`Trouble-Making' Professor, Free at Last,
Fights =for Russian Jews She Left Behind

,

•

By CHARLOTTE DUBIN
For Dr. Esther Aisenstadt, reach-
ing Israel was .the fulfillment of a
lifelong dream — an impossible
dream until two months ago, when
the Soviet authorities finally per-
mitted her and her husband to
emigrate.
Only one cause could have per-
suaded the former Moscow pro-
fessor of languages to leave her
Promised Land so soon after she
had found it: an obligation to the
Jews she had left behind In the
Soviet Union. And so, she is on a
tour sponsored by the American
Jewish Conference for Soviet Jew-
ry, to describe the situation of her
DR. ESTHER AISENSTADT
.kinsmen and fire up American
Jews to work in their behalf.
they do, the neighbors find out
Why she and her husband, that this Jew wants to leave.
Leber Nepontniashty were finally
"A former husband or wife also
granted exit possibly was another must sign an agreement. And he
whim of the inscrutable Soviet too becomes implicated, connected
government. But listening to her with someone with such cheek as
speak—in Impeccable English, by to want to leave the Soviet Union.
the way—one is made aware that
"Then there are the curriculum
it was a relief for the Soviet gov- vitae, and six photos and question-
ernment to be rid of such an out- naires and long lines.
spoken "troublemaker."
"In many cases, you lose your
Dr. Aisenstadt did not hesitate job, and even if you don't, they
to vent her feelings in the Soviet make it difficult for you at work.
Union. Neither was she holding I was with the institute for 21 years
back in her talk last Thursday —the last Jew to work there. When
night, under the auspices of the they found out I wanted to leave
Jewish Community Council, at the the Soviet Union, you can imagine
Jewish Center. -
what they thought."
For example: "What -the Jewish
But the papers, finally, were
Defense League is doing is harm- completed and handed in.
ing Soviet Jews. This group takes
After three months, a postcard
the limelight and gives the Soviet arrived, advising the applicant to
authorities the opportunity to be call. "They put nothing in writing,
on the offensive, instead a the nothing that could be shown later
defensive. There's little heroism in as indicating a firm reply.
what they (the JDL) do. When
"We were refused. And we were
you're grown up, you realize vio- not told why.
lence is not the way."
"Of course, you can start all over
Born in 1918, Dr. Aisenstadt is a again, and it takes another six
year younger than the Great Rus- months to a year. In the mean-
sian Experiment. Few emigres time, you can pester the officials,
have better qualifications to de- the head of the government, the
scribe• its failure, but Dr. Aisen- head of the party central commit-
stadt stresses her mission is not to tee.
criticize the Soviet Union, only its
"We went back every two weeks.
policy on the Jews. If that's possi- The answers varied; some said
ble.
'You'll never go, and if you insist,
The desire to emigrate came long you know what we'll do.' To some
before the remote possibility to do letters there were no answers.
so. "I grew up in a real Jewish
"But they didn't expect there
family," she said. "I was taught would be so many of us. About
my own language and literature 314,100 applications were handed
and the heritage of my people. I in under those conditions, though
would have left for Israel long we knew what would happen.
ago."
When they lost their jobs, some
All the more remarkable, then, engineers worked as laborers,
that Dr. Aisenstadt came to hold, some went without work."
for 21 years, a professorship at the
In September 1969, Dr. Aisen-
Krupskaya Pedagogical Institute in stadt, Nepomniaahty and eight
•Moscow. Her work included train-
others decided
ing teachers of English for Soviet
they could wait
schools.
no longer. Know-
However, for daring to express
ing they were
the wish to emigrate, she was fired
committing the
in September 1969.
crime of "con-
As Dr. Aisenstadt tells it:
spiracy," they
"Before the Six-Day War, only
signed the first
those with direct relatives in Israel
collective appeal
oould apply to go. Not that they
to their fellow
were allowed even then. One
Jews around the
woman had tried for 20 years to
world and had it
join her husband in Israel. The
Nepoinniaiddy smuggled out.
authorities said, 'Why, after 20
They expected the worst, but the
• years, do you still want him?' worst never came. Although Dr.
There were others libe this: the Aisenstadt lost her job, there was
parents would be allowdd-to leave, no word of censure from the
and the children would 'be left Kremlin, no questioning, no force.
behind.
Taking heart from the official
"Alter the Six-Day War," she silence, other Soviet Jews added
eentinned, "they stepoilit- the ap- their names to appeals: In all,
plications entirely. But In fall of several hundred have been written.
1918, the word get aremsd:Jf you
At this point, the Soviet authori
had any relatives at all in Israel, ties decided they had better act.
you could apply. Of course, we Fifty-two prominent Jewish citi-
rushed immediately to write our zens were summoned to testify "at
relatives, and we got the invita- a staged press conference that
tion to come."
official persecution of Jews did not
Dr. Aisenstadt's description of exist and that Israel was the Mid-
the bureaucratic process that en- dle East aggressor. ("What's a
sued would be amusing, were it press conference?" goes the grim
not for the feeling of hopelessness Moscow joke. "You put Jews under
it engendered. It began with filling a press and stage a conference.")
out two copies of the application
In response, Dr. Aisenstadt, her
and obtaining a work reference husband and 38 others signed the
("As if it mattered to them if you "letter of the 39" (the 40th joined
were good enough for Israel"). a little later than the others),
Anyone with parents had to get repudiating the press conference
their signatures, indicating they and demanding one of their own.
didn't mind that their child was The letter was widely circulated
leaving Russia for good.
abroad. • --
Of course, the group was permit-
"The housing authorities also
must know, and of course, when ted no such conference and instead
was subjected to interrogation.

