Today these are small synagogue observances, but they were not always so. During the Cold War Simchat Torah was, alongside Passover, the main holiday for rallying in defense of Jewish rights. Tens of thousands took the festival out to the streets, transforming their horahs into huge dance rallies protesting the oppression of Jews in the USSR.
Jews in Moscow lit the spark themselves. Soviet discrimination against Jews included university quotas, workplace glass ceilings, vilification in state media, show trials, arrests for teaching Hebrew, religious suppression and more. Human rights activists named it antisemitism. The Kremlin said it was fighting “Zionism.” Call it what you will. The policies forced Jews into the closet.
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