Reviewing: “Hijack for Freedom: The Memoirs of Mark Dymshits: Soviet Pilot, Jew, Breacher of the Iron Curtain” by Mark Dymshits. Gefen Publishing. 2021. Paperback. 268 pages. ISBN-13: 978-9657023259.
I’m relaxing on the beach in Tel Aviv reading a book that I’ve been enjoying. More than enjoying, it’s an important piece of our history as a people, specifically related to the struggle to free the Jews of the Soviet Union, in which I was active in my teens and early adulthood, and which is so important to remember.
“Hijack for Freedom” is the memoir of Mark Dymshits. Unlike other memoirs written to be a book, Dymshits’ writing was only discovered after he died, and only then published.
Mark Dymshits was a former Soviet Air Force pilot who, discriminated against as a Jew, sought to leave the USSR, which was nearly impossible in 1970. He and others planned to hijack a plane and fly themselves out of the USSR to freedom and eventually be able to go to Israel. It’s a compelling read.
Unlike many other of the most prominent refuseniks and Soviet Jewish activists of the time whose names became a household word, Dymshits chronicles how he had been a loyal Soviet citizen and only upon becoming subjected to increasing discrimination realized that the Soviet Union was not his homeland and could never be. He understood and took action as an individual, aware that in doing so he would change the course of how Soviet Jews looked at their own identity. Unlike many others, he did not spend years learning or teaching Hebrew in secret, studying or practicing Judaism. He was not particularly involved with any of the Zionist groups and leaders at that time. He just wanted to leave for Israel.
As a pilot, he spearheaded a plan to hijack a small plane that would be filled with other Soviet Jews, and fly to the West and freedom. Perhaps because he didn’t spend years hiding his identity as a teacher or political activist, he was less sensitive to the depths to which the KGB infiltrated these groups. Members were caught, arrested and tried. He and another leader received the death sentence. This caused an uproar in the West and was a catalyst for other Soviet Jews to begin their fight to leave. In a way, he was like Alfred Dreyfus, whose antisemitic sentence caused Theodor Herzl to “hijack” the complacency of Jews in “enlightened” countries and set a goal to establish a Jewish state.
Fifty years after Herzl, the dream of establishing a Jewish state was realized and 50 years after Dymshits and the others involved with “Operation Wedding,” the majority of Jews who wished to leave the USSR were able to do so.
As I wiggled my feet in the soft sand, I became aware of a family speaking Russian behind me. It was clearly three generations: grandparents, their children and their grandchildren. I understand some basic Russian from teaching myself in order to get by on my own in the USSR back in the ‘80s. One of the little boys had a unique way he rolled his r’s, which I attributed to his growing up in Israel but speaking Russian at home among his immigrant family.
At one point as they chatted behind me, I read the following passage related to Dymshits’ arrest, trial and imprisonment. and how in many ways that was a catalyst in the USSR to inspire Jews to try to leave, and a catalyst in the west to advocate on their behalf.a
He wrote: “The KGB had a choice to make between (charging us with violating Soviet laws of) article 83 with short prison terms, or article 64 with long prison terms and even execution. If the KGB had chosen article 83, and given us prison terms of up to three years, they would have made themselves look humane in the world’s eye. After serving our short sentences, we would have gone off to Israel without causing a fuss, but without a fuss there would have been no large- scale aliyah. They would have given exit visas to a few thousand Jews, and everything would have gone quiet for a few years.”
As I’m reading these words and hearing the Russian behind me, I see Dymshits’ vision being fulfilled. Eventually, the Jews of the Soviet Union would have come home. But if the high- profile nature of the bold plan, then the trial and subsequent protest of the verdict had not taken place, it is indeed possible that at that point there would have not yet been a large-scale movement, or exodus, of Soviet Jews.
Friends who are former Soviet Jews who live in Israel have articulated what a hero and how pivotal Dymshits was. His book is a personal memoir that includes much about his early life, the period leading up to the hijack plan, and then the imprisonment, trial, sentence, and serving his time in successive prisons. Spoiler alert, he was not killed and did make it to Israel.
As much as Dymshits and the other defendants were pivotal in changing things, I’m sure that if I had asked the Russian speaking family who Mark Dymshits is, they would probably have had no idea.
Today, it is not uncommon to see plane loads of new immigrants landing in Israel from different parts of the world. It’s important to know and never forget that only 50 years ago the Jews of the Soviet Union were prohibited from leaving and faced wild discriminated. It is the heroism of people like Dymshits who changed the paradigm.
Especially as this week I celebrate my 18th anniversary of making aliyah. Thank God we’re all home.
By Jonathan Feldstein
