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 fol- lowed, 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 emi- grate, 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 es- tablished 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 prin- cipal 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 lead- ers while facing resistance from the White Houseand the State De- partment, to achieve that goal. Particularly noteworthy in reviewingthis campaign is its simi- larity, in several strikingways, to the effort that led to the adop- tion 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 emi- gration 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 ad- mittedly 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 in- ternational campaign to