Shaul Osadchey Papers
Scope and Content Note
Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey cover the period from the late 1960’s to the early 1990’s and reflect the activities of Houston Action for Soviet Jewry, co-founded by Rabbi Osadchey. The collection also contains print and near print materials from various American and European Soviet Jewry Movement organizations, and background information on the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union during that period. The documents include correspondence, memos, minutes, publications, news clippings, pins, stickers and a kippah.
The collection is arranged in one series.
Dates
- undated, 1968-1978, 1980-1981, 1983-1992
- Majority of material found within 1970 - 1988
Creator
- Osadchey, Shaul, 1950- (Person)
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.
Use Restrictions
No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.
For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org
Historical Note
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 20th 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.
Extent
2 Linear Feet (4 manuscript boxes, 1 oversized folder)
Language of Materials
English
Russian
Abstract
Papers of Rabbi Shaul Osadchey cover the period from the late 1960’s to the early 1990’s and reflect the activities of Houston Action for Soviet Jewry, co-founded by Rabbi Osadchey. The collection also contains print and near print materials from various American and European Soviet Jewry Movement organizations, and background information on the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union during that period. The documents include correspondence, memos, minutes, publications, news clippings, pins, stickers and a kippah.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into one series, arranged alphabetically.
Acquisition Information
Donated by Rabbi Shaul Osadchey in 2009.
- Antisemitism
- B'nai B'rith. Anti-defamation League
- Bumper stickers
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Commemorative jewelry
- Correspondence
- Emigration and immigration
- Former Soviet republics
- Headgear
- Human rights
- Hunger strikes
- Jews, Soviet
- Memorandums
- Minutes (administrative records)
- Prisoners -- Legal status, laws, etc
- Publications (documents)
- Refugees
- Refuseniks
- Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry
- Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
- United States
- Title
- Guide to the Shaul Osadchey Papers, undated, 1968-1978, 1980-1981, 1983-1992 *P-882
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Andrey Filimonov
- Date
- © 2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
Revision Statements
- October 2020: RJohnstone: post-ASpace migration cleanup.
Repository Details
Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository