PURELY COMMENTARY

Glasnost And Perestroika: Prof. Gitelman's Analyses

L

imelight on Russia drawn more
specifically in the course of
current demands for exit visas for
the tens of thousands desiring to
emigrate, is not a new topic. It is a con-
tinuity of major significance from the
Tsars to the Communists. Providing an
especially descriptive evaluation of the
events tracing Jewish experiences is a
most illuminating volume by Dr. Zvi
Gitelman, professor of political science
and former director of the Center for
Russian and East European Studies at
the University of Michigan.
His newest volume, A Century of
Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and
the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present
(Schocken) is a masterful addendum to
the accumulated literature on the sub-
ject. It should really be judged as an
assignment excellently performed. He
was invited to perform this task by
YIVO Institute for Jewish Reseach. For
that purpose, YIVO provided him with
more than 10,000 photographs and
from them he selected some 380.
The result is a photographic
treasure. The photographs serve to sup-
plement the studies covering the many
aspects of life that were marked by op-

pressions, from Tsars to commissars.
The Jews affected and their leaders are
presented here in a panorama of contin-
uing miseries.
The significance of this volume is
represented also in the distinguished
author's review of the many movements
that emerged in Jewish planning for
their communal life, the aspirations for
an end to persecutions, including the
Bund, Socialist and Zionist. It is a
review of the ideological differences in
the Jewish communities.
While the historic records are in
themselves challenging, the Gitelman
volume is a totality of interest involv-
ing the historic facts as welll as the cur-
rent conditions. The oppressive Corn-
munist conditions are as thoroughly
evaluated as the prior events. For the
current conditions, Prof. Gitelman pro-
vides a very important, scholarly "peer-
ing into the future."
There is so much talk about
glasnost (openness) that his probing in-
to it is very important:
The extension of glasnost
could conceivably open up a
realistic, frank discussion of the
Jewish situation, leading to its

Arab Self-Infliction

Israelis have been beating doctors and
nurses. What stupid mind could
possibly accept such defamation of the
truth?
In a two-page editorial in U.S. News
and World Report, its editor-in-chief
Mortimer B. Zuckerman had a defini-
tion for "The Lie." He 'wrote:
Television loves action. It is
focusing often these days on the
action in Gaza and the West
Bank. When Israeli soldiers
swing clubs among rioters, TV
news gets a lot of what it likes
best ' — great moments. They
shock the viewer; they compel
action. When action is the
essence of the story, as it is most
simply in something like a
sports event or an earthquake,
the moments can add up to a
truth. In the West Bank and
Gaza riots, the moments have
added up to a lie.
Television has polluted the
public debate because it is in-
herently difficult for pictures to
give context, history and mean-
ing to events. It is asking too
much for pictures in a half-hour
news program to summarize 40
years of the history of Israel, or
the history since 1967 or since
the Yom Kippur War, or even the
history that forced Israel to oc-
cupy the West Bank and Gaza.
Words are necessary.
The disturbing feature of the
TV reporting of the West Bank
and Gaza is not only that the
words have been inadequate;
some of them have been inflam-
matory. They have compounded
the lie.
From Hitler to now, one would ex-
pect that distortion of truth would not
be tolerated. It is not too late to correct
the current injustice.

Continued from Page 2

where were the anguished
editorials about the Arab soul?
In ten days in 1970, plucky
little King Hussein killed 3,400
Palestinians in putting down a
PLO uprising. (In the last two
months about 40 Palestinians
have died at Israeli hands.) No
concern about the state of his
soul. Or that of the Palestinians
themselves.

After Sabra and Shatila,
400,000 Israelis turned out to
protest. How many Palestinians
protested the murder of the
Israeli Olympic athletes?
Such are the recorded facts not to be
overlooked in examining the current
events which are, admittedly, tragic. Let
there be appreciation of those who keep
the records straight. Israel will hopeful-
ly receive such support as the mounting
and exaggerated attacks upon her
continue.

The Big Lie:
Media Yielding

"The Big Lie" is the old trick in-
herited by the prejudice-minded from
Hitler-time. It has gone into history as
a disgrace. It was the Nazi code: Keep
repeating the lie and it'll be believed.
Yet, in the manner in which the
media have given comfort to the liars
in the current situation that has
resulted in great harm to Israel, it
needs exposing and condemning.
The latest aspects of "The Big Lie"
is not only the endless accusations of
resort to cruelties by the young Israeli
soldiers. It is the newest charge that

The inauguration of the first Yiddish school in Dvinsk, Latvia, in 1914. The guest of honor in
the center is the writer Sholem Aleichem.

Perestroika, or reconstruc-
tion, is the second pillar of Gor-
bachev's program. This will be
a more difficult goal to achieve
than glasnost. One structural
reform that would signal an im-
portant change in policy toward
Jews would be the restoration of
Jewish schools, institutions not
seen anywhere in the country
for nearly half a century. This
would require no great change
in ideology and could be
presented as a "return to
Leninist norms." No doubt,
much of the Jewish population
would today prefer to organize
their own Jewish educational
institutions and would find little
attractive in the Sovietized, de-
Judaized Yiddish schools such
as existed in their grandparents'
time. But whatever gesture the
Soviet government might make
in this direction would have at
least symbolic value and could
touch off meaningful changes in
Jewish culture, perhaps
broadening its conception to
allow cultural activity in Ru-
sian, Yiddish, or even Hebrew.
One element of perestroika
being discussed now is to de-
emphasize ethnic criteria for ad-
mission to higher education,
employment, and promotion.
amelioration. Thus far, however,
glasnost has resulted only in the
public expression of some Rus-
sian nationalist sentiments
which, some Soviet commen-
tators have pointed out, are ting-
ed with anti-Semitism. Criticiz-
ing the Russian group calling
itself "Memory," a Soviet writer
observed that their "kind of
patriotism turns into na-
tionalism in the twinkling of an
eye. Touch the lighted match of
anti-Semitism to it, and you will
see 'Memory: " If freedom of ex-

pression is truly broadened,
once again the voices of anti-
Semitism and philo-Semitism
will contend for the allegiance of
the Soviet peoples.
• These observations will surely be
taken into consideration in the continu-
ing appeals for more exit visas for the
many who desire to leave the USSR.
Perhaps this comment will have value
in the general discussions regarding
American and world relations with the
Soviet Union.
Then there is the question of the
perestroika. On this matter the
Gitelman evaluation is especially
meritorious. He states:
The central government and
party hae been highly critical of
the practice, apparently
especially prevalent in Central
Asia, of reserving places and
granting promotions largely on
the basis of ethnicity rather
than merit. Since Jews are
nowhere in their own republic
and are everywhere a small
minority, the use of ethnic
critieria generally works to
their disadvantage. Should such
criteria be de-emphasized and
merit considerations become
more important, perhaps more
channels will be open to Jews,
as they were in the 1920s.
However, it may well be that
Jewish emigration has per-
manently limited their chances
for mobility, on the grounds that
their loyalty is suspect, and that
they will remain barred from
many "sensitive" areas and im-
peded from rising above
specified levels in others. They
are likely to remain a marginal
element, regarded by the state
as alien and forced to regard
themselves the same way.
Whatever their political for-
tunes, it is quite clear that the

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