BATTLE CRY 1990

In the more delicate and cultured
climates, American diplomats and
foreign journalists have told me of
their shock at the rank Jew-baiting
by Russian intellectuals, scholars
and writers.
With it all, neither the Pamyat,
nor the condescending Communists,
nor the intelligentsia want all the
Jews to leave. Incredibly they say,
"we need Jewish brains." This prints
out to something like this: 'If you
Jews leave, you are traitors. If you
stay, you will live in eternal tyranny.
You have to stay to achieve for
Russia what Russia cannot achieve
for itself, and when you achieve it,
we will hate you all over again for
having achieved it.'
If you can follow this warped and
tortured logic, then you may be able
to get an inkling of the philosophi-
cal chaos that now exists. Unlike
Poland, which had Solidarity for the
people to gravitate to, and unlike
Hungary, which is filled with entre-
preneurship, the Russians have no
centrality to turn to, except the
same one that got them into this
mess in the first place. The odds are
that some clever clique within the
Communist Party structure will
seize upon the nationalistic im-
pulses of the moment, and some
brand of fascism is bound to emerge.

TWO

Key Issues

I believe that there are two over-
riding issues on the world's agenda
as we move towards the twenty-first
century. They are rushing to resolu-
tion even as we are going to print.
First, it would be total folly to think
that the Russians can come through
the imminent collapse of Commu-
nism without convulsions and
bloodshed. Azerbaijan is only the
first act in a gale force play of ethnic
republics seeking independence.
And what of Russia itself? After
the mob quits beating up on the
Jews, what will their own fate be?
For the Jews, I believe the message
is clear. They do not need an emigra-
tion, but an evacuation.
Yes, we must support Jewish life
wherever it exists, in Riga, in Bud-
apest, in Leningrad, in Moscow. It
is not for us to make decisions that
are for our brothers and sisters to
make. It is for us to see that every
Jew is free to live wherever he
chooses. However, my personal be-
lief is that there will be a decent ex-
istence for Jews in Russia, the
Baltics and the Ukraine when you
can grow onions in the palm of your
hand.
The second major issue of the new
decade will be the inevitable rush
toward the reunification of Ger-

FRIIIAYMARC,H 23_1990

Soldiers guarding Lenin's tomb in Moscow.

Photos By Bill Aron

My personal belief is that
there will be a decent existence
for Jews in Russia when you
can grow onions in the palm
of your hand.

many, making them the dominant
power in Europe. The industrial
establishment which spawned and
armed Adolph Hitler and the per-
verse mentality that was capable of
operating an Auschwitz is again
doing business at the same old
stand. The 'new' Germans tell us
not to fear. We, the world at large,
must find a way to prevent them
from even toying with the idea of do-
ing to mankind what they have done

in this century.
I returned from my journey to
Eastern Europe with three gifts. In
Budapest I was presented with a
piece of the Iron Curtain from the
government of Hungary. The official
who presented it to me thanked me
for shooting a million words over the
border.
In Moscow, in a small meeting
room in the middle of nowhere, I was
presented with a Samidzat copy of

Exodus, an illegal translation in two
volumes. Its covers were worn from
a thousand hands that touched it.
I thought of the thousands of eyes
that read it, passing it from father
to son to mother to daughter
throughout a night, in dim light
with curtains drawn. I told my aud-
ience I would rather have this than
a Nobel Prize, and I meant it.
There was a final moment. I was
to deliver a presentation before the
monument to the Warsaw ghetto
uprising a few blocks from Mila 18.
By the time it was my turn to speak,
it had become dark. A number of
people lit torches and formed a semi-
circle around me so I could see my
notes. The monument wavered
behind me in an eerie flaming light.
I read a particular passage from my
book, Mila 18, where a young boy
had been taken out of the ghetto to
a safe house in the country. He was
chosen because of his strength and
deemed to have the best chance of
survival. His uncle, a commander of
the Jewish forces gave him his
orders . . . to survive for a hundred
thousand children who would be
murdered in Treblinka.
At that instant I felt something
hot on my hand. It continued to
drop onto the page of notes which
I had written on Warsaw Holiday
Inn stationary. At first, I thought
it was blood, but then it hardened
like a seal, and I realized it was wax
dripping from someone's torch. I
looked up for an instant and saw my
friend Ernie Michel, a longtime Jew-
ish leader and Holocaust survivor,
holding that torch over me. The boy
I was reading about could have been
Ernie. He embodies the miraculous
passage of Jewish life.
And so it will always be. Every
generation of Jews since the fall of
the Second 'Temple has been both
blessed and cursed with the com-
mission of doing what is necessary
in its lifetime for the survival of our
people. The last great Jewish com-
munity under tyranny is in immi-
nent peril. We have endured one
Holocaust in our lives. We must
never again bear witness to our
women and children being paraded
naked before the enemy. We must
give our treasure, our voice, every-
thing and anything to bring our peo-
ple from slavery to freedom. ❑

Leon Uris, the author and
playwright, lives in New York.
This article was made possible by
a grant from the Fund For Jour-
nalism on Jewish Life, a project of
the CRB Foundation of Montreal,
Canada. The views expressed are
solely those of the author.

