Photo: STMegi

Introduction

This article is neither a historical study nor an autobiographical essay. My objective is not limited to recounting the history of Jewish education as it unfolded before my eyes over the past 35 years. I see a broader purpose: to understand the formation of Russian-language Jewish education both from within my own experience and in the context of a wider, objective, and, as far as possible, detached view of events. Therefore, alongside personal memoirs, the author utilizes numerous documents, testimonies, and academic research.

Although the Jewish education system in the former Soviet Union has existed for more than thirty years, there is a clear lack of research synthesizing its history and current state. The survey article by O. Marcus and M. Farbman[1] mentions the difficulties encountered when studying this topic, including the diverse historical realities that characterized this phenomenon. We should also note the problem of sources, most of which have not been preserved or remain restricted. There is also no comprehensive bibliography on the subject. To this must be added the biased and propagandistic nature of much of the circulating information, which was commissioned by sponsoring organizations. Although we had at our disposal the library collected by the Institute for Problems of Jewish Education (IPEO) of the Petersburg Jewish University (currently the Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies), which well reflects the situation in the period under review, as well as many other materials, this is not sufficient to describe the full picture.

I will begin with the question of the periodization of the subject of study. Looking at the genesis of the modern situation, it is pointless to speak of the state of Jewish education in the Russian Empire or in the post-revolutionary period. Jewish education in the states and regions incorporated into the USSR during World War II had only an indirect influence on the issue under study. The same applies to the underground religious education that took place in the Soviet Union in the middle of the last century. As an example, let us cite the underground Chabad yeshivas in Central Asia. They themselves had no influence on Jewish education in the post-Soviet period, but a number of students of these yeshivas played an important role in the educational initiatives of the late 1980s[2].

Thus, the genesis of the new Russian-language Jewish education in the USSR can be traced back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. This refers to the period of underground Jewish education, which ended in 1988, when such activity in the USSR was officially permitted and took institutionalized forms. Within the underground phase, however, we distinguish two stages, the boundary between which lies roughly in 1980. At that time, on the one hand, pressure from the authorities intensified, and, at the same time, after the borders were closed, a group of refuseniks emerged in the Soviet Union, creating a whole spectrum of underground Jewish education institutions.

The next period can be defined as the era of the formation of Jewish education in the post-Soviet space. This process began even before the collapse of the USSR and was completed around 1998.

For a more detailed examination of the topic, let us single out several of its areas, namely: adult education, religious education, Hebrew teaching, school and preschool education, informal education, and academic education. Processes deserving separate analysis took place in each of these spheres, and each of them is characterized by the state of its sources. These circumstances determine the sections of our work.

The Birth of the Jewish Cultural-National Movement in the USSR (1967-1980)

There is every reason to date the birth of Jewish education in the USSR to June 1967, when Israel won a brilliant victory in the Six-Day War. Perhaps this milestone has symbolic rather than practical significance, but in history, symbols often play an enormous role. The events that occurred with the Jews of the Soviet Union throughout the 1970s led, at the end of the next decade, to the disappearance of the phenomenon of Soviet Jewry as such. In our view, this was not only the result of the collapse of the USSR, but was a consequence of internal processes of Jewish life and the general history of the country.

The first important result of the Six-Day War was a shift in the national consciousness of Soviet Jews. They acquired an object of national pride. In the memoirs of refuseniks, it was sometimes noted that "the Six-Day War was of no great significance"[3]. In this connection, I wish to emphasize that the role of this war is determined not by the attitude of Jewish activists toward it, but by its significance for the bulk of assimilated Russian Jews. Jewishness ceased to be perceived as a "stigma of shame" and became a matter of positive identity. This took place against the background of general processes experienced by the country. For example, the phenomenon of the "Sexton-generation" (shestidesyatniki), although it had no direct relation to Jews, was, like the Jewish revival, a consequence of the Thaw and the changes taking place. As an important boundary, the late 1960s was remembered not only by Soviet Jews, but also by foreigners who visited the USSR. Thus, having visited the Soviet Union in the summer of 1967 with her father Rabbi M. P. Teitz, his daughter Shulamith describes the greatest enthusiasm among Soviet Jews[4]. It is important to note that in the 1960s, the return to Jewishness began precisely among the highly assimilated groups far removed from Judaism. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the scene observed near the choral synagogues in Moscow and Leningrad. Rabbi Avraham Abba Weingort, who visited Moscow in 1971, describes it as follows: "In the choral synagogue on Arkhipova Street (now Spasoglinishchevsky Lane) there was an interesting atmosphere. Inside there were only old people, and outside only young people, and there was almost no connection between them. We tried to establish this connection"[5].

While on Sabbath afternoons Jewish activists met near the synagogue, on the holiday of Simchat Torah huge crowds of young people, in whom Jewish consciousness had awakened, gathered outside the building. These young people knew almost nothing about Jewish tradition, but the desire to be in the company of Jews suddenly made them come to the synagogue[6].

The second point that must be taken into account when analyzing Jewish education in 1967-1988 is the sharp rise in antisemitism and the forms it took. It is no secret that the Soviet Union unconditionally supported the Arabs and condemned Israel in the Six-Day War. Moreover, if not directly, then indirectly, the USSR participated in that war on the side of the Arab world. For Soviet Jews, this resulted in an identity crisis. As Jews, they sympathized with Israel and rejoiced in its victory, but as Soviet citizens, they were expected to show hostility toward the Jewish state. In a way, Soviet Jews faced an alternative—which side were they on—Israel or the Soviet Union. Add to this that Soviet policy acquired a sharp anti-Israel direction in the international arena and a tacit but completely overt antisemitic character within the country. After 1967, Jews began to be perceived by the Soviet ideological machine as an "undesirable element." They were no longer hired for a number of positions or admitted to prestigious universities; moreover, Jewish culture itself was virtually banned. According to official statistics, from 1947 to 1987, the percentage of Jews among scientific workers decreased fivefold—from 18% to 3.8%. The share of Jews in the segment of university professors fell even more radically—from 16.9% to 2.6%[7]. In books on the history of the Ancient East, mythical "trans-riverine tribes" appeared, while the words "Jews," "Israel," and "Judaism" became taboo.

