- Accession Number
- 1979-9-8
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Accession Number
- 1979-9-8
- Material Format
- textual record
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Date
- April 1977-March 1978
- Scope and Content
- Accession consists of one Information Bulletin on Soviet Jewry (vol. 3, issue 4) and two Communique (No. 10, No. 21), both produced by the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry.
- Subjects
- Human rights
- Name Access
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry
- Source
- Archival Accessions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry sub-series
- Level
- Sub-series
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-3
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1972-1991
- Physical Description
- 28 cm of textual records
- 37 photographs : b&w ; 20 x 25 cm or smaller
- Admin History/Bio
- In order to facilitate the cooperation between regional committees, a National Committee for Soviet Jewry was created in December 1972 at a meeting of regional CJC directors in Winnipeg. Its names "National Committee" and "Canadian Committee" were used interchangeably within its records. While meetings of this committee were fewer in number than those of the regional committees, there was a certain amount of overlapping jurisdiction between the Central Region, based in Toronto, and the Canadian Committee, given that most of the executive members for both were based in Ontario. Further, executive members serving on the national committee also frequently served concurrently on the local committee. The first Chair of the Canadian Committee, elected to the position in Dec. 1972, was Toronto resident (later Judge) Sydney Harris. David Satok, Genya Intrator and David Sadowski, all from Toronto, also served as Chairs for this committee. Unsurprisingly, a majority of activities were thus coordinated in the Central Region office in Toronto. The various regional committees, however, remained largely autonomous, with Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg being the most active outside of Toronto.
- Scope and Content
- Sub-series consists of meeting agendas and minutes, correspondence, news releases and reports of the Canadian (National) Committee for Soviet Jewry. Also included are numerous examples of the bulletins, notices and newsletters issued by the committee.
- Subjects
- Antisemitism
- Arrangement
- Aside from the culling of duplicate documents, files have here been maintained with their original contents and internal order. As some files have date ranges spanning several years, they have been arranged in chronological order by their start dates.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-3
- File
- 9
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1975
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File includes news briefs, correspondence, bulletins and newsletters, a conference programme, resource books, a mailing list, a budget, various reports, fact sheets, transcriptions and articles.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-3
- File
- 13
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1977
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 28 photographs : b&w on single contact sheet ; 3 x 4 cm
- Scope and Content
- File consists primarily of correspondence and reports. Also included are publicity materials regarding a talk by Arthur Maloney and Rabbi Gunther Plaut on 30 March 1977 in Toronto, including a contact sheet of photos taken at this event. File also includes press releases and fact sheets.
- Name Access
- Plaut, W. Gunther, 1912-2012
- Places
- Toronto (Ont.)
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-3
- File
- 18
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- Jan. 1981-Jun. 1981
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File consists primarily of reports and press releases, but also includes general correspondence of the committee. These documents often include copies of articles from newspapers and magazines and other kinds of fact sheets. Also included in this file is a copy of the minutes from a meeting between the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canadian Zionist Federation held in Montreal on 25 Mar. 1981, concerning the topic of Soviet Jews.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-3
- File
- 19
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- Aug. 1981-Dec. 1981
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File contains a report by Genya Intrator, National Chairman, on his Western Canada visit to meet with fellow Soviet Jewry activists; materials concerning the "Adopt a Family" programme; and, documents from the "Conference on the Critical Status of Soviet Jews" held in Ottawa on 9 Dec. 1981.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-3
- File
- 21
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1983
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 1 photograph : b&w ; 24 x 19 cm
- Scope and Content
