76
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, November 8, 1985
NEWS
Free At Last?
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,or
or de
flagging hopes of ordinary
people that the Russians would
relax their virtual ban on
Jewish emigration.
While one official at a na-
tional Jewish organization
tartly called the immigration of
400,000 Jews "propaganda from
overly optimistic American
Jews," Robert 0. Freedman,
dean of the graduate school of
the Baltimore Hebrew College,
treated the estimate more seri-
ously.
"If 400,000 do get out," said
Freedman, an expert on Soviet
Jewry, "they will probably be
released over the next three
years."
Jeannie Weiner, chairperson
of the Detroit Soviet Jewry
Committee of the Jewish Com-
munity Council, reacted with
"cautious optimism" to the re-
ports. "We are hoping the
rumors are accurate," she told
The Jewish News, "but like
everyone else in the interna-
tional community we are await-
ing results."
The release of thousands of
Soviet Jews is one of several
gambits that have recently sur-
faced that could ease U.S./Soviet
tensions, plus improve the
chances of peace in the Mideast.
Among these are:
• Soviet permission two weeks
ago to the wife of Russian dissi-
dent Andrei Sakharov to travel
to the West for medical treat-
ment; and,
• A phone call last Monday by
Sakharov to his children and
mother-in-law now living in the
United States. Sakharov, who is
in "internal exile" in the Rus-
sian city of Gorky, had not been
allowed to speak with his family
for six years.
• Unsubstantiated reports of a
spy swap between the U.S. and
the Soviet Union. This would
include the release of Sakharov
and another famous Soviet dis-
sident, Anatoly Shcharansky.
Mrs. Weiner said, "I person-
ally expect them to throw out a
crumb — a big name like
Shcharansky or Sakharov." Mrs.
Weiner was pessimistic that
such a move would lead to an
opening of the gates. "We are
continuing to make efforts loc-
ally and nationally to ask Re-
agan to really push for human
rights" at the summit meetings,
she said. "It (the summit) is one
of the few opportunities we've
had."
The spy swap, which would
ostensibly occur after the
Gorbachev-Reagan summit, was
reported last week by a West
German newspaper, the Ham-
burg Bild. It would allegedly
free several jailed Soviet and
East German spies in exchange
for the same number of Western
agents who have been impris-
oned in Russia and East Ger-
many.
Reports of the spy swap have
been denied by American and
West German officials.
Officials of organizations in
the United States working on
behalf of Soviet Jewry char-
acterized the rosy reports about
Jews in the USSR as "rumor,"
"unsubstantiated hope" and
"disinformation."
"As always," said Billy
Keyserling, Washington director
of the National Conference on
Soviet Jewry, "there is reason
for hope. But right now, there is
no reason for optimism."
Reports of the Russian emig-
ration door opening "have abso-
lutely no credence whatsoever,"
said Keyserling. "Luckily, this
issue is extremely verifiable. We
just look at the numbers getting
With Mikhail
Gorbachev's rise to
power in March,
there has been a
subtle but
perceptible softening
of the Soviet Union's
atittude toward
Israel.
out of the Soviet Union. And
they are still abysmally low."
(Last month, 124 Jews emi-
grated from Russia. In each of
the three preceding months, 93,
29 and 174 Jews left. These
compare to 4,000 month in
1979.)
Also deflating the optimism
was an observation from Karl
Zukerman, national executive
vice president of HIAS (the He-
brew Immigration Aid Society):
"The earliest possible sign that
there is movement would be
word from Soviet Jews that they
are leaving. In the past, they
have been told that they will re-
ceive their visas in one to three
months. As soon as they hear
this, they call their relatives in
the West."
"No one," said Zuckerman,
"has received such a call."
Nevertheless, the head of one
international human rights
group confirmed that "some-
thing is definitely going on."
The more lenient Soviet atti-
tude toward the Sakharovs and
reports of the imminent release
of Soviet Jews seem to be the
result of the convergence in
time of two events that may
have a long-term influence on
global relations. These are the
Geneva summit, with it first
face-to-face meeting between
Ronald Reagan and Mikhail
Gorbachev, and the probability
that there may soon be direct
negotiations on the Middle East
between Israel, Jordan, Palesti-
nian representatives, the United
States — and, perhaps, the
Soviet Union.
Insiders say that most of the
talk about increased Soviet
Jewish emigration stems from
pre-summit jockeying. This is
not, they say, to entirely dismiss
the speculation. But for both
diplomatic and public relations
purposes, the Soviets are dis-
seminating information that
makes it appear that a thaw in
East/West relations could also
produce a thaw in the condition