Ralph Dalin Papers

Collection — Container: Consolidated Box P30, Folder: P-1022

Identifier: P-1022

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains letters to Rabbi Dalin from Jews in the Soviet Union, in English and Hebrew, news clippings, reports, and sermons on his 1976 and 1986 missions to the USSR, and a copy of “Trial and Error” by Wayne Firestone, a play written in 1985, distributed by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The play is based on a transcript of the trial of Yuli Edelshtein. Also included are clippings, letters and memos on the co-adoption of Refuseniks Yuli Edelstein and Yuli Kosharovsky by Shaare Tikvah Congregation and neighboring Broadview Baptist Church in Temple Hills, Maryland, with letters of appreciation from Steny Hamilton Hoyer, the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 5th congressional district and chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The collection also includes a children's book Rachel and Mischa by Steven and Ilene Bayar from Rockville, Maryland, that compares lives of a Jewish boy in the USSR and a Jewish girl in the United States. The boy character is based on a real Refusenik child Rabbi Dalin had met during his 1986 trip to the Soviet Union.

The collection features "The Refusenik Dreidel"—a mini-poster with an illustrated short story by Nurit Zachter, part of the Holiday Series of the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews.

The collection consists of one folder.

Dates

Creation: 1976-1989

Creator

Dalin, Ralph A. (Person)

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.

Use Restrictions

No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.

For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org

Historical Note

Rabbi Ralph A. Dalin was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is affiliated with the Rabbinical Assembly, the National Association of Jewish Chaplains, and the San Diego Rabbinical Association, and serves on the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Sharp Grossmont Hospital, and on the C.P.E. Professional Consultation Committee of Sharp Memorial Hospital.

As a spiritual leader of Shaare Tikvah Congregation in Temple Hills, Maryland, and the Soviet Jewry chair of the Washington Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Dalin advocated on behalf of Soviet Jews. He helped organize solidarity vigils, participated in the interfaith efforts to aid Refuseniks, and repeatedly traveled to the USSR to meet with the Jews in need of spiritual and material support.

Extent

1 Folders

Language of Materials

English

Hebrew

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers of an American Soviet Jewry movement activist Rabbi Ralph A. Dalin that contain correspondence with Refuseniks in the Soviet Union, sermons, and reports on trips to the USSR, publications and newspaper clippings related to his activism.