Shaul Osadchey Papers

The Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movements of the American Jewish community in the 20^th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.

A native of Los Angeles, Rabbi Shaul Osadchey has served the Jewish community of Houston, TX for over 30 years as Director of the Houston B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation and Rabbi of Congregation Brith Shalom, Congregation Or Hadash and Congregation Or Ami. Rabbi Shaul Osadchey began his involvement with the Soviet Jewry Movement while a student in Los Angeles Hebrew High School in San Fernando valley of Los Angeles, influenced by the founders of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jewry Si Frumkin and Zev Yaroslavsky. His first activity related to the Movement was participation in a peaceful disruption of a USA performance of the Soviet Moiseyev Ballet. A number of Soviet Jewy Movement activists, including Rabbi Osadchey, attended the event, wearing prisoners’ uniforms under their regular clothes and proceeded to reveal the prison garb during the show, before making their exit. Rabbi Osadchey continued with the activities on behalf of Soviet Jews while a student at University of California, Berkeley. In the Summer of 1971 Rabbi visited Soviet Union with Rabbi Douglas Kahn, meeting with the prominent Soviet Jewish activists in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa. Upon his return Rabbi Osadchey formed a group on campus called the Chevra for Soviet Jewry and worked in cooperation with the Radical Jewish Union and the Oakland Jewish Federation.

Over the next decade, while in rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College, and as a Hillel director at Washington University in St. Louis, Rabbi Osadchey made frequent public speeches and organized many other activities on behalf of Soviet Jewry. In the Summer of 1972 he took advantage of a special permission to visit the Soviet Jewry transit camp at Schonau Castle in Austria. During Simchat Torah in 1983 Rabbi took his second trip to the USSR with 6 congregants from his Congregation Brith Shalom in Bellaire, Houston, TX. He co-founded Houston Action for Soviet Jewry with several members of the Congregation. Rabbi Osadchey played a key role in organizing a chartered planeload of congregants to join in the March on Washington of 1987. He continued his work with resettlement and acculturation of Soviet Jews efforts in Houston.