The combination of the two mentioned factors, acting as a positive and a negative, gave rise to a powerful process of forming a new identity for Soviet Jewry[8]. As already noted, this process was not a direct continuation of the Jewish culture of the preceding period. The main environment where changes occurred was a highly assimilated community. It was precisely among those who knew almost nothing about Jewishness, and often assigned no significance to national origin, that a keen interest suddenly arose in three phenomena: Israel, Jewish culture, and Judaism. These three vectors of the Jewish national movement in the USSR are important, first and foremost, as the sources of three areas of Jewish education—Hebrew, history and culture, and religion. Much has been written and many memoirs have been collected about the Jewish movement itself; it is sufficient to mention the books by Matlina, Kosharovsky, Kholmyansky, and Taratuta[9]. We will rely on some of them in our study.

Hebrew ulpans were organized by refuseniks everywhere and operated on a precise and regular basis. Unofficial copy centers (samizdat) produced instructional materials in the form of photographs. Some Hebrew textbooks were successfully brought in from abroad. Dictionaries and literature on Semitic languages published earlier were also used. A cohort of semi-professional, and sometimes fully professional, Hebrew teachers emerged. This profession was highly respected, as it also reflected an important social status. Classes were paid, usually gathering in the apartment of the teacher or one of the students in groups of 3-12 people. M. Chlenov recalls that the system of apartment ulpans in Moscow was quite extensive, and hundreds of people went through it[10]. E. Kholmyansky's book outlines the history of the development of the Hebrew teaching system in Moscow, and subsequently throughout the Soviet Union. One of its founders, by general consensus, was Moshe Palhan, whose parents had lived for some time in Mandatory Palestine but were expelled by the British. Palhan began actively studying Hebrew in 1963, taught it himself, and trained other teachers. There were quite a few people wishing to join in teaching, so "by the late 1970s, despite the constant departure of teachers, a layer of 30-40 teachers and 3-4 hundred students had formed in Moscow"[11]. Ephraim (Alexander) Kholmyansky himself became one of the organizers of the Hebrew teaching system in various cities of the USSR, which came to be known as the "All-Union Ulpan"[12]. For his activities, he was arrested and went on a hunger strike that lasted 207 days[13]. It should be noted that in the 1980s, it was Hebrew teachers who found themselves at the cutting edge of repressive Soviet policy. At that time, Begun, Edelstein, Kholmyansky, Lishits, Zelichenok, and many others paid with their freedom. Despite the danger, other teachers took the place of those arrested, and the ulpans continued to function.

However, building a Jewish education system solely on Hebrew instruction was unrealistic, for after several years in refusal, the question arose: what next? Any language cannot live without use. Therefore, interest in Jewish history and culture naturally arose; moreover, sometimes the Hebrew teachers and cultural activists were the same people. Although to study Jewish history they relied on other sources. First, the Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia in 16 volumes, from which much information could be gleaned. Also, many pre-revolutionary publications associated with the Jewish Enlightenment—"Voskhod," "Rassvet," "Evreyskaya Biblioteka," "Evreysky Mir," etc. One way or another, a community of Jewish culture activists formed in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Riga, Vilnius, Kaunas, and other cities. One of the forms of their consolidation was seminars of refusenik scientists who, having been dismissed from their jobs, gathered to discuss their scientific topics and, at the same time, debated the problems of Jewish culture[14]. In this connection, we mention the seminar on Jewish history by V. Rubin and F. Kandel, which operated in Moscow in the 1970s, and the Historical and Ethnographic Commission, which worked in the capital in the 1980s[15].

Finally, Judaism as a religion also became one of the factors of Jewish activism. For a general characterization of Jewish religious life in the 1970s and 1980s, we should note several points. First, the return to religion occurred primarily among the segment of the Jewish population most distant from Judaism. Of course, examples of children in whose families religious traditions had been preserved played an important role in the overall picture. But these are only exceptions that prove the rule. The bulk of the "chozrei be-teshuvah" (those who returned to the faith) came from an assimilated background. One cannot ignore the general cultural situation of that era either. Among the Soviet intelligentsia of the 1960s, Christianity became one of the forms of cultural self-identification. Jews constituted a very significant part of this intelligentsia. This, in turn, gave rise to two phenomena—the formation of a large Judeo-Christian community, and the turning of initially a very small number of young Jewish intellectuals to Judaism.

It is noteworthy that the process of returning to religion (or discovering a new religion in the case of Judeo-Christians) was turbulent and often radical. Turning to Christianity, many Jews threw themselves into it heart and soul; some became priests, monks, or religious preachers. This was perceived in various ways in Russian intellectual society, but at least by part of it quite positively. Typically, in Russian families, the situation with the return to religion looked completely different. While Judaism, due to mass assimilation, had almost disappeared from cultural circulation as a religion, in the intellectual Russian milieu, Christianity, on the contrary, was preserved and passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, Christianity was perceived by many young Jews as something completely obvious and beyond doubt, while Judaism looked like a strange and alien phenomenon. Nevertheless, for a very narrow circle of Soviet youth, mainly in Moscow and Leningrad, Judaism also acquired significance and meaning.

As a rule, two trajectories led to this: a person made the decision to leave the USSR (and officially this was possible only within the framework of "family reunification") and, preparing internally for departure, began to take an interest in the religion of the Jews. Many remembered religious grandfathers and great-grandfathers, some communicated with a more knowledgeable relative, etc. The second trajectory of teshuvah passed through Christianity. A Jew who had immersed himself in Christianity at some point experienced an existential shock, realizing his belonging to the people and religion from which Christianity emerged. Movement along this trajectory requires closer examination, as it was often accompanied by intense spiritual labor and subsequent activity in the sphere of education. I would call this path the "Rosenzweig phenomenon." Coming from an assimilated family, he became an ardent follower of Judaism precisely through a decision to convert to Christianity. In the end, Rosenzweig was not baptized but became one of the first "baalei teshuvah" of a new type. With certain reservations, this phenomenon also played an important role in the Jewish religious revival movement in the Soviet Union.

Let me give two examples of this process. A young Jew, I., from Leningrad, was sincerely interested in Christianity, attended church, and collected icons. At some point, he realized his Jewishness and concluded that he must follow the paths of Judaism. The religious feelings he experienced were so strong that the young man burned all the collected icons in the courtyard of his house as artifacts of an idolatrous cult and began to zealously observe the commandments of Judaism. Another example. A certain Muscovite, B., studied Russian culture in depth and achieved outstanding success in this field. At some point, having identified himself as a Jew, he began to comment on biblical texts with the same depth and thoroughness. These largely contrasting examples demonstrate that the process of teshuvah occurred differently for everyone, but at times very dynamically and intensely.

