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March 13, 2025

When the Soviet Police Surveilled Purim Parties

A failed escape and a beloved sacred tune.

In the two or three years immediately after World War II, Eastern Europe’s political order was still in flux, the iron curtain was somewhat flimsy, and many Jews in the Soviet Union were trying to leave for the West. Yankel Lepkivker was one of four Lubavitch Hasidim who attempted to do so by crossing the border into Romania. They were caught by Romanian police, handed over to the MGB (precursor to the KGB), and interrogated and tortured. Lepkivker insisted at first that he was a not a Hasid, aware of Soviet hostility. Dovid Margolin writes:

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March 13, 2025

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