A Century of Involvement: AJC and Russian Jewry

B DAVID A. HARRIS

IINEIMPERATIVE runs consistently through the hundred- year history of the American Jewish Committee: action on behalf of the Jews of Russia. The issue was present at the creation and remains central today. AJC was formed in 1906 in direct response to deadly attacks against Russian Jews; a century later, in 2006, the situation of Jews in the former Soviet Union and the welfare of the Russian Jewish community in the U.S. were AJC priorities.

The Plight of Russian Jews and the Founding of AJC Conditions for the Jews of Russia became especially bad after the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, as Jews were al- leged to have been among the assassins. Anti-Jewish legislation followed, pogroms broke out in many communities, and Konstantin Pobedonostsev, a top adviser to the next czar, Alexander Ill, re- portedly suggested a plan for one-third of Russia's Jews to emigrate, one-third to convert to Russian Orthodoxy, and the other third to starve to death. The particularly bloody pogrom in Kishinev in 1903 aroused in- dignation around the world, and a new wave of anti-Jewish vio- lence in the wake of the unsuccessful Russian revolution of 1905 made it abundantly clear that Jewish communities in Russia were in no position to defend themselves, and could expect no help from the authorities. The Jews' only hope for protection would have to come from outside the region. A group of American Jews formed AJC for that express purpose. On January 8, 1906, Louis Marshall, Samuel Greenbaum, Nathan Bijur, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, and Joseph Jacobs cosigned a letter to 57 prominent Jews inviting them to attend a meeting in New York the following month. It read, in part: The horrors attending the recent Russian massacres, and the neces- sity of extending to our brethren a helping hand in a manner most

33 2007 34/ AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, of conduciveto the accomplishmentof a permanent improvement their unfortunate condition have,with remarkable spontaneity, in- duced thoughtful Jews in all partsof the United States, to suggest the advisability of theformation of a General Committee todeal with the serious problems thuspresented, which are likely to recur, long as the objects of oursolicitude even in their acute phases, so their religious are subjected todisabilities and persecution, owing to belief. Ten months later, onNovember 11, 1906, the AmericanJewish Committee was created. Strikingly, oneof its very first steps was the creation of a press bureau.The rationale—which could as easily have been written in themid-1960s, when the worldwide So- viet Jewry campaign beganin earnest—was set forth in aresolu- tion adopted by AJC's executivecommittee on January 27, 1907: For the prevention of massacresof Jews in Russia, no means canbe considered so effective as the enlightenmentof the people of the real conditions in Russia, whichhave hith- western world concerning of the erto been systematicallyconcealed or distorted by the power Russian Government; that to thisend a Press Bureau should be established to gather and disseminate correct newsof affairs in Rus- sia.... It was not at all clear to theembryonic organization if the Amer- ican government could bepersuaded to act decisively to assist per- secuted Jews overseas. AJC'sleaders, therefore, came up with an ingenious approach to send anunmistakable message of disap- proval to Russia. The provisions of the Treatyof Commerce and Navigation, signed in 1832 by Russia and theUnited States, served as the principal bilateral agreement betweenthe two countries. It stated that "the inhabitants of theirrespective States shall mutually havelib- erty to enter the ports,places and rivers of the territoriesof each party, wherever foreign commerceis permitted," and yet American Jews, beginning in the 1 890s, wereroutinely denied entry visas by Russian consular officials. TheU.S. State Department, in 1907, ap- peared to sanction thisobjectionable policy, announcing thatit would refuse to issue passports "toJews who intend going to Russ- ian territory, unless it has the assurancethat the Russian Govern- ment will consent to theiradmission." Although the State Departmentsubsequently reversed itself, AJC became convinced that theappropriate response to Russia's A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY I 35 discriminatorypolicy against some (i.e., Jewish) Americanswas to press for outright abrogation of the 1832treaty. It took five years for the AJC leadership, collaboratingwith key congressional leaders while facing resistance from the White Houseand the State De- partment, to achieve that goal. Particularly noteworthy in reviewingthis campaign is its similarity, in several strikingways, to the effort that led to the adoption of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment65yearslater, That mea- sure, named for its principal sponsors, SenatorHenry Jackson (D., Wash.) and Congressman CharlesVanik (D., Ohio), linked the granting of most-favored-nation tradestatus to the right of emigration from non-market countries—i.e.,the communist bloc, and in particular, the Soviet Union. One similarity was thesame division between American Jewish communal leadership anda majority of the U.S. Congress, on the one hand, and the executive branchon the other. On both occa- sions, each side invoked diametricallyopposed arguments about whether punitive measures would,at the end of the day, achieve the desired objectives. Second, in the early twentiethcentury no European country joined with the U.S. in applyinga "stick" to protest Russia's dis- criminatory policy, thus weakening theAmerican effort. Thesame European resistance occurred in thewake of the adoption of Jackson-Vanik: not a single West Europeancountry went beyond rhetorical opposition to Soviet policyon emigration, or such admittedly important symbolicacts as sending diplomats to the Moscow synagogue or to trials of activistJews.' Neither diplomatic sanctions nor economicmeasures were ever seriously considered by any Western nation other than theUnited States. And third, once the 1832 treatywas, in fact, abrogated, each side sought vindication for its position. TheWhite House argued not only that American businesseswere negatively affected, but also that the position of Jews in Russiadeteriorated further because of

'At the same time it should be noted, withappreciation, that the Netherlands undertook the task of representing Israel in Moscow afterthe Kremlin severed diplomatic ties with the Jewish state in 1967; that Austria, despiteunrelenting Arab pressure, servedas the country of first arrival for hundreds of thousands of SovietJews able to secure exit visas; and that Italy provided a temporary home for thosemany Soviet Jews obliged to wait months for the processing of their applicationsto resettle permanently in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. BOOK, 2007 36 I AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR abrogation, the belligerent Americanapproach. Proponents of meanwhile, hailed the move as avictory for high-mindedprinci- policy. Again, this split was aforerunner ple in American foreign the two of the conflicting andselfjustifyiflg views expressed by contending sides in themonths and years followingJackson- this day, with- Vanik's enactment in1975—and which continue to either party. out concession by of the winning AJC's Jacob Schiffdramatically stated the case side in the battle over the1832 treaty: opinion, is of We have just passedthrough an episode which, in my greater importance thananything that has happenedsince civil rights under the first Napoleon, orsince English Jews were granted Jews the first time, Russia, that great were admitted toParliament. . .For in the face from a greatnation, which Colossus, has received a slap consequence in act, I cannot helpthinking, must be of the greatest the history of civilization.2 continued. The difficulties for Jewsin Czarist Russia, however, Beilis, a manual laborer, wasarrested in Kiev In 1911, Mendel murder of a 13- and, without any evidence,charged with the ritual classic case of blood libel.The trial year-old Ukrainian boy—a fiction- began in September 1913.(Bernard Malamud produced a alized account of the casein his acclaimed bookThe Fixer.) In signature style of AJC,the organization what came to be the prominent sought, beyond its own advocacyefforts, the support of non-Jews to demonstrate tothe Russian governmentthe breadth of concern about thetrumped-up charges. As aresult, distin- Catholic clergymen signed aletter, dated guished Protestant and Nicholas October 31, 1913, addressed to"His Imperial Majesty, 11, The Czar of All theRussias," in which theydeclared: against the Jews, which We are convinced thatthe blood accusation is as unfounded as wasthe same accu- has been made sporadically, frequently directed against the sation which, as history shows, was investiga- early Christians. It has beensubjected to the most careful evidence warranting the slightestcredence tion for centuries, and no unworthy of se- has ever been discovered,and it has been rejected as rious consideration both byChurch and by State. immediately left the country. Beilis was exonerated and would es- Less than 60 years later, aswill be noted below, AJC

