Yosef mendelevich biography of mahatma

Yosef Mendelevitch (or Mendelovitch) (b. 1947 in Riga), was a well-known Jewish refusenik, also known as a "Prisoner of Zion" and now a Religious Zionist rabbi in the former Soviet Union who gained fame for his adherence to Zionism and public attempts to emigrate to Israel at a time when it was considered to be against the law in the USSR.

Biography

He was one of the participants of the Dymshits-Kuznetsov hijacking affair. As punishment, he was imprisoned for eleven years.

Yosef mendelevich biography of mahatma

In 1981 he was released and immigrated to Israel.

He served in the Gulag with famous Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky (amongst others). In Sharansky's memoir Fear No Evil he describes innovative ways Mendelevitch used to communicate with Sharansky (via toilet bowls and radiators).

Mendelevitch had always exhibited leadership qualities, early on in Israel he headed an organization called Soviet Jewry Information Center and has managed to attract followers to his causes