From Leningrad to Jerusalem
by Hillel Butman, Hilel Buṭman
Category: History

Compelling story of the 1970 airline hijacking attempted by a group of Russian Jews, who were willing to risk their lives in order to leave Russia for Israel, & focus world attention on the plight of Soviet Jewry. Butman describes the birth of the Jewish underground, the clandestine network in Leningrad--whose members, preparing for life in Israel, taught Hebrew & Jewish history & distributed forbidden Jewish literature. Arrested after the hijacking attempt failed, Butman was tried for anti-Soviet activities & was sentenced during the Leningrad trials to 10 years in a gulag prison. Trained as a lawyer he provides a vivid expose of the Soviet legal system, their treatment of political prisoners, & the KGB's devious methods for coercing the defendants into incriminating themselves. World outrage against the Soviet Union's treatment of these heroic seekers of freedom eventually forced the Russians to lift the ban on emigration. Here, then, is the story of how the doors to freedom were opened. Butman spent nine years in the gulag as a political prisoner. When released & flown to Israel, he joined his wife & two daughters making the dream of "Next year in Jerusalem" a reality.