PURELY COMMENTARY

Farcical Diplomacy Misrepresents Exodus from USSR

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

W

hen a movement to
escue people from
oppression becomes
hate-mongering and subject to
dispute in diplomatic circles, it
must be judged much more
than merely venomous. It is
either ignorance or stupidity.
In the case of the effort to pro-
vide asylum in Israel for Rus-
sian Jews seeking escape into
freedom, it is both. Had the
critics of the rescue tasks sear-
ched for the facts, they would
cease encouraging obstruc-
tions.
What has happened was
more than the expected op-
position from all Arab forces.
The misinformed antagonism
led to condemnations of
Israel's commitment to
redemption to United Nations
involvement. The voices of the
misled and misinformed were
heard wherever there was a
newspaper, radio and televi-
sion. It was a direct cause of
official USSR denial to ad-
vocacy of direct flight of Rus-
sian Jews seeking escape from
discrimination by direct air
flight from Russia to Israel.
Instead of commending the

human factors in the move-
ment, even White House and
State Department spokespeo-
ple became tools in the pre-
judicial campaign against the
exodus from Russia.
Shocking is the lack of
knowledge about the history
of opposition to any effort by
Jews to receive the discrimi-
nated into Israel. There is
nothing new in the Arab op-
position to Jewish settlement
in Eretz Israel that has been
embraced as an anti-Jewish
target for an entire century.
Jews have always remained
in the Land of Israel from the
time of the destruction of the
Temple onward. Jerusalem
and Safed were never without
Jews. They were always in the
vicinities of Jaffa and Haifa.
But in the past century even
when a single Jew expressed
a desire to affiliate in the
historic redemption, there was
an organized effort to attempt
prevention of return to the
historic homeland.
On the basis of the ex-
periences, there would have
been such an anti-Zionist and
anti-Israel prejudice even if a
mere handful of Russian Jews
were mobilizing for the new
exodus. The hundreds of
thousands who are organizing

for such a massive movement
are a mere excuse for an ex-
pression of hatred and opposi-
tion that has never ceased.
The facts must not be hid-
den. The record has been
reassembled for common
knowledge in the Near East
Report of the America Israel
Public Affairs Committee
under the intriguing title "An
Old Wives' Tale.":
At the end of the last cen-
tury, less than a million
people lived in Palestine,

Arab
misinformation is
misleading on the
Soviet Jews'
destination.

which then included what
is now Jordan. Today, near-
ly 10 million people live in
the same area. Yet, in 1891,
the Arabs first protested
against Jewish immigra-
tion because they asserted
the land could not accom-
modate the 40,000 Jews liv-
ing there. The Arabs
repeated this claim for
decades and — even as the
Palestinian Arab popula-

tion grew — complained
that Palestinians were be-
ing displaced. The British
response was to restrict
Jewish immigration in a
futile effort to appease the
Arabs. Now King Hussein
hopes to achieve similar
results by resurrecting the
old, specious claims.

In 1953, the secretary-
general of the Arab League
worried that Soviet anti-
Semitism might lead to an
increase in Jewish im-
migration, potentially mak-
ing Israel a huge "Com-
munist cell in the heart of
the Arab world." The Imam
of Yemen wrote to Khru-
shchev in 1959 that opening
the gates to immigration to
Israel "constitutes an im-
mense danger to the Arab
nation?' These remarks
were made long before
Israel became responsible
for the West Bank and
Gaza.
Even after 1967, the op-
position to Jewish inunigra-
tion had nothing to do with
the territories. In 1971,
Lebanese Premier Saeb
Salam complained that
"every new Jew who ar-
rives in Israel is more

dangerous than a tank,
cannon, or fighter plane."
Two years later, the Arab
League charged that con-
tinued emigration of Soviet
Jews constituted Kremlin
support for Israel "in con-
tradiction to the rights of
the Palestinian people."
The Arabs cannot be ap-
peased. The issue is not
where Jews settle, but the
fact that a place in the Mid-
dle East exists where they
can life as Jews. No one
should be fooled or cowed
by Arab propaganda. Let
the Soviet Jews go to Israel
now. Let them go directly.

