12

,
Friday, August 19, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Soviet Jews Show Jewish Pride

'TaMaROFF

LeasinG

28585 TELEGRAPH RD.
Southfield
Across from Tel-12

By RAE ANN
SHARFMAN

CO

(Editor's note: Follow-
ing is Part II of Mrs.
Sharfman's review and
analysis of Dr. Zvi Gitel-
man's book, "Becoming
Israelis," published by
Praeger. Mrs. Sharfman
has long been active in
the movement to rescue
Soviet Jews. Dr. Gitel-
man is a professor of
political science at the
University of Michigan
and director of the U-M
Center for Russian and
East European Studies.)
"Aliya from the Soviet
Union is something that the
most ardent Zionists could
only dare to dream about
and the Soviets never
envisioned in their worst
nightmares." To most
Soviet and American obser-
vers, astonishment is the
only way to describe their
reaction to the renaissance
of national Jewish feelings
emerging from the Jews of
the Soviet Union, so long
considered lost to Judaism.
They were considered to
be highly assimilated and
therefore "lost to the Jewish
people or most successful in
drawing closer to other
peoples." They began to dis-
play signs of "awakened and
militant nationalism .com-
bined with manifestations
of alienation from not as-
similating to Soviet life and
society. The most promi-

(313) 353-1300

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nent expression of their na-
tional revival has been the
desire to emigrate to Israel
— viewed as the home of the
Jewish people."
"Three long-term fac-
tors explain the
emergence of Jewish
consciousness in a public
and demonstrative way
in the USSR:
• "Psychological condi-
tions of the Jews in the
Soviet Union.
• "Role of the Zapad-
nikis" — the million or more
Jews absorbed by the USSR
along with territorial ac-
quisition from Poland,
Romania, the Baltic States
and Czechoslovakia from
1939 to 1944.
• "Anti-Semitism in the
Soviet state and society."
There is no doubt that
these factors existed be-
fore the Six-Day War, but
it was the war that pro-
vided the catalyst for the
"emergence of the feel-
ings of national renais-
sance." The Soviet Jews
began to feel proud to be
Jews, in spite of the
anti-Zionist Soviet prop-
aganda flooding the
country. It was the
Leningrad trials of 1970-
1971 that truly brought
their feelings out into the
open, as well as the sub-
sequent trials in Riga,
Kishinev and Leningrad
in 1971.
The public petitions that
began before the trials now
flooded the world. Public
demonstrations outside the
Soviet Union, of support for
our people, in addition to
massive letter writing and
publicity, to let the Jews in
the Soviet Union know they
were not alone. To be truth-
ful, having been involved
for a few years, we activists,
gained strength and deter-
mination from the courage
of the Soviet Jews. As the
numbers of refusniks grew
and nationalistic feelings
grew, the Jews began to
band together, learning
from one another, and gain-
ing strength from one an-
other.
They began, and continue
today to study Hebrew,
Jewish religion and culture.
Many came to Israel speak-
ing fluent Hebrew, very
knowledgeable about
Judaism and in some cases
they arrived very religious.
When I used to speak to re-
fusniks, many- times the
common language was He-
brew. In fact, they would
correct my poor Hebrew.
Many found their "roots"
in prison camps, as Dr.
Gitelman points out, from
the Zapadniki, also in the
same prison camps. A case
in point: a former prisoner,
assimilated before going to
prison, arrived in Israel,
dati (very observant) , mar-
ried an Israeli and is raising
a wonderful family. From
the time of his arrival in Is-
rael, he has been mainly
concerned with studying
and learning.
In addition, he con-
tinues to fight to free
Soviet Jews from the big
prison called the Soviet
Union. He is actively in-

