50 yrs ago a group of daring Soviet Georgian Jews openly asked for freedom to live in the land of their ancestors—Israel. Through their letter to Golda Meir & the UN, they led the way in an unprecedented rebirth of Jewish identity among Soviet Jewry.
The Letter of the 18 was not an appeal for help in the face of racial-based antisemitism or religious persecution. Nor did it make a case based on the principle of family reunification—the one argument that moved Soviet authorities to permit an exit from the country
Instead, the 18 built their case on the idea of Jewish peoplehood and its eternal connection to the land of Israel: “The prophecy has come true: Israel has risen from the ashes. We have not forgotten Jerusalem, & she needs our hands.”
Soviet Jewry’s fight for its Jewish identity, of which the demand for emigration was only one part, is yet to be incorporated into our collective memory.But I’m starting to feel more & more that it has valuable lessons for us as we ourselves grapple with multiple issues.
Why does a group of Jews, cut off from the rest of the Jewish people, choose to preserve its culture, religion, & sense of peoplehood when it’s overwhelmingly easier not to? Why does it feel a spiritual & emotional bond w/its ancestral land?
These questions were relevant for the 18 Georgian Jewish families 50 years ago.Unexpectedly, in a way that no one could have envisioned, the combination of adverse realities we are facing today bears strange similarity to that moment, making it worthwhile to look at that history
The full letter is available here. Read it & share—it’s an extraordinary document. tabletmag.com/scroll/293649/…
