A' Year of Jewish Bravery in the Soviet Union
By BORIS SMOLAR
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1970, JTA. Inc.)
The Jewish year just concluded
was marked by a new and daring
development in Jewish life in the
Soviet Union. For the first time
since the Soviet Revolution, Jens
dared collectively and openly to
protest to the Soviet government
—and to the world—against pre-
venting them from emigrating to
Israel
Groups of Jews signed bold peti-
tions asking the Soviet government
to permit them to leave for Israel.
Such collective appeals were sent
to the Soviet rulers in the Kremlin
with the names and the addresses
of those who signed them fearless
ly. Some groups even dared to
make public their appeals abroad.
There were groups who sent their
appeals to the Human Rights Com-
mission of the United Nations.
Others, who wanted to make sure
that their appeals will reach the
United Nations for intervention
with the Soviet government found
a way to send them to the Israel
government for presentation to
UN Secretary General U Thant
and to the president of the UN Gen-
eral Assembly.
Soviet history has never seen
.Z.
anything like it. It all started
with a collective petition of
courageous heads of 18 Jewish
families in the Soviet Republic
of Georgia. They were followed
by 39 Jewish residents of Mos-
cow, by a group of 21 Jews in
Leningrad, by 2$ Jews in Riga,
by grcops of Jews in Kiev and
In other Soviet cities. The pro-
testers — risking their employ.
meat and freedom — said they
expressed the sentiment of many
Soviet Jews in wishing to emi-
grate to Israel, but they pleaded
only for themselves.
Individual Jews had the courage
to send appeals to Soviet Premier
Alexel Kosygin, to Soviet President
Nikolai Podgorny, and to the secre-
tary of the Communist Party,
Leonid Brezhnev, pleading for per-
mission to emigrate to Israel
Some of them—like the 33-year-old
Jewish engineer Boris Kochubiyev-
sky—paid for it with their free-
dom. But this did not discourage
others from appealing directly to
the Soviet rulers. In most cases
they received no reply, in others
they were notified by local authori-
ties—mostly over the telephone—
that no action could be taken en
their pleas.
The increasing wave of Jewish
collective demands for exit visas
to Israel have obviously provoked a
good deal of concern in the Krem-
lin. Especially because the origi-
nators of some of these collective
appeals have seen to it that copies
of their pleas reached the foreign
correspondents in Moscow for pub>
lication abroad. Soviet officials
sought to counteract the impres-
sion which the Jewish mass-appli-
cations made abroad by having 52
prominent Soviet Jews appear at
at a press conference at the for-
eign ministry in Moscow with
statements denying that Soviet
Jews wish to emigrate to Israel.
Moscow officials visited Soviet
Georgia with a view to persuading
the heads of the 18 Jewish families
there to withdraw their signatures
from their appeal.
The daring of the Jews in the
Soviet Union to challenge their
government on emigration to Israel
is by itself a remarkable phenome-
non under the existing circum-
stances of Soviet life. It is all the
more remarkable In the light of
the venomous anti-Israel propa-
ganda which has prevailed in the
Soviet Union since the end of the
Six-Day War, when Moscow sev-
ered diplomatic relations with the
Israel government and took a
strong pro-Arab stand.
Israel has since .then been a
"dirty word" in the Soviet Union.
Being vilified by the Soviet press
and over the radio, the word
72--fridrh Octelour 2,19711
"Israel" became synonymous in
tha Soviet Union with the word
"enemy." Although many of the
Soviet citizens — even non-Jews
—have no love for the Arabs and
are not impressed by the intensi-
fied Soviet propaganda against
Israel, nevertheless they avoid
mentioning Israel in their conver-
sations. For a Jewish citizen to
express pro-Israel sentiments is to
open himself to the charges of
being a traitor.
Jews in the Soviet Union have
taken their courage from a state-
ment made by Premier Kosygin at
a news conference in Paris in
December 1966, declaring that
Soviet Jews who wished to join
their families abroad would be free
to do so. His statement was puh-
lished in the Soviet press, and that
gave many in Russia the feeling
they could safely apply for exit
visas to emigrate to Israel.
But Kosygin made his statement
before the outbreak of the Six-Day
War, before the Soviet government
broke relations with Israel, before
Israel was branded in Moscow as
an enemy of the Soviet Union. This
change has affected many indi-
vidual Jews who were thinking of
applying for permits to join their
relatives in Israel. It affected even
some individual Jews who had al-
ready applied for such permits;
fearing that they might be charged
with being adherents of an "enemy
country," they attempted to with-
draw their applications.
