An engineer by trade, Solomon (Shlomo) Dreizner joined a secret Zionist organization in Leningrad, his birth city, and was a member of the “Leningrad Nine” when Soviet authorities cracked down on the group. Along with his confreres, Dreizner thought that Jewish culture might flourish in a less repressive Soviet Union. The government thought otherwise. Dreizner was arrested, convicted, and sentenced in a trial whose outcome was a fait accompli. Upon his release, Dreizner promptly returned to activism. He fulfilled his long-deferred dream of emigrating to Israel, arriving just before the Yom Kippur War.
Commandment II is from a series of forged-iron sculptures Kirili began in the late 1970s. They are among his best-known works and reflect his strong interest in religious concepts and ancient texts…
On Saturdays, and on unusually busy days when my father could not take the time to come home to the noon dinner, it became my duty to take his midday meal down to him, very carefully packed in a large…