The Plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union
Weiss, David W.
On March 18, 1966, an Ad Hoc Commission on the Rights of Soviet Jews held a full day of hearings at which a series of expert academics and eyewitnesses testified. The Commission was chaired by...
...I shall describe these contacts in greater detail later...
...When I mentioned the word Yeshiva, the rabbi abruptly arose from his chair, looked at his watch and said, "It is time for the Sabbath services," and walked out of the room...
...This contact was of particular interest for several reasons...
...These older men also spoke again and again of their hunger, and the hunger of their children and grandchildren, for Jewish identification of a non-religious nature, of cultural identification...
...But 25 years for me means that I shall die in prison...
...It is difficult for me to decide which of many other similar instances to relate here...
...My contacts were largely with people ranging in age from early middle age to advanced age, and my general impression that very young people showed somewhat lesser degrees of anxiety might therefore be statistically incorrect...
...I thus met Jews in synagogue, on the way to synagogue, and on the way from synagogue...
...It was of exactly the same nature as the statements made to me by the secular heads of the communities in Kiev and Moscow, and those which I had read in Soviet magazines published in this country: A denial of the existence of officially tolerated anti-Semitism in any manifestation, and praise of the Soviet government for creating an environment in which Jews were fully emancipated and free from any hostility...
...According to frequent statements released by various offices of the governmental apparatus of the Soviet Union, there is, of course, no anti-Semitism in that country, and the Soviet government frequently points to the significant number of Jewish scientists in the Soviet Union as clear evidence of the absence of anti-Semitism...
...I accepted this invitation because my own research interests had taken me, some years previously, into this area of biology, and this appeared to be an excellent opportunity for an exchange of current information...
...He made it very plain that I was welcome, if at all, only to the extent that I participated in the service, but that I must have no contact with any of the people there...
...and that American Jews are leveling false accusations of antiSemitism against the Soviet Union in order to deflect attention from their own miserable status...
...I was also asked continuously not to speak at all to the younger men, lest their positions or jobs be endangered by the mere contact with a Jew from outside...
...Moreover, I have become, in recent years, increasingly concerned about the drift of the major nations towards war, and I have been active in movements whose sole purpose is to reduce the likelihood of war...
...And yet, there is a very strong attempt by the same government to hide and deny the existence of this situation...
...I must say that my attendance was more regular during my time in the Soviet Union than it might have been in another country...
...He said yes, very much so...
...Nowhere in the Soviet Union did I find a newsstand or bookstore which carried papers or books in Yiddish or Hebrew, or which contained material of specific Jewish interest...
...In contrast, there was an abundance of such facilities directed towards many other nationalities...
...the recognition: We are both Jews...
...he knew of previous difficulties encountered by Jews attempting to enter certain medical schools...
...They consist of a series of statements allegedly made by Jews in the Soviet Union...
...I thought that perhaps my previous experiences in the Soviet Union were somehow not representative and that here, for once, was a Jew who showed no sign of fear...
...I also found that my Intourist guides were immediately prepared to give me the standard statement on the condition of Jews in the Soviet Union...
...At the end of this speech, I asked the rabbi a single question, "And, Rabbi, how is your Yeshiva doing...
...As will become evident from this account, my own experiences with Jewish scientists, young as well as older, gave a radically different impression...
...However, after my second or third attendance at services, it became obvious to the Jews who came there that I was a committed Jew, that I was seriously interested in participating in the religious services...
...I cite some instances: The secular head of the Jewish community in one of the Moscow suburbs is a suave, sophisticated gentleman, quite different in demeanor from his counterpart in Kiev...
...But the Georgian Jews are, on the whole, a simple people...
...Lastly, I am acutely aware of the danger of drawing grave conclusions from the reports of any one eyewitness, and the charges which I am forced to level against the Soviet Union are very grave indeed...
...Several times during my visit in the Soviet Union non-Jews as well as Jews indicated by gesture or by a written comment that one should not, in a hotel room, or in a restaurant, or during the course of a pause in a scientific meeting, discuss any matter which one would not like the secret police to be aware of...
...He said, "You know that I am Jewish...
...Most Jews with whom I spoke feel discriminated against in career opportunities, in the chances for university admission, and in the routine dealings with the authorities...
...Most, if not all, Jews in the Soviet Union live in a state of fear and anxiety, arising from the imminent extinction of their cultural and religious identity, and from the daily uncertainty as to their economic and even physical security...
...This must have come across especially by virtue of the fact that I carried my own philacteries and prayer shawl...
...He asked me to enter his office, and there kept me in conversation for almost three hours...
...My guide then became ill at ease and uncertain, and promised to discuss the matter with a superior in the Intourist office...
...For whatever reasons, the inhabitants of this area appear to enjoy a greater degree of individual freedom and sense of security...
...On the whole, the overwhelming majority of the people with whom I spoke were very much afraid for their immediate future, and I can only describe the feeling communicated to me by groups of Jews as, for example, those I met in synagogues, as representing a state of palpable, strong fear...
...I refused to write this, of course, but I told him that I would be quite willing to sign my name over my own sentiment...
