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THE JEWISH NEWS
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Yosef Begun In Israel Promotes
Jewish Culture In Soviet Union
CHARLES HOFFMAN
Special to the Jewish News
F
or a man robbed of
nine years of his life,
Yosef Begun displays a
remarkable lack of bitterness.
After only nine months in
Israel, he is fully occupied
with the next stage in the
struggle for rights of Russian
Jews.
Begun, whose imprison-
ment for the "crime" of
teaching Hebrew made him a
symbol of the struggle for a
Jewish cultural revival in the
Soviet Union, spent nine
years in prison or internal
exile.
He and his wife, Ina, are liv-
ing in a Yemin Moshe town-
house in Jerusalem for a year,
compliments of artist Ruth
Matar and her husband,
Michael. The Beguns seem to
have no pressing material
concerns and Yosef Begun has
no plans to return to the pro-
fession of mathematics in
which he was trained.
"During the last 20 years,"
Begun, now 57, said in an in-
terview, "I have learned
another profession: fighting
for Jewish rights in the Soviet
Union. I try to be useful here
for Soviet Jews, as I tried
there."
Begun's full-time efforts are
devoted to establishing an
Association for Jewish
Culture in the Soviet Union,
attached to the Public Coun-
cil for Soviet Jewry, which is
supported by the Jewish
Agency and the Israeli
government.
Although there are several
international Jewish organi-
zations now active in this
area, Begun thinks that the
lead and inspiration for this
work must come from Israel.
"It is very important that
we in Israel organize living
links between our land,
where Jewish culture was
created and where it thrives
today, and the Jews of the
Soviet Union," Begun said.
The group wants the support
of writers, artists, scholars,
and musicians, as well as
libraries, theaters and
universities.
A statement of the associa-
tion's goals, signed by Begun
and other recently arrived
activists, says that only a
"renaissance of Jewish
culture" can save Soviet Jews
from national extinction.
It is the former activists
who have spread the Jewish
cultural movement in the
Soviet Union because they
Yosef Begun is greeted by friends after being released from Soviet
prison in 1987. He made aliyah in 1988.
"know first-hand how great-
ly Soviet Jews thirst to learn
about the spiritual values of
their people."
The new spirit of glasnost,
he said, has made their efforts
more visible. Jewish cultural
centers have been establish-
ed; groups for studying
Hebrew and Judaism [are
meeting]; and Jewish
libraries, museums and
associations for developing
Jewish culture have been
formed.
Begun is careful to stress
that promoting open, recog-
nized cultural links between
Soviet Jews and Israel and
world Jewry is within the let-
ter and spirit of Soviet law,
and it seems important for
him to couch his demands in
a way that does not contradict
Soviet principles.
"It is a common situation
that a national minority in
one country seeks to establish
cultural contacts with its na-
tional homeland," Begun
noted. "The Soviets say it is
a good thing for the Arme-
nians and Ukrainians We say
that the same thing is good
for the Jews. We want Jewish
culture to be treated like
other national cultures; only
equal, not more. Why should
it be that the 250,000 Jews of
Moscow, with all its cultural
institutions, have no recog-
nized way to learn their
language, history or
literature?"
The changed political situa-
tion in the Soviet Union has
led Begun to conclude that it
is time for Jewish culture to
come up from underground.
An Israeli diplomatic pres-
ence in Moscow and the pos-
sibility of a formal role for the
Jewish Agency in Jewish
cultural life there create new
opportunities, but also prob-
lems and dilemmas
Begun is adamant that the
Israeli consular delegation
must make the problem of
Jewish education and Jewish
culture part of their negotia-
tions with the Soviets.
The Jewish Agency's plann-
ed venture, which has not yet
been officially announced, is
connected to a Jewish
cultural center being set up
next to the Moscow
synagogue.
For Begun, this project
evokes associations with the
"so-called official Jewish
culture" that Soviet
authorities sponsored in
small doses. This Begun said,
was mere "window dressing,
intended to prove to critics in
the West that Jewish culture
in the Soviet Union was per-
mitted. But we Jews knew
that this culture, a journal
and a theater in Yiddish,
meant almost nothing."
While Begun is suspicious
that the cultural center
planned for the Moscow
synagogue might be merely
an opportunity for the Soviets
to prove how liberal they are,
he is willing to give it the
benefit of the doubt.
Begun's pragmatic inclina-
tions come out most clearly
when he addresses the issue
of the controversial minister
of the Moscow synagogue,
Rabbi Adolf Shayevitch.
Many former activists
dismiss the rabbi, as a "KGB
agent," and some feel that
any project undertaken with
his participation is ir-
revocably tainted.