Abrogation of the Russo-AmericanTreaty of 1832," 2Quotedin Naomi w. Cohen, "The Jewish Social Studies 25, January1963, p. 40. A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY /37 tablishthe National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry, once again calling upon Christians of good will to join in the international campaign to address the hardships suffered by Jews, this time under communist rather than czarist rule.

AJC and Soviet Jewry in the Cold War Years There is scant evidence of AJC or other Jewish organizational involvement with regard to the condition of Jews during the early years of Bolshevik rule, when restrictions on religious life were introduced. Little information was available to the outside world at the time, as possibilities for emigration came to an end and the Soviet Union sought to project itself as a new society based on equality of nationalities and devoid of anti-Semitism. It was not until after the Second World War—in which Soviet Jews fought valiantly in the ultimately victorious Red Army, while the Jewish civilian population in the western part of the nation suffered un- told losses at the hands of the invading Nazi forces and those who collaborated with them—that Stalin's pathological and para- noiac anti-Semitism became unmistakably visible, especially after Moscow's early support for Israel's statehood dissipated. Consistent with its traditional emphasis on research and analysis, AJC sponsored the first book-length study about the effect of Soviet rule on the life of Jewish communities. The book, The Jews in the Soviet Union by Solomon M. Schwarz, was published in 1951 by Syracuse University Press. Three years later, a companion volume, The Jews in the Soviet Satellites by Peter Meyer, was issued by the same publishing house. AJC also produced pamphlets about Soviet Jewry throughout the 1950s, and articles on the sub- ippeared as well in Commentary and the American Jewish Year ,bothsponsored by AJC. 1954, AJC president Irving Engel was called to testify before House Select Committee on Communist Aggression against the s in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as part of hearings esulted in a special congressional report entitled Treatment vs by the Soviet. Engel pulled no punches in describing the us situation of "the Jews caught behind the Iron Curtain, n the Soviet Union proper, and in the countries the Soviet has either annexed or transformed into puppet states h ruthless imperialist aggression." He denounced the show he "anti-cosmopolitan" campaigns, the targeting of Jewish 2007 38 / AMERICANJEWISH YEAR BOOK, intellectuals,the denial of religious rights,the infamous 1953 Doc- tors' Plot, and other examplesof incitement and hatred. On January 15, 1959, anAJC delegation met with Anastas Mikoyan, the Soviet first deputyprime minister, in New York City. This was the first high-levelmeeting between a Soviet officialand American Jewish leaders to discussthe status of Soviet Jews since the USSR was established in1917. Among the concernsexpressed by AJC were reports thatthe Kremlin was seriouslyconsidering the wholesale deportation ofJews to Birobidzhan, theSoviet- established so-called Jewish AutonomousDistrict in the Far East; the paucity of rabbis, numbering no morethan 60, to serve nearly three million Jews; the failure tobuild a single synagogue since World War II, leaving hundredsof sizable Jewish communities without any house of worshipin the wake of the destruction wrought by the Nazis; and themounting barriers to Jews' advancement in Soviet society. The landmark meeting resultedin a front-page story in the New York Times the following day,January 16, under theheadline "Mikoyan Denies Exiling of Jews.Talk of Soviet Plan to Send Them to Siberia Is Untrue, HeTells A.J.C. Unit. Here." At the meeting, Mikoyan, pressed by theAJC delegation, had declared that "the reported plans forthe recreation of a Jewish statein Birobidzhan and the transfer of theJewish population in Russia to that area are withoutfoundation." Following the session,AJC sent Mikoyan a lengthy letterfurther documenting instancesof cultural, religious, and otherdiscrimination against Soviet Jews. The Christian Science Monitorreported, on February 24, 1959, that the Soviets, in response tothe harsh attack Mikoyan had encountered in his U.S. visit, wouldpermit the publication of some books in Yiddish, includingselected works of the noted author Sholom Aleichem. In August of that year, AJCissued yet another report on the condition of Jews behind the IronCurtain, The Plight of the Jews in Eastern Europe. In addition tofocusing on the internal threats and difficulties encountered by Jews, thereport noted that "the Soviet Union has steadfastly opposed anyemigration from that country" and called "for the right of Jews toemigrate freely to places of their choice, with all their possessions."It received widespread media coverage across thenation, including in the New YorkTimes, New York Herald Tribune, Boston Globe,Christian Science Monitor, Catholic News, and scores of other papers. A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC ANDRUSSIAN JEWRY/39 Internationalattention once again focusedon Soviet anti- Semitism when Morris Abram, AJC's presidentat the time, held a press conference in New York in 1964 to denounce JudaismWith- out Embellishment, an anti-Semitic polemic containingNazi-like caricatures, written by T.K. Kichko andpublished by the Ukrain- ian Academy of Sciences. Abram notedthat the booklet "reflected in a most primitive and vulgar fashionthe Soviet government's official anti-Semitic campaign in whichsome three million Russian Jews are being used as scapegoats for internaleconomic problems. The situation of Soviet Jews continuesto worsen as the Soviet government regresses to the crudest forms of anti-Semitism." The resulting international furor, it shouldbe noted, extended to Western communist parties, which didnot want to be associated with blatant Jew-hatred. Indeed,as reported in Midstream (June 1964), "There was literally notone major communist party or leader or organ in the Western world thatdid not protest, either timidly or vehemently." Theuproar convinced the Kremlin to dis- avow the book and its author, though thiswas far from the last such publication to appear. Threeyears later, AJC publicized and denounced another piece by Kichko, "Zionism:A Tool of Impe- rialism," published in a prominent Sovietnewspaper. Many more such anti-Semitic screedswere to follow, both by Kichko and a host of other Soviet pseudo-scholars and polemicists.

