Oral History Transcription Betty Miller September 8-9, 2008

My name is Betty Miller. My maiden name was Chafets. I was born in 1926 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where I attended the public school in the Arbeter Ring Yiddish Shule, that is, the Workmen’s Circle Yiddish School. In 1941 my family moved to Detroit, Michigan. I attended Wayne University and received a degree in social work in 1947. Following graduation I went to New York hoping to find a position to work in a displaced person’s camp, but due to a lack of experience I was not successful. Before returning to Detroit where I had been offered a job with a Jewish social agency there, I came to visit relatives in Washington and met my late husband, Joseph Miller, who asked me to marry him. I accepted and we were married in June 1948.

I have lived in Washington for 60 years except for 10 years when our family resided in Kensington, MD. We were members of Temple Sinai and Adas Congregation, and I am still there. My occupation was primarily wife and helpmate to my husband, a practicing architect and professor of architecture and urban studies at Catholic University of America in Washington and mother to our three children. I was involved many years in volunteer work. Several of these activities included the Presidency Independence Chapter of B’nai B’rith, in 1951, prior to the birth of our first child. Later, I assisted in the processing of the millions of mail sent to Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband’s assassination. At a later date I was a volunteer in the White House office for the children’s and students’ correspondence to President Clinton. How did I become active in the Soviet Jewry movement? Sometime in the 1960s, my cousin Ruth Rubin, now Lavie, asked if she and Silva Zalmanson could stay at our home for several days.

Silva and Ruth stayed at our home several days. Silva and her husband Edvard [Kuznetsov] were , and were members of a group that tried to take control of an airplane in Leningrad in order to leave the country. They failed, but were successful in getting out publicity of the plight of in the USSR who were trying to emigrate. Silva finally was allowed to emigrate, and she

Miller Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 1 Voices of the Vigil came to the U.S. She was going to tour with Ruth to a number of cities where she would be speaking. Her time in Washington, I think, was spent mainly on the Hill.

In 1967, I believe, our son Max was attending the Hebrew Academy of Washington and he brought home a package of L’Shana Tovahs, New Year’s greeting cards, including the names and addresses of Soviet Jews. Recipients of the packages of cards were encouraged to send them. “Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry” was the name listed on the page of instructions. I sent them off promptly and on each card wrote a personal note both in English and in Yiddish. I also sent a note back to the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry in care of the Hebrew Academy with Max, and asked if there was anything further that we may be able to do. Before I tell you about my involvement with the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry I would like to give you the results of the cards I sent to .

Some weeks later I received a letter in Yiddish from the family of Nachum Feinstein who were very eager to emigrate to Israel. Nachum worked at a job, but his main passion was poetry. We continued to correspond in Yiddish, he would send me poems. In one of Nachum’s letters he asked us if we would buy him a typewriter with Yiddish or Hebrew characters. We did and we sent it to him.

In 1973 when I visited Israel with my son Max, we met Nachum and his family, and it was a great feeling of joy that we saw him in Israel. He and his family were residing in Jaffa and were very happy there.

Now to my active involvement with Washington Committee. A day or so after I had sent the note to the Washington Committee with Max, I received a call that someone on the committee would like to come and talk with me. I said fine, so in about a day Haim Solomon and Evy Block came to my home. They told me what the mission of the Committee was and that Evy had been a great help to them, but was now moving to Chicago and they needed someone to take over the work she had been doing. I was asked to take over Evy’s work, and I agreed. I set up an office in my home, and one of my first tasks was to assemble and collate a great deal of material. This material was photocopies and they recorded Soviet Jewry and their plight. This material was

Miller Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 2 Voices of the Vigil prepared to be given out to synagogues and individuals. In time I was able to find space in one of the empty classrooms at Adas Israel. We continued assembling handouts that Moshe [Brodetsky] provided to us. We also sent out many letters to the Jewish community asking for their support, and we maintained the records of those who responded. After so many years I can no longer remember some of our other responsibilities in the office, and I have no records to fall back on to spark my memory. My home continued to be a place where meetings were held for the active members of the committee. We also had a phone in my home which was used by Mort Yadin to make calls to Russia. Also stored in my home were many pairs of blue jeans and some religious articles, which were distributed to travelers who were going to Russia.

I cannot remember the names of former refuseniks who stayed in our home. My children were generous and doubled up so we could make space in one of the children’s rooms. Most of our guests had appointments to meet with members of Congress or their aides. One of our guests was the brother of Herman Branover, who was internationally known in the field of cybernetics. Herman Branover eventually did get out of Russia with the help of the Lubavitcher rebbe [Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson]. Both brothers settled in Israel and Herman, I believe, became a professor at one of the universities.

