Ex-Soviet Professor Guesses Half
of Jews Would Leave if Possible
BY CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Dr. Esther Aisenstadt, a noted
professor of philology from Mos-
cow, who with her husband won
a long fight to leave the Soviet
Union for Israel in November, told
The Jewish News Wednesday eve-
ning that were the gates to open
tomorrow, half of the Jews in the
USSR-1,500,000 persons—would
leave.
Dr. Aisenstadt, who •is touring
the country under the auspices of
the American Conference for So-
viet Jewry, urged nonviolent pro-
- test against the Soviet regime's
• • •
anti-Semitic policy as being the
best way to win freedom for Jews
seeking exodus. The Jewish De-
fense League's brand of militancy
has merely called attention away
from the real issue, she said.
She cautioned that those who
would speak for the Jews still in
the Soviet Union consider the
dangers of talking too freely
about secret efforts in their
behalf.
(Batya Barg, who has been lec-
turing for Al Tidom, has spoken
to reporters about underground
cells and given actual locations of
• • •
such cells—See earlier interview
below.)
Dr. Aisenstadt otherwise does
not hesitate to speak out against
the repressive policy of the Soviet
Union. In 1969, she and her hus-
band joined eight other Jews in
signing the first collective appeal
addressed by Moscow Jews to their
co-religionists abroad.
A full report on her address to
a leadership meeting called by the
Jewish Community Council Thurs-
day night will be carried by The
Jewish News next week.
• • •
Emigre Describes Efforts of Russian Jewry
In a country where human
rights are a constitutional figure
of speech, certainly not taken seri-
ously, Batya Barg was a criminal.
These were the crimes in which
the young woman engaged:
Reading and distributing Zionist
literature;
Forming underground cells' for
the purpose of teaching Hebrew;
Encouraging such ritual "felon-
ies" as use of a secret • mikva,
observance of holidays and baking
of matzo;
Seeking to join her people in
the land of Israel.
Today, the endgre from Kiev,
in the Ukraine, is free to prac-
tice Judaism-1% years after
she and her mother won their
battle to emigrate. Batya and
her husband, Rabbi Avraham
Barg, a third-generation sabre,
live outside Jerusalem. Her ag-
ing mother lives in a Malben
home nearby.
Batya—or Bebe as her friends
know her — was in Detroit last
week to address a public meeting
at Cong. Bnai David. She also
spoke at a series of parlor meet-
ings, on behalf of the Al Tidom
(Do Not Be Silent) Association.
In an interview, a spokesman
for the organization who was here
with Mrs. Barg said Al Tidom
seeks to raise funds for the pur-
chase of packages to be sent to
Jews in the Soviet Union. The rec-
ipients may then sell the pack-
ages for the rubles necessary to
leave the Soviet Union.
He explained that frequently
the applicant for an exit permit is
left without funds after being fired
from his job. He is given 45 days
in which to raise the money-400
rubles for a visa, 500 for lawyers'
fees and, according to Al Tidom,
another 500 if he has a college
degree. Since the average work-
ing man earns 80-120 rubles a
month, be stands little chance of
getting to Vienna, where the Joint
Distribution Committee takes over.
Bebe was one of the lucky ones.
Born 32 years ago to a Kiev
rosh yeshiva and his wife, Bebe
was the youngest of seven chil-
dren—end the only one to sur-
vive the Holocaust. When the
Nazis invaded in 1941, her six
brothers and sisters, aR serving
with the partisans, were mur-
dered and dumped into the in.
famous ravine of Bahl Tar that
has inspired so many writings
of outrage.
What made their end even more
bitter was that fellow partisans
informed on them, said Bebe.
She and her parents made it
out of Kiev on the last train to
Samarkand.
Growing up in the Ukraine was
not easy even under "normal"
circumstances, for whatever anti-
Semitism is found elsewhere in
the Soviet Union is compounded
here.
Take the baking of matzot One
.
,
Help keep
America
Strong
SAVVOIS ROHM
9011WPOOMFOI SHAMS
•
day, 12-year-old Bebe was visited
by a friend, who, noting the pre-
Passover activities, immediately
began searching for the "blood."
Despite their patient demonstra-
tion of matzo baking, the little girl
remained unconvinced. Brought up
with a myth, she could not easily
shake it.
Yet Yiddishkeit survived in
Bebe's home. Taught prayerbook
Hebrew by her father, instructed
in the laws of kashrut by her
mother—and instilled with a love
of Zion by both of them—Bebe was
not destined to forget her heritage,
despite government policy to the
contrary.
Even after her father died
several years ago—a result, she
said, of the torture inflicted in
1951.53 by Communist authoti-
ties who suspected him of being
a Monist—Bebe and her mother
continued their traditional prac-
tices.
A mikva was secreted under the
table of their one-room apartment.
Kashrut was maintained, although
in all of Kiev there were but two
ritual slaughterers to service 150,-
000 Jews. (Shehita was permitted
by the authorities in the larger
cities, said Bebe, but only chickens
were available.)
