Online Event: 50 years since the Leningrad “Hijackers’” Case: Film Screening & Discussion

June 17-18, 2020

On June 15, 1970, a group of young refuseniks—mostly Soviet Jews denied permission to emigrate—set out to commandeer an empty plane outside of Leningrad and use it to escape the USSR. Known variously as the Leningrad “hijacking” case, Operation Wedding, and the Dymshits-Kuzentsov affair, the event drew international attention to human rights violations in the Soviet Union and spurred a powerful activist movement in the US and elsewhere on behalf of Soviet Jewry that affected the course of the Cold War.

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Wednesday, June 17  9 am EST, to June 18 at 9 am EST:

online screening of Award-winning documentary “Operation Wedding” describing the events from the personal point of view of her parents, leaders of the group.

Israel, Latvia, 2016; 62 minutes; in English, Russian & Hebrew with English subtitles; directed by Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov

 

Thursday, June 18, 2020 10:00 am-11:15 am EST:

Panel & Discussion

 

SPEAKERS

Anat Zalmanson Kuznetsov
Filmmaker

Glenn Richter
Leading Activist in U.S. Campaign for Soviet Jewry

ZVI GITELMAN
Short-Term Scholar, Kennan Institute

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN
Short-Term Scholar, Kennan Institute

MODERATOR
Izabella Tabarovsky
Senior Program Associate

 

wilsoncenter.org/event/50th-anniversary-leningrad-hijackers-case-film-screening-and-discussion