About the Film

After the Prague Spring of 1968 Yakobson began publishing “The Chronicles of Current Events”protesting the persecution of meskhs, the trials of Crimean Tatars, unlawful imprisonments and multiple violations of religious freedoms of people in Ukraine, Caucasus, and Lithuania making it known around the world. He introduced a radical literary column called  “Jewish movement for Immigrating to Israel” to the publication. Together with the leader of Moscow Zionist movement, Meir Gelfond, Yakobson published detailed accounts of unjust trials, unlawful dismissals, provocations in many cities and towns of the Soviet Union. The film also tells the story of unknown people, who at great risk, helped to publish the famous “Chronicles of Current Events.” 

A close friend from these early years remembers, “We bonded immediately over our love for poetry. We, Tolya and I, lived and breathed poetry back then; it was the most important thing to us.”  It is the poetry, Russian poetry that guided him through life.

“After Prague Spring,1968 ~ nothing was the same”  

In 1972 the KGB forced Yakobson to choose between prison and exile. He emigrated to Israel and died 6 years later. A stone in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, bears the name Anatoly Yakobson, 1935-1978 written in Russian and Hebrew. The life and faith of Anatoly Yakobson is intricately woven into contemporary history.