It appears that the wom-
en's reputation for a kosher
home significantly changed
their lives. For into their little
apartment came
a growing num-
ber o f touring
American r a b -
bis. On visiting
Kiev's synago-
gue, five minutes
away, they
would be told
that here was the
only place in the
city where they
could find a
kosher meal. Mrs. Barg
Strangely, said Bebe, the auth-
orities didn't seem to mind the
constant comings and goings at
Jaroalayskaja 17, kvartirer 52. The
officials knew the women had rela-
tives in America, and anyway, it
was good for the tourist trade to
have a kosher facility available,
she said.
One of the rabbis was Harry
Bronstein of New York. In 1960,
on his fifth visit to the Soviet
Union, Rabbi Bronstein spent an
evening with Bebe and her
mother. She begged him to help
her and her friends in their plight.
Could he supply them with Hebrew
record s, Jewish newspapers,
books, religious articles? Rabbi
Bronstein was afraid; how could
he be sure that this wasn't a
plant by the secret police?
Sitting at the table, Rabbi
Bronstein happened to touch a
strange object—a door handle—
protruding below. But the secret
door revealed a mikva. Rabbi
Bronstein was convinced of
Bebe's sincerity.
Out of this initial encounter
grew a flourishing contact. In the
past decade, Al Tidom spokesmen
say, Jews in the Soviet Union
have been provided with a con-
stant flow of materials, u well
as short-wave, radio. with .which
,
they can listen to Voice of Amer-
ica and Kol Yisrael (Radio Is-
rael). The latter beams in two
programs in Russian and three in
Yiddish.
According to Bebe, she set
about instructing carefully se-
lected students who had expressed
the desire to learn Hebrew, Jew-
ish songs and information about
Israel. As her pupils learned,
they taught others.
Bebe estimates that today
there are 50 such study groups
throughout the Soviet Union,
"but new ones are born each
year." She guessed that about
150 families who had taken part
have reached Israel.
Of one city, Bebe said, "There
are so many cells of 'young Mac-
cabees' that it is said if you want
to know what a Zionist is, take a
trip to —.*.
Another activity Al Tidom seeks
to promote is the training of
mobelim. In the Soviet Union,
where there is a strict prohibition
against circumcision, some 98 per
cent of the male Jews are un-
circumcized, Bebe said.
She claimed that since the Six-
Day War, many Jews have ex-
pressed the desire to Conform with
the rnitzva, not as a religious sym-
bol but as a symbol of their one-
ness with the Jewish people.
The Al Tidom representative
added that 18 mohelim have been
trained in the Soviet Union and
27 in the satellite countries—.
Poland, Romania and Hungary.
But if it did nothing else, Al
Tidom's establishment of personal
contacts has bolstered the cour-
age of Soviet Jews, Bebe insists.
"When they get a package, they
know someone cares." (A local
group of supporters, led by Dr. and
Mrs. Charles Levi, 17190 Hilton,
Southfield, 352-9316, is seeking to
do just that)
And as mare news filtered out
about the activities of young
Russian Jews, they felt some-
how safer in their unceasing
quest for emigration, she said.
No longer was each man a sin-
gle entity, alone in Ms anguish.
Today, Jews are writing letters
"by the tons," openly proclaim-
ing they are Zionists and that they
want to leave for Israel," said
Bebe. "The older people still re-
member Stalin, but the younger
people are not afraid. Thousands
of Jews tune in to Kol Yisrael
and hear about the protest here;
they know we're with them."
Although she gave some am-
biguous answers to questions about
the Jewish Defense League and
its violent protests, Bebe finally
conceded that "they go too far."
But protest has had its effect,
and Bebe does believe that Russia
is giving away to public pressure.
Of 39 who smuggled out a letter
to the United Nations last year,
30 are now in Israel, she said.
The reason is simple, Bebe add-
ed: "The Soviet government is
anxious to get rid of the trouble
makers."
And -will the gates open to let
all Jews out who wish to go?
"The strong ones will get out"
she said, "whether the gates are
open or
not"-
— -
THE BETRIIT JEWISH HEWS
32—Mdsy, January 29, 1971
80.000-Tree Forest Planted
in Shazar's Name by JNF
JERUSALEM—The 70th anniver-
sary year of the Keren Kayemeth
Leisrael was officially launched
when Jacob Taut, chairman of the
board of directors, on behalf of the
JNF and the Zionist movement,
presented to the president of Israel
the certificate of the Zalman and
Rachel Shazar Forest.
The 80,000-tree forest in honor
of the president and the first lady
is the result of a world-wide cam•
paign inaugurated last year on the
occasion of Shazar's 80th birthday.
The ceremony was held at the
president's residence in the pres-
ence of the executive of the Jewish
Agency, the board of directors of
the Keren Kayemeth and other
leading personalities of the state
and Zionist movement.
Accepting the certificate, Shazar
said that the Keren Kayemeth had
always been present in times of
crises and is continuing to play
a major role in overcoming the
problems.
"Military victories are only of
value if they are followed by the
peaceful ealquest st the soil,"
be said. "Ts lift the curse front
the soil by securing the Bak of
the Jewish people with the land
has been the great achievement
of the Fund, beginning in the
days when it first purchased the
land and continuing to develop
it and bring the youth close to
its natural heritage."
Tsur also presented to the presi-
dent and to Jewish Agency Chair-
man Aryeh Pincus the commem-
orative medal minted by the Israel
Government Coins and Medals
Corp. in honor of the JNF's 70th
anniversary.
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