L 2ing the Soviet Jewry Movement In 19b4, AJC was one of four original sponsors—togetherwith the Synagogue Council of America, theConference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations,and the National Com- munity Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC)—ofthe American Conference on Soviet Jewry. Sevenyears later, AJC became a founding member of thesuccessor organization, the National Con- ference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), whichcoordinated and led organized American Jewry's effortson behalf of Jews in the USSR. In fact, the first president of the NCSJ, RichardMaass, and the first executive director, Jerry Goodman,came from the lay and profes- sional ranks, respectively, of AJC. On December 3, 1966, Soviet premier AlexeiKosygin, speaking at a Paris press conference, stunned the Jewish worldwhen he declared that those Soviet citizens wishingto be reunited with their families abroad would be allowed to doso. While he made no spe- BOOK, 2007 40/AMBRiCAN JEWISH YEAR impetus to those cific reference to Jews,this declaration gave new seeking to leave. Israel's lightning victory inwhat came to be The following year, So- known as the Six-Day Warhad an electrifying effect on many Israel achieved one of thegreatest military viet Jews. Not only had Egypt and victories in history, but alsoits principal adversaries, relied heavily on Syria, were close allies ofthe Kremlin and had Kosygin's Paris declarationringing in Soviet-made weapons. With pride, their ears and Israel's successawakening a long-dormant search for a positive some Soviet Jews,despite the risks, began the self-identity, denied them by theauthorities, and wonderedwhether what had for there might be a chance tobegin new lives outside sealed borders of the SovietUnion. decades been the hermetically attention when, on The issue camedramatically to the world's of Soviet Jews, joinedby two non-Jews, June 15, 1970, a group and divert it sought to hijack an airplane atthe Leningrad airport and the perpe- to Israel. The plan wasfoiled by the authorities, together with their allegedaccomplices. At trators were arrested death and their first trial, two of thedefendants were sentenced to into action. the others to lengthyprison sentences. AJC sprang Jewry, an AJC pamphletissued in 1971, In the Cause of Soviet of summarized the organization's responseto the startling turn events: 100 influential individuals— The AJC issued an appeal to some in almost industrialists, clergymen,academicians and authors—and people made their voices heard amonggovernment every case these AJC Ex- officials and opinion molders,national and international. Max M. Fisher helped arrangemeetings ecutive Council Chairman and subse- between Jewish leadersand Secretary of State Rogers, The President's expressionof sym- quently with President Nixon. around the pathy and concern for theRussian Jews was flashed other White House and StateDepartment world. Conferences with victims . officials enlisted furtherpowerful support for the Jewish Committee also helped organize anational emergency meeting The from the arts, of Jewish leaders inWashington, with major figures sciences and public affairsin attendance. led Moscow toreconsider the death The international outcry the plot- penalty for the hijackers,and, in a second trial, sentence ters to long prison termsin harsh conditions. That same year, 1971, AJCutilized its extensive contactswith other American religious groupsto establish theNational Inter- A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY /41 religious Task Force on Soviet Jewry, whose first honorary chair was R. Sargent Shriver, and quietly provided the new entity with financial support. Drawing on the leadership of the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish communities, the task force would add an important, broad-based ecumenical voice to the Soviet Jewry campaign over the next two decades. Among the many highlights of its activitieswas the testimony of Sister Margaret Ellen Traxier, on behalf of the task force, before the Senate Finance Committee on April 10, 1974, insupport of the proposed Jackson-Vanik Amendment. When she concluded her remarks, according to an internal AJC memorandum from Gerald Strober to Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, Senator Bob Pack- wood (R., Oreg.) stated: I have sat here day after day listening to trade association after trade association tell the Committee of our need to trade with Russia and how such trade would have little effect upon the Soviet Jews. I want to thank you for being the first to bring a moral word to this Corn- rnittee. You are to be commended for your testimony, which greatly points out how the Jackson Amendment can alleviate the plight of Lhe Soviet Jews.

g Up the Pressure )urlng the height of the Soviet Jewry campaign, from 1971 to ,asSoviet policy on Jewish emigration zigzagged dramatically, J was deeply involved in all phases of the effort, both individ- ily and in collaboration with other interested agencies. AJCac- ty was especially notable in the political and diplomatic arenas Washington, through AJC's offices, at the time, in Paris, Buenos es, and Mexico City, and in other capitals throughout Europe atin America. e kickoff for this period of activism was the landmark World erence of Jewish Communities for Soviet Jewry, held in Brus- n February 1971. It was planned with the assistance of AJC particularly Abraham Karlikow of the Paris office and Ser- '.udelstejer of the Mexico City office. A sizable AJC contin- including President Philip E. Hoffman, participated. The èrence's impact was felt worldwide. tnirty-eight countries on five continents came more than fif- riundred delegates, including scores of prominent public offi- BOOK, 2007 42/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR financiers, union cials, civil rights activists,scholars, poets, writers, the astonishment of thesecretariat, leaders and philosophers. .. .To the Soviet media on the eve ofthe conference launched apropaganda attack that captured the attentionof the world media. Nearlythree hundred journalists from every partof the world covered the Brus- sels event... From theWorld Conference came thedemand for So- the right of Jews who sodesire to re- viet authorities "to recognize beyond turn to their historichomeland in Israel." This demand went demand that had focused onfamily re- the American campaign's the So- union. It mirrored the demandsof the Jewish movement in viet Union.3 AJC lay and staff leaders, aswell as representatives ofthe N tional Interreligious Task Force onSoviet Jewry, attended the pt riodic review conferences ofthe Helsinki Final Act, the1975 dot ument signed by theSoviet Union and 34 othercountries tha among other things,established human rightsstandards by whic signatory countries couldbe judged. This attendancetook t forms—as public membersof official U.S. delegationsand as rei resentatives from thenongovernmental organization (NGO)sectc Moreover, AJC sent delegates toadvocate in the corridorsof ti U.S.-Soviet summits and at times onthe streets nearby, includir between Pre the critically important1986 Reykjavik encounter dent Ronald Reagan andChairman Mikhail Gorbachev.It w AJC's contacts in Icelandthat gained permission for ten represe nation- tatives of American Jewishagencies to travel to the island when, for security reasons,admission was severelyrestricted- enabling their voices to beheard by Soviet officialsand t hundreds of media representativescovering the summit. Other noteworthy AJCefforts included involvementin and nancial support for theAssociation of Jewish BookPublishe which, beginning in 1977,participated in the biennial MoscowI ternational Book Fair. The fair, acommercial enterprise, provid of the KGB, to a uniqueopportunity—under the constant gaze the local community but a] sure —notonly for direct contact with for distribution of booksand other materials toinformation-star\ Soviet Jews. There were also manyvisits to "refuseniks"—th( thousands of Jews denied exitvisas by OVIR, theresponsible

