Born in 1922 in Vilnius, Lithuania, while serving in the Red Army in 1943, was wounded at the front, and hospitalized in Moscow. There he contacted some Jewish young people, began spreading Zionist propaganda among them, collected and distributed Zionist and Judaic literature, lectured about Zionism and took part in the organization of underground aliyah to Eretz Israel. After returning to the army he helped the Jewish soldiers to get demobilization ahead of schedule and instructed them on how to cross the borders en route to Eretz Israel. In 1947 he was arrested by MGB (the predecessor of KGB) on charges of subversive Zionist activity and sentenced to 8.5 years in the Gulag plus 6 months of exile in Komi ASSR (Gulag territory on the North of the European part of the USSR). Released in 1956, he managed to get to Israel within a year. He is a member of the executive committee and the High Council of the Organization of Prisoners of Zion.
