Confessions - Part 4, Soviet Jewry
III The Soviet Jewry Movement
The movement to free the Jews from the Soviet Union started as a response to the actions of several brave Jews who defied the Soviet authorities. The first one that I remember hearing about was Boris Kochubievsky, who wrote a moving letter to Brezhnev that was smuggled to the West. It read like a latter-day version of the speech by Shylock in the “Merchant of Venice,” calling for elementary human rights for Jews. In principle, since the Soviet Union was a signatory of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Jews should have had the choice to emigrate to Israel. Legally they could not simply go anyplace, but could only be repatriated to their ethnic homeland if invited by a relative. As the trickle of Jews leaving the USSR increased more and more invitations were being sent back.
The movement to free the Jews from the Soviet Union started as a response to the actions of several brave Jews who defied the Soviet authorities. The first one that I remember hearing about was Boris Kochubievsky, who wrote a moving letter to Brezhnev that was smuggled to the West. It read like a latter-day version of the speech by Shylock in the “Merchant of Venice,” calling for elementary human rights for Jews. In principle, since the Soviet Union was a signatory of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Jews should have had the choice to emigrate to Israel. Legally they could not simply go anyplace, but could only be repatriated to their ethnic homeland if invited by a relative. As the trickle of Jews leaving the USSR increased more and more invitations were being sent back.
I was appointed the Chair of the Soviet Jewry Committee of the JCC in 1971, and one of our first actions was naming the entrance to the Jewish Community Center in Rockville, Maryland, as “Kochubievsky Square.” In effect our actions were as much publicity as possible for those who had “outed” themselves. Such people were in grave danger, and having their names known and mentioned in the West was their main protection.
Two groups developed at this time, the official Jewish organization, the National Conference for Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) with an office in New York, and the grass-roots more radical “Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry” (UCSJ). As the name indicated the latter was a loose affiliation of groups that had sprung up around the county. Because of my position with the JCC I had a direct relationship with the NCSJ. But, because of my activism I was on good terms with the people who represented the UCSJ, often the same ones who were in the SJ Committee of the JCC.
I tried my best to keep the two groups on good terms and communicating with each other, but it was not always possible. Some people in the JCC did not trust me because of my good relations with the UCSJ, but I suppose they recognized that I did have an ability to bridge the gap and keep the two groups from each others’ throats. One of the main differences of political position was that the NCSJ’s official position was that we were aiding Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel, while the UCSJ wanted to get them out in any case, and wanted to help them immigrate to the USA. I suppose the USSR knew about this dissension.
At one point they clearly tried to infiltrate our group. I received a phone call one evening from someone identifying himself as an immigrant from the Soviet Union. He wanted me to meet him at his hotel in the District. This was suspicious, since most emigrants were destitute and left the Soviet Union with nothing. How could he afford to stay in a hotel (even a cheap one as it turned out). Also, they usually came to us through official channels as legal immigrants. Nevertheless we had had several strange people come out of the Soviet Union, and so I decided to meet him, but I also decided for safety to take along Buddy Sislen, the JCC official in charge of the Committee.
We went downtown and met the person at his hotel. Right from the start we were both very suspicious. First of all he seemed strangely nervous. Second, he wore a jacket that seemed much too big for him, and I suspected he had a recording device inside. Third his story was convoluted and although his English was passable, it was unclear what his story was. It was truly a dark rainy night, and with a few quick asides Buddy and I decided that this was not the real thing. Without committing ourselves to anything we told the guy, that sorry we couldn’t help him, and beat a retreat. Maybe there were other more successful penetrations by the KGB, but this attempt was very amateurish.
It was not always easy dealing with these Soviet Jewish immigrants. Some expected to be given everything on a silver platter, including being found well-paying jobs. I had to explain to many of them that this was not our role, there were social service agencies that dealt with that, and they had their own rules. Also, some of the immigrants were very strong-willed, perhaps they had to be having defied the USSR, and some had their own political agenda. I well remember one such person, a former “refusenik” (someone who had been refused the right to emigrate and then had to wait until it was eventually granted), who treated me like his chauffeur, “drive me here….drive me there…let me do the talking… take me to Senator so-and so…” After several hours of this, I told him to make his own arrangements and to get a taxi and dropped him somewhere in DC. But, overall the activity was rewarding as the numbers of Jews being released gradually increased.
Two groups developed at this time, the official Jewish organization, the National Conference for Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) with an office in New York, and the grass-roots more radical “Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry” (UCSJ). As the name indicated the latter was a loose affiliation of groups that had sprung up around the county. Because of my position with the JCC I had a direct relationship with the NCSJ. But, because of my activism I was on good terms with the people who represented the UCSJ, often the same ones who were in the SJ Committee of the JCC.
I tried my best to keep the two groups on good terms and communicating with each other, but it was not always possible. Some people in the JCC did not trust me because of my good relations with the UCSJ, but I suppose they recognized that I did have an ability to bridge the gap and keep the two groups from each others’ throats. One of the main differences of political position was that the NCSJ’s official position was that we were aiding Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel, while the UCSJ wanted to get them out in any case, and wanted to help them immigrate to the USA. I suppose the USSR knew about this dissension.
At one point they clearly tried to infiltrate our group. I received a phone call one evening from someone identifying himself as an immigrant from the Soviet Union. He wanted me to meet him at his hotel in the District. This was suspicious, since most emigrants were destitute and left the Soviet Union with nothing. How could he afford to stay in a hotel (even a cheap one as it turned out). Also, they usually came to us through official channels as legal immigrants. Nevertheless we had had several strange people come out of the Soviet Union, and so I decided to meet him, but I also decided for safety to take along Buddy Sislen, the JCC official in charge of the Committee.
We went downtown and met the person at his hotel. Right from the start we were both very suspicious. First of all he seemed strangely nervous. Second, he wore a jacket that seemed much too big for him, and I suspected he had a recording device inside. Third his story was convoluted and although his English was passable, it was unclear what his story was. It was truly a dark rainy night, and with a few quick asides Buddy and I decided that this was not the real thing. Without committing ourselves to anything we told the guy, that sorry we couldn’t help him, and beat a retreat. Maybe there were other more successful penetrations by the KGB, but this attempt was very amateurish.
It was not always easy dealing with these Soviet Jewish immigrants. Some expected to be given everything on a silver platter, including being found well-paying jobs. I had to explain to many of them that this was not our role, there were social service agencies that dealt with that, and they had their own rules. Also, some of the immigrants were very strong-willed, perhaps they had to be having defied the USSR, and some had their own political agenda. I well remember one such person, a former “refusenik” (someone who had been refused the right to emigrate and then had to wait until it was eventually granted), who treated me like his chauffeur, “drive me here….drive me there…let me do the talking… take me to Senator so-and so…” After several hours of this, I told him to make his own arrangements and to get a taxi and dropped him somewhere in DC. But, overall the activity was rewarding as the numbers of Jews being released gradually increased.
posted by Jack Cohen at 6:51 PM
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