ter made the authorities angry;
it stopped their beautiful campaign
of getting Jews to say they hated
Israel."
The result? More than half of
the signatories have been allowed
to leave for Israel—at the rate
of a. few a month. Last year,
along with about 1,000 others,
Dr. Aisenstadt and Nepomniashty
left the Soviet Union at last.
Forty Jews remain in prisop—a
reminder, perhaps, to others more
easily intimidated than is Dr.
Aisenstadt. And thousands still
wait for that piece of paper beyond
value—an exit permit.
(Earlier, in response to a ques-
tion by The Jewish News, Dr.
Aisenstadt estimated that were the
Soviet Union suddenly to permit
any Jew to emigrate who so de-
sired, half would leave "or
This is a figure of 1,500,000.)
Not that said permission ends
the Jew's difficulties. "It costs 400
rubles for a visa and 500 extra to
'cease being a citizen of the Soviet
Union.' Of course, when did I ask
to be one?" said Dr. Aisenstadt.
"They told us that the 500 rubles
is only for three 'fascist' countries:
Spain, South Africa and Israel."
Since the first two rarely draw any
Soviet immigrants, it is plain
which country Russia hopes to af-
fect, she said.
For the Jew who has been
thrown out of a job because he had
the audacity to apply for an exit
permit, 900 rubles (31,000 per per-
son) is a vast sum—particularly
if there are several family mem-
bers involved. Each is allowed to
take out $100, "so you're let out
practically penniless." Once at
the Vienna transit point, however,
the emigre is met by the Jewish
Agency, which helps him complete
the journal): to IsraeL
Dr. Aisenstadt, herself childless,
has a great affinity with young
people, demonstrated in a talk at
Wayne State University last Thurs-
day afternoon.

The onetime college professor.
—who plans again to teach in
Jerusalem—ls particularly proud
of the young Soviet Jew. The
third, assimilated, generation
"knew nothing of the history of
their people, -they knew only
that the Jew was Inferior. They
stand up so proudly now — as
Jews."

She ascribes this strong identifi-
cation to three factors: the exis-
tence of the state of Israel—"they
are not homeless any more"; to
the Six-Day War—"the Jew is no
longer considered a coward"; and
to anti-Semitisma condition she
describes as "endemic" in Russia
and periodically whipped up by
the authorities for political pur-
poses. ("When the Soviets speak
of a great man who was born a
Jew, they never call him a Jew.
He was a Ukrainian or a Lithuan-
ian, never a Jew. The Jews never
did anything.")

Wadi 'olden has had its
effeet—the Leningrad death sea-
tacos easemintad„ Fetch re-,
leased —414 M3s Medd - splelint-
that Dr. Allenstat- &speak Is.
She urges afield letters of pre-
test, from U.S. government to
Russian government, from polit-
ical parties to the Communist
Party central committee, from
aelentkds, church leaders, eon-
gressasen. Sire stresses the valise
of rallies, peaceful dernasslra-
Uses, dignified boycotts.
"Write as many letters as 'you

can to those families who have
signed appeals to emigrate. You
can't harm them, and It shows the
Soviet government that others are
aware-of what is happening," she

said, adding: "If President Nixon
sneaks up, it's worth more than
all the Jews of Russia speaking
up."
And those Dr. Aisenstadt left
behind continue-their own battle—
filing applications again and again,
standing outside the Moscow syna-
gogue on Simbat Torah, not beg-
TIE 8871110IT =ISM NEWS "Happily, no one told' anything," ging but Insisting, "Let my people
2S—Friday, Mayer? S, 1,71
said Dr. Aiseastadt. "fhidthe let.7 for

French UJA Raises $8,000,000; Up 50 Pct.

