Prisoners of Zion. 1975.

Born in Benderi, Bessarabia in 1948, he applied for an exit visa to Israel in 1971 but the visa was denied. After his second application he was expelled from the university. He sent the letters of protest to the Soviet authorities and officially renounced his Soviet citizenship. At this point, in order to exist, he had to sell his domestic possessions. Arrested in 1975, he was charged with “systematic occupation in illegal business” and sentenced to 6 years in the Gulag. Serving his sentence in the camps of Bessarabia and Orsk, he was released in 1979 and left for Israel in the same year.

Born in 1954 in Moscow, he learned very early on about the ancient prophesies of the “return” of all “galut” Jews to Zion and the traditions of Israel. In 1973 he applied for a visa to emigrate to Israel, and this resulted in expulsion from the university and a draft card for service in the Soviet Army; but he refused to serve in the Soviet Army because he considered himself a citizen of Israel. In 1975 he was arrested and sentenced to 3 years in the Gulag. He served his sentence in the camps of Volgograd. He was released in 1978 and within several months left for Israel.

Born in 1936 in the Ukraine, he became privy to the wave of anti-Semitism flooding the Soviet countryside in the 70’s which forced him in 1973 to join the underground Zionist movement in the Soviet Union, which was especially active in the Odessa. He organized an ulpan to study Hebrew, taught in it, distributed Zionist materials and participated in many demonstrations and hunger strikes. In 1975 he was arrested, charged with the Zionist activity and sentenced to 2 years in the Gulag. Released in 1977, he left for Israel in 1981.

Born in 1952 in Kharkov, the Ukraine, he became a Zionist in response to anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union . In 1974 he applied for an exit visa but was refused and expelled from the Polytechnic Institute. He refused to be drafted into the Soviet Army, fought for emigration to Israel, participated in many demonstrations of protest and was involved in propaganda and agitation for the state of Israel. He was arrested in 1975 and sentenced to 2 years in the Gulag. After serving his sentence in Sverdlovsk, Krasnodar and Volgograd he was released in 1977, and in 1979 his dream of repatriation to Israel came true.