I was asked by Moshe and the Committee to coordinate the Adopt-a-Prisoner project. I spoke at a number of synagogues, explaining the project, and encouraging them to become involved. Biographical material on each prisoner was provided, as were guidelines, handouts and bracelets. We sent materials to every synagogue in the greater Washington area. All the prisoners we had on our list were adopted. I do not remember who originated the idea of having an empty chair on the bimah, the chair representing the adopted prisoner. Myrna Wagshal and Ethel Dosik were very helpful in organizing the materials we provided to the synagogues.

And now as to the rallies, vigil and march I attended.

On March 21, 1971 my husband and our two sons, Danny and Max, marched with about 1,500 other people, most of them were young, I would say of high school and college age,

Miller Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 3 Voices of the Vigil and they had come not only from Washington, but from other cities, such as Philadelphia, New York, and I think there were many also from New Jersey. The purpose of the march was to publicize the plight of Soviet Jewry and it did accomplish this. We marched down 16th Street and then sat down on a street less than 500 feet from the Soviet Embassy, which at that time was illegal. The police were present and announced through bullhorns that we had to get off the street. My husband and I decided that he and Max, who was about seven at the time, should obey the police. Not long after, a policeman came up to me and Danny and told me that I had to go along with him. I said “Please arrest my son Danny too so we can be together.” The policeman didn’t appear to be very sympathetic and he said “I’m telling you I want you to follow me. “ After I boarded a bus, not too many minutes after that, that same policeman came to the bus with Danny and he told me, “Now you can be together.” I was most appreciative.

All those on the buses were taken to a number of the police precincts. The group I was with was mainly young people. We were detained at the precinct for many hours. It was very crowded, no place to sit except on the floor, no food, but there was a water fountain. Later, in the meanwhile my husband was calling many precincts to determine where we were. He was not familiar with bailouts, and he did not have a lot of cash on hand so he borrowed several hundred dollars. Later in the day a few men came to the precinct and began the process of bailing out the marchers. My husband arrived and paid a fine of 10 dollars each for Danny and me. I learned that the others being released were being taken to the Mall, where buses were awaiting them to return them to the localities from which they had come. I told my husband that the youngsters had not had any food for most of the day, and so when we left, Danny, my husband and I looked out for any grocery stores that may be open. Fortunately we discovered a 7-11 and purchased every [loaf of] bread, peanut butter, jelly, drinks, other foods. Luckily my husband had enough cash which covered the purchase. We made a quick dash to the Mall and arrived just in time to give out the bags of food before the buses left.

The vigil: I attended as many as I could, but there was one vigil I will never forget.

I remained after the vigil with Mark Yampolsky who had been fasting for several days, to bring attention to his attempt to get his wife out of Russia. Mark refused to give up the fast even

Miller Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 4 Voices of the Vigil though he was getting weaker. During the evening rush hour a rather unpretentious car suddenly arrived and parked from the plaza. An unpretentious gentleman who was wearing a hat, jumped out of the car and ran up to us. He asked Mark how he felt, and then told Mark that he had to stop fasting. His point had been made. He was also sorry that he couldn’t stay longer because he had to get home for his son’s birthday party, but he did make Mark promise to stop fasting. That man was Senator Henry Jackson.

My family and I attended several rallies, but the one that stands out most in my mind was attended by a very large number of people and took place in 1987 on the Mall.

There is one more memory I would like to share with you. I don’t remember the date of this experience but I recall the circumstances. My husband and I, and Moshe Brodetzky, were invited to have dinner at the home of Cynthia and David Abrams. The guest of honor was a former inmate of the Gulag and had translated Leon Uris’s book Exodus. Of course this was done in great secrecy. I checked with the Abrams and Moshe to see if they could remember the name of this guest. The Abrams had no recollection.

Within my memory, the name Boris Kochubievsky (and I don’t know if I am pronouncing it correctly) surfaces. After dinner my husband and I drove Boris (that will be the name that I am going to refer to), up to the Jewish Community Center in Rockville, where he spoke. On the way up to Rockville he told me that he had been born in the Ukraine, and I told him that’s where my father had been born. He asked me if I could speak the language and I said “No, unfortunately,” but I did remember a little bit of song that was in Ukrainian that my father had taught me as a child. He asked me to sing it to him, which I did, and his eyes teared up, and I didn’t know if it was my singing or not. But he then explained to me that he hadn’t heard that lullaby since he was a little boy, and his mother had sung it to him.

After Boris spoke and answered questions, we brought him back to our home in Washington. One of the members of the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry had called the publisher of the book and told him why and whom wished to speak to Mr. Uris. At the appointed time the phone rang, and the person on the other end of the line was Leon Uris. I put Boris on the line and

Miller Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 5 Voices of the Vigil he fluently expressed his deep gratitude to Leon Uris and told him that the book had given him so much courage. When their conversation ended, Leon Uris asked to put me on the line. He had a request to make – would I please call his father in Philadelphia and tell him about this conversation. He thought it would be more appropriate for me to tell him what a great son he had rather than Leon Uris repeating this to his father. And I did so and the elder Mr. Uris and I had a lovely conversation, partly in English and partly in Yiddish.

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