One way or another, in the second half of the 1970s, a narrow circle of young "baalei teshuvah" formed in Moscow. By the late 1980s, a community of people had emerged who had not received a traditional Jewish education but were interested in Jewish culture, studying Hebrew, and observing the commandments to one degree or another. Thus, according to the testimony of M. Chlenov, in Moscow almost all of these people gathered at the synagogue on the holiday of Simchat Torah[16]. A similar process took place in Leningrad. A special situation developed in cities that were not part of the USSR before World War II—Riga, Vilnius, Kaunas, Chernovtsy, where a certain traditional Jewish life was preserved. The gap between generations there was smaller than in the territories that became Soviet in 1917.

Jewish Education in the Refusenik Milieu in the 1980s

In the early 1980s, important changes occurred in the Jewish movement, reflecting the general situation in the Soviet Union—the start of the war in Afghanistan, the end of liberalization, and the travel ban. On the other hand, by that time, a community of new Jewish activists had emerged, the core of which was made up of refuseniks. This group had already internally broken with the Soviet regime and saw itself in Israel or the US. Denied permission to leave, but excluded from normal Soviet life, the refuseniks found unexpected freedom to think and do things that diverged from the norms accepted in the USSR. In G. Zelenina's article "Gorka and Ovrazhki," this phenomenon is described, perhaps too freely, by Bakhtin's term "outsideness"[17]. As a result, in 1980-1987, the refusenik community became the driving force and center of Hebrew teaching, the organization of historical and cultural lectures and seminars, and groups for the study of Jewish religious texts. To describe the general picture, let us examine the situation that developed in Leningrad, as it is well known to the author from the inside.

Until the summer of 1981, a more or less unified Jewish cultural and educational movement existed in the city. One of its centers since 1979 was a seminar where Kanovich, Utevsky, Kot, Wasserman, and others delivered lectures on Jewish history, culture, and tradition[18]. The role of this seminar in the Jewish cultural revival in Leningrad is described in the work of M. Beizer[19]. Of course, this concerned a tiny fraction of the city's Jewish population, but one of the organizers of the lectures, G. Wasserman, testifies that these meetings reached about a thousand participants. Practically all "activists" knew each other and crossed paths from time to time at Jewish holidays, lectures, etc. However, all of this was put to an end on May 17, 1981, when during a lecture at Wasserman's apartment, the police conducted a planned raid. As he himself recounts: "The last lecture took place on May 17 at my apartment. The topic was 'Shabbat,' and it was delivered by Lenya Nilva. During this lecture, large forces of the police and KGB burst into the apartment and arrested everyone who was inside"[20].

These events made a strong impression on Jewish activists, but by no means paralyzed their work. A change in the forms of cultural and educational activity occurred, giving rise to what was later called the "apartment generation" (dor ha-dirot). As noted by activist and later researcher of the history of Russian and Soviet Jewry M. Beizer, the authorities placed Jews in conditions where mass events were replaced by in-depth study of Jewish history and tradition[21]. Thus, in Leningrad in 1981-1985, a system of Jewish education was formed, supported by three groups of activists: researchers of Jewish history and culture; Hebrew teachers; and religious youth[22].

As already noted, the problems of Jewish history, culture, and art were discussed within the framework of M. Beizer's seminar, which took place in apartments twice a month with enviable regularity. Of course, the authorities were well aware of the seminar, but they did not suppress its activities, as the goal of the organs was not the total suppression of Jewish activity, but the limitation of its scale and isolation. This strategy, however, had strange consequences. Unable to expand within the framework of cultural and educational functions, the seminar developed in depth, stimulating the Jewish community toward professional historical studies. Since all seminar participants had friends and relatives, the lecture materials were distributed in a fairly wide circle. Starting in the summer of 1982, the "Leningrad Jewish Almanac" (LEA) was regularly published in samizdat, edited by Yu. Kolker, E. Erlikh, S. Frumkin, M. Beizer, and others. As Frumkin notes, "From the very beginning, LEA was based on the work of the historical seminar led by Misha Beizer, and this made it possible to collect original material"[23]. A Jewish library functioned separately at the homes of the Romanovskys and Makushkins. Various meetings, concerts, etc., also took place in apartments. As a result, instead of one more or less large center of consolidation for Jewish enlightenment, many small but very dynamic, interconnected hearths emerged.

The study of Hebrew in the format of apartment ulpans also acquired a clear structure during these years. Although the groups themselves were clandestine, this was paradoxically combined with openness, and sometimes an emphasized desire to inform everyone of the place and time of the classes. Information about Hebrew lessons was always publicly distributed during the celebration of Simchat Torah near the synagogue; they were even reported by foreign radio stations. At the same time, groups that did not publicize their activities also functioned. Thus, anyone who wanted to join apartment Hebrew lessons was given that opportunity. Among the teachers were many vivid personalities—Furman, Zelichenok, Lifshitz, Zeliger, Grinberg, Radomysler, Akhiezer, and others. Note that some teachers, as they immersed themselves in the issues of Judaism, transitioned from Hebrew to teaching Torah.

One can agree with Tz. Wasserman that the religious community in Leningrad drew from two sources—the study of Torah and the formation of a system of Jewish lifestyle, which included keeping kosher, observing holidays, etc. The center of consolidation for those studying Torah at the very beginning of the 1980s was Wasserman himself, who organized home lectures. The same role in securing the foundations of Jewish life was played by Yitzhak Kogan, who established the production of kosher meat and turned his apartment into a home for all religious Jews in the city. This picture needs two clarifications. First, although Wasserman's seminars remained the core of educational activity until the late 1980s, already at the beginning of that decade, a number of other groups studying Judaism emerged. Wasserman himself, who initially taught Tanya alongside Torah and Talmud, maintaining a balance between the Lithuanian and Hasidic directions, over time leaned more and more toward Lithuanian Judaism. Simultaneously, several centers for the study of Torah with a clear Hasidic bent appeared in the city, for example, the home seminars of Elimelech Rokhlen and Zalman (Vladimir) Ruppo.