...At this point, I noticed that our Soviet colleague seemed to be very ill at ease...
...These brief occasions of short, intimate contact with Soviet Jews unfailingly took the same course: Within a few moments after sitting down, I would find someone's hand in my pocket and a whisper in my ear telling me not to be concerned, that no one was after my money or my wallet, that what was wanted was my prayer book...
...Within a few minutes after joining our group, this young academician approached the Israeli and without any introduction launched a very virulent diatribe against him and against Israelis in general...
...11 I must emphasize that it is with some hesitation that I give this report, for several reasons...
...I was stopped by a gentleman sitting on a bench in a tree-lined street who asked me if I were Jewish...
...When I looked at the section which he indicated, I found written between two lines of scientific data, in rather childish letters, two words in Hebrew: "Ivri Onoichi"—"I am a Jew...
...Some are clearly altered...
...There was no mistaking the fact that this man was there primarily to prevent contact between visitors and the resident Jews...
...they were Yiddish expressions for some of the food items, and he told us a Yiddish joke that his Russian-born grandmother had once told him...
...He also gave me numerous photographs, sup posedly candid, showing Jews at prayer and at synagogue parties...
...The meeting was to take place on the shores of the Black Sea, in the town of Sukhumi in Abkhazia, and was intended to provide an opportunity for the exchange of newer information in the area of tumor immunology...
...He was exceedingly aggressive...
...Despite the destruction of all cultural and almost all religious means of expression, most Jews of the Soviet Union still retain a deep sense of Jewish identity, and yearn for means of expressing their Jewishness...
...Then she went on to point out to me that there were many more interesting things which I could do with my time in the Soviet Union, etc., etc., etc...
...He leveled the accusation of fascism against the government of Israel, and stated that Israelis exploited the Arab working class, and so forth...
...Most Jews see a greater threat in the actions and policies of the central government than in the personal anti-Semitic sentiments harbored by many individual Soviet citizens...
...I had the very strong impression that Jews in the Soviet Union consider themselves as being caught in a vise...
...I may also say that I took every possible precaution during my stay in the Soviet Union to corroborate my impressions, by repeating again and again contacts with people from a certain background or from a particular community...
...The man looked at me dubiously and with considerable surprise...
...This is not to say that Jews in Georgia have any cultural or religious institutions...
...On one occasion, a Jewish scientist handed me a reprint of a scientific article with the comment that I would find therein some especially interesting information...
...For example, when I first visited the synagogue in Kiev late one afternoon in order to attend Mincha, or afternoon, services, few of the old men streaming through the courtyard into the synagogue building returned my greeting...
...Clearly, the rabbi must be aware of this possibility...
...With that, the man turned and walked away...
...They have had little experience with recent influences on Jewish thinking, and they are deeply pious...
...At this moment, another gentleman was shown by the waiter to our table...
...This barrier takes many forms...
...And the Jews of Georgia are desperately afraid of religious extinction and of the threat of a hostile government which may, at any moment, close the last few remaining synagogues and exert physical pressure against them...
...When I asked him questions concerning the status of Jews in the Soviet Union, I received the same answers which one reads in official Soviet publications—that there is no anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, other than the occasional, unenlightened bias held by some reactionary indi vidual...
...there is always the possibility in the mind of a Soviet citizen that his statements are being recorded by a listening device...
...Also, within the last years, a number of their few remaining religious functionaries and teachers were arrested and have disappeared...
...And, indeed, this gentleman asked this question...
...The Sabbath services started 40 minutes later...
...I found this to hold true throughout my contact with Intourist officials...
...No one would come near me...
...He very kindly offered to help me order my meal, and in the process of telling him what I wanted, I told him that I restricted my diet to fish and eggs and vegetables because of my observance of the Jewish dietary laws...
...Perhaps Rabbi Levin is motivated by the best of motives and considerations...
...I asked, did he not want the book...
...This man was very well informed of anti-Semitic incidents that had occurred in this country for many years past...
...I never saw these books in the USSR...
...IV In other instances, the officially appointed Jewish leaders, both secular and rabbinic, were urbane and very pleasant, but their function was nonetheless apparent...
...One evening, while I was in the synagogue waiting for the service to begin, two members of the Israeli Legation in Moscow who happened to be on official business in Kiev walked into the synagogue...
...He walked quietly with us for a block or so, and then suddenly launched a brief autobiographical statement...
...Lastly, and perhaps most revealingly, I met Jews very frequently on walks through streets and parks in several cities...
...Invariably, these small revelations were followed by a rapid, sometimes by an immediate, retreat...
...On my first free afternoon in Kiev, early in my stay in the USSR, I walked in one of the city parks and was approached within a few minutes by a gentleman of about 60 who asked if I were Jewish...
...Like many Americans, I had read reports of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union...
...It is certainly true that the destruction of the Jewish community of the Soviet Union is the work of the government, not the manifestation of popular anti-Semitism...
...I also suggested that this refusal was indeed most peculiar towards a visitor invited by the Academy of Medical Sciences...
