Jonah and the Whale in Haifa Port.
Painter: Eugene Abeshaus, 1979
The “Remember and Save” Association—the Center for Documentation of the Jewish National Movement in the Soviet Union—was founded on April 22, 2002 by former refuseniks, Prisoners of Zion and aliyah activists.
The borders of the Soviet Union did not open on their own. Emigration was won by decades of struggle, sacrifice and genuine heroism on the part of aliyah activists, supported by Jewish organizations in the West and by the State of Israel. A special role in that struggle was played by the refuseniks—those denied the right to leave, year after year.
People pass away, documents are lost, events are forgotten... This site gathers and keeps what remains: documents and memoirs, interviews and research, photographs and newspaper articles, entries on hundreds of Prisoners of Zion and a chronicle of events—the record of the Soviet Jewish struggle for the right to leave for Israel.
The Association lives on private donations and welcomes volunteers: for this history not to be forgotten, keeping it is not enough—it has to be told on.
Latest updates
From the History of the Jewish Movement
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How the Movement Was Funded.
By Michael BeizerOn January 2, 1986, aliya activist Vladimir Lifshitz was arrested and imprisoned in Leningrad. Reacting quickly to the crisis, the family of the late Academician Vladimir (Yerahmiel) Yoffe, which had often supported… Read more →
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Review on a book by Michael Beizer and Ann Komaromi.
“A Time to Sow: Refusenik Life in Leningrad, 1979–1989”A book by Dr. Michael Beizer, Executive Director of the “Remember and Save” Association and Professor Ann Komaromi from the University of Toronto, was published in January 2025. Read more →
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Let my people go!
Badges of Jewish Human Rights Organizations Issued at Summits with Soviet Leaders
By Dr. Vladimir BernshtamIn the 1960s to 1980s, Soviet Jews fought for the opportunity of free repatriation to Israel, the right to lead a Jewish way of life in the USSR, and the release of Soviet “prisoners of conscience”. Read more →
Recollections
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Jerry Goodman and Struggle for Soviet Jewry
Jerry Goodman z"l was the Executive Director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry between 1971 and 1988. Read more →
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Intersecting Lives: My Mother and a Refusenik
by Natalie CantorThis coming December will be the 23rd anniversary of my mother’s death. I hope to mark it by sharing a chapter in her life which I knew about, but really only in its outlines. Read more →
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A Jew behind the Looking-Glass. Part 1.
by Vladimir LifshitsTranslated from Russian by Ilana Romanovsky My name is Vladimir Lifshits. I was born on October 24, 1941 in the town of Stalinsk (later Novokuznetsk), where my mother, Sarra Haimovna, nee Markazen, was evacuated from Leningrad during its siege. Read more →
Our Interview
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Interview with Yakov Faytelson
Translated from Russian by Ilana Romanovsky A Zionist activist, the first “Russian” mayor in Israel, a politician and a demographer, now Head of Jewish Agency in Ukraine, Yakov Faytelson is speaking about himself, his country and his epoch. Read more →
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Interview with Lev Yagman
Aba Taratuta:—We are talking with Lev Yagman, a prisoner of Zion. We will start with his childhood—where and when he was born and so on. Lev Yagman:—I was born in Leningrad in 1940. Read more →
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Interview with Edith Guggenheim
Edith and Werner Guggenheim—Swiss Jews who were quite active participants in the struggle of the Soviet Jews for repatriation and free emigration. Read more →
Chronicle
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New scholarly book on Leningrad Refusniks
A Time to Sow offers a glimpse into the unofficial Jewish life in 1980s Leningrad shaped by numerous long-term refusals from authorities to grant exit visas to Jews seeking to migrate to Israel. Read more →
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Michael Sherbourne is 95!
Dear Michael, There is no way to overestimate the role you have played in our lives, in the fight for our freedom, and no words to adequately express our feelings of gratitude and appreciation for what you have accomplished. Read more →
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NCSJ in Israel Pays Tribute to Former Refuseniks and Activists
JERUSALEM, Israel, December 9, 2011—Last night, NCSJ (National Conference for Soviet Jewry) paid tribute to more than 100 Jewish former Soviet refuseniks at a reception. Read more →
Prisoners of Zion
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Pinkhas Pinkhasov
1973
Born in 1935 in the Caucasus, he was arrested for his Zionist activities in 1973 and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in the Gulag, but was pardoned after 3 years due… Read more →
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Abraham Arenstein
1945
Born in 1906 in the city of Gorzhed, Lithuania, he joined the Beitar movement and excelled in the collection of money for the Zionist funds “Keren Kaemet” and “Keren Tel-Khay”. Read more →
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Lazar Trachtenberg
1970
Born on Jan. 26th, 1946 in Tula into a traditional Jewish family, he graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic University. Read more →
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Pinchas Rodashevsky
1947
Born in 1899 in Vilno, Poland, he graduated from the Kovno University in Kaunas and taught at Jewish schools. Read more →
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Yosef Belkin
1950
Born in 1921 in Priluki, to a Zionist family, which observed Jewish traditions and moved to Moscow, in 1932, to get legal permission to go to Palestine, only to have their request denied. Read more →
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Shlomo Gefen
1945
Born in1913. in Kovno, Lithuania, he joined the movement “Beitar” as a young man and became an active member of this organization, being appointed to the position of… Read more →