Linda Rutta Papers

The Papers of Linda Rutta 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.

As an undergraduate student in City College of New York during the 1960s, Linda Rutta became inspired by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) to find ways to publicize and take immediate action concerning the plight of Soviet Jews trapped in the Soviet Union. She corresponded with the Soviet Refuseniks and Prisoners of Conscience, participated in marches, signed petitions, contacted United States politicians and wrote to the United Nations, in order to call attention to the plight of Jews in the USSR.

Circa 1967 Mrs. Rutta took part in the City College demonstration that spanned the length of the college campus, carrying signs and chanting slogans such as "Let My People Go" and "Am Yisroel Chai." Circa 1970 she participated in a bus tour to Washington D.C. to march in front of the White House on behalf of the Soviet Jewry. The purpose of these demonstrations was to publicize the plight of Soviet Jewry and demand trade sanctions against the Soviet Union until it allowed for free emigration for Soviet Jews.

In the mid-1970s the family of Linda Rutta participated in the SSSJ's Adopt-a-Family program by corresponding with the family of the Soviet Jewish Refusenik Victor Ozar.