Margery Sanford Papers

The Papers of Margery Sanford 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.

Margery Sanford was influenced to get involved in the struggle for Soviet Jewry by her first meeting with Refuseniks during her trip to the Soviet Union in July 1973. Upon her return, Mrs. Sanford publicly spoke at rallies, in synagogues and private homes throughout Miami. She organized massive writing appeals to Washington officials, and protests to the Soviet authorities. From 1975 through 1990 Margery Sanford served as Documentation Committee chairperson of the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry. In that capacity she co-edited and published, via the Miami Jewish Federation, 15 books on Refuseniks case histories. These publications proved to be the most important contribution of the South Florida community to the international movement for the rights of Soviet Jews. The case history books were distributed among U.S. elected officials and to members of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. They were used nationwide for twinning and Adopt-a-Family programs, briefing tourists and press releases, and became the basis for the long term Congressional Vigil on Soviet Jewry.