The defeat of the Nazis ended their war against the Jews, but it did not mean an end to threats to Jewish liberty, lives, and religious observance. Until the collapse of communism in the early 1990's, millions of Jews in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were denied the freedom to practice their religious traditions openly. Across most of the Middle East, North Africa, and in Ethiopia, Jews have been subject to persecution, violence, and hostile governments. Even where Jews officially enjoyed religious liberty, bigotry often brought discrimination and the threat of anti-Jewish violence.
For many, the fight to aid these Jews and other oppressed people around the world was in part a response to the bitter lessons of the Holocaust. A threat to Jews anywhere was a threat to Jews everywhere, that intolerance and oppression must never go unchallenged.
Unfortunately, even today conflicts, hunger, and injustice continue around the world. Many Jews have been among the first to condemn wrongdoing or offer aid to the needy whether or not they are Jewish.
This silver colored bracelet bears the name Yuli Kosharovsky, a Star of David, and the words National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The National Conference on Soviet Jewry was one of a number of organizations that advocated that Jews in the Soviet Union should be allowed to freely emigrate. Bracelets like this one were worn by Americans to help publicize the plight of Soviet Jewry.
The names on these bracelets represent refuseniks and prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union. Refuseniks were people who wanted to emigrate, but whom the Soviet government refused to grant permission to leave. Prisoners of conscience were individuals imprisoned or detained because they wished to exercise their religious beliefs, expressions of national culture and language, political views or sexual orientation. Many refuseniks and prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union were Jews.
This menorah spells out the word Ivriah (“Jewess”). Ivriah was an American Jewish women's organization that was created in response to a 1926 survey that indicated that 70% of Jewish children of school age did not attend any sort of Jewish school. Ivriah worked to promote Jewish schools and also provided Jewish adult education classes for women.
Ivriah was one of many organizations that were created to help Jewish immigrants and their families adjust to life in America. Ivriah tried to help them maintain their ties to their religion at a time when many children of immigrants were rejecting their parents’ culture.
One way of achieving these goals was to provide Jewish homes with ceremonial objects such as this menorah.
This poster was produced in English on one side and Hebrew on the other by Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, for a demonstration in Washington D.C. to urge President Bush to help end genocide in Darfur. The event was organized by an alliance of over 155 faith based, humanitarian and human rights groups.