...I then asked him if he would be surprised to learn that I wore on my person Arba Kanfoth...
...David W. Weiss, Professor of Bacteriology at the University of California (Berkeley...
...The Jews in the Soviet Union are very painfully conscious of the fact that at this point they have nowhere to go and no place to turn...
...However, I had visited the Moscow Jewish cemetery the previous day, and I saw acres and acres of wasteland, rubbish heaps, grazing land, land consisting of poor meadows and thin woods, in the immediate vicinity of the cemetery...
...but I have also never regarded the various manifestations of anti-communist hysteria with any emotion other than revulsion...
...It is the custom in most Soviet restaurants for the waiters to fill up tables as people enter the restaurant, so that one is brought into contact with people at random...
...III This incident repeated itself again and again during the rest of my stay in the Soviet Union...
...To my surprise, the majority of the Jewish scientists whom I met, both young and older, men and women of major reputations as well as beginning research workers, sought the opportunity to reveal their Jewishness to me...
...B. Jews in Synagogue and on the Street...
...I advertised my Jewishness in these ways solely in order to encourage Soviet Jews to contact me and to speak to me...
...During services, I counted 10 or 12 prayer books among a congregation of perhaps 40 people...
...When I asked Jews why they were afraid, the answers revealed a very homogeneous picture: There was fear of the loss of job, position, or residence permits in certain cities...
...I told him...
...His ladies became very ill at ease at this...
...I in no sense blame Rabbi Levin, and I am not interested here in an analysis of the motivation of Jewish collaborators...
...The following article is the statement presented to the Ad Hoc Commission as the testimony of Dr...
...She came back to me that afternoon and told me that I wasn't really interested in visiting Babi Yar, that there was nothing to see there...
...We remained standing in the foyer of the theater, talking about a variety of matters, when there joined us a younger Soviet academician...
...i.e., towards forced assimilation...
...I then remonstrated with her and pointed out that the very first words of greeting extended to me by the Intourist people of Kiev were to the effect that the city was open to the visitor, that Intourist was there to make our visit comfortable and to arrange that we could see whatever we wished...
...And then it became obvious that he was sobbing...
...I know from previous experience that if one tells people anywhere, especially older people, that one works on cancer, the question will be asked, "Is there as yet a cure for cancer...
...He accused them personally, and all Israelis in general, of being fascists, exploiters of the Arabs and of the Jewish proletariat, of dealing with Germany, etc., etc...
...I pointed out that the guide must be aware of its existence...
...The Soviet Union has repeatedly stated that the younger Jews there are not at all interested in maintaining active Jewish identification, and that scientists well established in their professions are most certainly not inclined to seek affiliation with what, in the official Soviet view, is a primitive, archaic body of superstition...
...The dates of the meeting were set for May 12 to May 16, 1965...
...He said nothing to me for a moment or two, and then he continued our casual conversation...
...They do not...
...Yet I was told again and again by these older people that their children and grandchildren retained strong Jewish identification and wished to come to synagogue services, but were afraid to do so...
...The following conversations ensued: When I first made the request, I was told that there was no such place as Babi Yar...
...Perhaps 25 years does not mean a great deal to you...
...the visitor with any Jewish sensitivity feels himself in a graveyard...
...there were, after all, a variety of memorials to the Ukrainian war dead throughout Kiev...
...For one, I must say that I was treated with great friendliness and hospitality by most individuals whom I encountered in the Soviet Union...
...It was quite obvious in other ways that this man was lying...
...Thereafter, people intercepted me on the way to the synagogue at 5:30 in the morning, in dark doorways and alleyways, or after I left a service, and spoke to me...
...With him were two female relatives of about the same age...
...And surreptitiously, I opened a button on my shirt and showed him that I indeed wore the Arba Kanfoth...
...When the two Israeli visitors remonstrated, this man attacked them viciously, in a tirade that lasted for well over half an hour...
...Perhaps such a skeptical attitude is needed if one is to survive as a Jew in the twentieth century...
...During this conversation I asked whether he would like to have a prayer book which I had on me...
...It is clear that many of them would choose death rather than accept the destruction of their remaining religious outlets...
...Nonetheless, I believe that I have no choice but to state the truth, and to state it publicly, because I am deeply con cerned about the welfare and, in fact, the safety of the Jewish commu nity in the Soviet Union...
...Even there, however, fear is palpable...
...T pointed out that my absence from certain parties was occasioned by the fact that I wished to worship in the synagogue, or did not wish to travel on the Sabbath...
...I speak fluently the vernacular language of the Jews of most parts of eastern Europe, Yiddish...
...The gentleman said yes, he would indeed be most surprised if this were so...
...Immediate alleviation of governmental pressure could still save the cultural existence of the Jewish community in the USSR...
...The Jews, too, seem to have benefited from the greater relaxation of governmental authority...
...As I entered, the few Jews already there asked me to wait in the vestibule outside...
...Of course, these incidents are not in themselves reflective of fear or pressure directed against Jews, but they are remarkable in a different sense: In no place—and I have visited many countries in the capacity of a scientist—have I ever found Jewish biologists or chemists to take the opportunity of a fleeting moment to reveal themselves as Jewish...