The concluding words to the
century-long experiences
merit recognition as a motto
in a human drive to deny to
whoever is involved the right
to bar Jews from acquiring the
homeland necessary for sur-
vival and self-respect. It is
necessary to resort to the
value provided on an
editoralized basis on the "Old
Wives' Tale" in the Near East
Report. It calls attention to
the "First Arab Complaint
About Jewish Immigration —
1891," and reveals the sham

Continued on Page 40

Lesson For Philanthropists And Social Scientists

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

A

brief Wall Street Jour-
nal news item about a
serious philanthropic
need in Israel suggests a
social science challenge with
a testing for fund-raisers.
The item quotes one of the
leading Israel newspapers
touching upon supporting
needs for Yad Vashem and it
covers much ground in the
following:
ISRAELI APPEAL
biggest-
Israel's
circulation newspaper,
Yedioth Ahronoth, appeal-

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Vol. XCVII No. 4

2

March 23, 1990

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1990

ed in an editorial for the im-
mediate closing of the
country's Holocaust
memorial to dramatize its
need for money. It said that
Jerusalem's Yad Vashem
memorial, visited by 1.25
million people a year, needs
only a "pittance" to keep it
running. Yad Vashem
chairman Yitzhak Arad
said the memorial had ask-
ed the government for $1
million to supplement its
annual $2.2 million budget.
"The budget the govern-
ment gives us is not enough
for our basic needs,
salaries, gardening, elec-
tricity, basic education
work," he said.
The Yedioth Ahronoth
editorial comment is both
revelation and threat. It tells
the Israeli and world Jewish
communities that if they do
not provide the vitally needed
funds, the important Holo-
caust Memorial Center would
or should be shut. That, of
course, will never be
permitted.
There is a lesson in the im-
plied threat that other impor-
tant agencies are confronted
with the most serious
challenge: means for
sustenance.

Yad Vashem is a world-
Jewry responsibility. The Wall
Street Journal story must
result in a response never
again to threaten the ex-
istence of the most deeply
moving of our responsibilities.
The lessons for all others are
minimal compared with the
important Wall Street Journal
news brief.

Keep Yad Vashem
Open, Always . . . with
Your Membership

Now, to the vital part of
this story and to the Jewish
obligation.
American Society for Yad
Vashem was formed to protect
the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Jerusalem. Two
years ago there was a serious
threat to Yad Vashem.
Emergency aid averted the
crisis. The American-based
rescue movement asks for ac-
tion now. Membership fees
are suggested to include
$3,600 as a Diamond
membership and other
categories as low as $36.
The gifts of $100 and upward
will be acknowledged with a
Yad Vashem commemorative
candelabrum.
Let it be widely and urgent-
ly encouraged that there will

be a prompt response to this
appeal and that membership
applications with the re-
quested gifts be sent quickly
to:
American Society for
Yad Vashem, Inc.
48 W. 37 St.
New York, N.Y. 10018.
Yad Vashem is now rooted in
Jewish history. Its significance
is the commitment for all
Jews everywhere to provide
for it the support needed so

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that functioning will never be
interrupted.
Encyclopedia
Judaica
defines this important datum
as a commitment to Yad
Vashem as an inerasable func-
tion in our life:
The name is taken from
Isaiah 56:5. Plans for a pro-
ject for a lasting remem-
brance were approved at
the first Zionist meeting
after the war (London, 1945)
whereby an institution was
set up, headed by the Va'ad

Le'ummi (the National
Council of the Jews of
Palestine). The minister of
education and culture, Ben-
Zion Dinur, proposed the
setting up of a Remem-
brance Authority in
Jerusalem, on Har ha-
Zikkaron ("Memorial Hill"),
for the "six million
members of the Jewish peo-
ple who died a martyr's
death at the hand of the
Nazis and their col-
laborators." The task of Yad
Vashem is "to gather
material regarding all
those Jewish people who
laid down their lives, who
fought and rebelled against
the Nazi enemy and their
collaborators, and to
perpetuate their memory
and that of the com-
munities, organizations,
and institutions which
were destroyed because
they were Jewish . ."
Facilities were set up to
provide for ceremonies of
communion, memorial
gatherings, and documen-
tary exhibits — a memorial
hall (Ohel Yizkor), a
synagogue and museum of
the Holocaust, and the Hall
of Names containing the
Continued on Page 40

