Yosef Mendele­vich was born in Riga, Latvia in 1947. He lived through extreme anti-Semi­tism and saw his father arrest­ed. Although the sit­u­a­tion was dif­fi­cult, Mende­levich fought back. He secret­ly began to study Judaism and found­ed an under­ground orga­nization to fight for Jew­ish rights. When his attempts to obtain an exit visa to immi­grate to Israel were unsuc­cess­ful, he tried to hijack a plane to the West. This led to his arrest and a twelve-year sen­tence in the Gulag. Even in prison, he stud­ied and observed the com­mandments, going on a hunger strike when his books were con­fis­cat­ed. With help from Jews around the world, Mendele­vich was freed in 1981. He made aliyah and stud­ied at var­i­ous yeshiv­ot to obtain rab­binic ordi­na­tion. He also earned a master’s degree in Jew­ish his­to­ry and served in the IDF. His efforts led to the mass immi­gra­tion of Sovi­et Jews to Israel. Now a father and grand­fa­ther, he con­tin­ues to be active in Jew­ish edu­ca­tion and social action.