Power of Protest: Freeing Soviet Jews

With the refrain “Let my people go!” American Jews in the 1970s and 1980s launched a successful human rights campaign and a grassroots effort to demand freedom for Soviet Jews denied the right to speak, write, worship, work, or depart the Soviet state. Inspired by the civil rights, antiwar, and feminist movements of the 1960s, students, community leaders, and tens of thousands of people mobilized to free Jews in the Soviet Union. Many of the courageous travelers who smuggled in prayerbooks and Jewish ritual objects were women. “Power of Protest: The Movement to Free Soviet Jews,” organized by the National Museum of American Jewish His- tory, is on view through February 24, 2019, at the Oregon Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. www.ojmche.org