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.
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
Past online streamings events: