THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Booklet Details Repression,
Bias Against Russian Jews
•
NEW YORK — In the 25
years since Stalin's death,
the anti-Semitism that he
exhibited in his later years
has become all-pervasive in
Soviet life, stimulated and
directed by deliberate go%r-
ernmental policy.
Prejudice against Jews in
Russia has become evident
in such diverse acts as: the
closing of synagogues, es-
tablishment of quotas for
Jews in certain professions
and in college admissions,
pressure to prevent rabbini-
cal training, discourage-
ment of Yiddish, publica-
tion of anti-Semitic articles,
books and pamphlets, and
constant efforts to promote
assimilation.
This account of what has
been happening to the Jews
of Russia in the past quarter
century is provided in a new
booklet, "Soviet Jewry
Since the Death of Stalin,"
by Leon Shapiro, professor
of Russian and Soviet
Jewish history at Rutgers
University. The booklet has
just been published by the
American Jewish Commit-
tee.
The analysis by Prof.
Shapiro is preprinted
from a feature article in
the 1979 edition of the
American Jewish Year
Book, published by the
American Jewish Com-
mittee and the Jewish
Publication Society of
America, which will ap-
pear shortly.
The author noted the
wide disparity between the
theory of complete freedom
of religion as guaranteed by
the Soviet constitution and
the practice of severe re-
strictions on all aspects of
Jewish religious life. Dur-
ing these past 25 years, he
points, out, Soviet
authorities have done "ev-
erything in their power to
hinder the observance of
Jewish religious law,' in-
cluding:
• Exclusion from school
and employment of those
who wish to observe the
Sabbath.
• The mass closing of
synagogues.
• Intermittent but fierce
attacks against those who
are active in synagogal af-
fairs.
• Prohibition or discour-
agement of training
facilities for religious per-
sonnel.
• Scarcity of such reli-
gious items as prayer books.
• Closing of Jewish
cemeteries.
In the realm of Jewish
culture, Prof. Shapiro finds
that though the Soviet re-
gime strongly discourages
attempts to re-establish
Yiddish schools, newspap-
ers, theater and other as-
pects of the previously
flourishing culture of the
Jewish population in Rus-
sia, some of these activities
take place.
There is a regular Yid-
dish periodical, Sovetish
Heymland; one daily news-
paper; some Yiddish books
are published (though not
listed in the official direc-
tory, which lists books in 89
other languages); and
amateur Yiddish theater
and musical groups func-
tion.
Turning to concrete
anti-Jewish policies of the
Soviet regime in the past
quarter century, Prof. Shap-
iro lists these actions of the
government:
• The elimination of
Jews from responsible posi-
tions in government.
• Establishment of a
quota system for Jews in
many professions.
• Reduction in the prop-
ortion of Jewish students in
Universities, and the estab-
lishment of a quota for Jews
in the prestigious schools of
higher learning.
anti-
• Widespread
Jewish writings have been
published, including 90
openly anti-Semitic books
printed since 1960.
anti-
• Systematic
Jewish propaganda in the
Soviet press, radio, and lec-
tures in which Jews are de-
picted as conspirators work-
ing against the Soviet state.
• Obliteration of Jewish
history in Russian texts and
including
documents,
Jewish aspects of the
Holocaust.
The growth of the Jewish
dissident movement in the
Soviet Union, with its
nearly exclusive emphasis
on emigration, has been fol-
lowed by new governmental
repression, the author
writes. Among the steps
that have been taken to
smother such activities
have been:
• Arrest of dissidents
and imposition of long
prison sentences.
• Efforts to cut off com-
between
munications
Jewish dissidents and their
supporters at home and
abroad.
• Imposition of special
education taxes for exit
visas.
• Commitments of dissi-
dents and those monitoring
the Helsinki agreements on
human rights to mental in-
stitutions. -
Concluding his review,
Prof. Shapiro warns: "There
is no doubt that Soviet Jews
are threatened with assimi-
lation." He points out that
the Russian Jewish com-
munity, with its great heri-
tage, is not likely to disap-
pear without resistance.
Some of the actions of the
Jewish activists in the
Soviet Union in recent
years are but a symbol of
such resistance, he declares,
but one of the important
determinants in the future
of Russian Jews is likely to
be the nature of the succes-
sion when the present lead-
ers of the Politburo pass
from the scene.
