Soviet Jewry Memories Haim Solomon 2008 Involvement in Soviet Jewry Struggle My name is Haim Solomon. I was born on November 5, 1924 in a small shtetl (200 Jewish families) in North-Eastern Romania called Bivolar. Under the astute leadership of my father I (we) survived the Holocaust by hiding, moving, bribing and other defense mechanisms. After the Germans were defeated and the Russians came to Romania, reality set in and on December 1947, I joined a large illegal aliyah to go to Israel (Palestine). But, our ship was captured by the British Navy and took us to the island of Cyprus where I was interned for 1 year. Later, in December 1948 I escaped from Cyprus on a fishing boat and arrived in Israel on January 3 1949. I went directly into the army and because I indicated my intention to study medicine I was assigned to the military hospital at Tel-Hashomer where I spent 30 months – 24 months as a soldier and six months as a paid civilian. I held a few other jobs while enquiring about higher education in consultation with my older brother Henry who invited me to come to America. I arrived in Detroit, Michigan on November 2, 1952, registered and began classes at Wayne State University to study microbiology. I also attended the Hebrew Teachers Midrasha and taught Hebrew in the United Hebrew Schools system. At Wayne State I received a BS and MS degrees then moved on to Michigan State University for a PhD degree. We did some pioneer work with a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC invited me to join them as they have just opened a laboratory for this organism. I arrived in Washington on July 12, 1965. I sought out the Jewish Community Center on 16th and Q Streets and offered to teach Hebrew as I did in Detroit. It didn’t pan out but instead I became the chairman of the JCC single adults club – “the Coffee House.” It was there, late in 1967, that I met Moshe Brodetzky and Aaron Braunstein who recently moved here from New York. Moshe Brodetzky It is now fully recognized that without Moshe there would have been no organized effort on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the Washington area. Or it would have taken many, many months to do Solomon Memoir Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 1 Voices of the Vigil so. His regular job as an engineer was at the HUD building on 7th Street, SW and mine with the FDA was on 3rd Street SW. First he invited me to the daily minyan he organized there, always ending with a plea to protest at the Soviet embassy. After weeks of discussions on strategy and recruitment of participants we were ready to start. Lenore Sigelman, also working at the HUD, made up some large posters plus some leaflets and we drove up to 16th and K Streets NW (we were informed of the 500 feet moratorium). There, we marched in a constricted circle with the posters and handing out leaflets explaining our cause. I remember Ernie Shalowitz holding up a poster and telling me with a smile that this was the first time in his life that he carried a poster. The officers at the TWA office in that corner didn’t know what’s going on but they didn’t mind. We were far enough from the Soviet embassy located on 16th Street between L and M but close enough for the Soviets to find out. More and more people from various government agencies plus concerned leaders of Jewish organizations joined in to make it a daily occurrence. The Vigil One day, while we marched at 16th and K Streets, David Amdur of the Jewish Community Council walked up on the western side of 16th Street and just stood in silence facing the Soviet Embassy. He did that many times and soon more people joined him and that was the start of the “Daily Vigil,” on the steps of the Electrical Workers Union building. When the Union’s president Mr. Fitzmaurice was asked for permission, he said: ”By all means, I’ll join you when I can”. The 500-foot moratorium was challenged and people from around the country in addition to all important people right here in Washington came to stand in silent protest across from the Soviet embassy. The vigil lasted for many years and while we could not hold any posters we gave out leaflets explaining our protest and describing the plight of Soviet Jews. We just needed to make sure that it took place every day at 12:30. On Shabbat and Jewish holidays Reverend John Steinbruck of the Luther Place on Thomas Circle would bring members of his congregation to attend. The Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry Throughout all the above events and because the established Jewish community represented by the JCC would not initiate any vigorous protests we established the Washington Committee for Solomon Memoir Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 2 Voices of the Vigil Soviet Jewry (WCSJ). Moshe was the President and I became the Treasurer/Secretary/Driver/Doer of all things Moshe couldn’t find someone else to do. Treasurer To run a non-violent protest organization one needs funds for written materials that will describe our cause and express our concern. We established five-dollar annual dues to pay for all the expenses we incurred in our growing activities. We were affiliated with the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry located in Cleveland, OH,. From them we bought materials to spread our message, like: bumper stickers, buttons and bracelets with names of refusenicks, greeting cards for Jewish holidays – 10 cards plus 10 addresses of Russian Jews – and especially the newspaper, Exodus. Pretty soon our five-dollar dues became insufficient and we ran out of money. Our first big break came from Rabbi Joshua Haberman of the Washington Hebrew Congregation. At one of the JCC meetings he told Moshe that one of his congregants gave him a big donation for a meaningful cause of his choice. The following Sunday when we drove up to see him he gave us $1,000 check which in 1970 was a lot of money. The next even bigger break came from Leo Bernstein (z”l), president of Washington National Bank on 18th and K Streets. Someone arranged for me to go see him. He listened to my story and our problem and then called in one of the directors who took me to his office to solve my problem. Up to that point I kept the WCSJ income in a savings account and paid with money orders or transferred money to my checking account and used my checks. My bank couldn’t open a checking account for the WCSJ unless I bring a certificate of incorporation of the organization. The director at Washington National Bank made me a checkbook on my name /WCSJ plus deposit slips and repeated what Leo Bernstein told me when I left him –“don’t worry about money, just go out and do what you need to do.” From then on our financial management was simpler as we ventured into greater income producing affairs. For example: when sportscaster Warner Wolf left Washington to go to N.Y., Irene Manekofsky (z”l) with Warner’s approval organized a special dinner at the Shoreham Solomon Memoir Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 3 Voices of the Vigil Hotel where Gordon Peterson was the main speaker. Warner gave a fiery speech about those Russian bastards and we realized a lot of money. Another affair Irene organized took place at the house/studio of Phillip Ratner, who produced for us 50 copies each of his special paintings depicting the Soviet Jewry Struggle. This also produced a lot of money, sufficient for us to hire a part-time secretary, Irene’s daughter-in-law. Secretary/Doer At Moshe’s insistence I reluctantly wrote letters to officials of importance. I remember typing a letter to President Nixon before his trip to Moscow and another letter to Zelda Fichlander of Arena Stage before the theatre went on tour to Moscow. We received responses to both letters, the one from the White House was signed by Alan Shepherd, the astronaut assigned to the White House and from Zelda a very heartfelt response. Some of Arena’s actors asked some embarrassing questions of their hosts in Moscow, and on their return were very supportive of our efforts. On October 20, 1971, Rabbi Meir Kahane held a large rally on K and 16th Streets where 1,500 people attended. Moshe suggested we should participate but leave it to the members to decide. When the police asked the people to disperse everyone sat down on the floor. When the policeman asked me what I plan to do, I told him that the next day I fly to Israel to get married and so I left. The above mentioned trinkets we purchased from the Union of Councils we either sold in bulk to Jewish organizations or individually at various community affairs. The more difficult situation was related to the distribution of the newspaper Exodus. The newspaper was shipped to us from Cleveland and delivered at the Ohev Sholom congregation on 16th Street. There, Jack Spiro, the Executive Director, made me some little plates with the addresses of our membership to fit his addressograph machine. We bundled up the addressed papers and I took them to the main Post Office across the Union Station and mailed them to our members.