...He touched the prayer book, held it for a few moments, and then again withdrew his hand...
...And there was always fear of the extinction of Jewish identity...
...and that I attempted, in every way possible, to reduce the errors which invariably creep into accounts based on individual impressions...
...I answered affirmatively, and then sat down next to him for a conversation of a few minutes...
...Surely, I suggested to her, there must be some sort of memorial to mark such a place of martyrdom...
...I must also state that Rabbi Levin undoubtedly speaks with full cognizance that every word is recorded...
...The gentleman looked at me with considerable surprise at this point, and asked me whether I indeed believed in God...
...If I were interested in pursuing the matter any further, she told me, I could address myself to the synagogue...
...Shortly after I arrived in Kiev, I asked my guide to be taken to Babi Yar, the site on the outskirts of Kiev where the Germans massacred scores of thousands of Jews in 1941, shortly after entering the city...
...The situation was somewhat different in the Georgian Republic...
...Virtually all Jews with whom I spoke in the Soviet Union—young, middle-aged, or old—expressed unmistakably some degree of anxiety arising from their condition as Jews...
...Rabbi Levin is, to all practical effects, the chief spokesman for the religious Jewish community in the Soviet Union...
...Among every people there can be found men and women who, for one reason or another, will act, under certain conditions, on behalf of an oppressive government or foreign occupying power...
...It is therefore with a strong sense of responsibility that I present this account, and I assure the members of this Commission that I shall be as factual and as accurate as I can...
...It is undoubtedly this devotion to Judaism as well as the somewhat greater regional liberality which accounts for the greater retention of Jewish consciousness among them...
...I walked with him to his hotel, and to my surprise found, after a few blocks, that the young Soviet scholar had joined us...
...At the same time, they are not accepted into general society, even if they are prepared to give up entirely the ties which bind them to their traditions, both secular and religious...
...In addition, the more recent experiences of the economic trials, of the vicious attacks on Jews and on Judaism which have appeared in many articles in the press and in books, and of the increasing disabilities to which Jews are subjected in terms of religious or cultural expression loom large in the minds of Jews in the Soviet Union...
...As he did so, our Soviet acquaintance dropped his napkin, and on the pretense of fumbling to retrieve it under the table he tapped my knee...
...I thought, therefore, that if I could convey to Jews in the Soviet Union my own commitment to traditional Jewish values and observance, I could perhaps establish myself as a person recognized as a friend and to be trusted...
...This method was based on previous experiences which I have had in other countries, that Jews of all backgrounds, including those with no personal religious commitment, nonetheless recognize the traditionally oriented Jew as a fellow...
...As he left, he blurted out, with tears running down his face: "Tell them at home we cannot hold out much longer here...
...He then informed me, in a very quiet voice, that he, too, was Jewish, and during the course of the meal he told me of his own great interest in things Jewish, of his own longing for Jewish identification...
...He only hesitatingly permitted me to interrupt this conversation to attend the afternoon and evening service...
...after all, a distinguished Russian poet had written about it...
...I have never been sympathetic to communism or to any other form of Marxism, either as a philosophy or as an economic or political system...
...In the interval between afternoon and evening services, an interval lasting 30 to 45 minutes, the old men who attend these services almost always sit down at a common table to hear words of Jewish learning from their rabbi or from a learned man in their midst...
...In Georgian synagogues and meeting houses, I found a very large number of Jews attending services, a large proportion of the congregants being young people and children...
...I say all this to indicate that I went to the Soviet Union without a very strong, preformed bias, and prepared to find the position of the Jews, and conditions in general, considerably different from what I had read and heard...
...I insisted that I was very much interested because, as I told her, I wanted to pay my respects to the war dead of my own people who were to be found at Babi Yar...
...As will become evident from my account, my very first contacts with Jews in the Soviet Union shocked me, and I resolved to examine the situation much more carefully than I had originally intended...
...I therefore spent approximately eight to twelve hours every day of my stay in the Soviet Union in making contacts with Jews, or speaking to various Soviet officials concerning Jewish affairs...
...Tell them at home we need help desperately—it is terrible, it is terrible...
...And with this he walked away...
...These are sold for five kopecks, and are available in English, French, and German...
...I answered him by saying that in my country, America, it was not unfashionable for young scientists to hold such opinions, and to feel and live a strong commitment to their Jewish heritage...
...Even though Moscow and Kiev have significant numbers of Jews among their population, I never found any visible sign of this fact in the way of stores, recreational or cultural facilities, or any other social or economic convenience or institution catering to Jewish needs, tastes, or specific means of expression...
...In the winter of 1965 I was invited by the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and by the International Union Against Cancer to attend a meeting in the Soviet Union on the topic of tumor-specific antingens...
...I have a strong commitment to the religious and cultural values of Judaism, and to the Jewish people as a cultural and ethnic entity...
...He looked to the left and right and then said, "Yes, but only for a few minutes...
