As a young teenager in the 70s, I cut my teeth on learning how to be an advocate during the Soviet Jewry struggle, participating in letter writing campaigns, discussions and rallies.  Watching community leaders and students rallying around a cause had a lasting impression and helped form my passion for social justice. In the early 80s as the campaign to free Natan Sharansky took shape, I saw my mother and others working tirelessly to bring Russians to Omaha.
 As Sharansky claimed last year when he spoke in Omaha, “the efforts of students and housewives changed the world, and made a difference.” The documentary film Refusenik, directed by Laura Bialis, gives testimony to the efforts of those important people.
 The campaign to free Soviet Jews gripped world Jewry. It was the focus of Federation campaigns and congressional visits. The campaign did not have an end date, but the will to continue efforts until Jews who wanted to leave the USSR could and did.
 A ‘refusenik’ was a Russian citizen who proclaimed their Jewishness publicly and wanted to leave the USSR. But the government refused. Once refuseniks applied for visas, they lost their jobs, their chance for education and were often imprisoned or sent to the gulag. They were constantly followed by the KGB and their conversations were monitored.
 By the beginning of the 1990s, with pressure from the West, the Soviet Union collapsed and Jews were free to leave. A 30-year struggle came to an end.
 Sharansky was right about the efforts of housewives and students; they did make a difference. Watching him land in Israel in 1986 (from the dinning hall of Kibbutz Sdot Yam) was proof of their efforts. His desire to be Jewish and to live in Israel changed many lives. And watching the documentary brings back memories of the struggle for Soviet Jewry.
   It is a lesson of advocacy considered to be a miracle of the 20th century. When a social justice movement spans years and is led by many, it is difficult to imagine how a documentary film can capture the struggle, the facts, the people and the emotions invested in the effort. Bialis’s film tells the story but also demonstrates the power a movement has to engage and empower individuals.
 The film has a great lesson of people rallying to a cause and seeing the results of freedom mature. The origins of the documentary come from the director’s conversations with Shirley Goldstein and leaders of the Regional Anti-Defamation League. Former Omahan Stephanie Seldin Howard was a co-producer.
 The Jewish Film Festival opens with Refusenik on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 7 p.m., at Film Streams Ruth Sokolof Theater, 14th and Webster. Tickets are $8 for general admission, $6 for students and seniors and $4 for Film Streams members. To purchase, go to www.filmstreams.org or in person at the Sokolof Theater. Supporting Foundation and the Great Plains Region of the ADL.
  It will also be an opportunity for those who took part in the struggle to look back at their incredible work and for all of us to recognize their amazing accomplishments. Our hope is that Refusenik influence current and future social justice advocates through the meaning behind a successful campaign.