- File contains reports, fact sheets and correspondence of the committee, as well as several speech transcriptions for speeches delivered by Serge Joyal, Secretary of State for Canada, Goldie Hershon, Chairman of the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry, and David Peterson, M.P.P. and Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Provincial Legislature. The file also contains a photograph of the British politician Greiville Janner, Q.C., M.P. on his visit to Canada, with James Breithaupt, M.P.P. in the Ontario Legislature.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Affiliated organizations sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-4
- File
- 7
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1972-1973, 1983-1984
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File contains petitions, correspondence and articles related to the Canadian academic community's efforts on behalf of their Soviet Jewish peers and specific appeal campaigns on their behalf. Primary correspondents include Professor Irwin Cotler and Murray Freedman.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Level
- Series
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1967-1992
- Physical Description
- 4.5 m of textual records
- 1822 photographs : b&w ; 20 x 25 cm or smaller
- Admin History/Bio
- The earliest impetus for the creation of a Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) committee to focus on the issue of Soviet Jews was in response to the infamous “Leningrad trials” of thirty-one dissident Soviet Jews in the winter of 1970. Concurrently, the Soviet government began to systematically persecute almost all Jews who applied for permission to emigrate. The issuing of exit visas was refused (the genesis of the term “refusenik”), usually on exaggerated claims of national security, after which the applicants were often dismissed from their jobs, recalled to military service, or similarly persecuted by state authorities. Those who publicly protested such treatment were subsequently arrested, detained for long periods, or tried as examples to others and sent to Siberian labour camps.
- When information about the plight of Soviet Jews reached Canada, Toronto’s Jews responded immediately and decisively. Synagogue congregations, student groups, women’s organizations, professional organizations and community groups all established independent committees to aid Soviet Jews directly and to pressure local, national and international governments to address Soviet antisemitism. Very quickly these committees began organizing mass rallies, letter writing campaigns, petitions, targeted protests and direct aid involving large numbers of people and considerable fundraising efforts. From 1971 to the late 1980s the cause of Soviet Jewry remained, along with support for The State of Israel, the most significant issue to the Jewish community.
- The Action Committee for Soviet Jewry (ACSJ) was formed by the (then) Central Region of the CJC in early 1971 in order to coordinate the activities of, and provide stable funding and administrative support for, the various ad hoc committees and action groups that had sprung up across Toronto and the rest of Ontario. Organizations coordinated by the Action Committee included university student groups, the Group of 35, Women for Soviet Jewry (WSJ), B’nai B’rith, and the Canadian Zionist Federation (CZF). The ACSJ originally reported to the CJC’s Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry (SCSJ), but by the mid-1970s the reporting of the two committees was reversed, with the Steering Committee reporting to the Action Committee. By 1977, the Action Committee and the Steering Committee were merged into the newly-renamed CJC Ontario Region’s Committee for Soviet Jewry (occasionally referred to as the Toronto Committee).
- The first Chairman of the SCSJ was the prominent Toronto politician and activist Joseph B. Salsberg. Later chairs, including Sam Filer, Phyllis Sugar, Reg Adelman, author Jeanette Goldman, Joyce Eklove, and Judge Ted Matlow were also involved with affiliated local groups whose activities were coordinated by the SCSJ. Sam Filer, its first permanent Secretary, became in 1976 its second Chairman. He also served as Chairman of the Toronto Action Committee for Soviet Jewry and was an original co-founder of Lawyers and Jurists for Soviet Jewry. Similarly, Phyllis Sugar was a Co-chair of the ACSJ with Reg Adelman in the early to mid-1970s, while simultaneously serving as the Chair of WSJ. Genya Intrator, the first Chair of WSJ in the early 1970s, later served as first Chair of the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry. Despite having its first meeting in Winnipeg, the Canadian Committee had most of its leadership and activities in Toronto. Toronto residents Sydney Harris (later Judge Harris), David Satok, Genya Intrator and David Sadowski all chaired this committee as it developed a national agenda through contacts with affiliated organizations across the country, while coordinating internationally with groups such as the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews based in New York.
