Introduction to The Soviet Jewry Struggle for Freedom
Before starting to teach about the Soviet Jewry Struggle, we recommend you give this short introduction:
LET MY PEOPLE GO
Lesson plans and activities for educators
The Soviet Jewry Struggle, Refuseniks and Prisoners of Zion 1948-1991
A variety of lesson plans and activities available below. You can teach one lesson or teach a learning unit using our recommendations.
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There are different lessons in Hebrew and in English, due to different material available (books, videos etc). The Hebrew lessons are available HERE
- 1 min
History learning unit - Soviet Jewry Struggle
Introduction to The Soviet Jewry Struggle for Freedom / 10 minutes
1948 (Golda Meir's visit in Moscow)
Watch & Discuss: The death of Stali
- 1 min
Civic learning unit - Soviet Jewry Struggle
Suggested lesson plans for an extended learning unit
- 8 min
Film screening & discussion – Operation Wedding documentary
Leningrad, 1970. A group of young Soviet Jews who were denied exit visas, plots to “hijack” an empty plane and escape the USSR.
- 4 min
Activity: Present & Protest: get inspired by creative and non-violent 70's protests
The following can be used as a lesson or an activity.
The lesson covers some creative protests for Soviet Jewry, that received media attenti
- 5 min
How to identify fake news of today from fake news of past Soviet media - Slideshow & Discuss
A lesson that encourages critical and independent thinking for students. In this lesson you can use a ready-made presentation that includes
- 1 min
Bring (or Zoom in) Refuseniks or Activists to class
Hear the stories from the source! Invite local Prisoners of Zion, Refuseniks, and Human Rights activist to come and lecture and make history
- 6 min
Calculated Discussion: Permission To Leave Paradise
With a rare combination of basic mathematics and history, we will explain the *USSR’s line of thought regarding the exit of citizens
- 1 min
Hebrew poetry & song (adv): Won’t you ask after, O Zion, the weal of your captive?
Associated with the tragedy of Tisha B’Av — the long Jewish exile — and its grand Zionist “correction” with the emergence of the State of Is
- 3 min
1948 (Golda Meir's visit in Moscow)
when Golda Meir arrived to Moscow in 1948, a groundbreaking unexpected event occurred...
- 4 min
Women of the Refuseniks- video & discussion
The role of the women who stood up in defense of Soviet Jews and those women denied the right to leave the USSR.
- 7 min
Read & discuss: 13 year old against the KGB (short story)
Introduction and background on life in the Soviet Union in the 1970s through the perspective of a young girl.
How to stay true to ideals und
- 1 min
Interpretation of paintings and posters on a Jewish struggle in the USSR
Paintings and illustrations of prisoners of Zion and those who refused to immigrate to the USSR communicate with artists in the free world w
- 4 min
Protesting in the time of Soviet Jewry
#OnlineLessons #CivicStudies #Discussions #Videos #Music #MiddleSchool #HighSchool A personal word about the lesson...
- 3 min
The Refuseniks and Operation Wedding
We had a lively discussion about whether or not my students would have done the same, knowing they would be arrested?
- 2 min
Watch & Discuss: Freeing Russian Jewry, The Refuseniks
The video tells the story of Soviet “refuseniks,” Jews in the former Soviet Union who were denied access to emigrate to Israel.
- 1 min
Power of Protest - the movement to free Soviet Jewry
This unit discusses what it means to protest—and more specifically, what it means to empathize with those in need, and how empathizing can l
- 2 min
Slideshow and writing exercise: Jewish holidays behind the Iron Curtain
there was a real danger in celebrating Jewish holidays - many were arrested without actual crime, and sent to the Gulag under the false accu
- 1 min
Crossword: Struggle to Free Soviet Jewry
an economic method in which everything belongs to everyone, that is, to the state is?
Office of Visas is called?
- 1 min
Summary activity - between the lines
#Activity #MiddleSchool The activity is suitable for students in grades 4-8, after studying at least one unit or two lessons on the...
- 1 min
"Refuseniks: Heroes of History" Slideshow -- Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement
The full lesson will be available soon! Sign up for updates #OnlineLessons #Discussions #CivicStudies #AntiSemitism ...
- 2 min
Sing in Hebrew, “Blue and White are the colors of my land"
A music lesson: sing in Hebrew (beginner), and discuss the lyrics meaning and source.
- 4 min
The longing for Zion - songs, videos and discussions
The spiritual connection between world Jewry: how Soviet Jewry inspired Jews in the free world to make Aliyah.
Talk about the role, influenc
- 1 min
Crash Course- Refuseniks: Let My People Go!
The lesson was (and will be) given via a slideshow with the strong expectation that none of the students know what a Refusenik is.
- 4 min
Home-made miracles of Hanukkah
Former prisoner of Zion Yosef Begun, reflects on the holiday, past and present: in Soviet Prison, on his exile to Siberia years later, and f
- 1 min
The secrets of Nativ
The lesson will be available soon! Sign up for updates השיעור זמין בעברית #OnlineLessons #Popular #CivicStudies ...
- 1 min
"Children's Tale" - slideshow on Jewish children in the USSR - American Soviet Jewry
The full lesson will be available soon! Sign up for updates #OnlineLessons #AntiSemitism #Slideshow #Discussions ...
- 1 min
Watch & Discuss: The death of Stalin in Purim 1953, compared to Haman
What similarities can you draw between the Purim story from of the Book of Esther and Stalin’s Jews persecution, which ended with his death?
- 3 min
Next Year In... Moscow ? - The Red Haggadah
A special Haggadah was written and distributed in the USSR in which the cry for revolution, not Jerusalem, was was brought to the table.
- 2 min
Sharansky's matzah in Soviet Solitary confinement
The Haggadah's words were felt as KGB agents surrounded them. Later he would "celebrate" Passover in the Gulag.
Let My People Go was created and designed by
Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov for Nativ - PrimeMinster Office