More courageous Jews found
support in their requests for
visas to Israel in. Article 13,
Paragraph 2, of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
which was endorsed by the
Soviet government. It reads:
"Everyone has the right to leave
any country, including his own,
and return to his country." The
same idea is expressed In the
International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, which was
ratified by the presidium of the
Supreme Court of the Soviet
Union on Jan. 22, 1969.
The Soviet government, sensitive
to the dominating role it plays in
the United Nations, and fearing
that it may be accused of not
abiding by UN international pacts
which she herself approved, was
embarrassed by the collective Jew-
ish demands for emigration to
Israel, but could not charge the
signatories to these demands with
committing anti-Soviet illegal acts.
The charges against some of the
applicants were trumped up on
other grounds, but not on the
ground that they wished to leave
the Soviet Union for Israel.
Thus, the Jewish year past was
marked by a very important turn
in the strategy of Soviet Jews to
secure emigration. For the first
time since the Six-Day War the
Soviet authorities had to pay atten-
tion to Jewish applications for emi-
graLca visas, and although they
could postpone action on those ap-
plications indefinitely, they could
not arrest anyone on the charge of
seeking emigration to Israel.
In fact, a small breakthrough did
come during the year in granting
Soviet Jews permission to leave
the country "for Israel. It is esti-
mated that 80,000 Jews have ap-
plied so far for such permits. Their
applications lay dormant some-
where in the offices of OVIR, the
Soviet agency which deals with
exit visas. However, a small num-
ber of applications have during
this year been approved.
Among the small number of
Jews permitted to leave for Israel
last year was Nehama Lifshitz, the
Yiddish folk singer who for years
delighted large audiences in the
Soviet Union with her Jewish songs.
Her leaving was significant. Soviet
authorities have always cited the
concerts of Miss Lifshitz as proof
that Jewish culture is not being
suppressed in the Soviet Union,
Her emigration to Israel was a
blow to the Soviet argument that
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEiMS
"As soon as the movement to
Jewish artists feel themselves at
home in the USSR. The authorities withdraw the applications started,
were obviously afraid to reject her we sent instructions from Moscow
application for emigration because to all OVIR offices throughout the
such rejection would have been country which deal with emigra-
contrary to the Soviet international tion, not to return the applications
obligations. The refusal of an exit to the frightened applicants, but
visa to Miss Lifshitz, whose name on the contrary, to make them feel
is well known abroad, would have, that there is nothing wrong with
no doubt, attracted attention their applying for reunification
abroad.
with their families abroad. The
OVIR officers were instructed to
About three months before the tell the applicants that action on
presidium of the Supreme Court their applications is temporarily
of the Soviet Union ratified tic suspended, with the emphasis on
International Convention on the the word 'temporarily.' The OVIR
Elimination of All Forms of Racial officers were to advise the appli-
Discriminatibn—which provides fcr cants that they should not consider
freedom of emigration — I visited their applications as rejected even
Moscow. It was about two weeks if there is no action on them for
after Rosh Hashana in 1968.
a time. Of course, the applicants
A high Soviet official with whom who insisted on withdrawing. their
I discussed issues concerning Soviet applications, even under the above
Jewry, as well as Soviet-Israel assurances, received their applica-
relations, was trying to convince tions back, but efforts were made
me that the Kremlin is not intent on our part to dissuade them from
on the annihilation of Israel by the doing so.
Arabs. He indicated to me that
- This should convince you that
something important was going on we don't intend to keep our doors
behind the scenes in the Kremlin closed for Soviet Jews wishing to
with regard to Israel, but did not emigrate to Israel. It was natural
say what. When I asked him to stop issuing exit permits to
whether the Soviet government Israel when we broke off diplo-
will permit emigration of Soviet matic relations with Israel, but as
Jews to Israel, even while main- I said before, you will see Jews
taining its present pro-Arab policy, being permitted to leave our coun-
his answer was:
try for Israel sooner than you
"You will see Jewish emigra-
tion from our country to Israel
sooner than you think!"
think"
I felt that there must be some-
thing behind what he says, other-
wise he would not have gone out of
his way to try to dispel my doubts.
I also sensed that I was the first
person to whom this information
I saw this family in Vienna be-
fore they were put on a plane to
Israel. The head of the family told
me that he was greatly surprised
when he was suddenly called to
the OWE office and given exit
visas to leave the country with the
members of his family. He had
applied for the visas four years
earlier and had never heard any-
thing about the fate of his applica-
tion. He practically forgot about it,
until he was called to take the
visas and was given several days
to arrange for departure.