- Towards the end of the 1980s, many of the restrictions regarding exit visas for refusniks were removed and increasingly Russian Jews began to immigrate to Israel, the United States and Canada. A large percentage of the latter settled in Toronto. By 1991, in response to the changes in Russia and the former Soviet republics, the CJC’s local and national Soviet Jewry Committees were wound up and their leadership began to focus on new issues, such as the integration of Soviet Jewish immigrants into Canada and the continuing struggle to fight antisemitism in the successor states of the former Soviet Union. To this end, the CJC formed a Political Liaison Committee in the early 1990s. Internationally, however, many Russian Jewish advocacy groups continued to operate on the foundation of activism and community organization established during the decades of solidarity built around the Soviet Jewry cause.
- Custodial History
- The records in this series were accumulated and maintained in the offices of the CJC under the jurisdiction of Samuel Resnick, in his role as the Director of the Community Action for Israel Committee, and as the main CJC staff employee for overseeing the Action Committee for Soviet Jewry and Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry, which eventually coalesced as simply the Committee for Soviet Jewry circa 1977. By 1980, Resnick’s title was Director of the Committee for Soviet Jewry, Central Region, making him the primary full-time staffer of the CJC involved in the Soviet Jewry cause.
- Scope and Content
- Series consists of extensive planning, administrative and operational records including meeting minutes, correspondence, budgets and membership lists. Records pertaining to activities include numerous event and protest photographs, articles, petitions, posters and other press materials. Records related to the gathering of information regarding Soviet Jewry include transcripts of telegrams and telephone conversations, background fact sheets and many individual case files.
- This series has been arranged into six sub-series. Sub-series 1 consists of Ontario Region committee meeting agendas and minutes. Sub-series 2 consists of the correspondence files documenting various activities of that committee. Sub-series 3 consists of the agendas, minutes and general correspondence of the National Committee for Soviet Jewry. Sub-series 4 consists of records documenting affiliated Jewish organizations that collaborated with the CJC in protesting the persecution of Soviet Jews. Sub-series 5 consists of records documenting the various protest activities such as lobbying, letter writing, public rallies, marches and demonstrations. Sub-series 6 , Rufusnik Cases, consists of 3 sub-sub-series, containing individual case files, large published lists, and reference publications about Soviet Jews who were refused permission to emigrate (refusniks).
- Notes
- Physical extent note: although over 28 m of Soviet Jewry records were originally transferred to the OJA, more than 23 m of those records have been culled due to their origin (non-Canadian sources), format (outside periodicals and publications), because they were merely externally-created reference materials, or because they were part of the very large volumes of duplicates that made up the majority of the box contents. Records documenting the activities of other CJC Committees have also been removed for future processing within more appropriately-titled series within Fonds 17.
- Subjects
- Committees
- Jews--Soviet Union
- Arrangement
- Because the Soviet Jewry records donated by the Canadian Jewish Congress had not been maintained in a discernable original order, they had to be reorganized into their current arrangement by the processing archivist.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Affiliated organizations sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-4
- File
- 12
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1972-1974
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 1 photograph : b&w ; 23 x 14 cm
- Admin History/Bio
- Lev Levitin was a Soviet electrical and computer engineer and refusnik profiled in the Committee of Soviet Jewry campaigns.
- Scope and Content
- File contains correspondence in English and Russian, press releases, articles, transcripts and various petitions related to the efforts of the Canadian Friends of Soviet Jewry to raise the issue of Soviet emigration and freedom of religion policies among the candidates in the 1974 Canadian Federal Election. Also includes a photo of Lev Levitin with a child. Primary correspondents include H. Wayne Tannenbaum, Chairman of the Canadian Friends of Soviet Jewry. File also includes a number of documents related to the general administration and fundraising activities of the organization.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds
- Jewish community involvement series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 92
- Series
- 4
- File
- 6
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1967-1973
- Physical Description
- 3 cm of textual records
- Admin History/Bio
- In 1970 many Jewish groups in Ontario organized to help refusniks who were being persecuted in the Soviet Union and to pressure local, national and international governments to address Soviet antisemitism. In early 1971, the Action Committee for Soviet Jewry (ACSJ) was formed by the (then) Central Region of the CJC to coordinate the activities of, and provide stable funding and administrative support for, these various ad hoc committees and action groups that had sprung up across Ontario.