The second clarification concerns another vector of development of the religious Jewish community. Unlike Moscow, where the movement of religious Zionism was noticeable, later forming as "Machanaim," in Leningrad the cultural-religious direction, to which the author of this article also belonged, enjoyed popularity. This direction was not clearly defined; at an early stage, Avrom Demin, Alik Sheinin, Masha Dobrusina, Misha and Tanya Makushkin (Ezer) belonged to it. But all the listed vectors never formed closed groups, being, rather, tendencies of Jewish life. To all those mentioned we should add Zhenya Utevskaya, daughter of Lev Utevsky, and her husband Mordechai Yudborovsky, Tamara Krasilnikova, Eliezer Ksido, Mikhail Elman, and Ilya Perelman. Special mention should be made of the Levin family, who, together with their two daughters and their husbands, created a unique Jewish religious home where different generations met[24]. Such is the incomplete picture of religious life in Leningrad in the mid-1980s. Of course, it is impossible to list here all the participants of this spontaneously formed community, which included, by my estimate, at least one hundred people. At the same time, despite its diversity, until 1987 it represented a single whole.

In the context of Jewish education, the "children's" issue cannot be ignored. First and foremost, this refers to the natural desire of refuseniks to provide their children with a happy childhood, despite all the difficulties, and a Jewish upbringing. Groups of families arranged joint activities, celebrated holidays, and went out of town. Alongside this, attempts were made to organize more regular classes for school children. Thus, Yu. Kosharovsky writes: "The first kindergarten in Moscow, as far as I know, was created in 1977 by Galya and Zhenya Tsirlin"[25].

While the kindergarten operated in a rented apartment, Sunday school classes took place in the apartments of refuseniks. In summer, the educational process often moved to dachas. In the collection "Children of the Soviet Refusal," compiled by Erlena Matlina, the system of children's Jewish education in this milieu is described in detail[26]. Although the book reflects only a fragment of the general picture, this fragment is thoroughly researched, allowing us to see a coherent canvas of underground Jewish education in the USSR.

Speaking of Leningrad, I would like to recount an educational project in which the author was actively involved. In 1985, a Sunday school with a regular curriculum emerged. Its students were the children of refuseniks, but the pedagogical concept was oriented toward combining Judaism with high culture. The initial core of the school consisted of two intellectual Jewish families—the Chernyavskys and the Lukins. Their five children attended classes in fine arts, music, and participated in various clubs. The idea was to give them an understanding of Jewishness at the same high level that characterized their acquaintance with world culture. Torah, Talmud, Jewish and world philosophy were taught here, and the integrator of the program was the art studio of Ella Byshevskaya, where all these topics were combined in the children's artistic creativity. The initiative was a huge success[27]. Professional art educator M. Dobrusina created a studio where children studied and illustrated the book of Bereshit[28].

Another group set about creating the "Leningrad Passover Haggadah," in which the children of refuseniks illustrated their exodus from Soviet Egypt[29]. Already by 1987, the underground Sunday Jewish school in Leningrad (and the kindergarten affiliated with it) had become a significant phenomenon—classes took place in 5-6 safe houses, involving approximately ten teachers and three dozen children. The last director of the school (which closed in 1989 when Jewish education emerged from the underground) was Leia Perelman.

Thus, despite all the repressions, in the mid-1980s there was a surge of Jewish activity in the cultural and educational sphere. This process was particularly dynamic in Moscow, where by 1988 the independent Jewish movement in various forms united thousands of people. In St. Petersburg, the trend was similar. Something similar was happening in other regions as well. However, besides the expansion of the cultural and educational core of the Jewish community, a qualitative shift occurred in the psychological profile of Russian-speaking Jews. In her study of the Jewish cultural revival in Leningrad, A. Kamaromi describes the psychological and cultural transformation undergone by the participants in this process. As an example, the author relies on the biographies of some activists, including Berta Yoffe, Elena Keys-Kuna, Leonid Zeliger, and others[30]. Behind the changes in the self-consciousness of individual individuals lies the phenomenon of the formation of a new socio-cultural profile. In the 1980s, this shift occurred primarily within the circle of refuseniks, but at the end of the decade, it swept through broader strata of the Jewish population.

Summarizing the topic, I would like to dwell on two extremely important points. First, the participants of the independent Jewish movement, marginalized by the authorities, did not represent a peripheral part of Soviet society. On the contrary, it was the most advanced group of the intelligentsia, albeit not included in the circle of the Soviet elite, which is more of an honor to it than a detraction from its significance. Among the refuseniks were many outstanding scientists, artists, and simply active and intelligent people who were sympathized with in the intellectual (including non-Jewish) milieu.

The second important circumstance concerns the not very large gap between the Jews of Moscow and St. Petersburg and their coreligionists from the peripheral regions of the USSR—both were descendants of the Pale of Settlement in the second or third generation.

The Formation of the Jewish Education System in the Era of Perestroika. 1988-1992

When the wave of Jewish emigration from the USSR began in 1987-1988, no one assumed that this process would lead to the departure of the majority of the Jewish population. Of course, talks that "it is necessary to leave" had been going on for a long time, but the nature and speed of the departure came as a complete surprise. Within a few years, almost all refuseniks left the Soviet Union, and soon this process affected the vast majority of Soviet Jews. On the one hand, with the departure of the refuseniks, all the cultural and educational institutions they had created ceased to exist—almost all Hebrew teachers, Torah teachers, and Jewish culture figures emigrated. On the other hand, the process of emigration generated a huge interest in Jewish issues and a desire to learn. To this must be added that the fall of the "Iron Curtain" opened doors for Jewish activists from Israel, the US, and Europe, and also led to the re-emigration of some carriers of Jewish culture.

Consequently, in the 1990s, a transformation of the ethno-social structure of the Jewish population occurred, including the ratio of the ethnic core and the expanded community reached by various forms of Jewish activity[31]. Thus, Jewish history once again began from scratch. In this context, it seems to me that the success of Jewish education was determined by a combination of four factors—the heritage and remnants of the Jewish cultural-national movement; a new audience that discovered an interest in Jewishness; the activities of Jewish organizations from Israel and the US; and the possibility of creating state Jewish educational institutions.

The first factor (the remaining refuseniks) was quite modest from a quantitative point of view, but the significance of even a small number of people with some, sometimes significant, knowledge and experience can hardly be overestimated. In addition, this group (to which I also belonged) had strong connections established during the years of refusal with Jewish organizations, which in the new conditions became invaluable. The second group (the new Jewish audience) turned out to be very numerous, amorphous, and diverse. Within this category were many talented people who, while lacking knowledge of Jewish culture, possessed strong motivation and great ambitions. There were also quite a few Jewish organizations ready to help "Soviet Jews," and these structures (from Israel, North America, Australia, Western Europe) reflected the entire spectrum and diversity of Jewish activity. Finally, already in 1988, the legalization of the Jewish education system began, which included registration, obtaining the necessary licenses, accreditation, etc.

