SHAMIR Russia

center in Moscow, , led by Rabbi Berl Tsisin.

“I can’t find a decent job.” “What’s the point of staying in Israel?” “I know I’m Jewish but what difference does it make?”

In 1971, as millions of Jews remained locked behind the Iron Curtain, The Lubavitcher Rebbe gathered 20 of the first “refuseniks” to escape the Soviet Union at a historic private audience and gave them a mission:

For the name of the Association, The Rebbe chose “SHAMIR”, a Hebrew acronym for Shomrei Mitzvot Yotsei Russia, literally, “keepers of the commandments who left Russia.”

For the Chairman of SHAMIR, The Rebbe chose celebrated physicist and refusenik, Professor Herman Branover who has led the worldwide organization ever since.

From shamir.info