Lies Our Leader Tells Us

LIES OUR LEADER TELLS US AN EDITORIAL Theodor Herzl once held the job; so did Chaim Weiz-mann. The job is the presidency of the World Zionist Organization, and today's incumbent is a man named...

...Dulzin and some of his associates tried to persuade us that if Russian Jewish emigrants continued to "abuse" their Israeli visas by going to countries other than Israel, the Russians would shout "fraud" and shut the door to further Jewish emigration...
...This entire process is described in detail in a report prepared by the staff of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and International Law...
...In emphatic terms, Dulzin demanded that Jewish organizations stop providing assistance to such people...
...And now that the old argument about Russian intentions can no longer be used, we are given to believe that HIAS is the villain of the piece...
...The fourth lie: HIAS sees itself in an adversary position to Israel...
...He devoted particular attention to the problem of Russian "drop-outs"—Jews who leave the Soviet Union with Israeli visas but who, once in Vienna, choose not to go to Israel...
...The only thing the argument accomplished was to give the Russians a built-in excuse: if and when they choose to close the doors, for any reason at all, they can claim that the reason is fraud, and quote from the statements made by such people as Mr...
...For on that occasion, Mr...
...Far from having shut the door, the Soviets have permitted more Jews rather than fewer to leave during the last two years...
...We have opposed that view in these pages, but the debate is one where reasonable people will likely continue to differ...
...Dulzin's view, HIAS actively seeks to subvert Israel's appeal to the Russian Jews...
...It is now two years later...
...The Soviet government knows all about the statistics...
...We deserve better of our leaders—and so, most assuredly, do the Russian Jews...
...Dulzin and those others who think that Jews who choose not to go to Israel are morally inferior and neither need nor deserve the help of the Jewish people...
...The second lie: The costs of caring for the emigrants in Rome and Ostia while they await visas to the United States or other countries are borne by the Jewish people, and the Jewish people can no longer afford those costs...
...Dulzin in Israel, he can read a summary of it in a February 10 article in Ha'aretz by Haviv Kenaan, who also describes in detail—and with great praise—the rescue work in which HIAS is internationally engaged...
...The fact is that the direct costs for the care and maintenance of the Russian emigrants in Rome and Ostia are subsidized by the government of the United States through a grant to the American Joint Distribution Committee...
...Such a development might not displease Mr...
...Those, however, who regard Jewish peoplehood as indivisible and Jewish responsibility as a continuing moral commitment will not accept as passive witnesses public statements which could mean the death of hope for Russian Jews...
...no one is in a better position to know them...
...These people, who will stop at nothing, not even at seeking to discredit an effort thoroughly informed by decency and responsibility, now create a new danger—the danger that their own arguments will be used by the enemies of the Jews to show that the Russians do not need help and do not deserve help, that they are not refugees and that the American government should forget about them...
...In short, there is not a scintilla of evidence to support Mr...
...The third lie: HIAS seeks to dissuade the Russian Jews from going to Israel...
...But Dulzin himself does know the facts...
...The job is the presidency of the World Zionist Organization, and today's incumbent is a man named Aryeh (Leon) Dulzin, who is also Chairman of the Jewish Agency...
...The first lie: The Russian Jews are subsidized for weeks in fancy Viennese hotels...
...At no point in the process do HIAS officials intervene to seek to affect the emigrant's decision...
...Dulzin is, of course, entitled to his view...
...Dulzin must have an explanation for why half the Russian Jews "reject" Israel, let him look to the operations of the Jewish Agency, which he chairs, or to a variety of other contributing causes, which have been thoroughly discussed in any number of articles and symposia, rather than seek to make HIAS the scapegoat...
...During their brief stay in Vienna, the emigrants are housed in a rather shabby hotel...
...On February 21, on the eve of his election, Dulzin delivered the opening speech to the 29th World Zionist Congress...
...Those who do not know the facts will surely be impressed, believing that where there is so much smoke Moment/9 there must be at least some fire...
...What Mr...
...Dulzin is not entitled to do is to tell lies in order to try to win the argument...
...They enter the "case" only when the emigrant has been referred to them by the Agency...
...If the Agency people fail—as most often they do—the emigrant is at last "turned over" to HIAS...
...Dulzin's vulgar denunciation of HIAS...
...When leaders lie, they prove only one thing: they have contempt for the people they lead...
...Finally, those emigrants who want to go to Israel leave directly from Vienna, while those who want to go elsewhere are transferred to Rome, Ostia, or Ladispoli, where once again Agency representatives seek to persuade them to come to Israel...
...Two years ago, Mr...
...The "drop-out" rate has stayed at about 50 percent...
...This scandalous indictment of a proud Jewish institution has been heard before, but never from the incumbent of so auspicious an office on so public an occasion...
...Dulzin chose to lie...
...And if this American government document is not available to Mr...
...Dulzin announced from the podium of the World Zionist Congress that the "problem" of the "drop-outs" is chiefly the fault of HIAS, which, he alleged, enables Soviet Jewish emigres to spend "weeks" in "fancy hotels" in Vienna and "months" in Rome "at the expense of the Jewish people...
...Yet that is what he did, and loudly, in his February 21 speech...
...The fact is that HIAS is directed by thoroughly devoted and responsible members of the Jewish community whose only "sin" is that they differ from Mr...
...If Mr...
...And the facts are so very different from what Mr...
...they can be dangerous as well...
...that, presumably, is the only way he can explain why half the emigrants do not go on to Israel...
...Dulzin...
...Indeed, the American government even handles the transportation costs (as well as language classes) for the Russians...
...The fact is that under a special agreement with the Austrian government, Russian Jewish emigrants are required to leave Austria within 72 hours of their arrival...
...Dulzin alleged that the sad but inescapable conclusion is that Mr...
...This agreement has been in effect since the terrorist raid on a train carrying such emigrants several years back...
...Russian-speaking Agency counselors, housed at HIAS offices, see them again in Vienna, and also at their hotel...
...Lies are not only distressing...
...There was no evidence at all to back up this position, but those who reacted to it skeptically were told, in whispers, that they were not privy to all the evidence, that sinister hints had been passed in private conversations with Soviet officials...
...Most of the Russian Jews have already made up their minds at that point, but the Agency representatives have the opportunity to try to affect their decision...
...Nor would it displease others of stingy morality, who perceive the Russian Jews not as human beings in search of freedom, but as a set of manpower statistics...
...Dulzin, who is reliably reported to have said, on at least two occasions, that he personally would prefer to see Russian Jews remain in the Soviet Union rather than have them leave and not go to Israel...
...In Mr...
...The fact is that when they arrive at the Austrian border, the Russian Jews are met by representatives of the Jewish Agency who travel with them to Vienna...

Vol. 3 • April 1978 • No. 5


 
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