...There was also fear of arrest, of deportation, and perhaps of even worse consequences of the government's reaction to them as Jews...
...At the end of the performance, I found myself in the company of a visiting Israeli scholar, of quite a different field of knowledge...
...This would have been impossible because the secular heads of the synagogues prevented these contacts...
...Many cried and told me that it was not by choice that they would not talk to me in the synagogue, but that they were afraid to do so...
...others are statements taken out of context...
...and a retreat...
...He had been in the Soviet Union for only two or three days, and he came there with the conviction that anti-Semitism was either a figment of the imagination of neurotic Jews, or a deliberate attempt on the part of reactionary forces in the Western world to besmirch the good name of the Soviet Union...
...And he continued, crying: "My child's love for the Jewish people and for Israel is greater even than my own...
...And so, I finally was taken to Babi Yar...
...As in all other parts of the Soviet Union, Jews have been deprived there as well of all organizations or vehicles for religious or cultural expression other than a few synagogues or prayer-meeting places (some of which were, I was told, on the verge of being closed...
...I was told again and again by Georgian Jews, often with tears in their eyes, that they could not invite me to their homes, even on a Friday evening, the occasion on which Jewish communities throughout the world freely extend hospitality to the visitor, because to do so was much too dangerous...
...Perhaps just one other involving a Jewish scientist will suffice to draw the picture...
...These incidents played themselves out almost in the form of a dance—a reticent advance...
...She thereupon raised the matter once again with the central Intourist office and came back finally with the following: That Intourist would, in fact, not take me to Babi Yar, but that if I absolutely insisted on going there, they would make available to me a car "privately...
...Then, I would be very distressed if my comments were to be used for irrational, red-baiting activities directed at an exacerbation of the cold war...
...We spoke casually for a few minutes, and then Rabbi Levin launched into a perhaps 20-minute-long statement concerning the condition of the Jews in the Soviet Union, which, by then, I could almost recite from memory...
...Then he cried, rose, and walked away...
...When I whispered to the man standing next to me during services whether he wanted a prayer book from me—I happened to have one with me—he told me yes, but that he was afraid to accept one...
...He called into the room six or seven of the older congregants who told me, on his instruction, that their sons were generals or colo nels in the armed forces...
...The child refuses to take the option of choosing my wife's non-Jewish nationality and insists instead on retaining Jewish identification...
...I bent down, and the Soviet scientist, hurriedly and in fluent Hebrew, said to me the following (and I quote, in translation): "I beg you, ask this man to be quiet...
...What started out to be casual and indifferent conversations turned into desperate pleas for help or into desperate statements of affliction, of fear, of deprivation, of uneasiness, and even of spiritual resistance in the face of forced cultural extinction...
...I used several such techniques, and found them to be very effective in meeting Jews continuously...
...He was also a scientist, and also Jewish...
...I cannot judge how realistic is his fear of a 25-year prison sentence for possessing or for taking a prayer book from a visitor, but the fact remains that in his own mind such a punishment loomed as a likely consequence...
...After several more backs and forths of this nature, she finally told me that, indeed, Babi Yar could not be visited...
...Moreover, scientists of Jewish origin tend to be assimilated into the general culture in all parts of the world, and it would not have been surprising if this were also the case in the Soviet Union...
...He knew of real-estate discrimination in the suburbs of certain cities...
...A "Yeshiva" is a seminary of Biblical and rabbinic study, where young men train for the rabbinate, and I knew that Rabbi Levin's seminary had been closed some time before I visited the Soviet Union, apparently by the stratagem of the government for revoking the Moscow residence permits of the few remaining students...
...and I found that the immediate uneasiness of Jews upon contact with an outsider was categorically greater than that of any other group I met in the Soviet Union...
...Lastly, there have been, on several occasions, letters pub lished in newspapers in this country, coming from Jewish scientists of great distinction in the Soviet Union, declaring that there is no antiSemitism there...
...The Israeli made no reply...
...this is a ritual, or symbolic, garment, on whose four corners are attached fringes...
...V In most Intourist hotels, there are available, in large numbers, booklets entitled "Jews in the USSR...
...and unless my child now chooses non-Jewish identification, there is very little chance for a university education...
...When I asked for copies of Sovietish Heimland, I was always told that they were sold out, not available that week, etc...
...She said she couldn't answer this question because she did not know, but that, at any rate, she was certain I would find many enjoyable distractions during my few days in Kiev, and that I would not really be interested in Babi Yar...
...I asked him whether there were enough prayer books for everyone who attended regularly, and he said, "Of course not...
...The burden of his statements was that there exists no anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union...
...This man, I later learned, was the head of the Kiev Jewish community, and in the several contacts I had with him during my stay in Kiev, he remained aggressive and suspicious...
...Then this man began to weep, and said: "And this child of mine is even a better Jew than I am...
...and I also speak Hebrew...
...This is done very easily...
...The second general conclusion is the following: Every effort is made in the Soviet Union, by the civil authorities and also by those Jews who act as the official representatives of Jewish communities, to erect a great barrier between the Jews of the Soviet Union and the Jewish visitor from without...
