Refusenik authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960 through 1970, only about 3,000 Soviet Jews had (legally) emigrated from the USSR; after the trial, in the period from 1971 to 1980 347,100 people received a visa to leave the USSR, 245,951 of them were Jews. Refuseniks included Jews who desired to emigrate on religious grounds, Jews seeking to immigrate to Israel for Zionist aspirations, and relatively secular Jews desiring to escape continuous state-sponsored antisemitism. A leading proponent and spokesman for the refusenik rights during the mid-1970s was Natan Sharansky. Sharansky's involvement with the Moscow Helsinki Group helped
Eli Sadan During his studies, he was asked by Rabbi Kook to assist in establishing Moshav Keshet in the Golan Heights and in establishing a core of Torah scholars in Eilat. Together with Rabbi Tzvi Tau, he was delegated by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda with regarding to prisoners of Zion, among them Natan Sharansky. They even held a secret telephone conversation before Sharansky entered the Russian prison. Afterwards, Sadan held several meetings with US officials in order to secure Sharansky's release. In 1988, Sadan established the first pre-military preparatory program (mechina), together with Rabbi Yigal Levinstein. The mechina is named "Bnei David" and