He was born in 1957 in the town of Kerch in Crimea, in the family, followed some Jewish traditions, but Zionistically inclined. In 1959 Simon’s parents applied for the exit visa to go to Israel for the first time, but were refused with all the consequences. In 1977, while living in Zaporozhye, where he has worked after the graduation a Metallurgical College, he filed the documents to leave for Israel, now by himself, and was also refused. In the same year, Simon began to make applications to various Soviet and foreign authorities and organizations to obtain the permission to go. At the same time, he tried to renounce his Soviet citizenship, and also failed to appear at the recruiting office when he received the draft papers. In 1978, after much persuasion and exhortations to abandon his intention, he was arrested and sentenced to 2.5 years of imprisonment for “Evasion from the service in the Soviet Army”. After his release he returned to Kerch, in the next 2 years worked as a loader and took part in the Zionist activities—contacts and communication with foreign organizations and public figures, co-operation with colleagues and friends from other cities in the Soviet Union, receiving and distribution of Zionist literature and other materials. In 1983 he was arrested again and brought to the trial. He was accused of the distribution of Zionist literature and other materials, as well as other episodes of Zionist activity, but was sentenced to 3 years of high security imprisonment under the same article of the Criminal Code as the first time—for evading the military service. So he had become, apparently, the only prisoner of Zion, convicted twice for the same misdemeanor. While serving his time he was subjected to severe physical, mental and psychological punishments, went through dozens of prisons and camps in various parts of the Ukraine. Much of the time he spent in solitary confinement—punishment cells and dungeons. Repeatedly hold hunger strikes, one of which was a 6-day dry strike. In 1984 he received from a KGB official, signed by the District Prosecutor of Vinnytsa, a warning about prohibition of the collection of information in places of detention. In 1985 they open a new criminal case against Simon, this time for the repeated violations of the Prison Administration Code and the disobedience to Corrective Labor Institutions, and he was transferred from the camp to a prison. But a few months later, in a few days before the scheduled trial at which they intended to add another 2−3 years to his term, the case was closed “due to lack of evidence” after the situation with Simon was raised by Senator Dennis DeConcini, who headed the U.S. delegation to Moscow, at his meeting with Gorbachev. Simon was kept in captivity for 2 months more then the sentence time, then released, but for 1 year was kept under the administrative supervision. The last year, before leaving the Soviet Union for Israel, Simon lived in Kishinev; during this period he was one of the leaders in Zionist circles there. In 1987 he finally received the permission and left for Israel. In Israel he served in the Israeli army, graduated from the Faculty of Criminology and Sociology of one of the Israeli universities, has published several articles and letters on the current events. Lives now with his family in Haifa, works in law enforcement.
Information provided by Simon Shnirman. The photo was taken in 1988 in Israel.