...They seemed to be afraid...
...She returned next morning and told me that I had a very busy schedule for the next few days and that Babi Yar would really be a distraction...
...I learned from subsequent conversations with Jews in Moscow that the officials in charge of the several congregations make every effort to take away from congregants prayer books and other religious articles that are left there by visitors...
...This gentleman told me that this was, in fact, true, but that there was an innocent explanation: The Jewish cemetery was filled, there was no adjacent land available for expansion...
...I was 18 days in the Soviet Union...
...Does he not realize that the walls have ears in this country...
...I was clearly not just a casual tourist...
...He instructed me to sit down and remain there and to make it my business to leave after services...
...The Jewish community in the Soviet Union is in shambles, created not by the indifference of Jews but by the hostility of the government...
...I mention this incident to indicate the great hesitancy to permit a visitor to a site of specific Jewish interest...
...And then I led the conversation purposefully in the direction which I had planned: When the gentleman asked me whether I was in the Soviet Union as a tourist, I answered, "No, I am here on the invitation of the Academy of Medical Sciences to attend a meeting on tumor immunity...
...Does he wish me to live out my years in Siberia...
...they were always on an individual basis and the people with whom I spoke had therefore the least reason to fear speaking with me...
...For example, I asked him about reports which I had heard that it was no longer possible, or at least very difficult, for Jews to be buried in the Jewish cemetery of Moscow...
...It was equally obvious that the people who desperately wanted to possess such objects were immensely afraid of being discovered taking them...
...Whenever and wherever I asked to be taken to some site of specific Jewish interest or concern, or whenever I made an allusion or reference to a point of specifically Jewish interest, every attempt was made to distract me, to tell me that the place I questioned did not really exist, or, when I persisted in my attempt, that it was off limits, that it was under repair, and so on...
...My itinerary took me to the Georgian Republic, to Kiev and its surrounding areas, and to Moscow and adjacent suburbs and towns...
...The man could not control his sobs, and so he rose...
...In a last attempt to dissuade me, I was told that this would be very expensive...
...This gave me my opportunity of saying to him—it sounds more natural in the Jewish vernacular—something to the effect that undoubtedly man will find a cure for cancer, when the good Lord will be willing...
...It was very clear that these fears arose from two sources: For one, all Jews with whom I spoke in the Soviet Union are painfully aware of the excesses of anti-Semitism which occurred towards the end of the Stalin period and continued into the earlier years of the Khrushchev regime...
...Since returning to the United States, I have received several Yiddish books printed in the USSR, from the secular head of a Moscow synagogue...
...This man came from abroad, to attend a conference...
...There was another reason why I accepted this invitation...
...the conversation was pleasant, the gentleman frequently laughed at things I said...
...The visitor among Jews in the Soviet Union finds himself in a phantasmagoric nightmare...
...I sat in his office...
...I begin with incidents involving scientists of Jewish origin...
...I pointed out, for example, that the reason why I did not partake of certain foods was because of my adherence to the traditional Jewish dietary laws...
...A concerted effort is made by the secular leaders of the synagogues which I visited in Moscow and in Kiev to keep the visitors from all physical contact with Jews in the congregation...
...This reticence and evident fear were much greater than the reticence which the visitor encounters on the part of non-Jewish citizens of the Soviet Union...
...I visited many churches while services were in progress...
...At any rate, I was not at all certain exactly what I would find in the Soviet Union...
...A few moments later, this foreign scientist left the table to make a telephone call...
...But by the same token, they are perhaps to be the most pitied among the Jews in the USSR: They forbid themselves the few roads towards total assimilation, such as intermarriage, which may still be open to Soviet Jews, and yet are cut off from the means of perpetuating their religious existence...
...Clearly, then, the story that there is no space for expansion of cemetery facilities is not true...
...The booklet's purpose is to convince the reader that Jews live in an idyllic condition in the Soviet Union...
...Upon learning that both I and my new-found Russian acquaintance were Jewish, he made a few loud and unhibited references of a Jewish nature, perfectly harmless...
...This Jewish official emphasized that there exists absolutely no discrimination against Jews on any level whatever in governmental agencies...
...This anxiety varied from, at the least, a definite sense of uneasiness and considerable uncertainty as to their future in the Soviet Union, to a state of mind which can only be described, even in the most conservative idiom, as terror...
...These few prayer books were in tatters...
...This often took the form of very touching scenes and incidents...
...My second source of contacts with Jews in the Soviet Union stemmed from my daily visits to synagogues in whatever city or town I happened to be...
...With him were some other foreign scholars, as well as several Soviet colleagues...
...I sat down next to him on a park bench...
...Look about you...
...But, as I stated above, during my first visit to a synagogue I always announced loudly that I would be back again the following mornings and evenings...
...Nonetheless, Jews in the Georgian Republic have been able to retain a degree of Jewish identity far beyond that possible to the Jews in the areas of Kiev and Moscow...
...When I asked an Intourist official in the Ukraina Hotel in Moscow if there were some facility for obtaining kosher food (ritually permissible food), I was directed to speak to a Jewish employee of Intourist...