I should note that by 1989, significant differences were discovered between the two main centers of Soviet Jewry—Moscow and St. Petersburg. In part, this was a consequence of the personal preferences of the leaders of the Jewish movement, but to some extent, it was predetermined by the existing cultural situation. Moscow, as the capital of the USSR, initially claimed leadership and representation on behalf of Soviet Jews in both the domestic and international arenas. This aspiration was manifested in both the political and cultural-educational spheres. In Moscow, there was active legalization of Jewish organizations and groups; for example, on February 12, 1989, the Solomon Mikhoels Jewish Cultural Center was opened on the premises of the Chamber Jewish Musical Theater[32].

On the other hand, the process of consolidating Jewish communities and organizations continued, culminating in the creation of the Vaad of Jewish Communities and Organizations of the USSR on December 18, 1989. In this connection, I cannot fail to note the genius of the team that organized the epoch-making congress, including M. Chlenov, I. Zisels, G. Krupnikov, and S. Zilberg. Earlier that year, the first Jewish school in the USSR opened in Riga, viewing itself as the successor to the pre-war Riga Jewish Gymnasium. In the autumn of 1989, the Leningrad Jewish Culture Society (LOEK) was also registered, becoming the center of consolidation for all forms of cultural activity of Leningrad Jews (it is curious to note that the first attempt to register LOEK was made by refuseniks Yakov Gorodetsky, Grigory Wasserman, Semyon Frumkin, and others in 1982[33]).

Like the Vaad in Moscow, LOEK became the successor to the educational activities of the Jewish activists of the refusal era—indeed, the leader of the Leningrad refusal, B. Kelman, was among its founders. Faced with the incredibly difficult task of consolidating diverse Jewish groups, Kelman coped with it brilliantly, although he subsequently believed that he was unable to preserve the unity of the community[34]. In a period when Jewish organizations grew like mushrooms after rain and immediately collapsed, it seems to me that it was Kelman and his team who laid the foundations for the unity of St. Petersburg Jewry. Now let us examine in more detail, using Leningrad as an example, how the Jewish education system was shaped.

In the summer of 1988 and 1989, the author of this article, with colleagues, organized ethnographic expeditions to Medzhybizh. (I began conducting historical-ethnographic expeditions throughout the territory of the Soviet Union in 1981, and St. Petersburg remained their center until 1998)[35].

About 20 students took part in the 1989 expedition—during the day we worked in the old Jewish cemetery, interviewed the population, and traveled to neighboring shtetls, and in the evening we studied Jewish texts and history. Upon returning to Leningrad, many decided to continue classes, which led to the creation in November 1989 of the Jewish University, which became part of LOEK. The historical seminar of M. Beizer, which had operated at my home for some time, also migrated there; Beizer, upon leaving, handed over the reins of power (along with the archive) to the author of this article, as the only remaining member of the former active core. In addition, the magnificent Jewish library, which had been held by the Romanovsky and Makushkin families, was transferred to LOEK (Aba Taratuta had acquired the library as part of his underground activities[36]). The Holocaust study project, curated at that time by A. Frenkel, also found a home under the roof of LOEK. On the whole, it can be said that practically all the cultural and educational initiatives that existed in Leningrad in the refusal era found themselves under the patronage of LOEK in one way or another.

The story of the creation of the first official Jewish school in Leningrad is highly characteristic. LOEK was approached by activist and professional educator Lyusya Shprintsag, who proposed opening a Jewish Sunday school, assuming that none existed yet. I, of course, knew that this was not the case, but decided to find out what Lyusya understood by a "Jewish school." In response to my inquiries, my interlocutor informed me that an acquaintance of hers, a teacher, could teach Jewish music, another could teach Jewish dance, and she—Lyusya—would be the director of studies and a teacher of Jewish manual crafts, as surely such a subject existed. I inquired who would teach Hebrew, Torah, Jewish history, literature, etc. Lyusya was astonished by the very formulation of the question, having no idea of the existence of such subjects. But she was even more surprised to hear that an underground Jewish school had already existed in the city for quite a long time. Be that as it may, we held a meeting between Lyusya's team and the teachers of our underground school, and as a result of the merger, an official Sunday Jewish school began operating in Leningrad in the autumn of 1989.

Throughout 1989-1990, all educational projects operated under the auspices of LOEK. However, at the re-election meeting of the Society on May 17, 1990, a conflict occurred, resulting in the collapse of LOEK and the emergence of several independent Jewish structures on its ruins. Subsequently, these organizations established the Leningrad Jewish Association (the acronym LEA, of course, is not accidental), which is still in existence today and continued the activities of LOEK in new forms. The state-registered Leningrad Jewish University (of which I was rector from its founding until my departure for Israel) absorbed several of LOEK's projects, including the Sunday school and the historical seminar. From September 1, 1990, the scale of activities increased sharply—at that time, more than 400 applications were submitted for 120 places at the university, so the university continued to operate in the Theater-Studio of the Polytechnic Institute, we rented classrooms in a general education school for evening seminars, and the Sunday school moved to the Choral Synagogue.

It should be noted that the university, which soon came to be called the St. Petersburg Jewish University (PEU), initiated a whole series of educational, cultural, and academic projects, both in St. Petersburg and throughout the post-Soviet space. PEU was initially actively supported by Rabbi A. Steinsaltz and his institutions, and subsequently by the Joint, Jewish Agency "Sokhnut," the Pincus, Rich, and Nathan-Kamengs foundations, and many American and Israeli structures. On the other hand, an unusually strong team gathered at the university—already in 1990, many outstanding St. Petersburg scholars joined the teaching activities, among them A. I. Zaitsev, L. G. Gertsenberg, I. G. Levin, V. A. Yakobson, and G. M. Demidova. At the same time, close cooperation was established with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University, which allowed us to invite the world's best teachers of Jewish studies (the university curricula can be found in the regularly published promotional booklets[37]). Finally, the research and educational tasks were perfectly clear to the university administration, which led to the creation of several effective cultural and educational institutions within PEU—the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Diaspora (IIED), the Institute for Problems of Jewish Education (IPEO), and others.

