Remarkable Soviet Jewish women and their struggle for freedom

• Published date: 16 March 2024
• Author: ANDREA SAMUELS
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Not free to live as Jews, these women risked their lives to escape the Soviet Union, where they faced imprisonment for engaging in Zionist activity. Despite this, they stood up for their rights and were a beacon of hope for many in the struggle to free Soviet Jews from oppressive Soviet life

Sylva Zalmanson

Soviet-born Jew Sylva Zalmanson is one such woman. The courage and tenacity shown by this ardent human rights activist, artist, and engineer, who settled in Israel in 1974, is a testament not just to all women but to everyone who believes in "A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination" (International Women's Day website).

Born in Siberia in 1944, from a young age Sylva dreamed of living in Israel. Having been repeatedly denied an exit visa to leave the Soviet Union for Israel, she and her then-husband, Eduard Kuznetsov, joined an underground group of Zionist activists who devised an escape plan: Operation Wedding.

The group bought all the plane tickets for a local flight, as if they were going to a wedding. Once on board, they planned to take control of the plane, whereupon Mark Dymshits, a former Soviet military pilot and Jewish refusenik, would fly the aircraft under the radar and beyond the Soviet border.

Sylva was tasked with recruiting most of the group members, including Kuznetsov and her two brothers Wolf and Israel Zalmanson.

Although the group was aware that their plan had been leaked to the KGB, who lay in wait, they still went ahead with the operation.

Moments before they boarded on June 15, 1970, the group was arrested and charged with high treason. They went on trial six months later. Sylva was the only woman to be tried and the first to go on the stand, from where she spoke these words:

"If you had not denied us our right to leave Russia, this group wouldn't exist. We would just leave for Israel with no desire to hijack a plane or any other illegal thing.

"Even here, on trial, I still believe I'll make it to Israel some day. I feel I'm the Jewish people's heiress, so I'll quote our sayings 'Leshana haba'ah be'Yerushalayim' [Next year in Jerusalem]; and 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.'"

Sylva received a sentence of 10 years in a Soviet forced labor camp. Kuznetsov and Dymshits were given death sentences; these were reduced to 15 years' imprisonment after only eight days, due to massive world pressure.

The Let My People Go! campaign raised awareness about the group's plight, and tens of...