Rabbi Ari Goldberg will explore how the struggle for Soviet Jewry transformed North American Jewish life by exploring three remarkable activists and the organizations they led. Consisting largely of students, housewives and rabbis without extensive political experience, these organizations helped put the struggle for Soviet Jewry on the Jewish and international agendas, supported Jewish activism within the USSR and enriched the Jewish identities of Soviet and North American Jews alike. It will also explore the crisis in Ukraine, considering Soviet Jewish history and the Jewish identity of President Volodymyr Zelensky.