Albert D. Chernin, "Making Soviet Jews anIssue," in Murray Friedman and Alber Jews (Hanc Chernin, eds., A Second Exodus: TheAmerican Movement to Free Soviet N.H., 1999), pp. 60—61. A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY /43 vietagency, for one reason or another—and to synagogues in major Soviet cities, demonstrating solidarity and sending a message to So- viet authorities that their Jewish citizens had a lifeline to the West. AJC, through its Paris and New York offices, was also involved in preparing Russian-language material on Jewish themes that made its way into the hands of Jews in the Soviet Union eager for information otherwise denied them. And AJC focused on yet another way to get news to Jews in the Soviet Union—convincing the Voice of America, the overseas broadcasting arm of the U.S. government, to expand its Russian-language programming to the So- viet Union, aimed specifically at Jewish listeners. One major distinguishing feature of AJC's approach was support for the broader Soviet human-rights movement. Most other Jew- ish organizations refrained from participation, fearing it could further complicate advocacy efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry by persuading the Kremlin —whichneeded little convincing— that the larger Jewish aim was not simply "repatriation to the Jewish homeland," as the Soviet Jewry movement insisted, but, in fact, the overthrow of communism. While never breaking with the consensus of the Soviet Jewry movement, AJC, consistent with its longstanding commitment to human rights and democratic values, managed to demonstrate solidarity with Soviet dissidents through its semiautonomous Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, led by its founding director and self-effacing visionary, Sidney Liskofsky. The institute regularly published material on and by Soviet human- rights activists, sponsored seminars and symposia, and awarded grants to NGOs that addressed broad Soviet human-rights issues, including, it should be noted, cases related to the right to practice one's religion and to speak one's language, i.e., Hebrew, consistent with relevant international covenants. In addressing the contributions of the Jacob Blaustein Institute, Elena Bonner, the legendary human rights activist and widow of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, said in 1997:

In the early 1970s, the Jacob Blaustein Institute was one of the very few, if not the only one, among Jewish organizations concerned with the general state of human rights in the Soviet Union. The Institute did not limit itself to issues of Jewish emigration, understanding that an injustice anywhere on the face of this earth is a threat to justice everywhere. 44/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK,2007 TheBlaustein Institute also, in 1972, joined with the Interm tional Institute of Human Rights and the Facultyof Law at U1 psala University (Sweden) to convene the landmarkUppsala Coi ference, as it came to be called, on the right to leaveand to returi Attended by legal scholars from a number of Westerncountrie the conference focused on the fundamentalrights enshrined in tI Universal Declaration of Human Rights, theInternation Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and theInternational Co: vention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racism, asthey pe tamed to those Soviet Jews—andothers—demanding the right emigrate. The gathering thus gave an importantinternational leg imprimatur to the still fledgling Soviet Jewry movement.Its pr ceedings were published as a book by the AmericanJewish Cor mittee in 1976 under the title The Right to Leaveand to Return.

Freedom Sunday In October 1987, when Chairman Gorbachev wasscheduled make his first visit to Washington for meetingswith President Re gan, the organizedAmerican Jewish community, led by the N tional Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Councilof Jewish Fe erations, asked me, as the director of theAmerican Jewi Committee's Washington office, to coordinate theorganization a mass demonstration. MortonYarmon, AJC's director of pub education and information, was charged withoverseeing the pu lic relations dimension of the rally. There was, however, widespread concern in theorganized Je ish community about the prospect of such arally since, unli New York, Washington had never successfullymounted a ma: Jewish demonstration. Therefore, in connectionwith Gorbache expected visit, some suggested simply to rent a halland fill it w hundreds of Jewish leaders, who would claim tospeak for 1 largercommunity, and be joined by political personalitiesfr the nation's capital. But Natan Sharansky, recentlyreleased fn the Soviet Gulag, refused to settle for such atruncated dem stration, and instead urged a mass mobilization. Heprevailed ai with his tireless assistance in going from campus to campus, cc munity to community, in the run-up to the December6 date, helped achieve the ambitious vision. In the 37 days from confirmation ofGorbachev's arrival dat A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIANJEWRY /45 Washingtonto his actual visit, American Jewry mobilizedas never before, leading to the largest single gatheringof American Jews in the nation's history. Two-hundred.and-fjftythousandpeople, including a sizable number of non-Jews,came to the nation's Mall on December 6, 1987, to participate in Freedom Sundayfor So- viet Jewry. They expressed support for theright of Soviet Jews to emigrate ("Let my people go"was the principal slogan), called particular attention to the plight of thePrisoners of Conscience (or Prisoners of Zion, as theywere sometimes called) and the thousands of long-term refuseniks, and demandedan end to restrictions on the study of Hebrew and thepractice of Judaism. Vice President George H.W Bush, leaders of theSenate and House of Representatives, Catholic andProtestant clergy, governors and mayors, union officials and civil rightsactivists, and Natan Sharansky—along with other recently releasedPrisoners of Conscience Ida Nudel, Yuli Edelshtein, andVladimir Slepak— were among the many prominent speakers at the daylongevent, which took place on theeve of Gorbachev's first meeting with Reagan in the White House. That evening, AJC, which had brought itsentire board of governors and hundreds of other members to Washington forthe rally, organized a dinner at which itpresented its highest award, the American Liberties Medallion,to Sharansky. He used the oc- casion to express appreciation to AJC for itssteadfast efforts on his behalf and its support for his wife'sadvocacy efforts while he was in the Soviet Gulag. Among the reasons for the rally'ssuccess, as I wrote in the Wash- ington Jewish Week (December 10, 1987),were:

First and foremost, the post-Holocaust legacyplayed a central role. People again and again indicated that theywanted to demonstrate their understanding of the lessons of history.They wanted to be counted among those who acted, notamong those who stood by. Many felt a special kinship with Jews from thatgreat wellspring of Jewish life, Russia.. ..Virtuallyevery Jewish institution and leader sent out a clear and constant call. Freedom Sundaywas the Jewish obligation of the year, perhaps of the decade . . . . Peoplealso participated because they felt that there truly mightbe a chance to af- fect events in this period of improving Soviet-American relations ... TheWashington area Jewish community, the keyto a successful event, responded magnificently to the mobilization, foreverputting to rest the notion that ours is an impossible communityto move. 46/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK,2007 Accordingto later reports by thengovernment officials, Presi- dent Reagan referred to thedemonstration in his meeting with Chairman Gorbachev the nextmorning, indicating that it expressed the sentiment of theAmerican people and needed tobe taken into account by the Sovietleader if he wished to pursue im- proved ties with the United States.Whether the demonstration was the straw thatbroke the camel's back may neverbe known. Nonetheless, those who participatedin the rally felt it to be a wa- tershed—a gathering of AmericanJews as never before, withwide- spread support from politicians,religious and ethnic leaders, and average Americans,that also generated extensivefront-page media coverage.