In 1990, Rabbi M. Korets—an emissary of the Israeli Chabad organization "Shamir," who taught at PEU—proposed that I convert our Sunday school, where he and his wife Sima held classes in Judaism, into a day Jewish school. I expressed some doubts about the timeliness of this step, since a good day school needs curricula, textbooks, and a system for teacher training. To this, M. Korets, and subsequently many others, remarked that everything would work itself out along the way. I agreed, on the condition that the school would not be Chabad. Believing, first, that the fragmentation of the Jewish community into factions did not reflect the social consensus of Russian Jewry and was imposed from without, and second, that such fragmentation would lead to a sharp decline in the quality of education. Of course, Korets could not accept such a condition, since he had arrived in Leningrad precisely to form Chabad structures. In the end, the "Shamir" day Jewish school, not affiliated with PEU, opened at the synagogue. We maintained excellent relations both with this school and with the Korets family, but the question of the fate of the Sunday school at PEU arose. As a result, two schools—"Lamed" and "Beit"—emerged in different districts of the city. The names fully corresponded to their concepts ("Lamed"—learning, "Beit"—home). As was to be expected, the appearance of the Chabad school generated a competitive project on the part of the "Litvaks," and soon the "Shvut Ami" organization opened its school under the name "Migdal Or." Following this, the Chabad movement founded another school—"Beit Menachem."

All of these schools were religious organizationally, but secular in terms of the student body and teaching staff. A sharp imbalance was observed between general education and Jewish subjects. For teaching the former, good teachers with extensive experience were recruited. Subjects of the Jewish cycle were taught by foreign rabbis and their wives, who often lacked pedagogical education and school experience. There were no textbooks for Jewish disciplines at all, and teachers' own developments were used as programs. In this situation, the question arose not only about the content of education, but about the creation of a general education secular Jewish school. Thus, in 1993-1994, under the leadership of D. Morakhovsky, the "Gesher" (Bridge) school was opened, designed to occupy the corresponding niche. By that time, "Nativ" and the Ministry of Education of Israel had attempted to participate in the rapid process of forming Jewish schools, first, by concluding cooperation agreements with existing schools, and second—by creating new schools, considered as if Israeli. Subsequently, such schools joined the ORT system. In both cases, Israeli teachers primarily sought to teach Hebrew. As a result, six day Jewish schools were already operating in St. Petersburg in 1995.

Naturally, the rapid development of Jewish education required ideas in the field of educational content. From January 20 to 26, 1992, on the initiative of PEU and with the support of the Steinsaltz Institute and the Joint, the First International Conference on Jewish Education in Russian was held. More than a hundred people from all regions of the former Soviet Union, Israel, the US, and other countries took part in the forum. In addition to plenary sessions and round tables, sections for teaching Hebrew, Yiddish, and Jewish history, as well as a section for directors of general education and Sunday schools, operated. The organizers defined this large-scale meeting as an international seminar "Problems of Jewish Education" (the lists of participants, program, and resolutions were published in the bulletin "Problems of Jewish Education. No. 1"[38]). The conference became an important milestone in the development of Jewish education in Russian—the Association of Directors of Day Jewish Schools was created there (the director of the Riga Jewish school, A. Fridman, was elected its first chairman), a decision was made to publish the pedagogical journal "Jewish School," and methodological consultations on a number of Jewish subjects were conducted.

The participants resolved to hold such events regularly, and indeed, the Second International Conference on Jewish Education took place in Repino near St. Petersburg exactly a year later, on January 26-31, 1993[39]. New sections appeared—teaching Torah and Jewish tradition, as well as integral teaching methods—though the section for teaching Yiddish was eliminated.

Since then, on the initiative of the St. Petersburg Jewish University, such international forums were held annually (up to 1998). The reports delivered at the conferences and the minutes of the meetings are an invaluable source of information on the formation of the Jewish education system on the territory of the former USSR[40]. From 1993 to 1995, nine issues of the pedagogical journal "Jewish School" (edited by I. Dvorkin, A. and Kh. Rotman) were published, becoming a platform for the exchange of experience. To organize pedagogical activity effectively, the Institute for Problems of Jewish Education (IPEO) was created at PEU, the core of which was a methodological cabinet that accumulated curricula and materials. All this extensive work was supported primarily by the Joint, Sokhnut, and the Pincus Fund. The Steinsaltz Institute acted as PEU's main partner in all projects. Within the framework of IPEO, seven methodological departments were formed—teaching Hebrew, Jewish tradition, Jewish classical texts, literature, history, music, and fine arts, as well as an information department engaged in monitoring Jewish school education in the countries of the former USSR and maintaining links with schools and teachers. Starting in 1994, regular seminars on teaching methods and the development of educational materials for subjects of the Jewish cycle were held in St. Petersburg on the basis of IPEO.

A few words must also be said about the first summer Jewish youth camps. In 1990, I met with a group of Jewish students from the US who had created the society YUSSR (Yeshiva and University Students for the Spiritual Revival of Soviet Jewry). They were planning to run youth camps in the USSR, and I proposed doing this jointly with Soviet Jewish students. Thus, in the summer of 1991, a joint youth camp, organized on a parity basis by PEU and YUSSR, was held in Solnechnoye on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. A year later, a camp was organized in Molodechnoye, and in 1993-1994 in Vinnitsa (Ukraine) and in Mir (Belarus). Of course, "Bnei Akiva," Chabad camps, Joint family camps, and Sokhnut youth camps were conducted in parallel[41]. Sometimes they cooperated with each other, sometimes they competed.

For completeness of the picture, it is appropriate to briefly dwell on the situation with religious education. The first yeshiva created in the USSR (besides the state-controlled "Kol Yaakov" at the Moscow synagogue) was the yeshiva of Rabbi Steinsaltz. It was opened in 1988 in Moscow as the department of Judaism of the Academy of World Civilizations and played an exceptionally important role. Young refuseniks who had not yet managed to leave grouped themselves around the yeshiva, so for some time it remained a real spiritual center of Jewish life. In parallel, in the summer of 1988 in Moscow, and slightly later in St. Petersburg, the activities of the worldwide network of Chabad yeshivas "Tomchei Tmimim" unfolded. In Moscow, its first head was one of the leaders of Moscow Chabad of the refusal era, Uri Kamyshov. In 1989, another yeshiva—"Torat Chaim"—opened near Moscow, backed by outstanding rabbis of the Lithuanian direction—Rabbi M. Soloveichik of Zurich, Rabbi I. Zilber, Rabbi A. Eisenshtat, and others. In St. Petersburg, the Beit Midrash religious educational center was created at PEU, subsequently supported by Rabbi Steinsaltz and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. The Steinsaltz Yeshiva and the PEU Beit Midrash attempted to take into account the specifics of Russian-speaking Jewry rather than blindly copying yeshivas in the US and Israel. Although this attempt cannot be called very successful, hundreds of knowledgeable religious Jews emerged from both educational centers.

