To Remain a Jew: The Life of Rav Yitzchak Zilber

Yitzchak Zilber was born in 1917, several months before the Russian revolution, and all he experienced most of his life was the daily inhumanity, tyranny, suppression, and cruelty of Soviet Communism.

In those years it was virtually impossible to live as a Jew, and if you were caught in the act, the consequences were horrifying.

Against this terrible backdrop, Yitzchak Zilber lived a life of courage, perseverance, and self-sacrifice to maintain his identity and Jewish practices. Along the way he attended university, became a famed mathematician, and spent ample time in Stalin s gulag for living out his beliefs.

In 1972, he was allowed to emigrate to Israel where he spent the rest of his years teaching and influencing fellow Russian Jews.

If there was ever a story of how one man can stand up against a totalitarian state, this is it.