Conflicts and Quandaries In fact, it was not long afterthe rally that the Soviet floodgate opened and Jews streamed out bythe hundreds of thousands,pri manly to Israel. By the 1990s, there were overone million Jew from the now former SovietUnion living in Israel, comprising ap proximately 20 percent of thenation's Jewish population. The stream to the United States,however, slowed during thisperiod, as Washingtonnarrowed the criteria for entry in what someob- servers believed was atacit agreement with the Israeligovernment What was perhaps most strikingduring the 1 990s was the surge in Soviet Jewish migration to Germany,making it the fastest-growing Jewish community in the world.The number of Jews formally reg- istered with the German Jewishcommunity has nearly quadrupled since the late 1980s to well over100,000, while the unofficial number is at least twice as high. The 1987 rally evoked anunprecedented display of unity in the Soviet Jewry movement,temporarily hiding longstanding fissures. Both before and after, however,the divisions were real. The principal one, which firstemerged in the mid- 1970s, had to do with the issue of countryof destination for those SovietJews able to leave the USSR. Withfew exceptions, their legal basisfor departure was a vyzov, or invitation,from relatives in Israel, on the basis of which they could begin theprotracted emigration, or repatriation, process. But upon arrivalin Vienna, the first processing center in the West, anincreasing number of Soviet Jews,in the wake of the 1973 Yom KippurWar, insisted on exercisingtheir right to freedom of choice. Theyrefused to be dealt with by the A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY/47 JewishAgency for Israel (in Hebrew, the Sochnut) for transfer to Israel, and turned instead to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) for assistance in visa processing, principally to the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and for financial aid during the time they were in transit in Rome, Italy. This caused a furor. Israel insisted that all Soviet Jews leaving the USSR with documents for Israel were obligated to go there. Anyone who wanted to emigrate to the United States or elsewhere, Israeli leaders argued, should seek exit visas for those countries in Moscow through the appropriate diplomatic legations. Israel had two main concerns. First, it viewed the millions of Soviet Jews as the greatest potential reservoir for new immigrants to the Jewish state. They would affirm the vitality of Zionism and bolster the Jewish state in every way imaginable, while sending a message to Israel's adversaries that, given the steady influx, time was not nec- essarily on their side. Second, it feared that if Soviet Jews went elsewhere, the Kremlin might pull the plug on the entire process. After all, the USSR recognized the right of emigration only in rare cases, fearing that if some could leave many more would try to follow. Instead, it justified the Jewish exodus as repatriation to the Jewish homeland. For organizations like AJC, this controversy was inescapable, as it was impossible to be involved in the Soviet Jewry movement and circumvent it. In the face of competing pressures, AJC took the position that, though it sympathized with Israel's desire to maxi- mize aliyah, it could not in good conscience take any action that would curtail the freedom of the individual to choose where to resettle, consistent with entry laws in the various Western countries. AJC's position—which resembled those taken by most major American Jewish organizations—was summed up in a statement adopted by its board of governors on March 23, 1987: We believe that the overriding goal of the Soviet Jewry movement must remain to secure the release of the maximum number of Jews seeking to leave the USSR, and to permit them to establish new lives as free human beings and as Jews. While we would hope that the greatest number of Jews would choose to live in Israel and avail themselves of the extensive resettlement opportunities offered by the Israeli Government, we oppose any step that would serve to limit the right

of Soviet Jews to select the final destination of their choice. . Evenas we continue to seek ways of encouraging more Soviet Jews to consider resettlement in Israel, we affirm the position taken 48/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK,2007

.. everyJew bythe [AJC] National Executive Councilin 1976 that" . who manages to get out of the SovietUnion should be helped to go to the destination of his choiceand receive resettlement assistance." In that statement AJC went onrecord as "warmly supporting all pro- posals whose aim is to assure that Jewscoming out of the USSR be as fully informed aspossible before making their choice ofdestina- tion." There were other areas of disagreementwithin the Soviet Jewr movement. One was between theso-called establishment and nor establishment advocacy organizations.The former were groupe around the National Conference onSoviet Jewry, of which, as pn viously noted, AJC was one of thefour founders. The nonestal lishment activists, in contrast,looked to the Union of Councils f Soviet Jews, formally established in1970 and describing itself as community-based, grassroots organization,and the Student Stru] gle for Soviet Jewry, founded in1964. In retrospect, the differenc seem inconsequential,but, at the time, there was littlecooperatic between the two clusters andconsiderable mutual suspicion. TI establishment, as befits its name, wasaccused of timidity and b reaucratic inertia, whereas thenonestablishment was considered 1 its critics to be too confrontationaland its actions, consequent] counterproductive.

The Iron Curtain Falls With the collapse of communism,first, in the Soviet satell. states of Eastern Europeand, within two years, in theUSSR self, AJC saw an unprecedentedopportunity for the United Stat israel, world Jewry, and, not least, thepeople of the region. A fo pronged agenda emerged, whichremains to this day the over blueprint for AJC programming inthe entire region. 1. Assisting local communities.Jewish communities in the fi mer Soviet Unionneeded to achieve full protectionunder I law and equal status with othercitizens. Only then would th communities—now mere shadows of whatthey had been befi the double toll of Nazi occupationand communist domination be able to reconstitute themselves. Eager to maintain an appropriatedivision of labor, AJC enti siastically applauded, but did notseek to duplicate, the estima efforts of the Jewish Agency forIsrael, the American Jewish J0 A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY I 49 DistributionCommittee, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Cul- ture, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the religious movements, and other groups to strengthen Jewish life through the rebuilding of synagogues, founding of Jewish day schools and summer camps, provision of essential social services, sponsorship of communal leadership-training programs, introduction of Israeli cultural and Hebrew-language programs, and publication of books and peri- odicals on a multitude of Jewish themes. Instead, as mentioned, AJC sought to help ensure the place of Jews and Jewish communities in the emerging postcommunist societies. 2. Addressing Holocaust-related issues. Such issues, applicable to Central and Eastern Europe as well as the FSU, included pensions for survivors; identification, preservation, and protection of sites of tragedy; restitution of communal property; national acceptance, where appropriate, of historical and moral accountability; and introduction of nationally tailored curricula on Holocaust education and local Jewish history. 3. Strengthening relations with Israel. Bilateral ties between Is- rael and the nations of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the 15 successor states of the USSR, had to be broadened and deep- ened. It was clear early on that, as the new governments sought to reorient their foreign policies, Israel could become one of the principal beneficiaries of communism's collapse. Traditional East Eu- ropean support for anti-Zionism, anti-Israel terrorist groups, and the most hard-line Arab states gave way, in most cases, to pro- Western policies that included favorable attitudes toward Israel. The reasons for the change ranged from desire for access to Israeli technology and investment, to the view that close ties with the Jewish state could advance a nation's standing in the U.S., to a more generalized belief, however exaggerated, in international Jew- ish political and economic power, to a genuine desire to repair and rebuild frayed relations with the Jewish people and Israel. Many of the postcommunist societies came to believe that their attitudes toward Jews were regarded in the West (and often by de- mocrats within these societies themselves) as the best possible lit- mus test of the sincerity and effectiveness with which they pursued their new reformist policies. Thus, the opportunities available to Jewish agencies such as AJC throughout the region seemed almost limitless. This entirely new geopolitical situation—and the en- hanced role it afforded world Jewry—also permitted AJC to as- 2007 50/AMERICANJEWISH YEAR BOOK, sist Israel not only by encouragingcloser bilateral ties, but also by pressing the postcommuniSt states toend their supply of weapons, know-how, and personnel tonations in the Middle Eastposing a threat to Israel, including Iran,Iraq, Libya, and Syria. phi- 4. Building democracy.Consistent with AJC's longstanding losophy, the agency recognizedthe importance of participatingin the formation of robustdemocratic institutions, the ruleof law, civil society, human- andcivil-rights protections, and tolerance- building programs for ethnicallydiverse, sometimes stratified, societies. In the final analysis, thebest protection for minority communities living within majoritycultures, be they Jews or others,i safeguarding the rights of all byfostering respect for democracy and pluralism. Furthermore,in this case it was not simply amat- ter of trying to protectJewish communities, importantthough this obviously was, but extending thereach of freedom and ending once and for all,the East-West conflict. This explains why AJC wasthe first Jewish group to call onth U.S. government to recognizethe independence of the threeBaitil states and Ukraine, at atime when the administrationhesitated t offend Moscow. Later, AJCsought to help anchor these andothe post-Soviet states in the Europeanand transatlantic architecture Partial success came with theaccession to NATO of the Balti states in 2004, but morework remains.