Upon arriving on the Soviet bor-
der, the family was met with sus-
picion on the part of the border
officials. The officials, who had
not seen anyone permitted to emi-
grate to Israel for years, were
startled when they saw Soviet pass-
ports stamped with exit visas and
with Israeli immigration stamps.
They suspected that the entire
thing was a forgery. They kept the
Jewish family isolated for eight
hours while communicating by tele-
phone with the proper authorities
in Moscow. When told that the
passports and the visas were not
forged, they put the Jewish family
on the train but remained puzzled.
To see somebody permitted by the
Soviet authorities in Moscow to
leave for Israel was a new experi-
ence.
Following this first family, sev-
eral other families were permitted
by Moscow to proceed to Israel the
same way. The Soviet official had
not lied to me after all. A trickle of
Jews has left Russia for Israel
since that time, though only a
trickle. The fear of Soviet Jews of
asking for emigration to Israel
subsided, with the result that
groups of Jews began to submit
collective requests for exit visas.
The breakthrough is there. How
long it will last nobody can tell.
Nor can one tell whether this may
lead to Soviet permission of emi-
gration of Jews from the country
on a larger scale. There seems to
be a mood among some in the
Kremlin not to stand in the way of
those Jews in the Soviet Union who
wish to join their relatives in Is-
rael. If the Arab-Israel war is ever
settled, that mood many assume
practical form.
At that time there were no Jew-
ish collective demands yet for exit
visas. Emigration to Israel was at
that time generally taboo. It was
known to Jews in the Soviet Union
that Premier Kosygin promised was revealed — although not for
publicly to permit the joining rf publication — because the Soviet
relatives abroad, but the promise authorities seemed to be interested
was not kept after Moscow broke in conveying that message private-
relations with Israel in June 1967. ly to Jewish leaders abroad.
I expressed my opinion that
It was not known that the Soviet
government was on the verge of there might be something in what
ratifying an international agree- the Soviet official told me, but
ment which may open the doors of what this "something" was re-
the USSR for emigration of ethnic mained to be seen.
minorities who consider themselves
Sooner than I expected—about a
racially discriminated against.
week after I reached Vienna from
I admit that I did not believe the Moscow—the first Jewish family
Soviet official when he told me from the Soviet Union arrived by
that Moscow would begin to permit train from Moscow to Vienna, via
Jews to leave the Soviet Union. I Hungary. It was a family of four.
did not think that such a move They were on their way to Israel.
would be made while the Soviet
government was vilifying Israel,
and without restoration of diplo-
matic relations with Israel. I did
not express my doubts to the offi-
cial, but he sensed it. Without in-
dulging in any details, but in order
1 1 171 7 - 1;
to make his point stronger, he
continued:
"I can tell you now that when `1; lc
tIt7
we broke off relations with Israel,
many Jews who had previously
registered for emigration to Israel
became panicky. They thought that
they will be blacklisted as enemies
of the Soviet Union. They rushed to
withdraw their applications for exit
visas. They wanted to be on the
record as loyal Soviet citizens. But
what was our reaction?
The Hebrew Corner
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
A few days ago I went for a walk
with my son in the Street of the Proph-
ets in Jerusalem. We passed (before)
an old house, and I told my son that
Cliezer ben ',reboil& used to live here.
"Is that the man after whom streets
in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are named?'
my son asked me. "Yes," I said, and I
began to tell him of this wonderful man.
Wieser ben Tehuda arrived In Jeru-
salem about 90 years ago. The mi•
dents of the city thought that he was
out of his mind, for he spoke only He-
brew and used Hebrew for everyday
purposes. Until then the Hebrew lan-
guage was the "holy tongue' only, and
he revived It (lit. came to revive it),
and turned It into a living and spoken
language.
Ben Yehuda'a fight was long and
bard. But he was a courageous fighter.
His belief In the future of the Hebrew
language and In the future of the Jew-
ish settlement In Bretz Throe' was so
strong that he was able to overcome
all difficulties. He was alone in his
great struggle and, aoart from his wife
and a few friends, the older Jewish
settlers laughed at him. Proudly he
said of his wife that she was the first
mother for 2.1100 years who spoke to
her children in Hebrew.
The memory of the reviver of the
Hebrew language will remain with us
as long as the People of Israel speaks
its old-new language.
Translation of Hebrew Column. Issued
by Brit Ivrit Olamit In conjunction
with Kerns Zikaron Letarbut Yebudit.
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