...Very often, after declaring themselves Jews in one of these manners, the people involved would purposely shun all further contact...
...it is worn by traditional Jews in keeping with a Biblical commandment...
...Under cover of a newspaper which lay on his lap and which he extended to cover my lap as well, he reached his hands toward the prayer book which I held...
...The same head of the community immediately asked these men to stop talking to some elderly Jews who flocked around them and to take their place at the front of the synagogue with me, away from the other people...
...Jewish scientists frequently managed to find the opportunity of whispering to me a few words in Yiddish or Hebrew, such as "Gut Shabes" ("Happy Sabbath"), or "Shalom Aleichem" ("How are you"), as we left together a room or a restaurant or a hotel lobby, never openly, but on the pretext of accidentally jostling me in a passageway...
...He had a peculiar smile on his face then, and asked me, in turn, how old I was...
...I consider these contacts perhaps the most revealing, because they were short and isolated...
...These contacts were of three kinds...
...As I walked into the building, a man detached himself from the crowd, approached me brusquely, and asked me what I wished...
...This occurred in the lobby of a theater in Moscow...
...I said, "Yes," and asked him in turn if I might speak with him...
...and then invariably I was intercepted on the way to and from synagogue, and people would, almost always in tears, speak to me and cry out their fear, their anxiety, and their sense of desperation at being forced to witness the extinction of their people as a cultural and religious entity...
...I told him I wanted to pray...
...For one, I spoke to a fairly large number of Jewish scientists...
...If nothing else, the behavior of the Soviet Jewish scientists indicates clearly that it is not true that these allegedly "assimilated" and "emancipated" people have lost all interest in their Jewishness...
...We answered, "Yes, your name is obviously Jewish in nature...
...She promised to raise the matter once more with her superiors...
...Late one Friday afternoon, I had an interview with Rabbi Levin, of the largest of the three synagogues in Moscow...
...On March 18, 1966, an Ad Hoc Commission on the Rights of Soviet Jews held a full day of hearings at which a series of expert academics and eyewitnesses testified...
...Then he told us that some of his children were born at a time when Soviet nationality law still stated that children of mixed marriage (that is, where one of the partners is Jewish) must be declared Jews on their passports and other documents...
...Some Specific Incidents A. Jewish Scientists...
...As a scientist, I have had much systematic training in the making and reporting of observations, and I brought to bear on this problem, to the best of my ability, the techniques of correct observation which make up my daily professional life...
...Approximately 50 scientists were invited to this conference— about 25 from within the Soviet Union, and an equal number from several other countries...
...This hungering after prayer books, after prayer shawls, after Bibles, after any object of Jewish interest, including photographs and pictures of Israel, was manifested again and again during my visit to the Soviet Union...
...They telephoned for this gentleman to come, and he arrived about 40 minutes later...
...Almost invariably, the Jews I met in the Soviet Union were exceedingly hesitant to talk with me on first contact...
...But on the other hand, Jews are frequently attacked vituperatively as Jews ethnically and racially, making assimilation impossible, and depriving them of any area of retreat or comfort: Jews cannot seek refuge or solace in their Jewishness, because almost every means of expressing this Jewishness is stringently forbidden...
...These efforts are quite remarkable in their extent, and sometimes in their rudeness...
...We talked for perhaps seven or eight minutes in a very casual and pleasant manner, and the gentleman and his ladies seemed to be fairly at ease...
...The Commission was chaired by Bayard Rustin and the other members were Norman Thomas, Telford Taylor, Emil Mazey, James Farmer and Father George B. Ford...
...Anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union is thus, at one and the same time, virulent, official, ubiquitous, and very insidious...
...the nearest open land was a considerable distance outside of Moscow, beyond the limits prescribed by the civic statutes for burial of citizens from the Moscow area...
...and many are, indeed, accurate, but were made by Jews in the early years of the Revolution...
...During my stay in the Soviet Union, I had conversations—private conversations— with at least 150 Jews, of all ages and backgrounds...
...but that his youngest child was born when the law had been liberalized to read that children with one Jewish parent had the option to choose either father's or mother's nationality upon reaching maturity...
...I took every opportunity after the first of these incidents to make it clear to my various contacts and to my scientific colleagues that I am a committed Jew...
...I answered that I was quite prepared to pay the price...
...I began very early in the course of my visit to seek means of breaking down this reserve on the part of Jews whom I met...
...This Russian Jew was terrified, despite the prestige of his position, despite his accomplishments, despite his international reputation, because a Jew from abroad had publicly made a few references to their common Jewish origin...
...I tried several ways of doing this, and by trial and error I eventually discovered an almost invariably successful method for winning their confidence...
...It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the casual visitor to the Soviet Union who does not take the trouble of making contacts with Jews under circumstances in which conversations cannot be overheard or monitored, and who does not take the trouble to break through the initial fear and reserve on the part of Soviet Jews, may leave with the impression that there does not exist a significant amount of official prejudice against Jews, and that Soviet Jews do not live in a state of fear or anxiety...