Tangible Results

PENSIONSFOR HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS Inthe early 1 990s, shortly after thebreak-up of the Soviet blo AJC began developing closeworking ties with the emerginglea ers of the remnantJewish communities in theregion. Unde. standably, the first priorities of thesecommunities were to recoi stitute themselves, begin tofind fellow Jews—many of whomh hidden their identities or were even unawareof them because the parents had never revealedthe truth—organize basic commun services, deepen links withworld Jewry, and ensure theirrightf place within the newlyindependent societies. As they assessed their needs,these leaders quicklyrecognized ti importance of providing somemodicum of support for the rapid A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY / 51 agingand often indigent Holocaust survivors in their midst. Un- like their counterparts in the West who had undergone identical wartime experiences, these survivors were denied pensions from the German government. Bonn's reasoning was that even in the un- likely case that agreement with the communist countries could be reached, their regimes could not be trusted to live up to such ac- cords. Hence these Jews, ravaged by the Holocaust and unable to secure compensation because of their residence behind the iron curtain, were "double victims," in the words of Stuart Eizenstat, then serving as U.S. under secretary of state. Once communism collapsed, Bonn offered other rationales for refusing to provide monthly payments: it feared a flood of new claimants from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and elsewhere, well beyond the limited number of Jews still alive; its economy was bat- tered, its budget already stretched, its unemployment rolls growing; it preferred to consider, instead of pensions, modest one-time payments made through national foundations provided with Ger- man funds. In fact, a billion deutsche marks (DM) had been trans- ferred to Moscow for precisely this purpose just before the USSR imploded. These funds were then distributed among rather poorly administered and inadequately audited foundations established in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus—400 million, 400 million, and 200 million, respectively. In Ukraine, for example, well over 90 percent of the recipients were non-Jews, and the average one-time payment for Jewish and non-Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution was a pal- try 600 DM, or about $350. En 1996, AJC discovered that while Holocaust survivors in, for ;tance, Latvia were deemed ineligible for German pensions, dis- led veterans of the Third Reich were eligible. Consequently, a vian Waffen SS veteran injured during the war received a nthly check from Bonn, while a Latvian Jewish survivor re- d nothing. summarize a long and complex story that then unfolded, 's talks with the German government—first in private, but after achieving no progress, coupled with public pressure rated by the White House, Congress, and the media—resulted German decision, announced January 12, 1998, to allocate 200 )n DM (approximately $120 million). The funds were in- d specifically for the estimated 20,000 Jewish Holocaust sur- s who had spent at least six months in a Nazi concentration 52/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK,2007 camp or 18 monthsin a ghetto or hiding. Two daysafter the nouncement, a Washington Posteditorial commented: Germany overall has set a positivemodel for the world, one that fei other nations have matched, in facing upto the evils of its histor and paying about $60 billion inreparations for admittedly ur rightable wrongs. But in the case of theEastern Europeans, it stalle for nearly half a decade, offeringvarying untenable excuses. On] when the American Jewish Committeewent public with its tern cious campaign, beginning lastspring, did it begin to make progres Recent State Department pressureand a Senate resolution endorse by 82 Senators may also havehelped. The Senate resolution, introducedby Senators Chris Dodd Conn.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison(R., Tex.), was drafted in c. cooperation with AJC.

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS AJC, known for its frequentpolling of attitudes toward i around the world, conductedseveral pioneering surveys. In the fall of 1990, the SovietCenter for Public Opinion Market Research, at the request ofAJC, carried out the first—k the last—survey to be conductedin the Soviet Union that tematically examined, on a nationallevel, attitudes toward Je Israel, and a broad range of otherJewish concerns. The results, tensively reported in the New YorkTimes, were published in 1 by AJC in Lev Gudkov andAlex Levinson, Attitudes Towardsi in the Soviet Union: PublicOpinion in Ten Republics. In the first post-Soviet survey,undertaken in 1992 by Moscow-based Russian Center for PublicOpinion and Ma. Research on AJC's behalf, 3,965respondents were intervie' face to face in their homes in tenof the fifteen successor st (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova,Azerbaijan, Kazakhs Uzbekistan, Estonia, Latvia, andLithuania). The 144 quest. dealt with a wide range of topics,including views of Jews an a broad arrayof nationalities, political andeconomic opini civic values, and feelings aboutethnicity. Among the key findings were awide variation in attitudes to Jews from one state to another;overall unfavorable views al Jews when compared withearlier available studies; and the portance of placing attitudestoward Jews in the context of A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT:AJCAND RUSSIAN JEWRY / 53 tudestoward other groups, many of which, especially those from the Caucasus region, were viewed even more negatively than Jews. The full results and interpretive data were published in 1994 by AJC in Lev Gudkov and Alex Levinson, Attitudes Toward Jews in the Commonwealth of Independent States. A second post-Soviet AJC survey, conducted in 1996 by ROMIR, a public-opinion and market-research company in Moscow, was geographically narrower in focus, limiting itself to the Russian Federation. Published by AJC under the title Current Russian Attitudes Towards Jews and the Holocaust: A Public- Opinion Survey, it used a number of the questions regarding attitudes toward Jews that had been asked previously, allowing a de- gree of longitudinal analysis. And several questions focusing on the Holocaust were identical to those asked by AJC in eight other countries at more or less the same time (United States, England, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, and Australia), per- mitting a comparative perspective. The striking findings included a decidedly pessimistic view about the overall situation in Russia, especially among older and rela- tively less educated respondents; a plurality of support for the Communist Party; a rather low level of hostility toward Jews, although, given the large percentage of "don't know" responses to a number of questions dealing with Jews, the potential for an in- crease in such hostility; greater negative attitudes toward some other groups, among them Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, and Gypsies (Roma); and the absence of basic factual knowledge about the Holocaust coexisting with a widespread recognition of the importance of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. Mention should also be made of a pioneering three-day conference, "Jews of the Former Soviet Union: Yesterday, Today and To- morrow," held in St. Petersburg in June 1996, that was sponsored by AJC and the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Re- search, and cosponsored by the Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum of Potsdam University (Germany), the European Council of Jewish Communities, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, and Pe- tersburg Jewish University. The conference brought together 150 Jewish leaders from across the FSU, Europe, Israel, and the United States to discuss the political, cultural, religious, and educational challenges facing Jews in the FSU and appropriate strategies for responding to them. One of the speakers was Galina Starovoitova, 54 /AMERICANJEWISH YEAR EOOK, 2007 thecourageous activist for democracyand human rights who would be fatally shot in St. Petersburg two yearslater. Regrettably, I was unable to attend the conference.A Russian entry visa was denied me on thegrounds of my "past political history," which, though never explicitly defined,presumably referred to my years of involvement inthe Soviet Jewry struggle and two detentions by authorities in Moscow, in 1974 and1981. State De- partment and congressional efforts, including aletter to Russian president Boris Yeltsin urging him to reverse thevisa denial signed by more than 40 members of Congress,proved unsuccessful. (A year later, after a meetingwith Foreign Minister Yevgeny Pri- makov, I was issued an entry visa to participatein an AJC delegation visiting Moscow for meetings withpolitical officials and leaders of the Jewish community.) In addition to a summary report of the1996 conference, a publication including the texts of the threeprincipal addresses—by Professor Shlomo Avineri of the HebrewUniversity, Dr. Michael Chlenov, president of the Russian Va'ad, andProfessor Zvi Gitel- man of the University ofMichigan—was issued by AJC in 1997.

