THE JEWISH BSERVER in this issue . • • Yoseif Mendelevich Comes Home THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN "From Bondage to Freedom,'' Nissan Wolpin . 3 0021-6615) is published monthly, Notes From a Conversation, with Rivka Drori . 5 except July and August, by the A Letter From Prison, Yoseif Mendelevich . 6 Agudath Israel of America, 5 Sweet Taste of Freedom!, Hillel Goldberg . 7 Beekman Street, New York, N. Y. 10038. Second class postage paid The Torah Family at New York, N. Y. Subscription Introduction, Rabbi Yitzchok Kerzner . 9 $12.00 per year; two years, $21.00; three years, $28.00; out­ Raising a Torah Family, Rabbi Elya Svei ................ 10 side of the United States, $13.00 Between Parents and Sonc, Rabbi Avraham Pam . 15 per year. Single copy, Sl.50 "Dear Mother," Breindy Leizerson. 19 Printed in the U.S.A. The Shabbos Table: A Therapist's View, Meir Wik/er .... 23 RABBI NissoN WoLPIN Out of Many, One-A Purim Message, Editor Rabbi Avraham Chaim Feuer . 29 "Welcome Home!"-The View From 925, Nissan Wolpin ...... 37 Editorial Board DR. ERNST BooENHEIMER Books in Review Chairman Halachos of Pesach . 41 RABBI NATHAN BULMAN RABBI JosEPH EuAs Bircas J!aChammah ............................... JosrrH FRIEDENSON Mitzva Encyclopedia: Passover Matzos . 42 RABBI MosHE SttERER A Purim Passing, Hanoch Teller. 45 M1cHAEL RoniscttILD Business Manager Time, a poem by Devorah Gershon. 49 THE Jrw1sH OasERVER does not A Prayer, a poem by Devorah Gershon . SO assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or ser­ Letters to the Editor . • . 51 vice advertised in its pages. At the Wall, a poem by Yehuda Re/is ......................... 53 MAR. 1980, VOL. XV, NO. 4 ADAR 5741 Caver photograph: Rochamim Israeli Nisson Wolpin ''From Bondage to Freedom'' Pho/o by Rober/ Cumin> Yoseif Mendelevich The name Yoseif Nechemia hen Chaya-losif Men­ And then we heard little more, until January 1976, delevich-has been on lips of Jews off and on, for over when Shimon Grilius visited America in an attempt at ten years, beginning with the December 1970 Lenin­ winning freedom for Yoseif. Shimon was a former cell­ grad trial in which losif and eleven others were accused mate of Yoseif-incarcerated for applying for a visa to of attempting to hijack a plane to Sweden, from where Israel when he should have known better. In an inter­ they could proceed on to Israel. We read about his heroic view with The Jewish Observer Oan., 76), he told how declaration in the courtroom, when he shouted out Yoseif had inspired him with his incredible devotion to Shema Yisrael . .. for all the world to hear. Torah and mifzvos-even in the harsh prisons of the Tht Jewish Obsenirr I March, 1981 3 Soviet Union ... how Yoseif virtually risked his life not news that his whereabouts were unknown . ... to work on Shabbos . .. how he refused to eat non-kosher Which heart did not skip a beat when on February 18, food, avoiding chometz on Pesach to the point of subsist­ 1981, the news services reported that losif Mendelevich ing on 800-900 calories per day; even insisting on keep­ was released and was aboard a plane enroute to Israel ing his head perennially covered! ... and how he learned via Vienna! Who did not rejoice to hear how, when he from Yoseif: "He taught me to read Hebrew, to daven, to set foot on holy soil in Lad Airport, he was greeted by a keep kosher ... Shabbos ... we studied lyuv (Job) to­ large crowd, whom he told: "I am overhwelmed with joy gether-everything I know." to be in this 'kibbutz golius' (ingathering of the exiles), Then in March, 1978, Yoseif's sister Mrs. Rivka Drori where I have come to build Eretz Yisroe/ through fulfilling visited the States to lobby on his behalf. She also visited the mi/zvos of the Torah. I hope to be able to continue to The Jewish Observer officer and poured out her story, be' mekadesh Hashem'." filling in intimate details of Yoseif's youthful dedication As his car approached Jerusalem he begged the driver to Tor ah as inculcated by their parents. How their late to stop when he entered the city, so"] might proceed by father had copied page after page of the tefillos in his foot to the Kosel Maaravi." letters to Yoseif to use for davening in prison ... how a Further details of his press conference reached us, rabbi in Israel adopted Yoseif as a pen-pal, and regularly such as his words to hundreds of local and foreign wrote him letters with discussions on the week's Sedra newsmen. Before he entered the packed hall, he insisted ... how she feared for his physical health and emotional that the television directors promise not to run his well-being. (See JO, April 78: "Sh/ichat Milzvah. ") interview on Shabbos . ... When asked what