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 Jews. 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 Soviet Union, 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 Dodek Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 1 Voices of the Vigil 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, Israel 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. Dodek Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 2 Voices of the Vigil 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 Dodek Oral History Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington Page 3 Voices of the Vigil 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.