POLITICAL CONTACTS Traditionally known as the "American Jewish StateDepart- ment," AJC sought to establish links withhigh-level political officials in the FSU in pursuit of thefour-pronged agenda enu- merated above, adapted to the specific conditionsof each individual country. AJC delegations have traveled frequently toRussia, Ukraine Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia,Azerbaijan, Geor- gia, and Moldova for meetings with governmentofficials and rep• resentatives of the Jewish communities. Moreover,AJC has mel regularly with the foreign ministers of most ofthe FSU countries each fall during their visits to New York forthe opening of the Ut General Assembly sessions. In a 14-month spanduring 2006—7, foi example, AJC held five private meetings withSergei Lavrov, th foreign minister of the Russian Federation, threein New York anc two in Moscow. It is difficult to evaluate the results ofsuch meetings, for then is seldom a cause-and-effect relationshipbetween a single meeting or even a series of them,and a policy decision. Yet it is clear fron A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY/55 thefact that these leaders carve out substantial blocks of time from very busy schedules to meet with AJC delegations—and do so repeatedly—that they understand the importance of the Jew- ish community on the American scene,especiallyinthe international-affairs arena. Other than, possibly, segments of the business world, a narrow band of scholars, and Americans with ethnic roots in one of these nations, Jews are most likely to take an interest in what goes in Rus- sia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Central Asian countries, and the Baltic states, and the decision-makers there know it. After all, there are Jewish communities, big or small, within each of these countries to be considered, ties with Israel and the U.S. to be cultivated, potential links with Israel's foes to be monitored, and a long history of a Jewish presence that invites study and commemoration. More- over, many of these countries, lacking any significant or well- organized diaspora community in the U.S., believe they can entice American Jewry to play that representational role or, in the case of Ukraine, to supplement the efforts of Ukrainian Americans. In the process, they also have come to understand the AJC agenda. Our FSU interlocutors know that we want our fellow Jews to live in an atmosphere of equality that is free of anti-Semitism, above all from mainstream sources; that the state of their bilateral relations with the U.S. and Israel is vitally important to us; thatcon- cern for Iran's quest to acquire weapons of mass destruction ranks at the top of our priorities; and that we care deeply about the health of democracy and respect for human rights. Moreover, with the encouragement of the relevant Jewish communities, we often raise matters of local concern, such as the restitution of communal property, return of Jewish libraries and ritual objects, or ceme- tery desecrations and other instances of anti-Semitism.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING A number of Jewish agencies have done laudable work in training Jewish leaders in the FSU for communal service. AJC's particular aim has been to identify those Jewish leaders who interact with the general community in their countries and to help them develop their skills in working in the political arena, fostering interreligious and interethnic dialogue, strengthening understanding of pluralism and tolerance, countering hate groups, and develop- BOOK, 2007 56 I AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR ing research programs. Akey element of thisinitiative has been AJC's International JewishLeadership Conference, heldeach May the AJC since 1994, in Washington,D.C., immediately following annual meeting. By design,nearly half of the 150 overseasdele- the coun- gates who spend a weekattending both events come from tries of the FSU. The aim is tohelp develop their skills inthe areas cited above. exportable To be sure, the AmericanJewish model is not readily specific knowledge andmaterials can be uti- to these countries, but participants lized. In addition, theseannual gatherings permit the information and experiences witheach other, as well to exchange other means of com- as to create anetwork linked by e-mail and munication that minimizes the senseof isolation of the smaller communities and at the same timebolsters their self-confidence.

PROJECTUKRAINE with an Largelyas a result ofAJC's longstanding connections important segment of theUkrainian American communityand with the generous financialsupport of AJC benefactors,AJC launched Project Ukraine in1993. In initiating theundertaking, AJC assumed—correctly, asit turned out—that thebulk of at- world would go to Russia.Therefore, tention in the post-Soviet community, we given Ukraine's considerablesize and large Jewish would be well served devoting resourcesto the second most pop- ulous FSU state. The aims of the project weretwofold: to assist Ukraine innavi- gating the transition to amultiethnic, democratic nationby strengthening selected institutionsof civil society that could me- diate between the stateand the citizen, acting as awatchdog for democracy and pluralismin the country; and workingdirectly with Ukrainian Jewishleaders in enhancing theircivic, political, community-relations, and defenseskills so that they themse1ve could help ensure theprotection of their own rights. The program began withthe first annual AmericanSeminar foi Ukrainian Leaders, held inDecember 1993. Governmentofficials educators, journalists, andrepresentatives of Ukrainian Jewry anc participated in a ten-day programin th other national minorities civil society it U.S. during which theylearned about the role of American democracy, relations amongAmerican ethnic and reli A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRYI 57 giousminorities, and how Ukraine was viewed by American leaders. Evaluations from this first initiativewere very positive, especially about the value of the skills, knowledge, andtraining received. Other seminars followed. In addition, AJC professionals traveled to Ukraine to provide skills-training workshops. In1994, for instance, AJC's legal director, Sam Rabinove, visitedto discuss concepts of civil liberties, and, in 1995, AJC specialists in interreligious and interethnic relationswere invited to Ukraine to share their extensive experiences on "intervention models thatprotect vulnerable groups" with the Jewish community and withrepre- sentatives of Ukrainian civil society. Regrettably, outside funding for Project Ukraine endeda decade ago, compelling AJC to curtail these particular programs evenas it stepped up contact with Ukrainiangovernment officials, continued to pay frequent visits to Kiev, attendedevents commemo- rating the Nazi massacres at Babi Yar, developed close tieswith Jewish community leaders, focused attentionon the anti-Semitic activities of leaders of MAUP, Ukraine's largest private university, and worked with the U.S. Congress to "graduate" Ukrainefrom the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, for which Ukrainianpolitical leaders, including President Viktor Yushchenko,gave AJC special dit

F ISH LEADERSHIP PROGRAM IN THE U.S.

