Transcript of Oral History Joan Dodek 2009

My name is Joan Bliden Dodek. I was born and raised in Michigan City, Indiana. I was born July 31, 1931. Michigan City in Indiana was the site of three very important weddings. My grandparents were married there in August of 1898. My parents married in February of 1926 and my wedding was in December of 1955.

I graduated from the University of Michigan in 1953 with a degree in Speech and Hearing Pathology. At Michigan I met my husband Oscar Dodek. After our marriage I moved to Washington D.C. where my husband was completing medical school. For six years he trained in New York and Massachusetts followed by two years in the military service in Kansas. We returned to the D.C. area in 1964 settling in Bethesda where we currently live. We are members of the Washington Hebrew Congregation where our children attended religious school. I was active at the synagogue being a board member and President of the Sisterhood.

In 1990, I was contacted by Julian Feldman, the Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, to write a history and summary of the D.C. community activities for Soviet . The article which was written by myself and Ruth Newman, who was the Executive Director of the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry covering the time period between 1968 when the Washington Committee For Soviet Jewry was founded to 1991 when the daily vigil was terminated. The article we wrote is in the Jewish Historical Society publication, The Record, 1991, Volume 18.

I became active in the Soviet Jewry movement as a result of a ‘searching for roots’ trip to the , Poland and Czechoslovakia. The trip was led by Rabbi Joseph Weinberg of the Washington Hebrew Congregation. I had traveled to the Soviet Union in 1974 as a tourist. In 1978 I traveled as a Jew.

We were prepared for the trip by Irene Manekofsky, who was president of the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry. She provided names and addresses all in Cyrillic so we could use

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the addresses to show to the cab drivers, which we later coded in checkbooks, books and we were given the names of refuseniks, people who had been refused permission to emigrate. These were people who wanted visitors. As a result of their applying to emigrate, many of them lost their jobs. They were arrested or harassed or separated from their families. We were given Hebrew-Russian dictionaries, Hebrew books, Judaic items and books, scientific books and journals, and items to be sold, such as blue jeans, art books, women’s hose, cosmetics and clothing. We took in requested medications and special needs for the prisoners.

We visited many refuseniks, each visit memorable and powerful. In Leningrad we met with several new refuseniks. We were the first visitors many of them met. Unfortunately, the KGB interfered with our visit in Moscow. When we were attending a picnic holiday in the woods, which was thirty miles outside of Moscow, we had a very unpleasant experience. Every two to three weeks 250-300 refuseniks would gather for Israeli dancing, music, Hebrew instruction, Bible study, and U.S. current events and this was a very festive happening. We were about to join this festive group when suddenly fifty KGB men came out of the woods and selected my husband, Marcia Weinberg, two British women and myself to follow them to a bus. A brave and courageous woman, whom I will never forget, Elena Dubyenskaya convinced the KGB that she should go with us because she spoke English and Russian and translations may be needed.

We boarded a school type bus with twelve KGB men. There were approximately 100-150 KGB men scattered around in the woods. We were taken to a large police station. When we arrived at the police station, our bus was surrounded by dozens of KGB menacing looking goons. I was really worried that they would tip over our bus. A police officer told us that we had to get off the bus. However, before we even arrived at the police station the five of us had decided that we would not leave the bus for many reasons. We insisted [that] we remain on the bus and we wanted the American Embassy notified. Finally the chief police officer with guns in his holster, came aboard the bus, questioning each of us and searching our belongings. He took our identity cards. Then he went into the police station. Approximately an hour later he returned with our belongings. He angrily lectured us what bad tourists we had been and how we had broken Soviet law and we were warned never to leave our tour group again. We were taken to the train station and accompanied by the KGB put on a train to Moscow. We left the next day for Warsaw.

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We returned to the Soviet Union in 1984 traveling with lawyers and jurists. I had become very active and I was the President of the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry and Secretary of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews that was the national organization.

