A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews

Kelner, Shaul

ISBN 10: 1479879398 / ISBN 13: 9781479879397

Published by NYU Press, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 398206525

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews
• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1479879398
• ISBN 13: 9781479879397
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Finalist, 2026 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature: Nonfiction
Winner of The 74th National Jewish Book Award: Amer­i­can Jew­ish Studies Cel­e­brate 350 Award

Reveals the mass mobilization tactics that helped free Soviet Jews and reshaped the Jewish American experience from the Johnson era through the Reagan–Bush years

What do these things have in common? Ingrid Bergman, Passover matzoh, Banana RepublicŪ, the fitness craze, the Philadelphia Flyers, B-grade spy movies, and ten thousand Bar and Bat Mitzvah sermons? Nothing, except that social movement activists enlisted them all into the most effective human rights campaign of the Cold War.

The plight of Jews in the USSR was marked by systemic antisemitism, a problem largely ignored by Western policymakers trying to improve relations with the Soviets. In the face of governmental apathy, activists in the United States hatched a bold plan: unite Jewish Americans to demand that Washington exert pressure on Moscow for change.

A Cold War Exodus delves into the gripping narrative of how these men and women, through ingenuity and determination, devised mass mobilization tactics during a three-decade-long campaign to liberate Soviet Jews―an endeavor that would ultimately lead to one of the most significant mass emigrations in Jewish history.

Drawing from a wealth of archival sources including the travelogues of thousands of American tourists who smuggled aid to Russian Jews, Shaul Kelner offers a compelling tale of activism and its profound impact, revealing how a seemingly disparate array of elements could be woven together to forge a movement and achieve the seemingly impossible. It is a testament to the power of unity, creativity, and the unwavering dedication of those who believe in the cause of human rights.

About the Author

Shaul Kelner is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology, Vanderbilt University. He is the author of A Cold War Exodus and Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage, and Israeli Birthright Tourism (winner of the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in the category of Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore.)