PARIS (JTA)—The United Jew-
ish Appeal in France raised nearly
$8,000,000 in 1970, a more than 50
per cent increase over 1969, Deputy
Director Alfred Zemour announced
at the opening of the drive's fourth
national convention in Paris.
He deplored the fact that while
total contributions had risen, there
had been no increase in the num-
ber of individual donors.
Israeli Ambassador Asher Ben-
Natan told the 1,500 delegates
representing 150 fund - raising
committees that Israel "can
count only on its own determi-
nation and on the Jewish people"
for funds.
Dr. Jacob Kaplan, chief rabbi
of France, told the conferees -they
were "living proof of the unbreak-
able ties which bind the French
Jewish community to Israel."
Julian Samuel, director of
France's UJA campaign, said it
is concentrating too much of its
efforts on the large donors to the
exclusion of the smaller ones.
Samuel said that in the interests
of "democracy and efficiency," it
should seek as large a number as
possible of contributors on the
small to medium scale.
"Democracy in Jewish commu-
nal life is dying and participation
in communaLactivities and respon-
sibilities is less and less balanced,"
Samuel said. The most efficient
form of fund-raising, he said, is
one that addresses itself to the

Al's

largest numbers of contributors.
This year's target of the French
UJA is over $16,000,000, nearly
double the amount raised last year.
Michel Topiol, president of the
French UJA executive, called on
French Jewry to fulfill this target.

Bar Mitzvas

end special secessions

Garson Zeltzer

Photographer

547-4805

.MUSIC BY

-

SAM. BARNm
ORCHESTRA

AND HIS

LI 14563

OAK PARK
WATCH REPAIR

• Selected fine jewelry
and Diamonds

Large Selection of
Fine Opal Jewelry
Watch and Jewelry Repair

IRV ASHIN
LI 7-5068

Meer Pest Office

- 13720 W. 9 Milo

Foreign Car Service

Specialist in Volkswagen & Porsche
1018 W. 9 Mile Rd.
Ferndale, Mich.
Alfons G. Rehme
548 - 3926

Between Liverseis ti Phrecrest

EXPECTING OUT OF TOWN GUESTS
FOR A WEDDING OR A BAR MITZVA?

Cronbrook House Motel

20500 JAMES COUZENS

(I Mile & Greenfield—Acme hem Nosebleed)

CM 342.3000 For the New Ammessedetions

COMPLIMENTARY CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

Try Our Berber Sup
Dias et eke SCOTCH S. 311311.0114 RESTAURANT
Aispoet Lineushre Service Aveliehle

Jewish Community Center
Summer Activities
for Children and Youth

SESSION I
June 28 - July 23, 1971
SESSION II_ July 20 ;August 29, 1971
Open to Members and Neas-Menabers

*MOTHE/t-TODDLISETuesdayir '-or 1lleindays-13 mold* %M. ,
3 years old—Indoor R:outdone' artfellties
•PLAYLAND, JUNIOR-3 ■ 4% yese09.41findelY4rridelf
_
_
12 noon—igoening
Aramportation'
Pro-
.
,.
vo
ided
'
*PLAYLAND--Kindergartners--Manday-Friday .9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
*FUNTIKE—Ist,And .& 3rd . graders—Monday-Wednesday-Friday.
y
' 9 a.m. -. 4 p.m.
•DAY CAMP—Grade1 through 101/2 years of age—Monday-Fri-.
day 9 LIM:- 4 P.m.
• SAFARI, JUNIOR-10% 12 year olds—Monday-Friday fia,m,-
4 p.m.—Daily travel program
- *SPORTS SKIMS CAMP-5th, 0th and 7th grade boys—Monday-
Friday 9a.m.- - 4 p.m. -
•CAMP OF THE ARTS — 8th-11th graders interested in the
.
Arts—Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
*SAFARI, 11-7th-9th graders—Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m:
Daily sight-seeing.
Plus
MINI-CAMP, WEEKEND CAMP. TRIPS, and a, DAILY
SUMMER ULPAN. Hulk transportatkni available for most of
these programs i, Northwest 'Detroit and Suburbs.
To receive a brochure, or for further information ea the
Group Services Division, DI 1-4200. .

'

*7'raesportation provided

_