Multi-entry visa issued to Ralph Goldman

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s (JDC) Honorary Executive Vice President, Ralph Goldman, was issued a visa allowing travel between Washington, Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, and Vilnius, for the period between July 1, 1991 and April 5, 1992. This was the first time since 1938 that anyone from JDC was issued a multi-entry visa that allowed travel throughout this region. As JDC’s professional leader, Goldman was best known for initiating and overseeing JDC’s re-entry into most of Eastern Europe, where it had been active in the early part of the 20th century, and re-establishing in the mind-1980’s a strong Jewish presence in a region where Jews and Judaism had been decimated by Nazism and then barred from practicing their religion under Communism.