One of the most famous Prisoners of Zion who defied the Soviet regime to be allowed to go to Israel is to speak at the Limmud education conference next month.
Yosef Mendelevich, now a rabbi, will share a platform with another refusenik, Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky, who will be returning after his conference debut in 2013.
Rabbi Mendelevich was jailed for his part in a plot to hijack an airliner in Leningrad in 1970 to dramatise the plight of Jews unable to leave for Israel. He was finally allowed to emigrate there after his release in 1981.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis will also be returning to Limmud this year and among other Orthodox rabbis joining him will be Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, his successor at Finchley Synagogue, and Rabbi Shaul Robinson, of New York's Lincoln Square Synagogue, formerly minister of Barnet United Synagogue.
"My brother is one of the conference chairs and I wanted to support him," Rabbi Robinson said.
New Spanish and Portuguese senior rabbi, Joseph Dweck, will also be speaking, as well as Masorti senior rabbi, Jonathan Wittenberg; Reform senior rabbi, Laura Janner-Klausner; and Liberal chief executive, Rabbi Danny Rich.
The cross-communal event at Warwick University runs from December 28 to January 1.
A number of sessions will mark two anniversaries: this year's 100th anniversary of outbreak of the First World War, and 70 years next year since the end of the Second World War and the liberation of the concentration camps. Conference programme co-chair Ben Crowne said: "As these events begin to pass beyond living memory, we aim to revive the attention and deepen the understanding of younger generations."
Around 50 sessions will be devoted to Israel, including panels on the "crisis of Liberal Zionism". Speakers will include Israeli author Ari Shavit and Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah.
"Limmud has long had a reputation for encouraging debate and bringing a diversity of perspectives," Mr Crowne said.