New theatre production ‘Collective Phenomena’ reveals story of defiant Soviet-Jewish scientists

The director of Collective Phenomena, Semion Aleksandrovskiy, shared a little of this complex history via his own family story.

By HAGAY HACOHEN NOVEMBER 10, 2024 00:11

‘COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA’ director Semion Aleksandrovskiy. (photo credit: DANIIL KONTOROVICH)

The personal stories of Soviet-Jewish scientists who defied the USSR and reclaimed their Jewish heritage following the Six-Day War will be showcased at ZOA House on November 10 in a new theater production titled Collective Phenomena on Sunday during the Study My People conference. 

Organized by the One Million Lobby NGO, the conference also honors the memory of those IDF soldiers who immigrated from Russian-speaking countries and gave their lives to protect the Jewish homeland. University students were introduced to 57 bereaved families and, in the coming year, will create innovative ways to commemorate these olim.

While discussing post-Soviet Jewish identity with The Jerusalem Post, the NGO’s CEO Alex Riff pointed out the former Soviet Union is simply an easy starting point from which to hold a discussion about a long, and rich, history.

“We also talk about [Hebrew poet] Hayim Nahman Bialik in Odessa, Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s novel Samson,[now showing at the Gesher Theater] and Novy God [the Russian New Year],” she said.  

The director of Collective Phenomena, Semion Aleksandrovskiy, shared a little of this complex history via his own family story.

Antisemitic propaganda poster issued in German occupied Serbia in the fall of 1941 featuring a Jewish man directing spiders with symbols of the Soviet Union, Masonry, and money to weave a conspiracy web. (credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection/Gift of the Katz Family)

“My great-grandfather was an observant Jew,” he said. After the 1917 Russian Revolution “his son, my grandfather, Russified his name from Baruch to Boris.”

Yet one did not have to be Jewish to be a Communist. The promise of a Communist utopia in which where people would be liberated from past prejudices and lifted up from poverty also appealed to many non-Jews. Felix Dzerzhinsky, who established what would later become known as the KGB, was a Polish nobleman; Joseph Stalin was Georgian.

After the Holocaust, however, many Soviet Jews felt official attitudes shifting once more – for the worse. “Clause Five in the Soviet ID card listed your nationality,” Aleksandrovskiy said. This clause often prevented Soviet citizens who were Jewish from obtaining a university degree unless they were exceptionally bright.

Following the Six-Day War

Following the Six-Day War, in which the USSR backed the Arab states, some of the best Soviet men and women of science realized that those around them would forever suspect them of being undercover Zionists.

Their wish to connect with Jewish communities outside what was known then as the Iron Curtain [the boundary between countries under Soviet control and the West, symbolized by the Berlin Wall, which came down in 1989] led to their dismissal from state positions and often resulted in a cold shoulder from former friends.

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Collective Phenomena recreates the idea that these brave, idealistic souls had, to invite Nobel Prize winners to the USSR to discuss quantum physics and, covertly, to discuss Jewish destiny.

Born in the USSR, Aleksandrovskiy immigrated to Israel as a child and discovered theater growing up in Jaffa, thanks to Igor Mushkatin. A well-known actor and director, the late Mushkatin inspired a love of theater among the young adults he worked with. Aleksandrovskiy turned away from any official relationship with the Russian state after the 2014 Crimea Crisis and its annexation by Russia; opting to create his own independent theater in Saint Petersburg. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine led to his decision to finally return to Israel. Back home, he gained notice for Slow Dancing at School Parties, shown at the Akko Theater Festival last year.

“The time of the politicians will pass, and culture will remain,” he told the Post.

Collective Phenomena will be shown on Sunday, November 10, at 7 p.m. Performance in Hebrew; 45 minutes long; no intermission. 

The conference begins at 6:30 p.m.; doors open at 5 p.m. ZOA House, 1 Daniel Frisch St, Tel Aviv. NIS 30 per ticket for the entire conference. Call 052-3582761 to book or visit https://tickchak.co.il/69264?ref=nwc (Hebrew site).