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Descriptive Summary
Creator:	Goldstein, David, Rabbi and Goldstein, Shannie
Title:	Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein Papers
Dates:	undated, 1982-1984, 1987-1989, 2005, 2007
Dates:	bulk 1983
Abstract:	Papers of Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein contain materials reflecting their work on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union. The materials include notes, correspondence, fliers, news clippings and photographs. The bulk of the collection consists of oversized cardboard-mounted photographs taken by Rabbi Goldstein on the trip to the Soviet Union in 1983.
Languages:	The collection is in English.
Quantity:	4 linear feet (1 folder, 2 oversize boxes)
Identification:	P-918
Repository:	American Jewish Historical Society

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Biographical and Historical Note

The Papers of Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movements of the American Jewish community in the 20th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.

Rabbi David S. Goldstein was born in Princeton, New Jersey, attended Miami University of Ohio and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), where he was ordained a rabbi and received the degree of Ph. D. from St. Mary’s Seminary and University of Baltimore, in consortium with the Baltimore Hebrew University. Rabbi Goldstein served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy stationed in Japan. He is an Adjunct Professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane University and is a Rabbi Emeritus of the historic Touro Synagogue in New Orleans. As a board member of National Conference for Soviet Jewry and a Chairman of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans Rabbi Goldstein worked to liberate Jews in the U.S.S.R. He and his wife visited Soviet Union three times to meet with the Refuseniks and support clandestine Jewish and Hebrew studies suppressed by the Soviet regime.

Shannie Goldstein was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. She is an adjunct professor of Hebrew language at Tulane University and a licensed clinical social worker in private practice. She became active in the Soviet Jewry movement in the early 1970s by assisting Soviet Jewish immigrants to settle in Baltimore. On her trips to the Soviet Union with Mrs. Goldstein smuggled in Hebrew-language materials to distribute among the Refuseniks she and her husband had met there. She devised ways to bring back to U.S. valuable information on Jews in the Soviet Union and to attract media attention to their plight.

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Scope and Content Note

The collection is arranged in two series.

Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein’s collection contains materials reflecting their work on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union. The materials include notes, correspondence, fliers, news clippings and photographs.

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Arrangement

The collection is divided into two series as follows:

• Series I: Papers of Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein, undated, 1982, 1984, 1987-1989, 2005, 2007
• Series II: Oversized cardboard-mounted Photographs Taken by Rabbi David Goldstein on his and Shannie Goldstein’s trip to the Soviet Union, 1983

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:

American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, N.Y., 10011 email: reference@ajhs.org reference@ajhs.org

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Related Material

The Papers of Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein is one individual collection within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM) located at the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS). Other Soviet Jewry Movement collections at AJHS include the records of Action for Soviet Jewry (I-487), the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ; I-181 and I-181A), the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (I-410, I-410A), Houston Action for Soviet Jewry (I-500), Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (I-505), Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry (I-507), Medical Mobilization for Soviet Jewry, the papers of Joel Ackerman (P-787), Julia Mates Cheney (P-806), Jerry Goodman (P-863), Laurel and Alan J. Gould (P-866), Carolyn W. Sanger (P-870), Leah Lieberman (P-869), Si Frumkin (P-871), Elaine Pittell (P-873), Sanford A. Gradinger (P-880), Shaul Osadchey (P-882), Leonard S. Cahan (P-883), Doris H. Goldstein (P-887), David H. Hill (P-888), Margery Sanford (P-889), Pinchas Mordechai Teitz (P-891), David Waksberg (P-895), Pamela B. Cohen (P-897), Moshe Decter (P-899), William Korey (P-903), Morey Schapira (P-906), Charlotte Gerper Turner (P-907), Myrtle Sitowitz (P-908), Kathleen M. Hyman (P-911) and Babette Wampold (P-912).

Individual accounts of activities within the Soviet Jewry Movement are preserved in the UJA Oral History Collection (I-433), which includes accounts from members of the following organizations: the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, Bay Area Council on Soviet Jews (BACSJ), Seattle Action for Soviet Jews, Houston Action for Soviet Jews, Chicago Action for Soviet Jews, Colorado Committee of Concern for Soviet Jews and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Interviewees include accounts by Lillian Forman (BACSJ), Ann Polunsky, Morey Schapira, Myrtle Sitowitz, Deborah Turkin, David Waksberg, Sylvia Weinberg and Dolores Wilkenfeld. In addition, posters related to the Soviet Jewry Movement can be found in the Jewish Student Organizations Collection (I-61).

