In partnership with the Capital Jewish Museum

Author Talk with Shaul Kelner: The Washington Area Movement to Free Soviet Jewry

In the fight to free Soviet Jewry, the Greater Washington community played an outsized role on the national stage. Discover how local activists pioneered the movement’s iconic tactics, like refusenik bracelets, bat mitzvah twinning, and more. Professor Kelner will be in conversation with refusenik, Yelena Luckert, discussing his book, A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews. Followed by a Q&A and book signing.

In Person & Virtual
Location: 575 3rd Street, NW; Washington, DC 20001
$10 General Admission
$18 Chai 💙 tickets help subsidize the cost of regular tickets, making this program more accessible to all.
Free for Members of the Capitol Jewish Museum

---

Prof. Shaul Kelner is sociologist of Jewish life at Vanderbilt University. He has held visiting positions at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. His newest book, A Cold War Exodus (NYU Press, 2024) is a National Jewish Book Award-winning study of mass mobilization tactics in the movement to free Soviet Jews. His first book, Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism (NYU Press, 2010), won the Association for Jewish Studies’ Jordan Schnitzer Book Award was named Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association Culture Section’s Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book.