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Yosef Begun, now 80 years of age, suffered “severe cultural repression,” as he termed it, as a young teacher of Hebrew in the former Soviet Union, and was arrested and placed in internal exile in Siberia and at labor camps and prisons in the former Soviet Union.
Story and photos by Marisol Rodríguez
Forty years ago, Yosef Begun was arrested for what many might deem an odd reason: not engaging in work that was considered “socially useful.”
Begun was a Hebrew teacher in the former Soviet Union, where Jews were “violently assimilated,” and experienced severe cultural repression, explained the 80 year-old during a recent visit to Washington Heights.
“In the Soviet Union, Jews were forbidden to be Jews,” said Begun, who traveled to New York from his home in Jerusalem earlier this month to speak at an international conference co-sponsored by the American Association of Jews from the former USSR that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Begun, who was born and raised in Moscow, was invited to speak by the Russian-Speaking Community Council of Manhattan and the Bronx, which gathered this past Sun., Nov. 20th, at the Y and YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood.
The Community Council seeks to “create better awareness of the Russian-speaking community,” explained the group’s founding President Dimitri Daniel Glinski.
Before Begun addressed the audience, a documentary, “Through Struggle, You Will Gain Your Rights” that tells the Jewish activist’s story was screened.
From roughly 1971 to 1982, Begun, after his arrest, lived in internal exile in Siberia and at labor camps and prisons in the former Soviet Union.
Despite the hardships he faced during his sentencing, Begun said he gained a stronger sense of “the meaning of life and human freedom” that reinforced his Jewish identity.
“To be a Jew, [you] need a lot of activity, learning and even fighting,” he said.
Part of the reason he began teaching Hebrew in the former Soviet Union was to prepare his fellow Jews for their anticipated return to the Jewish promised land of Israel, which included education on the Jewish language, history and culture.
“We self-educated by our own literature from Israel and the United States,” he said.
Another repressive measure of the Soviet regime were strict laws that limited immigration outside of the nation to a select few. Begun said the only place Jews were allowed to immigrate was Jerusalem, and this privilege was specifically for those Jews who had family living in the city, a small percentage of Soviet-born Jews.
Begun’s own request to move to Israel was denied in 1971.
“It was like prison,” he said of living in the former Soviet Union.
With the help of the United States government, specifically pressure from President Ronald Regan, about a quarter of a million Jews did receive permission to leave during the Soviet regime, Begun noted.
During what Begun called that period of “spiritual and cultural genocide,” many Jews lost connection to their cultural identity, which he said was the second biggest loss after the Holocaust, in which half the population of Soviet Jews or around 2 million people were sent to concentration camps.
Through Soviet repression, many Jews became disconnected from their cultural roots, a source of mourning for Begun.
“We lost a big part of Jewish people,” he said. “We lost [them] because people lost their identity.”
Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Begun still sees its damaging affects when visiting his Jewish family members in the United States, who, he said, do not identify strongly with their Jewish identity. Begun continues attending many speaking engagements, determined not to let this significant piece of Soviet Jewish history fade away.
It is a duty he takes seriously, and does with great pride.
“I keep the memory of our great fight for freedom,” he said.
As he gave his closing remarks, Begun encouraged the Jewish people in the audience, many of whom were seniors, to stay connected to their roots and pass on their Jewish culture and history to the younger generation, which the core of his own personal mission.
“I am dedicating my life to this important task,” he said.
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