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refuseniks

Demonstrators take part in a rally against the war in Gaza and the government at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, July 31, 2025. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
August 1, 2025, 11:58 am
Hundreds in Tel Aviv demand end to Gaza war: ‘It’s a duty to refuse’ to serve there
Actor accuses Israel of genocide; former IDF pilots call on current pilots to not carry out war crimes; one arrested in scuffle with police
By Noam Lehmann and ToI Staff
Illustrative: IDF soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, in an image first published on July 23, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
July 27, 2025, 9:34 pm
3 IDF soldiers dismissed and jailed for refusing to return to Gaza fighting
Report says that four Nahal soldiers refused to serve in Gaza due to ‘a deep internal crisis’; IDF sentences three of them to seven to 12 days in jail, fourth yet to be sentenced
By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff
Portrait of Soviet-born human rights activist and writer, Eduard Kuznetsov, in his home in Motza Illit, Israel, April 8, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
December 22, 2024, 1:58 pm
Former prisoner of Zion, anti-Soviet dissident Eduard Kuznetsov dies at 85
Refusenik was one of the leaders of Operation Wedding, a failed attempt to hijack an empty civilian plane to escape Soviet Russia and head to Israel
By ToI Staff
Yosef Mendelevitch visiting St. Petersburg Airport, November 30, 2014. (Canaan Lidor)
March 28, 2023, 10:27 pm
Judicial overhaul divides ex-Prisoners of Zion from former Soviet Union
Groups on both sides of the issue have published open letters making arguments grounded in their experiences behind the Iron Curtain
By Canaan Lidor
Supporters for the freedom of Soviet Jewry rally in front of the Soviet consulate in San Francisco in a undated photo. (Courtesy of American Jewish Historical Society)
February 7, 2023, 4:17 pm
FBI memo: Bay Area Soviet Jewry protest leaders secretly sought Jews for Jesus’ help
Freedom of information request yields stunning revelation that leadership recruited the well-organized but widely loathed proselytizing group to help organize and bolster crowds
By Asaf Elia-Shalev
David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, speaks at the AJC Global Forum in Jerusalem, June 23, 2018. (Courtesy American Jewish Committee/ via JTA)
October 8, 2022, 4:26 am
How an accidental activist became the ‘foreign minister of the Jewish people’
A covert note in 1974 Moscow led to David Harris secretly helping refuseniks, and set him on a path to 32 years as AJC’s CEO and quietly setting the stage for the Abraham Accords
By Gary Rosenblatt
Yelena Lembersky, author of 'Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour.' (Courtesy)
July 26, 2022, 1:43 am
Relics of a USSR both maddening and sweet emerge in blockbuster Jewish memoir
Yelena Lembersky’s ‘Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour’ is a surprisingly even-handed tale of escape from the Iron Curtain with her grandfather’s famous Babyn Yar massacre paintings
By Julie Masis
Prisoner of Zion Ida Nudel and her dog arriving aboard a private Boeing jet, owned by billionaire Armand Hammer, at Ben Gurion Airport, October 15, 1987. (Nati Harnik/GPO)
September 14, 2021, 4:43 pm
Former refusenik and Soviet Jewish activist Ida Nudel dies at 90
Known as ‘Guardian Angel’ for humanitarian work on behalf of Zionist prisoners held in Soviet Union, Nudel moved to Israel after receiving the exit visa she spent years pursuing
By ToI Staff
Illustrative: The organization Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry stages a protest against the religious persecution of the Iron Curtain in the 1960s. (Courtesy of Yeshiva University Archives, Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Collection)
December 22, 2019, 3:09 am
Once heroes of US Jewry, Soviet Refuseniks are largely forgotten. Not for long
Anat Zalmanson-Kutznetsov, whose parents tried to hijack a plane to escape the Iron Curtain, launches educational initiative focused on unique bipartisan campaign to free USSR Jews
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Australia former Prime Minister Bob Hawke listens during a campaign launch in Sydney, Sunday, June 19, 2016. (Mick Tsikas/Pool Photo via AP)
May 16, 2019, 5:39 pm
Bob Hawke, ex-Australian PM and advocate for refuseniks, dies at 89
Politician was staunch supporter of Soviet Jews and helped to secure release of high-profile dissidents in 1987; was targeted in Palestinian terrorist plot
By AP and ToI Staff
David Shrayer-Petrov outside of the Brookline Booksmith store in November, where he and the translators of 'Doctor Levitin' spoke to a crowd. (Courtesy of Maxim Shrayer/via JTA)
December 19, 2018, 10:36 pm
Refusenik, 82, sees first English translation of his tragic 1979 novel
‘Doctor Levitin,’ the first literary work to deal with the experiences of the dissident Jews, written by renowned writer David Shrayer-Petrov, who escaped the Soviet Union in 1987
By Penny Schwartz
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