Collection Guide: Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement

From January 2014 to September 2015, Center for Jewish History staff digitized and made available 78,801 images of archival material and 544 hours of audio recordings from the American Jewish Historical Society’s Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement. The Digitizing American Jewry Collection Project effort has made trip reports, photographs, posters, speeches, and ephemera openly available across the world via the Center’s catalogue search and digital assets discovery systems thanks to the generous support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

The materials digitized under the NHPRC grant capture the American Soviet Jewry Movement’s most influential achievements, such as lobbying, large-scale protests, boycotts, and acts of civil disobedience. They also document the conditions faced by Soviet Jews in the USSR, clandestinely compiled by US activists, and track the evolution of the movement from local grassroots efforts to a national force that shaped foreign policy during the Cold War years.

American Soviet Jewry Photograph Collection (I-495) [Digitized]

The collection contains digitized photographs and slides from the Archives of the American Soviet Jewry Movement and other related collections at the American Jewish Historical Society.

American Soviet Jewry Movement Photographs Collection consists of 1244 digitized photographs and slides selected from several collections of the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement. It documents not only the everyday struggle for Soviet Jewry in the USA by depicting over two decades of demonstrations, vigils, and meetings, but also contains scenes of mourning and celebrations regarding Movement activists of all ages and walks of life, whether ordinary citizens, politicians, or celebrities. A number of photographs in the collection offer a glimpse into Cold War-era Jewish life on the other side of the Iron Curtain: prominent Soviet Jewish activists, Prisoners of Conscience in Siberian labor camps, clandestine gatherings and forbidden observations of religious holidays and ceremonies, and daring public protests by Refuseniks in the center of Moscow.

The physical aspect of the collection consists of 1 manuscript box containing 415 photographs. The digital collection contains digital surrogates of the 415 photos in the box, and those of 734 additional photographs that were not physically separated from their parent collections.

American Soviet Jewry Movement Posters and Ephemera Collection (I-566) [Digitized]

The American Soviet Jewry Movement Posters and Ephemera Collection consists of a selection of images from various collections housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM).

The ephemera aspect of the collection consists of bumper stickers and buttons. Through the 20th century movements for civil rights have used such items to identify and unite their members, to communicate their message and to inform the public of their causes. During the decades of the American Soviet Jewry movement the buttons and stickers were printed and distributed by Jewish organizations and communities and utilized to attract public attention with short and concise messages. The artwork on the buttons ranges from decidedly DIY aesthetics—hand-drawn simple pictures with hand-written text—to powerful graphics by talented artists and professional designers.

Many of the digitized buttons and stickers promoted unity of the global Jewish community with slogans like "Save them, save yourself," "I am my brother's keeper," "Let my people go," and "I am fasting with Soviet Jews." Wearing these items effectively humanized the Soviet Jewish community and connected the American activists with Soviet Jews on a personal level. Often, these items were used in an intelligent way to attract attention of a passerby and start a conversation about Soviet Jewish prisoners.

USSR Travel, Committee Files, and Reports, undated, 1970-1991 (I-181A) [Digitized]

Thousands of the American Soviet Jewry Movement activists took on a level of involvement that potentially jeopardized personal safety. Enlisted by Soviet Jewry organizations to travel to the U.S.S.R. under the pretense of tourism, these activists employed intricate strategies to covertly make contact with Jews. They recorded first-hand observations of the conditions, problems and needs experienced within the totalitarian regime. These trip reports were widely circulated to Jewish communal organizations in the U.S. and beyond and were a crucial part of how worldwide Soviet Jewry awareness was achieved.

This Series documents that work, containing more than 750 travel reports and debriefing materials, 1970-1990, from trips to the Soviet Union. These include refusenik home addresses, and information for persons visiting them from the West.

The travel reports are organized alphabetically by vistor's last names. The first set of dates in parentheses on the folder list indicates the dates of a given visit. Travel reports from delegations and representatives of local NCSJ and other ASJM members are organized alphabetically US town/city. The NCSJ Many debriefed many travelers returning from the USSR; a debriefing questionnaire can be found in Box 58, Folder 16.

The Series is divided into three Subseries: Subseries A: Individual Travel Reports, undated, 1970-1971, 1973-1989; Subseries B: Local U.S. Communal Organizations Representatives Travel Reports, undated, 1975-1988; and Subseries C: Soviet Jews and Refuseniks Information for Visitors with Updates, undated, 1971-1991.