Following the Six-Day War, the Soviet Union cut off diplomatic ties with Israel, leaving Nativ far more reliant on Chabad’s existing network.

Without an embassy, and therefore lacking an open base of operations in Russia, Nativ began organizing American and European Jews to protest against the Soviet Union’s treatment of its Jews, a project that birthed the Soviet Jewry Movement. Based on the Rebbe’s own contacts and sources, as well as his keen and in-depth understanding of the Soviett mindset, he discouraged the public demonstrations that ensued, arguing that it would harm Soviet Jews rather than help.

When Nativ was in the process of organizing a demonstration in 1969, the Rebbe asked Nechemia Levanon to postpone them until at least after Passover. At the time, small numbers of Jews were quietly being allowed to emigrate, and the Rebbe had knowledge that 5,000 Jews were set to leave Russia soon. After a back and forth, the Israelis refused to stop it.

Two years later, in 1971, the Rebbe spoke about this event, saying that because of those protests “hundreds of families who had emigration permits in their hands are until today in the Soviet Union. The situation has deteriorated even more, some lost their jobs, some had to leave their homes, because the Russian government thought they were connected to the demonstrations. The organizers of the demonstrations are playing with the lives of 3,000,000 Jews.”

In countless private audiences, the Rebbe dealt with a wide array of people regarding Soviet Jewry, including such influential personages as the political theorist Hans Morgenthau, and many more who traveled to Russia on the Rebbe’s behalf and at his behest.

The early 1970s saw the establishment in Israel of the Shamir organization, a group that provided material and spiritual needs for Jews still in Russia and recent Russian immigrants in Israel. It was led by the English philanthropist, Peter Kalms, and Soviet Jewish emigre scientist, Herman Branover, who had become an observant Chabad Chassid while still behind the Iron Curtain. Before leaving the country, Branover had obtained the Rebbe’s blessing for his departure from Russia.

Over the years, the Rebbe gave Shamir specific instructions on how to organize and best assist Soviet Jewry. For example, the Rebbe instructed them that books printed by Shamir should be in the Russian language, but should not include anti-Soviet content. In numerous conversations during those years, the Rebbe stressed the importance of concrete Jewish learning over loud statements and complex intellectualism. Commenting on the famed Simchat Torah dancing which took place every year outside of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, the Rebbe told Kalms: “But what will be the next morning? They must be taught Modeh Ani, not high philosophy.” (Modeh Ani being the first prayer a Jew says upon awakening, i.e. foundational knowledge.)

Even after the bulk of Samarkand’s Chabad community had emigrated, the last of whom left in 1973, Chassidim remained in Russia who kept the flame of traditional Judaism alive. Reb Getche Vilensky, Mottel Lifshitz, Yehuda Bartnovsky, and Avraham Genin were well known in Moscow, serving as religious mentors to hundreds of young Jewish refuseniks.

Reb Getche was an especially influential figure, almost solely responsible for the baal teshuvah movement (a return to traditional Judaism) in Moscow. Almost every person who became a teacher in the Jewish underground had been a student of Reb Getche. He, Reb Mottel, and Avraham Genin, were also responsible for the brit milahs (ritual circumcisions) and chuppahs (Jewish weddings) in Moscow.

In Leningrad, a young man with Chabad roots named Yitzchak Kogan became reacquainted with his religion, thanks to the influence of old time Lubavitchers such as Refoel Neymotin (the son of the martyred Shmuel Neymotin, who himself spent time in the Gulags), and became a leader of religious life in Leningrad.

Handfuls of older-generation Lubavitchers who had been sent to their locations by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak were still alive and active. Hillel Liberow, the shochet of Almaty, passed away in that city in the early 1980s, never having left the city where he felt responsible for its Jews.

In the 1980s, working though Lishkas Ezras Achim, more and more people visited the Soviet Union laden with religious items such as tefillin, mezuzahs and publications. As Professor Ron Rubin of the City University New York recalls:

“The parameters of my third trip were clearly supply and inspiration. Sponsored by the Chabad Lubavitch organization, Lishkas Ezras Achim, two young rabbis and I spent two weeks there. We brought few personal effects, but at a warehouse in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights our suitcases were stuffed with Jewish books and sundry ritual items ranging from shechitah (kosher slaughter) knives, kosher yeast and burial shrouds. On the plane, we spoke seriously of the possibility that our goods would be confiscated at Soviet customs and that we could be either thrown out of the country or arrested. On that trip I saw one of the young rabbis secretly circumcise an adult male who was lying on a simple table.”

When Senator Chic (Jacob) Hecht was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1982, the Rebbe told him that his “top priority should be to get the Jews out of Russia,” adding that the key was “quiet diplomacy.”

Before leaving for his first appointment with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, President Ronald Reagan’s last appointment was with Senator Hecht. Hecht gave Reagan a list of 1,200 names of Jews who wished to leave the Soviet Union. Reagan brought up the issue directly with Gorbachev, and months later the floodgates would open, seeing the mass exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union.

Beginning in the 1970s, the Rebbe consistently anticipated the eventual exodus of Soviet Jewry and urged Israel and Jewish organizations to confront the emerging issues of housing, social services, and most importantly, Jewish education.

During those years, Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union were processed by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in Austria and then Ladispoli, a city on the outskirts of Rome. Starting in the 1980s until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chabad Center in Ladispoli cared for thousands of Jewish immigrants who passed through its doors.