Liiiu, IwoRussian Jews living in the U.S., Peyrets Goldmacher arid Sam Kliger, visited AJC withan idea. They sought to build bridges between the sizable Russian-speaking Jewishcommunity, especially in New York, and the established Jewish organizations. At their previous meetings with other Jewish agencies, thetwo re- counted, they had been politely but firmly rebuffed. Would AJC take up the challenge? Theanswer was a resounding yes. The result has been a unique partnership that began the followingyear and recently marked its first decade of successful activity. The centerpiece has been an annual Russian Jewish Leadership Program. Between 20 and 30 Russian-speaking Jewsare selected to participate in a ten-week program at AJC headquarters, where they are exposed to the panoply of internal and externalchal- es faced by American and world Jewry and encouraged to join 2007 58 /AMERICANJEWISH YEAR BOOK, In fact, both have existinginstitutions or establish their own. suited from this program. In 2003, AJC hired Dr.Kliger, who at the time waswith the 1 York Association for NewAmericans, as full-time director c Affairs. The division I new division,Russian Jewish Community become a central addressfor research andprogramming relal to Russian-speakingJews in the U.S. andaround the world including in Germany, home tothe world's fastest-growingJew community because of the heavyinflux of Jews from the FSU. Russian-speaking ii May 2006, a pathbreakingconference on the U.S., estimated tocomprise 10 percent of thetotal Am in conjunction with AJC's C can Jewishpopulation, was held in tennialanniversary in Washington.Titled "From Immigration Resettlement to Integration andEngagement," it brought togel 75 leaders from acrossthe country to discussstrategies strengthening the Jewish identityand commitment of Russ speaking Jews and for bridgingthe gap that still separatest] from the rest of the Jewishcommunity.

An Enduring Commitmentfor a New Century The well-being of Jews hailingfrom what was once Czarist] sia, later the Soviet Union,and now its 15 successor states rem of paramount importance tothe agency's agenda today. A great deal has changedsince AJC was founded in respon the deadly attacks againstthe Jews of Kishinev.Millions of emigrated until the Bolshevikregime closed the nation'sbor Other Jews welcomed the endof the Romanov dynasty,which I restricted their residenc markedthem with second-class status, the Pale of Settlement,and stood by as the BlackHundreds other anti-Semitic groupscarried out periodic assaults on communism, with its promiseof eqi fenseless Jews. For some, bec ity and brotherhood,seemed like salvation. But it soon abundantly clear that any hopeof achieving equality andbn erhood would come, at aminimum, at the price ofsuppressio a distinctiveJewish religious and culturalidentity. And once Nazi Germanyattacked the Soviet Union onJune 1941, Soviet Jews from allof the western territories,including Baltic states, Belarus,Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova,bec prime targets of the Nazi"Final Solution," in some casesabe A CENTURY OF INVOLVEMENT: AJC AND RUSSIAN JEWRY /59 by local collaborators. Other Jewish civilians were fortunate to be evacuated to Central Asian republics and thus survived the war. Meanwhile, Jews in heavy numbers fought in the Red Army, and many received the nation's highest military decorations. Once the war was over and Stalin was no longer impelled to rally the entire nation, including the Jews, to defeat the Nazi aggressor, and had no further need for American assistance, he began to turn on the Jews. In this instance, Jews were vilified not as individuals, but as a collectivity. From the "anti-cosmopolitan" campaign, to the plans for deportation of all Jews to the Soviet Far East, to the so-called Doctors' Plot on the eve of his death in 1953, Stalin made clear his deep distrust of Jews and his determination to tar- get them. A new era opened in the mid-1960s, beginning with Premier Kosygin's remark in Paris supporting family reunification, followed by the indescribable infusion of pride among Soviet Jews in response to Israel's stunning victory in the 1967 war. Largely de- prived for decades of any Jewish education or religious upbring- ing, some Soviet Jews hungrily sought information about their identity—and about Israel, which had been pilloried in the Soviet media after the short-lived diplomatic infatuation with the new state in 1948 gave way to a markedly pro-Arab, anti-Israel stance, climaxed by Moscow breaking diplomatic relations after the Six- Day War. From that point until the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991, an increasing number of Jews attempted to assert their identity, and demanded repatriation to Israel and family reunification. At the same time, a broader dissident movement arose that focused on human-rights violations, and the Kremlin countered with a va- riety of responses, including harsh punitive measures. Who could have predicted at the onset of these dramatic events that more than 1.5 million Jews would eventually succeed in leaving the Soviet Union, resettling primarily in Israel but also in the U.S., Germany, Canada, Australia, and, in tiny numbers, even New Zealand? Against all the odds, this became one of the most ambitious and successful human-rights campaigns in history. Who could have foreseen the ascension to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, with his policies of glasnost and perestroika, which led directly to the collapse of the world's most powerful tyranny? Who could have imagined that on former Soviet space Jewish life in its multi- BOOK, 2007 60/AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR community cen- tudinousforms —synagoguesof various kinds, culturalorganizations—would reemerge ters, study groups, extinguish every last ves- decades after a deliberateSoviet effort to and pride? Who couldhave conceived that tige of Jewish identity post-Soviet states, Israeli embassies wouldbe established in these flourishing, in many cases,today, as repre- with bilateral relations offices and sentatives of Israeliinstitutions are permitted to open nature of Zionismand contemporary educate Jews about the true Jews—who fled the Israeli life? And whocould have pictured tickets to the Westnow travelingback and USSR on one-way of business, tourism, or forth to their formerhomes, for purposes to reconnectwith their places oforigin? even extended stays whenever Throughout this tumultuoushistory, AJC has sought, focusing the spotlight possible, to play aconstructive role, whether of Jews in that partof the world, defendingtheir on the travails demanding that the religious right to leave andresettle elsewhere, Jews be protected,encouraging ties with Is- and cultural rights of Soviet Jews in the rael, or enhancing thelinks between resettled American Jewishcommunity. U.S. and the larger taken Varying with the circumstances,these AJC efforts have diplomatic back channels,demonstrations in the place through organiza- streets, skillfulnavigation of regionaland international longstanding non-Jewish partners,prodigious re- tions, outreach to advocacy purposes, search and publication5constant travel for local Jewish communitiesand their frontline and direct links with driven by leaders. This patternof activism reveals an agency courage, commitment,conviction, and compassion. unforeseeable events of thetwentieth cen- In light of the entirely Europe, ii tury thataffected the millions ofJews from Eastern indeed to anticipate likelyscenarios for th would be foolhardy there are Jews in tha next century. Butit is clear that as long as world—and undoubtedlythere will be—active en part of the institutions in civi gagement with them,their governments, key interested countries,especially the U.S. and Is society, and other record of steadfast corn rae!, will be necessary.AJC's century-long active andfrward-lookiflg agenda giv mitment and its current organization will continueit every reason tobelieve that the record of unparalleleddedication-