Guide to the Papers of Carol S. Kekst,
undated, 1975, 1977-1982
*P-961
Processed by Andrey Filimonov
American Jewish Historical Society
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, N.Y. 10011
Phone: (212) 294-6160
Fax: (212) 294-6161
Email: reference@ajhs.org
URL: http://www.ajhs.org
© 2013, American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY. All Rights Reserved.
Electronic finding aid was encoded in EAD 2002 by Andrey Filimonov in January 2013. Description is in English.
Descriptive Summary |
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| Creator: | Kekst, Carol S. |
|---|---|
| Title: | Carol S. Kekst Papers |
| Dates: | undated, 1975, 1977-1982 |
| Abstract: | The collection contains papers of the American Soviet Jewry movement activist, Carol Schapiro Kekst. The materials focus on the activities of the Committee of Concerned Scientists, Inc. (of which Kekst was a vice-chair) in order to protect the Soviet Jewish Refusenik scientists from state persecution and discrimination, and to defend their right to emigrate. |
| Languages: | The collection is in English. |
| Quantity: | 1 manuscript box. (1/4 linear foot) |
| Identification: | *P-961 |
| Repository: | American Jewish Historical Society |
Historical Note
The Papers of Carol S. Kekst represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movement of the American Jewish community in the 20th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.
An educator in infant development, Carol Shapiro Kekst, became involved in the Soviet Jewry movement when she lived in Philadelphia during the 1970s, via the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. In the mid-1970s, she took a trip to the Soviet Union where she visited prominent Soviet Jewish Refusenik activists, Vladimir Slepak, Ida Nudel, Anatoly Sharansky, and her own Russian Jewish cousin, Refusenik Lev Gendin.
At the end of the 1970s Dr. Kekst moved to New York City and took a position of an Instructor in Pediatrics at the Downstate Medical Center of State University of New York (SUNY), Brooklyn. She became a vice-chair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists (CCS), an organization dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of scientists around the world.
CCS was concerned with the situation of the Jewish scientist in the USSR. The Soviet state openly discriminated against Jews in every field of science, barring or severely limiting education and employment opportunities. Those Jewish scientists who stated their intent to emigrate from the USSR were routinely denied exit visas. They were fired from their jobs and blacklisted in every professional field, having to resort to menial labor for sustenance and in order to avoid imprisonment for parasitism—being unemployed in the Soviet state. Their families were socially ostracized, threatened and assaulted. CCS monitored the Antisemitic tendencies in the Soviet sciences and kept track of individual victimized Soviet Jewish scientists. It kept U.S. elected officials informed on the systematic breaches of international human rights laws and the Soviet constitution by the government of the USSR. CCS gathered hundreds of signatures from American scientists who supported a national moratorium on scientific contacts with the Soviet Union.
As a representative of SUNY in the CCS, Carol Kekst was instrumental in staging a scientists' boycott of a cooperative project between the State University of New York and Moscow State University that was initiated in 1976.
Return to the Top of PageScope and Content Note
The collection documents the activities of the vice-chair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists, Inc., Dr. Carol Schapiro Kekst. It contains background information on the Soviet state discrimination against Jewish scientists in the USSR and materials on some individual Soviet Jewish Refusenik scientists and dissidents--Victor Brailovsky, Yuri Orlov, Anatoly Sharansky, Andrei Sakharov, Ilya Piatetsky-Shapiro, Alexander Lerner, Eugene Levich, and others. The boycott of the State University of New York cooperative project with Moscow State University is also covered.
The materials include clippings, articles, correspondence, memos, releases, publications and reports.
The collection consists of one manuscript box.
Return to the Top of PageArrangement
The collection is arranged into a single series.
Return to the Top of PageRestrictions
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.
Use Restrictions
Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:
American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, N.Y., 10011 email: reference@ajhs.org
Return to the Top of PageRelated Material
The Papers of Carol S. Kekst is one individual collection within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM) located at the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS). Other Soviet Jewry Movement collections at AJHS include the records of Action for Soviet Jewry (I-487), the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ; I-181 and I-181A), the Jewish Defense League (I-374), the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (I-410, I-410A), Houston Action for Soviet Jewry (I-500), Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (I-505), Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry (I-507), The Jewish Chronicle Soviet Jewry Collection (I-523), B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum Soviet Jewry Movement Collection (I-529), Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry (I-530), Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (I-538), United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (I-543), the papers of Joel Ackerman (P-787), Julia Mates Cheney (P-806), Jerry Goodman (P-863), Laurel and Alan J. Gould (P-866), Carolyn W. Sanger (P-870), Leah Lieberman (P-869), Si Frumkin (P-871), Elaine Pittell (P-873), Sanford A. Gradinger (P-880), Shaul Osadchey (P-882), Leonard S. Cahan (P-883), Doris H. Goldstein (P-887), David H. Hill (P-888), Margery Sanford (P-889), Pinchas Mordechai Teitz (P-891), David Waksberg (P-895), Pamela B. Cohen (P-897), Moshe Decter (P-899), William Korey (P-903), Morey Schapira (P-906), Charlotte Gerber Turner (P-907), Myrtle Sitowitz (P-908), Kathleen M. Hyman (P-911), Babette Wampold (P-912), Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein (P-918), Leslie Schaffer (P-923), Arthur Bernstein (P-925), Dolores Wilkenfeld (P-927), Sylvia Weinberg (P-928) , Irwin H. Krasna (P-934) , Constance S. Kreshtool (P-935), Betty Golomb (P-938), Grace Perlbinder (P-942), Mort Yadin (P-943), Ann Polunsky (P-886), Lillian Foreman (P-945), Marilyn Labendz(P-946), Abraham Silverstein(P-947), Bert Silver (P-949), Billie Kozolchyk (P-950), John Steinbruck (P-951) and Victor Borden (P-959).
Additional materials from other collections include records dealing with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) located within the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA, I-338) and the records of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC, I-172). Related records are also located at the AJHS in Newton Centre, MA including memorabilia and ephemera of the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (I-237) and the Records of the Student Coalition for Soviet Jewry – Brandeis University (I-493).
Return to the Top of PagePreferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known);
Carol S. Kekst Papers;
*P-961; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.
Acquisition Information
Donated by Carol S. Kekst in 2007.
Return to the Top of Page-
Subject Names:
- Committee of Concerned Scientists
- Union of Councils for Soviet Jews
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Subject Topics:
- Antisemitism
- Human rights
- Jews, Soviet
- Refuseniks
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Subject Places:
- Soviet Union
- United States
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Document Types:
- Articles
- Clippings
- Correspondence
- Memorandum
- Newsletters
- Publications
Container List
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Papers of Carol S. Kekst, undated, 1975, 1977-1982. |
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| The series is in English. | |||
| 1 manuscript box. | |||
Arrangement:Chronological. |
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Scope and Content:See the collection Scope and Content Note. |
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| Box | Folder | Title | Date |
| 1 | 1 | Carol S. Kekst Papers | undated, 1975, 1977-1978 |
| 1 | 2 | Carol S. Kekst Papers | 1979-1980 |
| 1 | 3 | Carol S. Kekst Papers | 1981-1982 |
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