volved with a yeshiva,
from where he
energetically tries to
bring those Soviet Jews
in Israel back to leading
full Jewish lives. He has
become, in every sense of
the word a wonderful Is-
raeli, and uses his experi-
ence as a former prisoner
and activist for the bene-
fit of all Jews.
Could anyone have im-
agined that Jews would
have the "audacity" to hold
public demonstrations at
the OVIR offices (office of
visa and internal registra-
tion), the Supreme Soviet,
and, of course, the "hijack-
ing plan," which led to the
Leningrad trials. It was not
a "hijacking," the partici-
pants never got near the
airplane. They knew they
would get caught and be
punished, but it was the
only way to bring their
problems before the world
— and it did.
As one of the former pris-
oners has put it "We did not
leave for years and suffered
a great deal, but 250,000
left on our plane."
The Soviets insist that
the Jews be officially iden-
tified as Jews in their inter-
nal passports (other
nationalities must also be
identified). Therefore, they
never feel quite the same as
the rest of the population.
Even if you do not want to be
Jewish, you are identified
as "Yevrei," thus, even
though many may want to
assimilate, the Soviets
never allow this to happen.
Anti-Semitism
is
endemic in the Soviet
Union; some years it is
less and some years it is
more, but it is always
there: in the streets, in the
schools, institutes, etc.
Lately it has reached an
ominous peak with the
formation of the Anti-
Zionist - Committee,
headed by Jews. Some-
how there always seems
to be some "court Jews"
around.
I- have heard comments
from refusniks to the effect
that one gets the feelings of
pogroms in the air. The
Soviets are determined to
wipe out any vestiges of
Jewish life within the
Soviet Union today, the
crackdown on Hebrew
learning and learning of
Jewish culture and religion.
As this campaign accel-
erates, we will soon see the
"trial" for the third time of
Yosef Begun — the most
prominent and determined
of the Hebrew teachers
within the Soviet Union
today. There is no doubt
that he will go to prison or to
a prison camp, for having
the tenacity to insist upon
teaching Hebrew and also
because he is determined to
make aliya.
The Jews in the Soviet
Union have been excluded
from certain professions for
some time: these include,
the foreign service, high
positions in the military,
certain fields of research,
and higher levels of the
Communist Party. This has
also contributed to their

feelings of alienation. The
Jews are considered unreli-
able (to put it mildly) by the
Soviets.
The number of Jews
attending universities
has drastically been cut
and continues down-
ward. Knowing that edu-
cation was always one
road to a higher level of
achievement in the Soviet
Union, this latest dis-
criminatory action by the
Soviets has absolutely
made every caring Jew in
the Soviet Union realize
even more fully that they
will never "belong," and
will always be consid-
ered second class.
As Alexander Voronel (a
former activist refusnik)
has stated, as quoted by Dr.
Gitelman, "Education, in
addition to being a tradi-
tional Jewish value is of ex-
traordinary importance to
Soviet Jews, for it is their
only gateway to satisfactory
work and respectable
status."
The massive purges in
1968, in Poland, also had an
effect on Soviet Jewry. The
massive anti-Zionist cam-
paign awakened indifferent
Jews to the Middle Eastern
policies of the Soviet Union,
and they began to realize
the true status of their posi-
tion within the Soviet sys-
tem.
As Dr. Gitelman points
out, there was never just
one movement of dissent,
aliya or emigration. Politi-
cal opposition began in the
late 1950s and 1960s, some
of this opposition or dissent
came about as a result of the
invasion of Czechoslovakia
in 1968, and the subsequent
trials of Sinyaysky and
Daniel.
It was also a time of re-
surgence of a new reli-
gious Christian move-
ment (which some Jews
turned to). This was also
a time when many Jews
turned from "political
opposition" to thinking
of aliya, because it had a
more realistic goal. There
was, and still is much
overlapping and rivalry
(sometimes defined as
differing opinions) be-
tween groups within and
without the Soviet Union.
"Some want reform
within the Soviet Union,
they have much affection
for the Russian culture,
people and land, but disdain
for the present form of gov-
ernment." They want to
change the conditions
through legal methods.
These are generally not
Jews, although some may
have been involved. Others
want to bring Jewish cul-
ture to the Jews within the
Soviet Union, hoping to
maintain or bring back the
Jews to Judaism by having
material from which they
can learn.
This brought some dis-
sension to various groups
fighting for Soviet Jews; the
question was: Which was
more important, aliya or
Jewish culture for the Jews
remaining? This argument
(or difference of opinion)
(Continued on Page 13)