Again we planned to visit refuseniks and bring in needed items. I had briefed two other couples in the group who had enthusiastically agreed to join us in meeting refuseniks in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. At the Moscow airport my husband and I were removed from the group, separately questioned, subjected to a body search and all our belongings carefully and thoroughly scrutinized. We were prepared to have an acceptable explanation for everything. Fortunately the other couples had no problem. We were threatened with severe punishment if we broke their laws as we had done in 1978. A KGB guard then accompanied us on our waiting bus where the tour group angrily greeted us complaining that they had been waiting two hours.

We decided to abort our trip as we were being too closely watched and we would place in jeopardy anyone we would visit. Also, there had been reports of the KGB roughing up tourists who were visiting Jews and some had been seriously beaten. We were able to pass on to the other couples all the items we were carrying including a heart valve and they successfully accomplished their mission and were grateful for the incredible opportunity to meet many refuseniks. When the lawyers group had a reunion several months later, we were chastised for placing our agenda before the safety of the group. We were told we were disrespectful of Soviet law. After all, we were visitors in their country. What a disappointing reception we had.

From our travels to the U.S.S.R. we experienced first-hand an introduction to Soviet abuse and paranoia. We could better appreciate the abuse and persecution Soviet Jews endured on a daily basis.

The Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry was a grass-roots organization. The importance of mobilizing community was critical. The daily vigil site was most frequently used to focus attention on the plight of Soviet Jew along with the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the White

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House, Lafayette Park, the National Mall, and the State Department. When the Bolshoi Ballet came to the Kennedy Center we demonstrated on behalf of Soviet Jews.

At one of the vigils I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Hayes. Several of us were standing across from the Soviet Embassy and I was speaking on the behalf of one of the refuseniks. Helen Hayes asked if she could join our group after hearing what were we saying and of course, we were happy to have her join us and she took several of the flyers with her and said that she had learned something very important that day. She was a lovely person.

Also, the morale of the refuseniks was important. Frequently, we had letter writing campaigns. We sent New Year and Passover cards along with making expensive long distance phone calls to the refuseniks. We were always letting people know that they were not forgotten. When Vladimir Slepak and his wife Masha, a radiologist, were sent to Siberia, fifty white-coated physicians and nurses gathered at the vigil site to protest. Ida Nudel’s birthday, which was April 27, was remembered with a women’s plea, where the Jewish women’s organizations gathered and we presented petitions with thousands of names to the officials at the Soviet Embassy urging the release of Ida. There were many Sharansky events – the arrest, his trial, the hunger strike, his birthday. One birthday we had a huge birthday cake and it was so cold that the cake was frozen by the time we delivered it to N Street Village, which is a community of homeless women.

Anna Nazrosky, a violinist with the Israel Philharmonic, emigrated with her husband and daughter from Leningrad to Israel. She was not allowed to take her violin with her and this violin had belonged to her father who was a concert master with the Leningrad Symphony. It had also belonged to her grandfather. Her mother secretly gave the violin to a Yugoslavian musician who then delivered the violin to Anna in Israel. However for doing that gesture, giving the violin to that musician, Anna’s mother was arrested. She was sent to Lubianka Prison for a year and then [for] four years to Siberia in a mental institution. She was later released and sent to Israel but her mental condition was so compromised that she had to be institutionalized in Israel. Soon after that she died.

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We helped Anna in her struggle for the immigration of her sister and her family. Like many families they had endured such hardship and pain to be reunited.

Izolda Tufeld, a Moscow refusenik, needed brain surgery. The Soviets finally relented and they allowed her to come to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for the surgery. But they would not allow her husband Vladimir to accompany her. The doctors in the hospital were amazing, as was the Baltimore Jewish community. I will never forget Izolda’s arrival at Dulles Airport. I met her there with Connie Morella, who was our congresswoman and who had written many letters and signed many petitions on behalf of the Tufelds. Izolda was ill and of course extremely sad without her husband. After the surgery she went to Israel joining her son and finally the Soviets allowed Vladimir to leave and join Izolda in Israel. However, shortly after that she died.

Vladimir used to put on a puppet show when tourists used to visit him in their Moscow apartment. As a gift to me for me thanking me for what had been done for Izolda, he sent me one of his puppets that I am donating with my other items to the Jewish Historical Society.