...In fact, I attended services daily, early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and in the evening, these times corresponding to the three daily orders of prayer...
...In the minds of the Georgian Jews there is still fresh the almost incredible blood-libel accusation of a few years ago, which appeared in newspapers in the east of the Soviet Union...
...Because of this commitment, and also because I had myself experienced anti-Semitism as a child in Austria immediately before and after the Anschluss to German, I have maintained an active interest in Jewish communities in all parts of the world...
...he knew of swastika paintings on American synagogues...
...and this would initiate a conversation...
...Quite to the contrary, I found myself again and again a witness of the strong sense of Jewish identity and Jewish concern which motivates many among them...
...Many see in the frequent outbreaks of violent ethnic anti-Semitism, in the form of newspaper attacks on Jews as Jews, economic trials, deportation of Jewish communal leaders, etc., the indication of a degree of hostility by the government which makes them question their long-range safety in the Soviet Union...
...I visited his synagogue, again late one afternoon...
...But the fact remains that he speaks for the government, and that when an embarrassing question is asked, he terminates the conversation...
...still others seem to be fabrications...
...In fact, it never took longer than 10 or 15 minutes in Kiev and Moscow to be approached by someone walking in the street or sitting on a park bench with the quiet question, "Are you Jewish...
...There is a very great deal of government-directed, government-sponsored, government-propagated anti-Semitism, on many different levels...
...They pointed to the fact that once a year, on Simchath Torah, thousands of young people, including students from the universities, do take the risk of coming to synagogue, but that this is a risk which they permit themselves only once a year...
...but I noticed, within a minute or so afterwards, that he was making an odd noise...
...I think I could best illustrate this by giving an actual incident...
...I also spent a day at the seminaries of the Russian Orthodox Church in Zagorsk, near Moscow...
...he cited, in fact, some of the latest statistics covering anti-Semitic events or incidents com piled by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith in the United States...
...But never before, anywhere, have I seen Jews, scientists or laymen, making these furtive and clandestine overtures, and then retreating...
...I should perhaps state again that these conversations were never held openly...
...There was more significant evidence of the duplicity of the leader of this suburban Jewish congregation...
...He went on to say that he had a wife who was not Jewish, and several children...
...that these are taken away by threat, sometimes by force, sometimes by cajoling...
...In the larger cities which I visited in the west of the Soviet Union, I almost never saw anyone under the age of about 60 in a synagogue...
...At the end of my conversation with the leader of this congregation, he asked me to sign my name in the visitors' book— in fact, he told me what he wished me to write: Something to the effect that I was impressed by the good conditions of Jews in the Soviet Union, and that I was convinced that reports of anti-Semitism represented "fascistic propaganda" from outside...
...He then said to me, "You are a very young man...
...This person informed me, very aggressively, that self-respecting, intelligent Jews in the Soviet Union did not abide by such barbaric primitivisms as kosher dietary observances, and that I could certainly not expect her, an honest Soviet Jewish citizen, to know anything about such matters...
...He is an impressive-looking person, and he greeted me very pleasantly...
...There is a variety of ways in which a person walking through the streets or parks of a city can make it obvious that he is Jewish...
...He looked me over very aggressively, seemed uncertain as to what to do, then abruptly grabbed me by the arm, and quite forcibly marched me to a cubicle at the front of the synagogue...
...He thereupon opened a safe in his office to take out the visitors' book, and as he opened the safe, I glanced inside, and there I saw stacks of perhaps 200 prayer books and Bibles of brand-new appearance...
...The first time I realized this was not actually in a synagogue, but during a walk in Kiev...
...I now describe briefly a number of incidents typical of the experiences on which I base my conclusion that almost all Jews in the Soviet Union live in a state of considerable fear and disability...
...Certainly, I have on occasion met scientists of Jewish origin who have retained a degree of interest in Judaism as a religion or as a culture, and with whom I have discussed matters of common Jewish interest...
...that, in contrast, there is much anti-Semitism in the United States...
...I must here emphasize that Jews express degrees of fear, anxiety, uneasiness, and desperation much greater than whatever uneasiness and anxiety is evident on the part of the general population of the Soviet Union, including other religious groups...
...Much more shocking was a fortuitous incident involving a Jewish scientist which occurred in a restaurant in Moscow...
...Like many Jews, I have a tendency to deprecate some accounts of anti-Semitism as exaggerated...
...A delay of some years would probably make such a resurrection impossible...
...I am religiously observant in my personal life, and I always take the opportunity of participating in synagogue worship wherever I happen to find myself...
...I asked, "How so...
...or, "Are you from Israel...
...The gentleman sitting next to me on this occasion happened to be an eminent Soviet scientist...
...He is returning home, and I must stay here...
...I always joined these study sessions, sitting closely wedged in among the people around such tables...
...On the one hand, the government directs strong and unremitting pressure against all forms of cultural and religious expression by Jews...
...During the course of the next 25 minutes or so, this young Soviet scholar repeated this remarkable performance several times...
Vol. 13 • July 1966 • No. 4
