Go
v
Victor Slepak and Ida Nudel
as possibilities. "The purpose
will be to make us forget our
struggle as a whole. But we
must work not just for the
well known few but for all of
our brothers and sisters."
Shcharansky says that
Glasnost has included
positive reforms and a will-
ingness to establish a new
relationship with the United
States. But it has not meant
open borders or mass
emigration.
Gorbachev is a realist,
Shcharansky says, who recog-
nizes the importance of
having Western technological
assistance. That is why Soviet
Jewish emigration is a real
possibility — if Gorbachev
becomes convinced that the
United States will only coop-
erate on the condition that
the emigration gates are
opened wide.
Shcharansky's plan is to
first mobilize American
Jewry, who will in turn put
political pressure on their
political representatives and
mobilize non-Jews. This will
foster positive media
attention, culminating in
what Shcharansky envisions
as a huge protest rally in
Washington on the eve of the
Gorbachev visit.
How many people does he
hope to draw to the rally?
"Last year, I spoke of 400,000
people — one for each Jew in
the Soviet Union who took
the first step to emigrate. But
I was criticized by Jewish
leaders who told me that was
much too high a number and
that it is dangerous to speak
of such numbers and then not
come close. •
"The professionals analyzed
why it could not be," he said
in an interview. "The cold
weather in November, the
difficulty in bringing to
Washington so many people.
But I told them it is colder in
a cell, and that Jews in Mos-
cow would walk to Jerusalem
if they had the opportunity. I
told the Jewish leaders that
their job is not to analyze.
Their job is to do. Otherwise
they should retire. Their job is
to make the impossible possi-
ble."
After all, that is what
Natan Shcharansky has done.
He has not only been one of
the leaders of a movement
that rekindled the - spark of
Judaism and Zionism in a
land where both were
forbidden, but he endured,
alone, and managed to
achieve his dream of living in
Israel with his family. In
doing so, he has become a
hero, and a symbol of Jewish
resistance.
But he is not comfortable
with either image. When told
that he is a hero to Ameri-
cans, he slyly notes that
Oliver North was also such a
symbol. And he adds that he
has struggled, since his
release 18 months ago, "to be
a human being, not a symbol.
It's unfortunate that people
treat me as a symbol."
What is clear is that
Shcharansky can draw, and
excite, a crowd, and is able to
transcend the intra-Jewish
squabbling that has become
increasingly prevalent.
During his whirlwind visit to
Baltimore, he spoke to a
crowd estimated at 5,000.
Standing on a box on the
makeshift podium to reach
the cluster of microphones,
Shcharansky smiled as the
crowd cheered and waved
placards proclaiming "Let
our people go." He had just
learned of the release of
friends, and long-time
dissidents, Yosef Begun and
Victor Brailovsky, but warned
the crowd not to be satisfied
until hundreds of thousands
of Soviet Jews are released.
Addressing the audience in
English in a heavy accent,
but with an excellent
command of the language, he
said the Soviet Union has
never been as successful as
now in "deceiving us" about
conditions within the USSR,
where, he said, anti-Semitism
has grown worse. "Before," he
said, "our main enemy was
the KGB and, inside of us,
despair. But today that de-
spair has been replaced by
complacency." He urged the
crowd to work toward the
success of the planned mass
rally in Washington to greet
Gorbachev's arrival.
After an hour-long private
interview with The Jewish
News, Shcharansky met for
an hour in private with Jerold
Hoffberger, chairman of the
board of governors of the
Jewish Agency for Israel, and
Shoshana Cardin, president
of the Council of Jewish
Federations.
Shcharansky has often
been critical of the Jewish
establishment in general, and
the Jewish Agency in
particular regarding the
absorption process in Israel.
In his next address, to major
United Jewish Appeal
contributors and local Soviet
Jewry activists, he focused on
his main themes.
Responding to questions,
Shcharansky estimated that
if all Soviet Jews were
allowed to leave, "there would
be a snowball effect" and that
at least half of the two million
Jews would emigrate. And
how many would go to Israel?
He said that was more
difficult to gauge, and much
depended on whether
O
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