BACKGROUND DETROIT'S HIGHEST RATES Minimum Deposit of $500 12 MONTH CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT 9.250% 9.576%* Effective Annual Yield* Compounded Quarterly. This is a fixed rate account that is insured to $100,000 by the Federal Savings and Loan In- surance Corporation (FSLIC). Substantial In- terest Penalty for early withdrawals from cer- tificate accounts. Rates subject to change without notice. FIRST SECURIT171 SAVINGS BANK FSB MAIN OFFICE 1760 Telegraph Rd. (Just South of Orchard lake) NOOSING OPPORTUNITY OUA t 36 PHONE 338.7700 352.7700 HOURS: MON.-THURS. 9:30-4:30 FRI. 9:30-6:00 FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1989 MEMBER FSLIC Fadaral Savings 6 Loan Insurance Corp \bur Savings Insured to mac= Soviet Jewry Conference Has A Cool Guiding Hand JAMES D. BESSER Washington Correspondent I n the Soviet Jewry move- ment, success often carries its own disruptive baggage. After several decades of ef- fort, the movement has borne unexpected fruit. Prominent refuseniks have been freed, a trickle of emigration has turned into a sudden flood and the entire Soviet Jewry apparatus in the West has been stood on its ear. Martin Wenick brings a degree of calm profes- sionalism to this chaotic en- vironment. Wenick, who took over recently as executive director of the National Con- ference on Soviet Jewry, (NCSJ), is something of an anomaly. Unlike most of his new colleagues, he spent the better part of a career a pro- duct of an institution with a distinctly un-Jewish cast — the U.S. State Department. Wenick also arrived at NCSJ at a critical moment for the big umbrella organiza- tion, an amalgam of 45 na- tional organizations and more than 300 local Soviet Jewry groups. The recent opening of the emigration floodgates has shifted the emphasis of the movement from advocacy to problems of transit and reset- tlement — issues that have traditionally been outside NCSJ's primary orbit. In the turf-conscious world of Jewish organizations, Wenick is helping NCSJ redefine its role to cope with this unsettled environment. "It's a very interesting and complex time," he said in a re- cent interview. "I am convinc- ed the Conference has an im- portant role to play even as we see these sudden transfor- mations." Wenick, an articulate man who speaks in the measured tones of the professional diplomat, is no stranger to the Soviet Union. In 27 years of diplomatic service, he serv- ed in Moscow and Czechoslovakia. He was chief of the office of Eastern Euro- pean affairs and deputy direc- tor for economic affairs in the office of Soviet affairs. Along the way, he did stints in Afghanistan and Italy. His exposure to the special problems of Soviet Jews goes back almost three decades. "I first went to the Soviet Union in 1960, as a student," he says. "During that first trip, I went to the synagogue Martin Wenick: Decades of exposure in Moscow and, with the assistance of the Israeli em- bassy, I helped obtain some prayer materials for the Jews there." He returned to Moscow in 1970, this time as part of the diplomatic corps. His respon- sibilities included dealing with Soviet activists and dissidents, a fact that gave him a ringside seat to the emerging movement among Soviet Jews eager to flee their country. "I arrived just at the time of the Leningrad hijacking appeals trials in Moscow," he says. "So I followed the rise of the Soviet Jewish activist movement from its inception, in terms of a movement. Dur- ing my recent trip to Israel, I was pleased to see people I knew in Moscow in 1971 and 1972 — but this time, they were on the other side of the barrier." Wenick insists that his longstanding commitment to the case of Soviet Jews did not interfere with his role as a diplomat, even though the State Department was not always known for the strong sympathy for Soviet Jews that characterized the George Shultz years. "I always ,accepted that I was as an official of the United States government, that I had to do what was best for the United States," he says. "I knew it was impor- tant to be objective, and not to let my heritage intrude on my professional decisions. You may have your personal beliefs, but you have to think about representing your coun- try to the best of your ability." In the early years of the movement, there was a widespread perception that the State Department was not seriously committed to the rescue of the Jews of the Soviet Union — a charge that Wenick sees in the slightly more complex terms of a diplomatic insider. "In the early 70s, it was the beginning of the dissident movement; as officers in the embassy, we had to test the waters, to see what the parameters were, what the Soviet tolerance would be. We had to balance conflicting fac- tors. On one hand, there was the desire to be responsive to these communities of dissidents and activists, to try to assist them if we could. "On the other hand, you had to consider that you were working within the Soviet en- vironment. Ultimately, it was up to the Soviets to decide whether they were going to permit your continued ex- istence were. So it was a con- stant game as we worked along, trying to find out what the limits were." Also, events back in the United States affected the ability of the U.S. diplomatic mission to aid the budding Soviet Jewry movement. "This was especially true because of the Jewish Defense League, and the violence directed against Soviet diplomats and their families here in the United States," Wenick says. Wenick is helping NCJS redefine its role. As a result of both the JDL incidents and the growing U.S. interest in the dissident movement, Wenick says, he and his fellow diplomats ex- perienced significant harass- ment from Soviet authorities. "It seemed during that period that the Soviets turn- ed a little more attention to the Jewish members of the staff — though the harass- ment was not soley reserved for the Jewish members. It was harassment designed to let us know they weren't hap- py with what was going on in the United States at the time. In that sense, there were cer- tain merits to their argu- ment. Secondly, it was to in- dicate to us that the areas we were interested in were sen- sitive areas. It was a message to us." His years in the diplomatic corps made Wenick a pragmatist — a fact that helped shape his current cautious approach to the changes now taking place in the Soviet scene.