Doris H. Goldstein Papers

The Papers of Doris H. Goldstein 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.

Mrs. Doris H. Goldstein (1935- ) was a member of the Board of Directors and a chairperson of the Soviet Jewry Committee of the Atlanta Jewish Federation, and served on the executive committee of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.

Mrs. Goldstein became aware of the plight of the Soviet Jewry from reading Elie Wisel’s book The Jews of Silence. She was inspired to take active part in the Soviet Jewry Movement by the activities of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.

In 1979 Mrs. Goldstein and her husband Dr. Martin Goldstein took the opportunity to travel to the USSR with a group of American dermatologists. The real purpose of the trip for the Goldsteins was to meet Soviet Jews. They visited Moscow, as well as the Asian part of the Soviet Union—the cities of Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand in Uzbekistan, and Dushanbe in Tajikistan. During the trip they met many Refuseniks, including Abe Stolar and Gregory Goldstein. The ample and valuable information gathered by the Goldsteins during their travels made them an authority on the issue of the Soviet Jewry in the Atlanta Jewish community and was reviewed in the local press. Mrs. Goldstein was named the chairperson of the Soviet Jewry Committee of the Atlanta Jewish Federation.

The committee sponsored an annual Simchat Torah Rally on behalf of Soviet Jews and introduced a special Women’s Plea for Soviet Jewry Committee. Partnered with ORT in their Bar/Bat Mitzvah Twinning program, sponsored Soviet Jewry poster contest in Jewish schools, and promoted Adopt-A-Refusenik program with the local organizations and synagogues. Among the successful outreach activities the committee was the interreligious Soviet Jewry Congressional petition campaign, held in cooperation with the Church Women United. The campaign yielded several thousand signatures collected at shopping malls, community gatherings and via door-to-door neighborhood walks. The petition was accepted by Rep. Wyche Fowler (D GA), who became a strong Congressional supporter of Soviet Jewry.

In 1987 Mrs. Goldstein visited the USSR once again. This time she was accompanying Rep. Connie Morella (R MD), who chaired the House Coalition for Soviet Jewry, on her trip organized by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Mrs. Goldstein and Rep. Morella visited Moscow and Leningrad, meeting Soviet government officials and American diplomats, as well as many Refuseniks, including Ida Nudel, Lev Shapiro and Vladimir Slepak.