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Connie Smukler: A Real-life Hero for the Soviet Jews
WHEN ISRAELI POLITICIAN and human rights activist Natan Sharansky
published “Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People,” a memoir chronicling
his years of political imprisonment in Soviet Russia and life after his release, it
quickly drew global acclaim.

But his harrowing story also caught local attention when Sharansky named one
of his liberators as Philadelphia resident Connie Smukler.

Released last year, Sharansky’s “Never Alone” reads: “[Connie Smukler]
and her comrades created an international network of hospitality, hosting the
families of prisoners of Zion, who crisscrossed the world ... going from home to
home, town to town, and country to country, advocating for their loved ones’
freedom.” Sharansky praised Smukler as a pillar of strength during his incarceration.

“My experiences with Sharansky have defined me in many ways,” Smukler said.

“I look at him and see a treasure for our Jewish people. It’s thrilling to know I’ve
had a little bit to do with that. I want to be remembered as someone who made a
difference. In a way, he’s given me that legacy.”
That legacy is an impressive one. Smukler and her husband, Joe, were leaders
of a 1970s and 1980s movement to liberate thousands of Jews from an oppressive
Soviet Union. This included refuseniks, Soviet Jews, such as Sharansky, who were
stripped of their rights to emigrate.

It wasn’t until 1973, during a visit to
Israel, that Smukler realized how dire the
situation was for refuseniks. On the trip,
the Smuklers met a Soviet man who pleaded
with them to save his brother’s life. “You
have to get my brother out of Leningrad. He
is my whole life. I cannot live without him,”
the man begged.

That was the moment Smukler realized that
she needed to take action. “I had never seen
a Soviet Jew before,” she said. “But I had this
charge, and I had to do something.”
Natan Sharansky and Connie
After that interaction, Smukler helped Smukler on Glienicke Bridge
inspire a local group of housewives who in Berlin, the location where
wanted to advocate for the freedom of Soviet Sharansky famously crossed the
his freedom in 1986
Jews. Through the Soviet Jewry Council of border to gain Courtesy
of Connie Smukler
the Philadelphia Jewish Community Relations
Council, they organized protests, marches and hunger strikes, and they relentlessly
lobbied Congress to take action.

Smukler, herself, made countless trips to the former Soviet Union, secretly
meeting with Soviet Jews to hear their stories and help refuseniks
navigate the Soviet oppression they faced. After a KGB interro-
gation in 1981, Smukler was no longer permitted entry to Russia
until the fall of the Iron Curtain.

However, it was in 1975 when the Smuklers first met Sharansky
during one of their visits to the Soviet Union. The couple and the
refusenik activist immediately connected through their shared
passion to champion the rights of Jewish people. Not long after
played a major role in gaining freedom for Jewish Soviets and helping their
this initial meeting, Sharansky was arrested and sentenced to the
transition after emigration? Even today, the Jewish Federation continues to
Soviet gulag, convicted for trumped-up charges.

address the needs of people from the Former Soviet Union and Russia.

“It was terrible. I didn’t know how I would survive. We
supported other prisoners too, but he was my friend, and that
In partnership with the Joint Distribution Committee, each year:
made it even harder,” Smukler said.

The Smuklers campaigned for Sharansky’s release, and after
nine years of imprisonment, he finally gained that freedom.

Throughout that time, Smukler and her army of housewives
persisted as part of an international network of efforts to pressure
the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate. By the late 1980’s,
their work paid off and Soviet Jews began to receive more rights,
including the right to emigrate.

elderly Jews in the
hours of home care
Following this great achievement, Smukler continued to be
Former Soviet Union
are provided to
an active leader in the local community. A current trustee and
receive critical assistance
elderly Jews
former vice chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
and board member of the Anti-Defamation League, Smukler
remains steadfast in her belief that grassroots efforts can truly
make a difference. She recently established the Constance and
Joseph Smukler Tribute to the Global Soviet Jewry Movement: Let
My People Go exhibit at the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit
Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“I grew up in a very anti-Semitic environment, always thinking
I was missing something. Little did I know I was missing my
elderly receive support
Jews participate in
Jewishness,” she said. “My husband used to say that in every Jew
for medical needs
family Shabbat retreats
there’s a pintele yid [small spark of Jewish faith]. Sharansky helped
light that spark, and it’s been on fire ever since.”
Did you know...

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