Copies of the booklet are
available at a nominal
charge by writing the
American Jewish Commit-
tee, 165 E. 56th St., New
York City, New York
10022.
The cost of university
education in Israel has risen
780 percent during the past
decade.
Friday, January 26, 1919 23
An Israeli Appraises the State Of Israel
By DR. MILTON J.
STEINHARDT
Yaacov Hasdai's book
"Truth in the Shadow of
War" (Tel Aviv Zmora, Bi-
tan, Modan) sent shock
waves throughout Israel. It
is the refined product of a
series of attempts at self-
examination and soul-
searching following the
Yom Kippur War.
-' What makes this particu-
lar effort in Hebrew a
"classic" and unique are the
excellent qualifications of
the author, the comprehen-
siveness and objective
scholarship of the study,
and its constructive criti-
cism. Also highly relevant
is the fact that the author
was a colonel in the Israel
Defense Forces and he was a
researcher for the Agranat
Commission investigating
the difficult early period of
the 1973 war.
This book is divided into
three parts. The first one is
concerned with the after-
math of the Yom Kippur
War, the author's convic-
tion that the military estab-
lishment deteriorated after
1967 and that there existed
a complacency and a lack of
initiative, self-criticism,
and team work.
In the second section of
the book the author
states that Jewish history
did not begin with
Zionism, that the Jews in
Auschwitz were just as
heroic as those that cap-
tured Jerusalem, the lat-
ter possessing the means
to defend themselves,
and that might does not
make right. Hasdai stres-
ses the need to be
humane in battle despite
provocation, and that the
army should not delegate
the menial kitchen tasks
to local Arabs.
The third section of the
book deals with the viabil-
ity of the Jewish state sur-
rounded by hostile Arabs.
"Can our survival be
guaranteed?" he asks and
then continues "Consider-
ing our current isolation,
how long must we fight?
He emphasizes an histor-
ical truism that interna-
tional relationships are
based on interests, not
friendship, and he decries
the dependence and ac-
ceptance of the worst fea-
tures of the U.S.
The last section of the
book is in the form of a letter
to a friend — a potential
"oleh" to Israel from the
U.S.
In his philosophic dis-
cussion on the "ideal
state" he searches for the
causes of the current Is-
raeli problems and he
points to what he calls the
"party system cartel," the
lack of independence be-
tween the legislative and
executive branches, as
well as the failure to dif-
ferentiate between short-
term concerns and long-
term goals of security
and survival. Accord-
ingly, the Israeli citizen
feels helpless in influenc-
ing the course of gov-
ernment.
He suggests a second
legislative body such as a
senate composed of mature
persons (over 60). He con-
siders it plausible that half
the candidates he selected
from the political parties,
and the other half from in-
dividuals at large.
He envisions another pos-
sibility: that each citizen be
allowed a fixed monetary
sum for elections over which
he may exercise preferen-
tial control to the party or
individual candidate.
Hasdai seems to favor an
educated elite, a European
aristocracy or an academic
elite.
To this reviewer, the
author's plan for a spe-
cially trained elite is simi-
lar to the ideas laid out in
Plato's "Republic." Cur-
rent suggestions for
compulsory voting ig-
nore a basic tenet of Plato
that numbers by them-
selves do not make for
democracy, and that a
thousand votes by the un-
informed still may equal
zero.
As to social factors, Has-
dai notes the gap between
the affluent and the disad-
vantaged, and he refers to
the phenomena in Israel not
unlike that in the U.S. —
violence, inflation, black
market, expense accounts,
income tax evasion, corrup-
tion, capricious strikes by a
minority and the general
lack of courtesy of the gov-
ernment employees.
One can almost hear the
author say "we have a right
to expect more from the
state of Israel."
The concluding chapter,
written when the Camp
David accord was in process,
is entitled "Tests of Sincer-
ity." It is an excellent
analysis of the current
negotiations and the possi-
ble pitfall: the Arabs' at-
tempt to obtain by sophisti-
cated means .what they
could not achieve by force.
The real difficulty, ac-
cording to Hasdai, is that
in the present stance
Sadat's sincerity can only
be tested in two signific-
ant areas: a mutual re-
duction of arms in the
Sinai and the resolution
of the refugee issue.
It must be clear to all that
preaching hatred and train-
ing professional killers in
the PLO camps with Soviet
arms, UN subsidy, Saudi
blackmail money, as in
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