Rabbi Mendelevitch Visit to BPY

BPY is honored to host Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich, father of our Shaliach Chana Moriya Dahan and a grandfather of Roni and Yeela. Please join us for his presentation explaining his life journey. Our students are eager to hear his stories and reflect on his unwavering dedication to Judaism.

Rabbi Mendelevich was a Jewish refusenik from the former Soviet Union, also known as a “Prisoner of Zion”. At the age of 22, he participated in an attempt to hijack a plane, an act designed to raise awareness about the desperate plight of Soviet Jews. He was arrested before the plane ever left the ground and served 11 years in the Soviet gulag. During the imprisonment he was punished for keeping Jewish precepts. He served in Soviet prisons with famous Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky (amongst others). Released in 1981, he flew immediately to Jerusalem, served in the IDF, earned a master’s degree in Jewish history, and became a rabbi.