North America’s first organization formed to advocate for Soviet Jews has been recognized with a historical marker in Cleveland, Ohio where the earliest efforts began. The marker, titled “A Modern-Day Exodus,” recognizes the Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism (CCSA), started in 1963 and led by Louis Rosenblum, Herb Caron, and Rabbi Daniel Litt. The marker also commemorates the first home of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews as well as Cleveland’s resettlement of 10,000 Soviet Jews.
Ohio History Markers are erected after a selective process by the Ohio History Connection. The Soviet Jewry marker stands in front of Beth Israel-The West Temple, where in 1961 a social action committee began to study the Holocaust and research other endangered Jewish communities. The plight of Jews in the Soviet Union became their focus, moving the group to form the Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism.
The CCSA’s pioneering work in Cleveland was the beginning of the grassroots Soviet Jewry Movement in North America. During its first decade the CCSA spearheaded People-to-People projects to connect American Jews and Soviet Jews, distributed a newsletter nationally, published a Soviet Jewry handbook for activists, produced the film “Before Our Eyes,” and laid the early groundwork for what would eventually become the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act of 1974.
By the late 1960’s other locally based advocacy groups were doing similar work and Rosenblum encouraged forming a national coalition. The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) was founded in 1970 and its first national office was located at Beth Israel-The West Temple in Cleveland under Rosenblum’s leadership. The UCSJ’s membership eventually grew to more than thirty member councils, becoming the largest grassroots Soviet Jewry advocacy organization in
the world.
The Ohio History Marker “A Modern-Day Exodus” was sponsored by Beth Israel-The West Temple, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
Text for Ohio History Marker #143-18 “A Modern-Day Exodus”
14308 Tristkett Road, Cleveland Ohio
Here in 1963 congregants of Beth Israel-The West Temple, led by Louis Rosenblum, Herb Caron, and Rabbi Daniel Litt, founded the Cleveland Committee (later Council) on Soviet Anti-Semitism, the first American organization created to advocate for freedom for Soviet Jews. In 1970 this work led to the formation of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) under the leadership of Louis Rosenblum. The UCSJ, whose national office was located here 1970-1973,
became the largest independent Soviet Jewry organization in the world. By the turn of the 21st century, the efforts begun here helped 1.6 million Jews leave the former Soviet Union.
In the years between 1975 and 2003, an estimated ten thousand Soviet Jews were resettled in Cleveland. The Jewish Federation of Cleveland (JFC), the Jewish Family Service Association (JFSA) and other social agencies, schools, congregations and thousands of volunteers helped these new Americans acclimate to American and Jewish life. These agencies and volunteers provided help finding housing and employment and education in Jewish traditions. They and their children now live in freedom, enriching our region.
