By Shoshana Fisher
On Tuesday, April 1, the Beren campus Beit Midrash was privileged to host two giants of Jewish history, Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich and Rabbi Doron Perez, for the Beren campus pre-Pesach leil iyun (night of study).
Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich, a Refusenik – someone who lived in the Soviet Union and was refused permission to move to Israel – who was locked away in a Soviet prison for eleven years, spoke about his history and how he continued to practice Judaism in the Russian Gulag.
Starting out as a Hebrew teacher for an underground Jewish movement, Rabbi Mendelevich was asked by a friend to join an escape to Israel. Without hesitation, Rabbi Mendelevich joined, saying if there was even a one percent chance of success, he had to take it.
“When you are doing something like that, you need crazy people,” Rabbi Mendelevich said to the room full of students. “It’s real love for Eretz Yisrael, and for this love, not because of persecutions, that you are ready to sacrifice your life.”
Ultimately their attempt to hijack a plane to escape the Soviet Union failed, and he and his friends were beaten, arrested and jailed by the KGB – the Soviet Union security agency known for persecuting Russians and others groups, such as Jews– claiming he was part of “a terrorist Jewish organization attempting to harm state security”
Rabbi Mendelevich thought to himself, “But I am alive.” He added, “There was no time to think about anything, for each of us was taken back to the airport,” noting that it was “full of officers in KGB uniform.”
When being interrogated, Rabbi Mendelevich did not admit to anything or cooperate with the KGB. “I had to be a hero,” he said. “I was ready to die.”
Indeed, many of the leaders were given the death sentence by the government. Rabbi Mendelevich was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Rabbi Mendelevich became a symbol of the Refusenik resistance, as he spent years in the Gulag holding fast to his Jewish values, and never gave up hope of his ultimate dream, to move to Israel. The story of his daring journey from Hebrew teacher to hijacker to prisoner to hero kept students spellbound.
When recalling his dangerous plan to escape to Israel, Rabbi Mendelevich said that it was worth the risk to his life. “For everything in life you have to pay,” he said. “To be in Eretz Yisrael, Medinat Yisrael, is really important. It is my life, and I am glad and proud that I was not afraid to sacrifice my life for this role.”
Rabbi Mendelevich shared that some of his most spiritually uplifting moments came from his greatest struggles, including a hunger strike he took upon himself to force the Soviet government to return his Chumash.
“Hearing the inspiring story of Rabbi Mendelevich, who fought for both his physical and religious freedom, was an incredible way to frame the week leading up to Pesach, where we celebrate the story of our national freedom in these two ways,” Rebecca Henner (SCW ’26) told the YU Observer.
Rabbi Doron Perez, the Executive Chairman of the Mizrachi World Movement, discussed the concept of accepting the bad Hashem gives you in the same way you accept the good. Rabbi Perez dedicated his shiur in memory of his son, Daniel Perez, who was killed and his body captured on October 7, his death only confirmed 163 days after Hamas’ attack. His body is still being held by Hamas today.
The shiur reflected the struggle of Rabbi Perez, as well as all families tragically affected by the war, as they attempt to answer Judaism’s most pressing question: If G-d is all-powerful and all good, why must we suffer, and how does one accept that suffering? After going through a number of ideas posed by great Jewish thinkers, Rabbi Perez shared the one that speaks to him: He accepts suffering, not with a happy heart, but with a heart full of love for G-d and love for his son. He said he does not understand why his son was taken, but knows that this world operates according to the rule of G-d, not man. He may not know the exact reason his family was dealt this devastating blow, but he does know that it is part of a plan, formulated by the Creator.
“The clarity that Rabbi Perez conveyed in juggling both the pain and the privilege of Judaism was truly inspiring and moving,” Atara Sicklick (SCW ‘26) told the YU Observer. Rabbi Perez bookended his speech by expressing, “It is a painful privilege to be the Jewish people.” The duality of pain and privilege, tragedy and love, is part and parcel of the Jewish national experience.
Rabbi Perez also discussed the impact that the audience could make on the Jewish homeland and Jewish history by voting in the World Zionist Congress (WZC). As Executive Chairman of the Mizrachi World Movement, Rabbi Perez spoke about the importance of using this opportunity to help build Israel from the diaspora.
Rabbi Mendelevich demonstrated that redemption can come as suddenly as the Exodus from Egypt, going from a prison one moment to a free man the next, but Rabbi Perez reminded the students that even once a form of redemption has been achieved in the form of national independence, there is still further to go.
When the Meraglim (spies) first came to Eretz Yisrael, they spoke of the giants and said they felt like grasshoppers before them. Today, there are giants in Israel, but our giants, rather than making us feel small, uplift and inspire us, raising us to new heights. By overcoming the challenges of the past and the present, Rabbi Mendelevich and Perez inspired the future, setting the tone for our entry into the holiday of redemption.
Photo Caption: Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich speaking on the YU Beren campus
Photo Credit: Rabbi Azriel Fine