Additional materials from other collections include records dealing with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) located within the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA, I-338) and the records of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC, I-172). Related records are also located at the AJHS in Boston, MA including memorabilia and ephemera of the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (I-237) and the Records of the Student Coalition for Soviet Jewry – Brandeis University (I-493).

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Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein Papers ; P-918; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

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Acquisition Information

Donated by Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein in 2007.

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Access Points

• Organizations:

  • National Conference on Soviet Jewry

• Subjects:

  • Antisemitism
  • Emigration and immigration
  • Human rights
  • Jews, Soviet
  • Refuseniks
  • Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1953-1985

• Places:

  • United States
  • Former Soviet republics

• Document Types:

  • Clippings
  • Correspondence
  • Fliers
  • Photographs

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Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Series I: Papers of Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein, undated, 1982, 1984, 1987-1989, 2005, 2007.
This series is in English.
1 folder.
Scope and Content: Series I consists of one folder and contains general materials on Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein’s activities in the Soviet Jewry movement. Included are news clippings from local press on the Goldsteins’ activism, fliers announcing Soviet Jewry movement events in the United States, with the Goldsteins as speakers, miscellaneous black-and-white photographs taken in the U.S. and U.S.S.R. and Mrs. Goldstein’s U.S.S.R. trip report. The series also contains correspondence of Rabbi Goldstein with other Soviet Jewry movement activists, a former Refusenik and the staff of the American Jewish Historical Society with attempts to identify the individuals portrayed on the photographs in Series II.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
CB-4	1	Papers of Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein	undated, 1982, 1984, 1987-1989, 2005, 2007

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Series II: Oversized Cardboard-Mounted Photographs Taken by Rabbi David Goldstein on His and Shannie Goldstein’s Trip to the Soviet Union, 1983.
This series is in English .
2 oversize boxes.
Arrangement: By Subject
Scope and Content: Series II contains 30 mounted color photographs (16"x20"), mostly portraits of Refuseniks and their families, taken by Rabbi David Goldstein on his and Shannie Goldstein’s trip to Moscow and Leningrad in 1983. Photographs in Series II are described on item level.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
OS2 1	1	2007.48.003-Jewish Refusenik Musicians; 2007.48.004-Leningrad Hebrew Class Taught by Leonid Zeliger	1983
OS2 1	2	2007.48.005-Leonid Zeliger Teaching Hebrew in Leningrad; 2007.48.006-Leonid Zeliger Teaching Hebrew in Leningrad; 2007.48.007-Misha Fox-Rabinovitch; 2007.48.008-Eugene Eisenberg;	1983
OS2 1	3	2007.48.009-Jewish Refusenik Musician; 2007.48.010-Unidentified; 2007.48.011-Misha, Ilana and Maxim Kholmiansky, Eugene Eisenberg and Shannie Goldstein; 2007.48.012-Moscow Refuseniks at a Home Concert of Hebrew Songs	1983
OS2 1	4	2007.48.013-Shannie Goldstein with Parents of Misha and Sasha Kholmiansky; 2007.48.014-Aleksandr Lantzman; 2007.48.015-Members of Moscow Hebrew Song Group; 2007.48.016-Rachel Genusov, Daughter of Elena and Grigory Genusov, Moscow	1983
Box	Folder	Title	Date
OS2 2	1	2007.48.017-Rabbi David Goldstein and his Wife Shannie Goldstein on Red Square in Moscow; 2007.48.018-Pavel Abramovich, Moscow; 2007.48.019-Pavel Abramovich, His Wife and Shannie Goldstein; 2007.48.020-Ben Charny, His Wife, Daughter Anna and Son-in-law Yuri Blank with Rabbi Goldstein	1983
OS2 2	2	2007.48.021-Shannie Goldstein with Ina Begun, Moscow; 2007.48.022-Shannie Goldstein with Eugene Eisenberg, Hebrew Teacher from Kharkov; 2007.48.023-Ben Charny; 2007.48.024-Unidentified	1983
OS2 2	3	2007.48.025-Gregory Genusov, Leningrad; 2007.48.026-Yuri Blank; 2007.48.027-In Moscow Metro; 2007.48.028-Children of Refuseniks in Moscow	1983
OS2 2	4	2007.48.029-Victoria Khassina (Seated) in the Group of Moscow Refuseniks at a Hanukkah Party; 2007.48.030-Joseph Rodomilsky (Raday), Hebrew Teacher and Organizer of Ulpans in Leningrad; 2007.48.031-Elena Genusov, Wife of Gregory Genusov, Leningrad; 2007.48.032-Jakov Rabinovich, Leningrad	1983

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