After being denied official permission to immigrate to Israel, Zalmanson and her husband, Eduard Kuznetsov, were determined to leave the USSR and to direct international attention to the plight of Soviet Jews. The couple became involved in a plot known as Operation Wedding, in which a group of Refuseniks planned to hijack a plane and land in Sweden en route to Israel. However, the KGB, the Soviet secret police, learned of the scheme and arrested all the plotters before they even reached the airplane. Kuznetsov was originally sentenced to death (later commuted to 15 years in jail), and Zalmanson was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was freed four years later as part of a secret prisoner swap, and after a lengthy delay, her husband and other members of the plot were also released in 1979.
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Operation Wedding – Leningrad Hijacking - Operation Wedding was a plot devised in 1970 by a group of 16 Refuseniks to hijack a plane and land in Sweden en route to Israel. The KGB arrested the plotters before they reached the flight, and they were tried for high treason. Initially, the organisers, Eduard Kuznetzov and Mark Dymshits, received a death sentence, and the others, including Silva Zalmanson, Kuznetzov’s wife, and Yosef Mendelovitch, received long prison sentences. Following international protest, the sentences were reduced and the death sentences were commuted to prison terms. Despite the failure of the hijacking attempt, it managed to draw international attention to the plight of Soviet Jews and the violation of human rights in the USSR.
Refuseniks – During the communist rule of the Soviet Union, it was very difficult for Jews to obtain visas to leave the country, and only a small quota of Jews was allowed to leave each year. The Jews who were refused an exit permit were unofficially named “refuseniks” and were considered either traitors or a security liability. Jews who applied for an exit visa were subjected to KGB (secret police) surveillance, were often denied employment, and, as a result, would either face imprisonment or find a menial job. Famous refuseniks included Natan Sharansky, Ida Nudel, Yosef Mendelevitch, Israel and Sylva Zalmenson, and Yuli Edelstein, who later became the speaker of the Knesset (Israeli parliament). In the 1970s the plight of the Soviet refuseniks became known, and Jews from around the world placed international pressure on the USSR to allow Jews to leave the country. In 1990s, with political changes in the USSR Jews were allowed to leave freely.
Soviet Jewry Movement – The Soviet Jewry movement refers to the activities of Jews in the United States, Europe, and Israel to pressure the Soviet Union to allow Jews to immigrate to Israel. This movement began as a grassroots movement in the United States, led by students and housewives, but within a short time many more joined the movement and they even succeeded in enlisting large Western governments to protest the plight of Soviet Jews, as a human rights issue, whenever they met with Soviet officials. The movement’s slogan, taken from the book of Exodus, was “Let My People Go,” and it was used in demonstrations and rallies that took place around the world, culminating in the 1987 March on Washington when a quarter of a million people rallied in Washington, DC before the Reagan-Gorbachev summit. Throughout this period and continuing after the collapse of the Soviet Union, over one million Russian Jews left the Soviet Union, with most of them immigrating to Israel. Some well-known Russian emigres are Natan Sharansky, Ida Nudel, Yuli Edelstein, and Sergey Brin, Google co-founder.
Jews in the Soviet Union – The communist ideology of the Soviet Union demanded all Soviet minorities and nationalities to merge into one Soviet entity. While the Jews were not allowed a Jewish identity or to practice their Jewish tradition, they were nonetheless forced to have the word “Jewish” printed on their identity cards during Stalin’s rule. The combination of wiping out national and religious identity and yet singling out Jews created a difficult situation for Soviet Jews. With the creation of the State of Israel, their situation became even more complex. Despite voting in favour of the establishment of the State of Israel, the Soviet Union rejected Zionism in principle and prohibited any activity of a national or Jewish nature. In the 1960s, and especially after Israel’s success in the 1967 Six-Day War, Soviet Jews felt tremendous pride in Israel and empowered to request exit visas to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. However, most applicants for exit visas were “refused,” which led to them being known as “Refuseniks.” Some Refuseniks were fired from their jobs and even arrested and charged with activity against the government and the Soviet people. The plight of Soviet Jewry aroused international Jewish activity and pressure from the United States and Europe on the Soviet Union to open their gates. As a result of this activity, the Soviet Union changed its policy and enabled hundreds of thousands of Jews to leave for Israel.