he hopes to In May, 1979, the Soviet government dramatically see in Israel, Mendelevich replied: "Mam/eches Kohanim released five dissidents, including the last Jewish mem­ ve'Goy Kadosh (a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation)" bers of the Leningrad Twelve-except Iosif Mendele­ ... In the middle of the press conference, Mendelevich vich. Rivka Drori returned to these shores to plead her took everyone by surprise when he said: "I notice that brother's case. In a confidential interview (until now not the sun is setting and I didn't daven Mincha. Let's have a published for reasons that should be obvious), Mrs. recess until after Mincha!" Drori related in detail how her brother had kept the • • • previous Pesach (5739), as told to her by losif's former The Iosif Mendelevich story is not finished. He has a prison-mate, Hillel Butman, who had been among the life ahead of him, and we pray that he soon finds the five that were released. Notes from this conversation opportunity to build a family of his own in the Holy follow. We did, however, publish a call to the public to Land ... that he have the opportunity to continue his remember the forgotten member of the Twelve (JO, spiritual growth, fulfilling all the lofty yearnings from April, 79), reminding readers that "he was then [in '78] his lonely years of suffering and deprivation ... and that and still is [in '79] in solitary confinement-then in the the rest of us, who are so fortunate to live in lands of notorious Vladimir Prison, now in equally severe Chis­ unlimited opportunity and freedom from oppressive topol. As the reader may remember, this additional restrictions, draw inspiration from Yoseif Nechemia's hardship was imposed on Josif for refusing to eat non­ unstinting heroism and growth in emuna in the darkest kosher foods and insisting on completing his seven-day of circumstances. work quota in but six days to avoid working on Shabbos. As Josif Mendelevich yearned to be released from This was considered a violation of the labor camp regu­ spiritual bondage to freedom, so must we. lations." Since then-thanks to public efforts on the part of various communal organizations as well as the private intervention with hundreds of US Congress­ men, Senators and State Department Officials by Agu­ dath Israel of America, among other groups, as well as calls to prayer for the health of "Yoseif Nechemia ben Chaya"-Mendelevich's plight has been a top concern of Jews the world over. A dramatic, searching, and inspiring letter written in Hebrew by Yoseif to his Israeli correspondent reached us in November, 1980. We refrained from publishing it then, in the belief that not all that is known must be publicized. Now that circumstances have changed, we are publishing an English translation of the letter (pre­ pared by Rabbi Nasson Scherman, editor of the Art Scroll-Mesorah Series) in the next pages. During the weeks that followed, reports trickled out that Yoseif was wasting away ... and then the alarming 4 The Jewish Obseroer I March, 1981 Yoseif Mendelevich Notes From a Conversation • • • Notes from a Conversation with Rivka Drori on May 24, 1979, regarding losif Mendelevich 's heroic conduct in Chistopol Prison: Shabbos in Chistopol The Night of Liberation losif is anxious to honor the Shabbos in every way Before entering prison, losif had written out the possible. The prison wardens have already accepted the entire Haggada in a notebook. He recently memorized it inevitability of losif working overtime on his basket­ so he could then pass it on to Anatol Shcharansky. First, weaving assignment during the weekday nights so that he painstakingly wrote out a literal translation of the his weekly quota is filled and he is free for his Shabbos Haggada into Russian for the use of his fellow-prisoner, rest. Iosif removes his striped prison tunic each Friday Hillel Butman .... When the guard caught him with a night: At first he was left only with his white undershirt. handwritten Hebrew text, and questioned him about it, ... He did not have any other special Shabbos garment. he replied coolly, "This is Arabic. I am studying the Then one of his fellow prisoners saw his predicament language." and gave him a shawl, which he reserved for Shabbos. He subsisted on a starvation diet of only 300 grams of Iosif had gone to prison nine years ago with a set of arba food prepared without any grain derivatives. Butman kanfos (the four-cornered garment on which lzilzis­ offered him a potato from his own servings, but Iosif ritual fringes-are fixed). This eventually wore out, refused, not wishing to have someone else hunger but he salvaged the lzilzis-the strings. He tied these on because of his own needs ...