Hillel (Gilja) Izrailevich Bututman ( Hebrew הִלֵּל בּוּטְמָן ; September 11, 1932 , Leningrad - May 22, 2019 , Jerusalem [1] ) was one of the founders of the Zionist movement of the 1960s in the USSR, organizer of illegal ulpans, Hebrew teacher, initiator of the “ Operation Wedding ” and its organizer at the initial stage.
| Hillel Izrailevich Butman | |
|---|---|
| הִלֵּל בּוּטְמָן | |
 | |
| Date of Birth | September 11, 1932 |
| Place of Birth | Leningrad , USSR |
| Date of death | May 22, 2019 (86 years) |
| Place of death | Jerusalem , Israel |
| A country | |
| Occupation | lawyer, human rights activist, dissident, Zionist |
| Spouse | Eva Butman (ur. Beckman) |
Content
Biography
By education - a lawyer. From 1957 to 1960 - investigator of the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department. Dismissed "for contact with the Jewish bourgeois nationalist organization." Later he graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute .
Back in the late fifties, he met with the underground Zionists of the older generation. He began studying Hebrew in 1958 with Lia Lurie ( 1912 - 1960 ).
On November 5, 1966, Butman with like-minded people ( Zeev Mogilever , Solomon Dreyzner , David Chernoglaz , Aron Spielberg, Rudolf Brud, Grigory Vertlib, Ben Tovbin) founded the Leningrad underground Zionist organization . Participates in the distribution of literature, the publication of the newspaper "Iton".
In 1969, Mark Dymshits offered Gilel Butman to flee with his families on a pleasure plane from Yerevan (Armenia) to Israel. Hillel Butman refused to risk his family just to escape, but at a meeting of the Zionist committee of the Leningrad underground organization he proposed his plan, in which Mark Dymshitz should play the role of a hijacked aircraft pilot if Soviet pilots refused to carry him on. The difference between the plan of Hillel Butman and the plan of Mark Dymshits is that the main thing was not to seize the plane for the sake of escape, but to cause pressure of the Western powers on the government of the Soviet Union demanding to allow the free exit of Soviet Jews to Israel. Therefore, it was about capturing a large ship with 64 participants, followed by a press conference in Stockholm. Hillel Butman called his plan “Operation Wedding”.
On April 30, 1970, in the order of information , Andropov reported to the CPSU Central Committee about the existence of a Zionist organization in Leningrad [2] . June 15, 1970 Butman, along with other Zionist activists arrested. Passed accused by so-called. The second Leningrad process - the case of an underground Zionist organization. The case was considered from May 11 to 20, 1971 in the Leningrad City Court by judge N. S. Isakova. On May 20, 1971, he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in a high-security camp (articles 17, 64 "a", 70-1, 72, 189-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR ) [3] . The term of imprisonment was served in Dubravlag ( Mordovia ), later in Permlag ( Perm region ). Consisted in the Zionist commune of prisoners.
From the conclusion he wrote statements about the violation of the rights of prisoners, some of whom ended up in samizdat [4] .
In 1979, the USSR released early a number of Zionist prisoners and gave them permission to go to Israel with their families. Among them is Butman, who by this time spent nine years in prison. In the same year he repatriated to Israel. Family Butmanov settles in Jerusalem . Having mastered the Israeli law, Butman went to work at the Office of the State Comptroller of Israel in Jerusalem, where he worked as a lawyer until his retirement. For a while, he was the press secretary of the Organization of Prisoners of Zion.
On September 23, 1992, by order of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the judgment of the judicial court in criminal cases of the Lengorsud dated May 20, 1971 and the Definition of the Judicial college in criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR dated July 20, 1971, regarding the conviction of G. I. according to Art. 17, 64 "a", 70 h. I, 72 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR canceled, the case was dismissed due to the absence of corpus delicti.
He died in Jerusalem on May 22, 2019 from cancer in the 87th year of life. Even hid his illness from friends.
Family
Butman's wife, Eva (Ella; nee Beckman), also participated in Zionist activities. The eldest daughter Butmanov, Lilya, was born in Leningrad. The youngest, Geula - in Jerusalem.
Books
Hillel Butman wrote two books of memoirs that came out in Israel in Russian, and later in Hebrew in an authorized translation of Shlomo Even-Shoshan. Books Butman serve as the most valuable material for researchers of the human rights movement , human rights violations in the USSR and the history of the Jews of Russia.
- Butman G. I. Leningrad-Jerusalem with a long transfer / Entry. Art. A. Belova; Ed. R.A. Zernov. - Israel: B-Aliya, 1981. - 232 p., 15 p. silt - (B-Aliya; 84).
- Butman G. I. Time to be silent and time to speak / Ed. F. Rosiner; Preface A. Belova; Fig. M. Dymshits. - Israel: B-Aliya, 1984. - 240 pp., Ill., 4 p. silt - (B-Aliya; 76).
Literature, sources
- Belov, Abraham : They punched a hole in the wall (the preface to the book “Leningrad-Jerusalem with a long transplant”, see above).
- Belov, Abraham: Fortunately for a match that burned down, but blew out the flame (preface to the book. “Time to be silent and time to speak,” see above).
- Anti-Jewish processes in the Soviet Union / 1969-1971 /. Documents and legal commentary (in two volumes) - Jerusalem, 1979.
- Chronicle of current events (samizdat), passim .
- Mogilever, Haim Zeev , Memoirs (audio recording, 2004). Foundation Center " Magen ", Haifa.
Notes
- ↑ From a galaxy of brave
- The existence of a Zionist organization in Leningrad and the Butman Plan. Note by the KGB to the Central Committee No. 1184-A of 04/30/70.
- ↑ Political processes (May-June 1971) . The date of circulation is September 9, 2009. Archived February 14, 2012.
- ↑ see page 76 . The date of circulation is September 9, 2009. Archived February 14, 2012.