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Descriptive Summary
Creator:	Osadchey, Shaul
Title:	Shaul Osadchey Papers
Dates:	undated, 1968-1978, 1980-1981, 1983-1992 (bulk 1970-1988)
Abstract:	Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey cover the period from the late 1960’s to the early 1990’s and reflect the activities of Houston Action for Soviet Jewry, co-founded by Rabbi Osadchey. The collection also contains print and near print materials from various American and European Soviet Jewry Movement organizations, and background information on the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union during that period. The documents include correspondence, memos, minutes, publications, news clippings, pins, stickers and a kippah.
Languages:	The collection is in English and Russian.
Quantity:	2 linear feet (4 manuscript boxes, 1 oversized folder)
Identification:	P-882
Repository:	American Jewish Historical Society

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Historical Note

The Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey 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 20^th 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.

A native of Los Angeles, Rabbi Shaul Osadchey has served the Jewish community of Houston, TX for over 30 years as Director of the Houston B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation and Rabbi of Congregation Brith Shalom, Congregation Or Hadash and Congregation Or Ami. Rabbi Shaul Osadchey began his involvement with the Soviet Jewry Movement while a student in Los Angeles Hebrew High School in San Fernando valley of Los Angeles, influenced by the founders of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jewry Si Frumkin and Zev Yaroslavsky. His first activity related to the Movement was participation in a peaceful disruption of a USA performance of the Soviet Moiseyev Ballet. A number of Soviet Jewy Movement activists, including Rabbi Osadchey, attended the event, wearing prisoners’ uniforms under their regular clothes and proceeded to reveal the prison garb during the show, before making their exit. Rabbi Osadchey continued with the activities on behalf of Soviet Jews while a student at University of California, Berkeley. In the Summer of 1971 Rabbi visited Soviet Union with Rabbi Douglas Kahn, meeting with the prominent Soviet Jewish activists in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa. Upon his return Rabbi Osadchey formed a group on campus called the Chevra for Soviet Jewry and worked in cooperation with the Radical Jewish Union and the Oakland Jewish Federation.

Over the next decade, while in rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College, and as a Hillel director at Washington University in St. Louis, Rabbi Osadchey made frequent public speeches and organized many other activities on behalf of Soviet Jewry. In the Summer of 1972 he took advantage of a special permission to visit the Soviet Jewry transit camp at Schonau Castle in Austria. During Simchat Torah in 1983 Rabbi took his second trip to the USSR with 6 congregants from his Congregation Brith Shalom in Bellaire, Houston, TX. He co-founded Houston Action for Soviet Jewry with several members of the Congregation. Rabbi Osadchey played a key role in organizing a chartered planeload of congregants to join in the March on Washington of 1987. He continued his work with resettlement and acculturation of Soviet Jews efforts in Houston.

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Scope and Content Note

Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey cover the period from the late 1960’s to the early 1990’s and reflect the activities of Houston Action for Soviet Jewry, co-founded by Rabbi Osadchey. The collection also contains print and near print materials from various American and European Soviet Jewry Movement organizations, and background information on the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union during that period. The documents include correspondence, memos, minutes, publications, news clippings, pins, stickers and a kippah.

The collection is arranged in one series.

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Arrangement

The collection is organized into one series, arranged alphabetically.

• Shaul Osadchey Papers, undated, 1968-1978, 1980-1981, 1983-1992

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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

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Related Material

The Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey 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), 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), Si Frumkin (P-871), Elaine Pittell (P-873), Sanford A. Gradinger (P-880) and Leonard S. Cahan (P-883).

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 Newton Centre, 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); Shaul Osadchey Papers ; P-882; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

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Acquisition Information

Donated by Rabbi Shaul Osadchey in 2009.