There were hundreds of cases that came to our office and we worked closely with Congressional people, State department officials, White House representatives, state and local government officials and numerous human rights organizations. Continuous pressure by our government and individuals was essential along with publicity. David Shipler, who was the New York Times Bureau Chief in Moscow, and Kevin Close, who was the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, wrote frequently about Soviet Jews and each of them wrote excellent books about their experiences in the Soviet Union and their relationships with the refusenik community. They wrote about anti-Semitism and the nightmare of emigration. I have met both of these men recently and I used that opportunity to thank them for their excellent support of the Jewish community that was trapped in the Soviet Union. Kevin Close was just made the head of the Journalism Department at the University of Maryland.

As founder and chairperson of the Washington Hebrew Congregation Soviet Jewry Committee, I initiated many activities and programs. The Board adopted prisoner of conscience Edward Kusnetof and after his release Vladimir Slepak was adopted. A monthly vigil day was selected

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which obligated congregation members to attend. [We had] Friday evenings, Sunday scholars’ series, major Jewish festivals and holidays. We had a Soviet Jewry desk disseminating information, signing petitions. Actually some people were even afraid to sign worried that the long arm of the KGB would reach them in D.C., sending out books to refuseniks. The art books we sent was a project of Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Sisterhood. Two hundred and fifty beautiful modern art books were mailed to refuseniks, who then legally sold the books, providing needed financial assistance. In 1981, the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods selected the Washington Hebrew Congregation Sisterhood to receive the Ohr Ami Award, which is the Light of the People, for their art book project. The Sisterhood also adopted Prisoner of Conscience, Ida Nudel, sending her letters and packages of warm clothing while she was in Siberia.

The congregation of Luther Place Memorial Church, led by Pastor John Steinbruck, adopted Anatoly Sharansky and they frequently attended the vigils, especially during the holidays of and , making sure that the vigil was well attended. Pastor Steinbruck traveled to the Soviet Union visiting refuseniks and others suffering from religious persecution. Pastor Steinbruck, along with dozens of rabbis, participated in the first of many protests against the 500-foot rule, which banned demonstrations within 500 feet of an Embassy. After hundreds of arrests and protests, the court removed the ban.

The 1987 demonstration on the National Mall was so successful and President Mikhail Gorbachev heard the chanting of 250,000 people, chanting, “Let my people go.” The emigration policies of the U.S.S.R. changed dramatically.

A few years later I attended a congressional reception for visiting for Soviet dignitaries. It was really strange and eerie to meet a Mr. Kutznetsof, who was the former head of OVIR, which was the visa office in Moscow. I had sent him so many letters and telegrams pleading for visas for the refuseniks. He was definitely the enemy and there I was face to face.

Several thousand émigrés settled in the D.C. area, requiring abundant social, economic, educational and religious services. The Jewish Social Service Agency did an outstanding job of resettling this great influx and the community response was extraordinary. In May of 1982 the

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D.C. section of the National Council of Jewish Women cosponsored with Washington Hebrew Congregation, the Jewish Social Service Agency, and the United Jewish Appeal Federation a B’nai Mitvah of Edward Kudlis, formerly from Minsk and Gregory Skurkovitch from Moscow. Both men had immigrated to the D.C. area in 1980. Several hundred people attended the ceremony followed by a lively and joyous Russian American celebration.

The Washington community was deeply involved and committed to the Soviet Jewry movement as is documented by the materials that I and my colleagues are donating. Each of us was affected by the struggle of Soviet Jews for their basic and legal human rights. In our office we had a sign for all to see. That sign said, “Freedom Denied Anywhere is a Challenge to Freedom Everywhere.”

The Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry’s archives are located in the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. I recently spoke to the director, Susan Malbin, who actually was from Silver Spring, Maryland. She was very familiar with the Washington Committee, knew exactly where our office was. The Historical Society has the herculean job of cataloging Soviet Jewry records from hundreds of organizations. She advised me that when that task is completed all the groups would be notified. I hope it happens in my lifetime.

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