The General Picture of the Jewish Education System in the Post-Soviet Period. 1992-1998

Thus, in the period commonly referred to as the era of perestroika (1987-1991), the foundation was laid for a new system of Jewish education in Russian. This system included adult education, day and supplementary schools, youth camps, religious and academic training. Below we trace the trajectory of development of these forms in 1992-1999, analyzing the reasons for successes and failures.

At the first stage, numerous societies of Jewish culture became the centers of Jewish education for adults. These structures were highly amorphous, primarily due to the scarcity of actual carriers of Jewish culture itself. Moreover, the leaders of the societies of Jewish culture constantly changed during the years of mass emigration. The uncertainty of funding sources also played a role. Subsequently, these societies served as the basis for Jewish community centers, many of which still exist today, offering a range of educational projects, including Sunday schools, lecture series, interest clubs, etc.

From the moment the first day school opened in Riga in 1989, an avalanche-like process of creating Jewish schools began. In the autumn of 1992, 28 day Jewish schools were already functioning on the territory of the former USSR, including 12 in Russia, 9 in Ukraine, 3 in Moldova, and one each in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. By the end of the period under review in 1998, 51 schools were operating, including 19 in Russia, 16 in Ukraine, 3 each in Belarus and Uzbekistan, two each in Moldova, Lithuania, and Latvia, and one each in Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, the number of students increased from 4,815 to 10,699.

Similar processes occurred in the segment of Sunday (supplementary) schools. In the autumn of 1992, 121 Sunday Jewish schools operated on the territory of the former USSR, of which 52 were in Russia, 33 in Ukraine, and 36 in other post-Soviet states. In 1998, there were already 213 Sunday schools, including 76 in Russia, 73 in Ukraine, and 64 in other countries. These data were obtained on the basis of constant monitoring of Jewish schools carried out by IPEO PEU from 1991 to 1998[42]. Note that from 1998 to 2000, two day schools and 23 Sunday schools were closed, while 6 day schools and 16 Sunday schools were opened[43]. Thus, by the year 2000, the situation with day schools had stabilized, whereas with Sunday schools, on the contrary, it remained highly unstable. This is explained, in my view, by the fact that a day school is an independent institution, while a Sunday school always depends on the organizers.

We do not have precise statistics regarding youth camps, but from indirect data it is obvious that this sphere was also experiencing rapid growth. The main sponsors in this case were Sokhnut and the Joint, as well as local organizations and communities, first and foremost, Chabad. In St. Petersburg, the practice of organizing camps with local resources was taken up by the "Adain Lo" association, created in March 1992 by a group of PEU enthusiasts, Evgenia and Alexander Lvov, Igor Pechersky, and others as an independent project. The activity of "Adain Lo" in St. Petersburg is unique because, unlike the vast majority of educational projects, it is implemented exclusively by local efforts. Since 1994, the association has been running camps for school children during the spring and autumn holidays, and since 1997, it has also organized summer camps[44].

As for academic education, the process of its formation proceeded somewhat differently. In the autumn of 1989, the Leningrad Jewish University was created, and by 1992 it had acquired numerous institutions—a large academic library, a sound library, an archive, IPEO, IIED, Beit Midrash, and day and Sunday schools. Being the main center of academic Jewish studies in the former USSR, PEU launched large-scale educational, research, and cultural-educational activities.

Its effectiveness was so high that in 1991, the Steinsaltz Institute initiated the creation of the Jewish University in Moscow (EUM), designed to assume functions similar to those of PEU. However, if the university in St. Petersburg was founded from within by a group of local enthusiasts, EUM was created from without—by Israeli public figures. Nevertheless, Rabbi Steinsaltz's team, primarily Dr. Sh. Stampfer, managed to attract strong scholars to the university—M. Kupovetsky, M. Grinberg, A. Kovelman, A. Militarev, and many others. At that time, it seemed that EUM had a grandiose future—talented young students entered the university, and simultaneously, the academic elite of Moscow consolidated around it.

But the original sin of external initiative made itself felt as early as 1992. The idea of creating "one's own" university was taken up, and soon, on the initiative of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the Moscow Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies of the RSUH emerged; New York's Touro College opened its branch in Moscow; and finally, on the initiative of M. Chlenov and V. Irina-Kogan, the Maimonides State Academy was established. These projects initially differed cardinally from one another, but they all achieved significant success. And yet, in my opinion, the existence of five Jewish universities in Russia amounted to a dispersion of forces. Since their initiators knew each other well, from the very beginning they attempted, on the one hand, to distribute functions, and on the other, to shape a structure coordinating the development of Jewish studies in the post-Soviet space. Such an organization—the "Sefer" Center for University Teaching and Research of Jewish Studies (President R. M. Kaplanov, Director V. V. Mochalova)—appeared in 1994.

In addition to academic programs in St. Petersburg and Moscow, during the period under review, the Solomon University in Kiev and its independent branch in Kharkov were created. Unfortunately, academic Jewish studies did not become a defining subject in these universities. In the 1990s, Z. Pinkhasik made an attempt to create a Jewish university in Minsk, but this project was short-lived. The center for Jewish studies at Vilnius University was more successful.

Alongside major academic projects, many educational popular universities were created on the territory of the former USSR in 1990-1998[45]. Many researchers and teachers of Jewish studies worked in a wide variety of universities. The activity of these specialists was partly consolidated by the "Sefer" center; in any case, the directory published by the Center contains information on more than one hundred academic centers on the territory of the former Soviet Union where Jewish studies are pursued to one degree or another[46].

Let us draw some conclusions. The development of Jewish education on the territory of the Soviet Union over 30 years—from 1967 to 1998—proceeded under exceptionally unique historical conditions—three times it started almost from scratch and each time it got back on its feet. The first two stages (before 1980 and before 1988) this sphere remained under the pressure of the repressive state machine. No less a problem was the total rupture of cultural continuity, which is not explained solely by external influence. Of the nearly three million Jewish population, very few did not embark on the path of assimilation. Meanwhile, the Jewish cultural revival swept primarily through those who had almost lost their Jewish identity. In the third period, relations with the state were far more civilized, but the Jewish community itself had shrunk many times over, losing initiative and motivation (this initiative was partly seized by forces external to Russian-speaking Jewry). During these years, many Jewish educational organizations emerged in the post-Soviet space, the effectiveness of which was determined by the interaction of two factors—the target setting of the supervising structures and the professionalism of the team. Often there was no particular connection between these factors, but when it was present, a real breakthrough occurred in the field of Jewish education.