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Access Points

• Subject Organizations:

  • B'nai B'rith. Anti-defamation League.
  • Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry
  • Union of Councils for Soviet Jews

• Subject Topics:

  • Antisemitism
  • Emigration and immigration
  • Human rights
  • Hunger strikes
  • Jews, Soviet
  • Prisoners -- Legal status, laws, etc.
  • Refugees
  • Refuseniks

• Subject Places:

  • Former Soviet republics
  • United States

• Document Types:

  • Bumper stickers
  • Clippings
  • Commemorative jewelry
  • Correspondence
  • Headgear
  • Memorandums
  • Minutes
  • Publications

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Container List

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

Papers of Shaul Osadchey, undated, 1974-1991, 1993-1994.
English with some Russian.
35 folders, 1 oversized folder.
Arrangement: Alphabetical.
Scope and Content: See the collection Scope and Content Note.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	1	All-Party Parliamentary Committee for the Release of Soviet Jewry—"A Bar Mitzvah Gift for Leonid Slepak", 7" Vinyl Record.	1983
1	2	American Soviet Jewry Movement Study Guides, Mobilization and Action Materials	undated, 1973, 1975, 1983, 1986
1	3	Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'rith: A Uniquely Jewish List: The Refuseniks of Russia. (931 Pages)	1986
1	4	Articles, Reports and News Clippings on Soviet Jewry	undated, 1969, 1971
1	5	Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews	1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1983
1	6	Center for Russian Jewry with Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, New York, NY	undated, 1975, 1977, 1985, 1988
1	7	Chevra for Soviet Jewry, Berkley, CA	undated, 1972-1973, 1975-1976, 1983
		(contains Russian)
1	8	Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism--Hear the Cry of the Oppressed: A Handbook on Soviet Antisemitism.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
2	1	Houston Action for Soviet Jewry--Action Newsletter	1984-1991, 1993-1994 (with gaps)
2	2	Houston Action for Soviet Jewry: Correspondence	undated, 1983-1988, 1991
2	3	Houston Action for Soviet Jewry: General	undated, 1984-1990, 1992
2	4	Houston Action for Soviet Jewry: Pamphlets	undated
2	5	Hunger Strikes of Soviet Jewish Activists	1984, 1988
2	6	Jews in Eastern Europe: A Periodical Survey of Events [European Jewish Publications, London, UK]	1968-1971 (with gaps)
2	7	Kippah with the words "Free Soviet Jews" Stenciled on it	undated
2	8	National Conference on Soviet Jewry	undated, 1969-1972, 1974, 1980-1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1990
2	9	Newsletters from Various Soviet Jewry Movement Organizations	undated, 1968, 1970, 1971-1973, 1977-1978
		(contains Russian)
Box	Folder	Title	Date
3	1	Pamphlets, Brochures, Postcards re Soviet Jewry	undated, 1970, 1983, 1985, 1987
3	2	Pins and Stickers with Soviet Jewry Movement Logos	undated
3	3	Publications on Conditions of Jews in the USSR	undated, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1976, 1984
3	4	San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council	1970, 1972
3	5	Southern California Council for Soviet Jewry	undated, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1984, 1990
3	6	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: General	undated, 1971, 1973-1974, 1976, 1981, 1983, 1986
3	7	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: News From Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Newsletter	1975, 1983-1984 (with gaps)
3	8	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: News From Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Newsletter	1985 (with gaps)
3	9	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: News From Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Newsletter	1986 (with gaps)
Box	Folder	Title	Date
4	1	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: News From Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Newsletter	1987 (with gaps)
4	2	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: News From Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Newsletter	1988 (with gaps)
4	3	Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: News From Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Newsletter	1989, 1990 (with gaps)
4	4	Svet Magazine [Svet Publishers, Brooklyn, NY], 1 issue	October 1981
		(in Russian)
4	5	Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Alert Newsletter	1981, 1983-1984, 1986 (with gaps)
4	6	Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Exodus Newspaper	1973-1975 (with gaps)
4	7	Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: General	undated, 1971-1972, 1975-1976, 1981, 1983, 1985-1987, 1989
4	8	Union of Councils for Soviet Jews: Quarterly Report	1983-1986, 1989 (with gaps)
4	9	World Union of Jewish Students, London, UK	undated, 1972
Box	Folder	Title	Date
OS1F	1	Soviet Jewry Bumper Stickers	undated

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