Elect...
An All Too Predictable
Future For Tiraspol
Jeddy
Hood
for
A Jewish leader holds out, encouraging
others to leave, as civil war flares in
Moldova.
IRA RIFKIN
Special to The Jewish News
N
'Teddy
Hood
For Supervisor
West Bloomfield
Supervisor
AUGUST 4
REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
These are a few of the people supporting Jeddy Hood:
Steven Barr
Ru Pevzner
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Kline
Robert Dresner
Sallyjo Levine
Dr. and Mrs. Avery Murav
Ida and Ben Bader Nancy and Martin Barr
Seymour Gretchko
Alan Singer
Randolph J. Friedman
Mr. and Mrs. Gerry Chudler
Steven Goodman John E. Jacobs
Dr. and Mrs. Howard Rosenberg
Michael Jacob
Frederick D. Steinhardt
Dr. and Mrs. Mevyn Friedman
Michael Gorge
Jerome P. Pesick
Mrs. Hermi Stone
Peter Perlman
Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Kerwin Mr. and Mrs. Richard Barr
Deedee Perlman
Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Lipton
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Holtz
Charles Perlman
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Sallen Mr. and Mrs. Jay Tlumak
Mary Lou Callaway Kathy and Frank Mamat
Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Kline
Denise Hammond Dr. and Mrs. Melvin Chudnof Mr. and Mrs. Carl Schram
Sharon Law
Norman I. Leemon
Mr. and Mrs. Saul H. Rose
Allen Adelberg
Mrs. Frieda S. Leemon
Mr. and Mrs. John M. DeMarco
Leadership West Bloomfield
Can Be Proud Of!
Paid for by The Committee to Elect Jeddy Hood
C
D Ill AV II II V 01_10(10
early a year ago, I
spent a few hours
talking with Samuel
Vaisman in the living room
of his drab high-rise apart-
ment in the then-Soviet city
of Tiraspol. At the time,
Tiraspol was in the Molda-
vian Soviet Socialist Repub-
lic. Today, it is within the
separatist region of Trans-
Dniester.
It has become a city perch-
ed on the edge of a bloody
precipice.
Mr. Vaisman, 45, is the
acknowledged leader of the
Trans-Dniester region's
6,500 Jews. An agronomist
turned full-time Jewish ac-
tivist, he is also a national
figure in his homeland; re-
cently, he was elected co-
chair of the Va'ad, the um-
brella group that speaks for
Jews in the republics of the
new Commonwealth of In-
dependent States.
The war over Trans-
Dniester is one of several
that has flared along the
southern rim of the old
Soviet Union. In the past few
months, about 1,000 people
have died and tens of
thousands have made refu-
gees because of the fighting,
which has been centered in
Bendery, a city just across
the Dniester River from
Tiraspol.
The fighting pits ethnic
Ukainians and Russians
against ethnic Romanians
for the right to determine
the future of a sliver of
Slavic homeland that Josef
Stalin grafted on to territory
that had been part of
Romania when he cobbled
together the old Moldavian
S.S.R.
Stalin's intent was to pro-
vide Moscow with an ethnic
claim to the area, which last
gained widespread Jewish
notice as an infamous Nazi
killing field during World
War II. Today, people such
as Samuel Vaisman are pay-
ing for Stalin's bit of polit-
ical deceit.
As late afternoon turned to
early evening that August
day last year, a sad-eyed Mr.
Vaisman patiently re-
counted the rebirth of Jew-
ish communal life in his city:
a cultural association had
been formed, a "prayer
house," — a hoped-for
precursor to a synagogue —
had been organized, and a
youth group, sports organ-
ization and Jewish library
were all functioning.
Despite all that, Mr.
Vaisman was decidedly pes
simistic about what lay
ahead for Jews in the Soviet
Union.
"No matter how paradox-
ical it sounds," he said
through a Russian-speaking
interpreter, "I don't see any
future for Jewish life here.
Despite democratization, na-
tionalist passions and econ-
omic problems make it un-
safe for Jews."
Today, I am told by Alex-
andr Smukler, an ex-
Moscovite who now works in
New York for the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry,
Mr. Vaisman has ceased his
efforts to build Jewish com-
munal life and is, instead,
In the battle for
Trans-Dniester,
Jews have been
caught in the
middle.
working to evacuate Jews
with the aid of the Jewish
Agency and the American
Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee.
"Vaisman is the chairman
of an emergency com-
mittee," said Mr. Smukler,
who is in regular telephone
contact with Mr. Vaisman
and recently saw him in
Odessa. "He's working 20
hours a day. If he had any
little hopes left for Jewish
life in Tiraspol, I think they
are gone now."
So far, more than 1,000
Jews have fled the region for
Odessa, several hours by
vehicle to the southeast and
safely within Ukraine. An-
other 400 or so have fled
westward to Kishinev, the
capital of Moldova.
Mr. Smukler said that
Jewish children and the el-
derly are also starting to
leave Tiraspol, which so far
has been largely spared from
bloodshed. "They are afraid
the fighting will spread,"
said Mr. Smukler. "They are
first evacuating the young
and old."
Mr. Vaisman had spoken