By the mid-1960s, no legal Jewish voluntary society remained in the USSR. Soviet propaganda alleged that the Jewish problem had been solved in the USSR, for "Soviet citizens of Jewish nationality" had their autonomy and their journal "Sovetish Geimland" ("Soviet Homeland") in Yiddish. Nevertheless, the great majority of Jews lived outside of Birobidzhan. There were neither Jewish schools, nor Jewish theaters, nor Jewish clubs outside of Birobidzhan. The authorities tried to raise Jews who spoke Russian, were cut off from their ethnic roots, and remembered their second-rate status in Soviet society. Writers allowed to write in Yiddish were grouped only around the journal "Sovetish Geimland". This group dwindled without infusions of new blood from a younger generation. All writings in Hebrew was unpublishable in the USSR.
In those years, Jews were ousted completely from the upper echelons of the Communist Party and government. For 20 years after 1939, Jewish representation at the top of the Communist Party bureaucracy decreased by as much as 36 times (from 10.8% to 0.3%). The Jewish role in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR also decreased steadily. Even a suspicion of Jewish origin could end any public career - as an academic, as an advanced worker. Receiving higher education or any prestigious job was difficult for Jews. Soviet propaganda constantly stressed the fact that the percentage of Jews with higher education was greater than for any other nationality. But then, according to the statistics, Jews more often received a higher education as part-time students. The traditionally high prestige of education among Jews enabled them to overcome administrative obstacles.
In accordance with the population census of 1959, 2,267,814 Jews lived in the USSR (not counting highland Jews and Bukhara Jews). 14% of Jews were in mixed marriages (one and a half times more common among men than women). As against the average of the country, the birthrate in Jewish families was lower. Jewish migration from the former Pale of Settlement to cities, including those in the Urals and Siberia, went on. 10% of all architects, engineers and technicians, 16% of all doctors, 9% of all lecturers in higher education institutions, and 1% of all agronomists were Jews. There was still a large Jewish presence among figures in the arts, science or culture. In 1964, 17% of the candidates for the Lenin Prize were Jews.
Jews played an active role in the Russian civil liberties movement. Most of them belonged to the assimilated part of Jewry. Those who supported the Socialist wing of the opposition were followers of internationalism. The representatives of the General Democratic (Liberal) part of the movement were supporters of general humanist values. However, among the Slavophile and Monarchist wing of Soviet dissenters, there were some Jews who adopted Orthodox Christianity. Semi-official Soviet propaganda made much of the Jewish origins of many supporters of civil liberties. Simultaneously with the general Russian freedom movement, a new youth Zionist underground sprang up. The Zionists sympathized with the Russian civil liberties movement; however, they considered the struggle to stop forced assimilation and to ensure the possibility of emigration to Israel the true calling of Jewish youth.
In the 1960s, in some cities (Leningrad, Riga, Kishinev), small groups formed among Jewish young people who did not want tolerate the humiliating position of Jews in the USSR. They considered departure their historical homeland the simplest solution to the problem. However, when they appealed to OVIR, they were always refused and sent away with the words "You'll rot here and never see that Israel of yours!" United into discussion circles, the young people began studying Hebrew, Jewish history and the history of Israel on their own. Many Jewish homes had a radio-set tuned to 33-m wavelength, the frequency of The Voice of Israel's Russian-language broadcasts. Youth Jewish groups cared for the graves of the Nazis' victims; they attempted to publish their own newspapers. In Riga, an attempt was even made to open a Jewish cafe. In the environs of Kishinev, Jewish youth camps were organized.
The Six-Day War sparked an upsurge of Jewish national feeling. It awakened pride even in the most broken-spirited and assimilated Jews, and many Jewish activists were dismayed that they could not fight side by side with the Israelis. The situation made scattered Jewish groups think of coordinated actions. First, Leningrad, Riga and Kishinev Jewish groups concluded an agreement. Jewish samizdat was smuggled from Riga to Leningrad. Plans were made to transform the camps around Kishinev into summer ulpans for the youth of all three cities. Ties were established with groups in other cities.
Because of the Six-Day War, a new wave of anti-semitic propaganda arose in USSR. The apotheosis was a press-conference of 52 distinguished figures of Soviet science and culture who had Jewish origin; the slogan of the conference was "Our homeland is USSR". Jews felt disgust, shame and indignation at the propaganda show. The authorities were so cynical that they established, at the suggestion of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a Jewish Anti-Zionist Committee headed by General D. Dragunsky, twice decorated Hero of the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, the authorities continued their persecution of those who wanted to leave USSR.
The situation for Jews in USSR might have remained unchanged for a long time. However, in 1970, a group of Zionist-minded Jews attempted to hijack an airliner. The authorities did not succeed in hiding the fact from the world. The participants in the "airliner affair" were sentenced to long prison terms. In 1970, 4 causes celebres took place in Leningrad, Riga and Kishinev. During the next 15 years, there were constant trials against Zionists, and a wave of demonstrations took placed outside of Soviet embassies worldwide with the slogan "Let my people go!". While members of Zionist organizations served prison sentences, the Soviet authorities had to compromise. Under the pretext of "family reunions", some Jews were allowed to leave the USSR.