1 | Markus O., Farbman M., “Former Soviet Union: Jewish Education”, International Handbooks of Religion and Education. 5. Springer, 2011, pp. 1183-1202

2 | Dvorkin I., Fazylov M., A Popular History of Bukharian Jews. Israel. Rishon LeZion. VK-2000, 2018, 137-138

3 | Interview with V. Fulmakht June 15, 2021

4 | Interview with Sh. Abner-Teitz March 15, 2021

5 | Passover Haggadah according to "Sridei Esh" of Gaon Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg. Moscow: M. Grinberg Publishing, 2020, p. 31

6 | Interview with V. Fulmakht June 15, 2021

7 | Konstantinov V., The Jewish Population in the Former USSR in the 20th Century. Jerusalem: Lira, 2007, p. 224

8 | Zvi Gitelman, Jewish Identities in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine: An Uncertain Ethnicity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012)

9 | Matlina E. et al. From the Past to the Present. Russia — Israel. In 2 vols. Jerusalem: Machanaim, 2006; Kosharovsky Yu. We Are Jews Again. Essays on the History of the Zionist Movement in the Soviet Union. Volume 2. Ed. 2007. http://kosharovsky.com/глава-31-дети-в-отказе/; "The Exodus of Soviet Jews." Project Director A. Taratuta: http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/index.shtml; Kholmyansky M. The Sound of Silence. Jerusalem: Machanaim, 2007

10 | Charny S. "Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Jewish Studies." Proceedings of the 11th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference on Jewish Studies. Part 2. Moscow: Sefer, 2004. pp. 133-162

11 | Kholmyansky. The Sound of Silence, pp. 25, 28

12 | Ibid, p. 211

13 | Kholmyansky. The Sound of Silence, p. 451; Matlina E. (and co-authors). From the Past to the Present. Russia — Israel. In 2 vols. Jerusalem: Machanaim, 2006

14 | Interview with V. Fulmakht June 15, 2021

15 | Charny S., "Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Jewish Studies." Proceedings of the 11th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference on Jewish Studies. Part 2. Moscow: Sefer, 2004, pp. 139-140

16 | Interview with M. Chlenov June 15, 2021

17 | Zelenina G., "Gorka and Ovrazhki: Locating the Nation in Places of Outsideness," Ab Imperio, 4/2018, pp. 207-251

18 | Communication from L. Utevsky July 7, 2021

19 | Beizer M. "Underground Jewish Studies in Leningrad in the 1980s." Soviet Jewish Studies: History, Problems, Personalities. Jerusalem; Moscow: Gesharim / Bridges of Culture, 2017, p. 362

20 | Interview with Zvi Wasserman, Exodus of Soviet Jews; Beizer M., "Underground Jewish Studies in Leningrad in the 1980s." Soviet Jewish Studies: History, Problems, Personalities. Jerusalem; Moscow: Gesharim / Bridges of Culture, 2017, p. 362

21 | Beizer M., "Underground Jewish Studies in Leningrad in the 1980s," p. 363

22 | Kondratieva M. K., "The Genesis of Modern Jewish Culture of St. Petersburg/Leningrad in the 1960s — 1980s." Scientific Opinion, No. 14 (Pedagogical, Psychological and Philosophical Sciences), St. Petersburg, 2016

23 | Interview with Semyon Frumkin, Exodus of Soviet Jews

24 | "The Levin House" in Leningrad (interview with I. Dvorkin). https://news.jeps.ru/lichnaya-istoriya/evrei-leningrada-istoriya-semi-levinyix-dvizhenie-otkaza.html

25 | Kosharovsky. We Are Jews Again, vol. 2, ch. 31

26 | E. Matlina (comp.). Children of the Soviet Refusal. Collection of Articles on Kindergartens and Schools in Moscow in the 1970s-1980s. Jerusalem: Machanaim, 2011

27 | Dvorkin I., "Using Art in Teaching Jewish Tradition to Children." Jewish School, 1993, No. 2

28 | Dvorkin I. The Dream of Rabbi Choni ha-Me'agel. St. Petersburg — Jerusalem, 1999

29 | Dvorkin I. (comp.) Leningrad Haggadah. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Jewish University Publishing, 1993

30 | Komaromi A., “Between two worlds: late Soviet Jews in Leningrad”, East European Jewish Affairs (2018), 48:1, pp. 23-24

31 | Khanin V., "Paradoxes of Identity: Socio-Cultural Perspectives on the Development of the Jewish Education System in the Countries of the Former USSR," Jews in Post-Soviet Countries: Identity and Education. A. Epstein, ed. — Jerusalem: Jewish Agency for Israel and Open University of Israel, 2008, pp. 57-82

32 | Opening of the Mikhoels Center in Moscow. Electronic Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3X6MCK3nC0&ab_channel=MosheHemain]

33 | Archive of the Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies. Fund 2. Fund of the "Refusal" Movement

34 | Interview with Boris Kelman. Exodus of Soviet Jews

35 | Amit Naor, “A History in Pictures: The Jews of the USSR”, https://blog.nli.org.il/en/jews-of-the-ussr/

36 | Interview with Daniel Romanovsky. Exodus of Soviet Jews http://www.soviet-jews-exodus.com/index.shtml

37 | E.g. Petersburg Jewish University. [Information booklet]. St. Petersburg, 1996

38 | Problems of Jewish Education. Bulletin No. 1. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Jewish University, 1992

39 | Problems of Jewish Education. Bulletin No. 2. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Jewish University, 1993

40 | Archive of the Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies. Fund 8. Materials of the Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies

41 | Interview with M. Bogomolny June 27, 2021

42 | Jewish Schools in the Former Soviet Union. 1997/1998. Reference Guide. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Jewish University. Institute for Jewish Education, 1998, p. 8

43 | Jewish Educational Institutions on the Territory of the CIS and Baltic Countries. 1999/2000. Directory. St. Petersburg: Petersburg Jewish University. Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies, 2000, pp. 163-164

44 | Communication from E. Lvova June 23, 2021

45 | Popular Universities of Jewish Culture in the CIS in 1998. Directory. Moscow: Jewish World, 1998, pp. 21-23

46 | Academic Directory of Jewish Studies in the CIS and Baltic States. Moscow: Sefer, 1999