I will always be indebted to Martin Gilbert's ﬁght for our freedom - The Jewish Chronicle

The world recently lost one of its best scholars, someone I had the privilege to know well and whom I very much admired. Martin Gilbert was not only an outstanding historian, he was also an active participant in the fate of the Jewish people, shared in its suffering and devoted his considerable talents to its benefit. One of the ways he did this was through his keen interest in and dedication to the plight of Soviet Jewry; and this is how we met.

The Soviet Jewry movement - the struggle of a small group of Jewish activists ("refuseniks") living behind the Iron Curtain to open the gates of the USSR - could not have succeeded without the living bridge that was formed between us and the rest of the Jewish world. This bridge comprised Jews from the free world who visited the Soviet Union as tourists, bringing educational materials to refuseniks and relaying information about our plight to Jewish organisations back home.

During their visits, these intrepid souls were often searched, threatened, arrested, or even expelled, but they continued to come, fuelling the efforts of the entire Jewish world on our behalf and ensuring that the living bridge they built, on which our future depended, never crumbled or swayed. The KGB dismissively referred to them students and housewives. Yet among them was one of the most distinguished historians of our time.

Martin was undoubtedly the foremost activist among historians and the foremost historian among the activists. While writing volume after volume on the history of the Second World War and other major events, he also served as a reliable cable in the bridge between Soviet Jews and the rest of the world.

He endured searches and received threats, and ignored them all while visiting refusenik families and collecting information to use in the fight for our freedom and that of the millions who stood behind us.

After my release from Soviet prison, during my first trip to England, Martin took me on a tour through London, showing me the streets, parks, and rooms where Churchill had made his historic decisions. His gift as a scholar lay in grounding the great moments of history in everyday life, in the daily choices and small details of his heroes' biographies. By the same token, he could elevate and transform the seemingly commonplace into a narrative of world historical significance. In the case of the Soviet Jewry movement, he used his detailed notes about refuseniks' humble lives to tell the story of their struggle and prepare the world for the major exodus to come.

Martin was as dedicated to his research and as focused on its details as a great scholar should be. He was also as down to earth and as deeply connected to other people as a close friend should be. His first gift to my wife Avital and me when we began our life in Jerusalem was two comfortable bathrobes, very simple yet very practical, which served us for at least the next 20 years.

Martin Gilbert, the great historian of Great Britain, who looked like a character out of a 19th-century novel, was also a Jew of the 20th century, who lived with his people through all its tragedies and pain. He was an optimistic and enthusiastic Zionist, and a comrade-in-arms who fought tyranny and injustice without fear or hesitation. He was exceptionally modest, always looking to help and never to aggrandise himself. As a result, while as an observer of history he was always in the front row, he was unfailingly in the back of every picture. This is the Martin I knew, the man I will always remember and dearly miss.