On June 15, 1970, an event took place that is known as “Operation Wedding.” A group of Jews and their friends attempted to steal an airplane to fly it out of the Soviet Union to Israel. The attempt failed.
Perhaps it was doomed to failure from the beginning. The participants each paid a heavy personal price, but the attempt became an especially significant event that focused the attention of Jews, and indeed of people around the world, on the struggle of Soviet Jews in the 1970s for freedom and for the opening of the gates of aliyah.
My spouse was a refusenik in Leningrad at the beginning of the 70s, and I have always been astounded by his friends’ ability to look back at their dramatic past with humor, simplicity, and humanity. For me, that page in Jewish history is the story of a victory that we achieved because we were united. A triple strand bound together Jews in Israel, the Soviet Union, and throughout the world. Such a cord cannot easily be broken.
Let us recall and celebrate events in which our ability to demonstrate mutual responsibility stands at the center.