- The ACSJ originally reported to the CJC’s Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry (SCSJ), but by the mid-1970s the reporting of the two committees was reversed, with the steering committee reporting to the action committee. By 1977, the action committee and the steering committee were merged into the newly-renamed CJC Ontario Region’s Committee for Soviet Jewry (occasionally referred to as the Toronto Committee). J. B. Salsberg was the first SCSJ Chairman, serving in this capacity until 1976.
- Scope and Content
- File consists of records documenting J. B. Salsberg's involvement in the CJC's Committee for Soviet Jewry. Included are booklets, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, articles, correspondence, meeting minutes of the National Committee on Soviet Jewry and the Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry, reports, newsletters, conference booklets, and a brochure.
- Subjects
- Committees
- Jews--Soviet Union
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds
- Jewish community involvement series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 92
- Series
- 4
- File
- 7
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1975
- Physical Description
- 3 cm of textual records
- Admin History/Bio
- In 1970 many Jewish groups in Ontario organized to help refusniks who were being persecuted in the Soviet Union and to pressure local, national and international governments to address Soviet antisemitism. In early 1971, the Action Committee for Soviet Jewry (ACSJ) was formed by the (then) Central Region of the CJC to coordinate the activities of, and provide stable funding and administrative support for, these various ad hoc committees and action groups that had sprung up across Ontario.
- The ACSJ originally reported to the CJC’s Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry (SCSJ), but by the mid-1970s the reporting of the two committees was reversed, with the steering committee reporting to the action committee. By 1977, the action committee and the steering committee were merged into the newly-renamed CJC Ontario Region’s Committee for Soviet Jewry (occasionally referred to as the Toronto Committee). J. B. Salsberg was the first SCSJ Chairman, serving in this capacity until 1976.
- Scope and Content
- File consists of records documenting J. B. Salsberg's involvement in the CJC's Committee for Soviet Jewry. Included are newspaper clippings, bulletins, executive committee meeting minutes of the Committee for Soviet Jewry, a booklet, and a programme for the 23rd anniversary of the execution of Soviet Jewish poets, novelists and artists at the Beth Tzedec Synagogue.
- Subjects
- Committees
- Jews--Soviet Union
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds
- Jewish community involvement series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 92
- Series
- 4
- File
- 8
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1986-1991
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Admin History/Bio
- In 1970 many Jewish groups in Ontario organized to help Refusniks who were being persecuted in the Soviet Union and to pressure local, national and international governments to address Soviet antisemitism. In early 1971, the Action Committee for Soviet Jewry (ACSJ) was formed by the (then) Central Region of the CJC to coordinate the activities of, and provide stable funding and administrative support for, these various ad hoc committees and action groups that had sprung up across Ontario.
- The ACSJ originally reported to the CJC’s Steering Committee for Soviet Jewry (SCSJ), but by the mid-1970s the reporting of the two committees was reversed, with the steering committee reporting to the action committee. By 1977, the action committee and the steering committee were merged into the newly-renamed CJC Ontario Region’s Committee for Soviet Jewry (occasionally referred to as the Toronto Committee). J. B. Salsberg was the first SCSJ Chairman, serving in this capacity until 1976.
- Scope and Content
- File consists of records documenting J.B. Salsberg's involvement in the CJC's Committee for Soviet Jewry. Included are booklets, reports, agendas, correspondence, meeting minutes, conference material for the Regional Conference on Israel and Soviet Jewry, and newspaper clippings.
