Focus

A Watershed

The Soviet Jewry campaign transformed American Jewry.

By showing that free move-
In 1973, he and his wife visited
ment for Soviet Jews was key to
"refuseniks" in Ukraine, one of
the free movement of all peoples,
many American Jews who over
Jackson-Vanik fit in perfectly
the
course
of
the
movement
First of two parts
with the foreign policies of the
secretly carried names, phone
Reagan and Bush Sr. administra-
numbers
and
packages
to
Jews
San Francisco
tions, cemented Washington's
denied permission to leave the
support for what might have
Soviet Union.
hen Jacob Birnbaum began knocking on
been seen as a parochial concern
Birnbaum's notion of a public,
dormitory doors at Yeshiva University in the
and gave rise to the worldwide
ongoing grassroots campaign to
spring of 1964, he only half-believed anyone
campaign for universal human
free
Soviet
Jewry
did
not
immedi-
would answer.
rights, culminating later that
ately catch fire.
The young British activist had come to New York to
year in the Helsinki agreements
Through the 1960s, the SSSJ
mobilize a grassroots campaign to draw attention to the
that committed all nations to
labored in virtual isolation on the
plight of 3 million Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain
a certain level of protection of
American scene, holding rallies
— a cause that was being largely ignored by the world
human
rights.
and
demonstrations
in
New
York,
Jewish community.
All of this strengthened the
Boston and a few other cities,
He turned first to the modern Orthodox campus with
American Jewish community's
organized by a handful of core
Match begins 12 noon,56th & 6th to 47th &1st,
its high concentration of Jewishly committed students.
■
position in Washington, giving
activists. The Jewish mainstream
Now 80, Birnbaum still lives in New York and was hon-
rise in turn to today's powerful
favored quiet diplomacy over
ored recently by Congress for his key role in the Soviet
Israel lobby on Capitol Hill.
public protest, and the fervently
Jewry campaign. "The goal was always Washington —
A poster during the height of the Soviet
The culmination of the
Orthodox feared the campaign
first to convert the Jewish community, and then convert
Jewry campaign.
campaign
was a massive dem-
would
jeopardize
their
under-
Washington," he says.
onstration on Dec. 6, 1987, on
ground religious activities behind
His door knocking launched a national student move-
the National Mall in Washington, on the eve of a summit
the Iron Curtain.
ment, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, or SSSJ,
between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier
Israel, of course, had been conducting its own secret
whose first public effort was a May 1, 1964, demonstra-
Mikhail Gorbachev. More than 250,000 protesters, rep-
operation on behalf of Jews within the Soviet Union for
tion outside the Soviet mission to the United Nations.
resenting a cross-section of American Jewry, showed up
years through Lishkat, the Israeli government's Liason
The protest became a movement; and the movement
on a bitterly cold morning to shout "Let My People Go','
Bureau. And the Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-
swelled into a worldwide outcry that 25 years later not
Semitism was created in 1963, although it remained fairly demanding that Gorbachev open the doors to free emi-
only ripped open the Iron Curtain, leading to the largest
quiet until it was later renamed the Union of Councils for gration.
Jewish exodus in history, but also contributed to the col-
That happened two years later, but the wheels were set
Soviet Jews and went on to play a strong role in pushing
lapse of the Soviet Union, cemented the role of human
in motion that day. El,
rights issues in U.S. foreign policy and heralded the emer- Washington to back the Soviet Jewry campaign.
It was Israel's stunning victory in the June 1967 Six-Day
gence of a strong, independent American Jewry able and
War that really catalyzed the movement. For the first time,
willing to speak out for its oppressed brethren around the
large numbers of Soviet Jews began applying for exit visas
world.
— they were refused — and large numbers of American
The movement galvanized American Jewry, producing
many of today's top Jewish leaders and a PR-savvy Jewish Jews began clamoring on their behalf.
Another major catalyst was the highly publicized
voice in Washington.
Haunted by the memories of American Jewish inaction Leningrad trials in December 1970, which handed down
during the Holocaust and emboldened by Israel's triumph death sentences to the leaders of a group of refuseniks
who had tried to hijack a plane from Leningrad to Israel.
in the Six-Day War, the activists vowed never again to
The punishment was commuted to hard labor, but it
ignore Jews in danger.
shocked into action 24 major American Jewish organiza-
While many of the initial activists came from modern
tions. They came together in June 1971 as the National
Orthodox circles, they were joined by other young Jews,
Conference on Soviet Jewry, which became the third main
excited by the civil rights and anti-war struggles, who
voice advocating for Soviet Jews.
now applied the energy of those movements to a Jewish
The National Conference often acted in concert with
cause, many for the first time. That synthesis set the tone
the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, which
for many of the Jewish and Israel-oriented organizations
under founding executive Malcolm Hoenlein — today the
of the 1970s and '80s.
executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of FJA Donors
Rabbi Arthur Green, rector of the Hebrew College
Natalie and Bill Newman of West Bloomfield, with
Major American Jewish Organizations — launched large-
Rabbinical School, was a student at the Jewish
their
children Eli, class of 2009, and Shoshannah,
scale Soviet Jewry rallies throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Theological Seminary in the early '60s active in civil
class
of 2008, at the Newman Science Suite at the
But it was the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which the
rights and the anti-war struggle. He says the Soviet Jewry
Frankel
Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit. The
U.S. Congress passed in January 1975, that universalized
campaign helped him connect those two parts of his
Newmans
are among donors who contributed $8.5
the Soviet Jewry campaign by tying the Soviet Union's
identity, "the caring for people and their release from
million
toward
the facility at the Jewish Community
human rights behavior to its attainment of most-favored
oppression, and the Jewish issue — this was something
Center in West Bloomfield.
trading status with the United States.
that affected Jews in a very personal way."

Sue Fishkoff
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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December 6 • 2007

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