Let My People Go

For 50 years, until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Soviet Union ran a campaign of repression, imprisonment, political trials and terror against its 3 million Jews. In Australia, political leaders and the Jewish community contributed significantly to the international protest movement which eventually triumphed over Moscow's tyranny and led to the modern Exodus of Soviet Jews to Israel and other countries. Lipski and Rutland make this largely unknown Australian story come alive with a combination of passion, personal experience and ground-breaking research.

Sam Lipski, following an extensive journalistic career in Australia and internationally, has been The Pratt Foundation's CEO since 1998. Among his varied media roles he was Foreign Editor, The Bulletin; Foundation Producer for the ABC's This Day Tonight and Executive Producer Four Corners; Washington Correspondent for The Australian and the Jerusalem Post; Australian correspondent for the Washington Post; and a columnist for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and the Sydney Daily Telegraph. He also served as the Foreign Affairs and Media commentator on the Channel Nine Network's Sunday and Today programs. Sam was the Australian Jewish News editor-chief 1987-98, and in 1989 he was the Jerusalem Report's founding publisher.

Suzanne D. Rutland MA (Hons) PhD, Dip Ed, OAM, is Professor of the Department of Hebrew, Biblical & Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney and the main lecturer in the program of Jewish Civilization, Thought and Cultures. She founded, and continues to participate in, the Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher education program in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney. She has published widely on Australian Jewish history, edits the Sydney edition of the AJHS Journal, and writes on issues relating to the Shoah and Israel. In January 2008 she received the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to Higher Jewish Education and interfaith dialogue.