- Subjects
- Committees
- Jews--Soviet Union
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Affiliated organizations sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-4
- File
- 8
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1975-1987
- Physical Description
- 4 cm of textual records
- 35 photographs : b&w ; 20 x 25 cm or smaller
- Scope and Content
- File contains printed testimonials, notes, correspondence, press releases, operational memoranda, a contact sheet of photos taken during a dinner meeting in 1976,distributed pamphlets, events programs, contact lists, meeting notices, conference notes and a photo of the presentation of a human rights award to David Smith in 1983.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- National Council of Jewish Women of Canada fonds
- National program and event materials series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 38
- Series
- 4
- File
- 5
- Material Format
- graphic material
- textual record
- Date
- 1984-1987
- Physical Description
- 5 photographs : b&w and col. ; 20 x 13 cm and 15 x 10 cm
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File consists of photographs of women accepting Soviet Jewry awards, of women demonstrating in Ottawa in 1985 and of Bunny Gurvey reading a proclamation in front of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. Also included in the file is a letter to the International Council of Jewish Women, with kit sample messages attached.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- National Council of Jewish Women of Canada fonds
- Toronto Section series
- Education Portfolio sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 38
- Series
- 7-6
- File
- 10
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1974-1984
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 37 photographs : b&w and col. (16 negatives and 8 slides) ; 21 x 18 cm or smaller
- Scope and Content
- File consists of a graphic press cutting, photographs, negatives and slides related to the Soviet Jewry program. Some are of a separated refusenik family, and fundraisers in aid of Soviet Jewry. There is also an announcement of a Separated Family Week with Jim Peterson, M.P. Willowdale, as guest speaker.
- Name Access
- Peterson, David, 1943-
- Subjects
- Jews--Soviet Union
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- National Council of Jewish Women of Canada fonds
- Toronto Section series
- Toronto Section archival material sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 38
- Series
- 7-13
- File
- 43
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1973-1994
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 21 photographs : b&w and col. ; 10 x 15 cm or smaller
- Scope and Content
- File consists of photographs, newsclippings, and literature pertaining to refuseniks and activists in Moldavia, and of the fundraising and support NCJW are providing.
- Subjects
- Jews--Soviet Union
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Zionist Organization of Canada fonds
- Subject files series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 28
- Series
- 5
- File
- 137
- Material Format
- textual record
- Date
- 1970-1971
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- Scope and Content
- The file consists of copies of the bulletin "Happenings Plus," internal memoranda, correspondence concerning advocacy for Soviet Jewry, addresses and speeches, and policy proposals.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region fonds
- Committee for Soviet Jewry series
- Affiliated organizations sub-series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 17
- Series
- 3-4
- File
- 10
- Material Format
- textual record
- graphic material
- Date
- 1976-1984
- Physical Description
- 1 folder of textual records
- 35 photographs : b&w ; 20 x 13 cm or smaller
- Scope and Content
- File includes correspondence, sample invitation cards, lecture notes and photographs concerning the luncheon lecture programs of the committee. Guests lecturers in this program included Leon S. Lipson, Yoram Dinstein, Natalia Sharansky, Robert McKay, Alan Eagleson, Burton Caine, David Smith, Flora MacDonald, Charles L. Caccia, Fred King, Lynn McDonald and Jim Peterson. Floar McDonald and David Smith are photographed on one contact sheet of 34 photographs during their talk. The other photograph is of Professor of Law Burton Caine.
- Source
- Archival Descriptions
- Part Of
- Joseph Baruch Salsberg fonds
- Jewish community involvement series
- Level
- File
- Fonds
- 92
- Series
- 4
- File
- 9
- Material Format
- object
- Date
- 1974, [ca. 1975]
- Physical Description
- 2 pins : 6 cm in length
- Scope and Content
- File consists of a pin commemorating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Region in Birobidzhan, and a gold star pin honouring Eduard Kuznetsof, an USSR prisoner of conscience.
- Notes
- Artifact numbers 148 and 154
- Source
- Archival Descriptions