Soviet Jewry: Four Etudes In A Movement
Goodman, Jerry
SOVIET JEWRY: FOUR ETUDES IN A MOVEMENT JERRY GOODMAN It is 15 years since the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia. A decade and a half later, it is hard to remember that before the rape of Prague...
...We felt like matchmakers...
...An airplane was landing at JFK Airport, he said, with five former Soviet prisoners on board who had just been released in a secret U.S.-USSR prisoner exchange...
...Two of the prisoners, he said, are "yours...
...The men on the plane would want to go to Jerusalem, not New York...
...A U.S...
...As a result, the five—two Jews from the 1970 Leningrad Trial (no one at the hotel was able to tell us which two), a friend of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a religious dissenter and a Ukrainian nationalist—were on their way to New York City, The news that the two Jews were coming to New York was unsettling...
...For security reasons, I had to meet them at the UN Plaza Hotel...
...One of the more prominent was Leonid Tarassuk, an historian and curator at the Hermitage Museum who had made application to emigrate on the same day as the Panovs...
...In what seems to be an attempt to silence the voices of Jewish expression in Russia and the growing activism in this country, the Soviet leadership accepts the invitation of two militantly anti-Israel groups, the American Council for Judaism and Friends of Jerusalem, to sponsor the visit of the 74-year-old Moscow rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin and Leningrad cantor David Stiskin...
...But that was a weak argument when it became clear that those who applied to leave were often fired from their jobs...
...Sometimes it was not clear who made which decisions and who executed what...
...Today, we know that although there were those in the USSR and the U.S...
...He had been able to study from that book when he was in the labor camp, and he seemed surprised at my surprise about it...
...They seemed completely overwhelmed...
...The tentative sounds of Jewish voices begin to be heard from the Soviet Union...
...I shall always treasure it...
...Still, Panov managed to smuggle out a plea that related how he and Galina were being "killed as artists...
...Introduced as a response to the ransom tax, Jackson-Vanik sent a clear message, although it took two and a half years to become law...
...It was evident that the tax was directed at Jews, who were just beginning to clamor for the right to leave for Israel...
...Galina suffered a miscarriage...
...There was no verbal communication possible...
...Some argued that the Soviet Union had the right to impose the fee...
...It was not until the Nixon Administration was pushed to intervene through pressure generated by the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the pending Trade Reform Act that the Russians responded...
...But most of all, I was not prepared for Mark Dymshitz and Eduard Kuznetsov...
...Eventually, Michener was joined by writers, philosophers, political and religious figures and millions of others in denouncing the immoral and cynical tax, and in demanding an end to Soviet mistreatment of Jews...
...underorgan-ization is not one of them...
...Then there were Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and his primary advisor Dr...
...Later, in our offices, Galina and Valery, rather shyly, took a small poster we had used to publicize their case and wrote their appreciation on it in Russian: "With Love, With Gratitude...
...Silva Zalmanson, Eduard's wife, flew in from London to join him...
...The former dissidents were taken by others, while Eduard and Mark were moved to a smaller, more intimate hotel...
...Those who monitored the situation were content to let practice be the deterrrjinant rather than exact a formal commitment from Moscow...
...who, for their own purposes, sought to undermine the will to sustain public protests and action on behalf of Soviet Jewry by encouraging a distorted view of Jewish life there, the strength and determination of the American Jewish community prevailed...
...For Michener, it was a simple matter of right and wrong...
...Mostly Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe, many survivors of the Holocaust, they interrupt to shout pointed questions...
...The Soviet press, in reporting the event, notes that Levin's tour has been disrupted by "Zionist hooligans...
...If American Jews could raise an estimated $200 million to "buy" the ransom of thousands of Jewish intellectuals, they were, in essence, providing "free wheat" for Moscow...
...But when 1 got my first look at the prisoners, I wondered if even the next day would be too soon...
...With its end, so soon after the Six-Day War, thousands of Soviet Jews concluded that emigration was their only recourse...
...At last, word is received that there will indeed be a visit to the United States by a Soviet Jewish delegation...
...had issued, could not possibly make people understand the degree of suffering and the agony of resistance in the Soviet Union...
...Still, the audience maintains a respectful silence...
...Didn't you know that...
...Only Moroz said nothing...
...He had heard about the Soviet Union's newly introduced "ransom tax" (law number 572), decreeing special fees on educated persons allowed to "establish indefinitely residence abroad, in countries other than Socialist lands...
...But there is no appropriate Russian leadership...
...His telephone line was cut, a measure which would be used often as Jewish activists and refuseniks attempted to tell their stories...
...The rabbi, standing alone in a spotlight on a darkened stage, seems confused by the tumult, unaware of what is happening in the hall...
...They took this considerable risk because they wanted to know why their culture had persisted...
...And there was an additional, infuriating element: The USSR was using this as a means to raise hard currency to pay for the wheat it was beginning to import from the United States...
...Vins asked if the items were free...
...He came to our midtown office and asked what he could do...
...For the first time, a committee was organized on behalf of a single Jew, with prominent people in the front ranks...
...They needed to save face...
...To a dancer, the message was clear...
...I have friends in Russia and try to keep abreast of what they are accomplishing...
...Although the rabbi guardedly suggests that such meetings might be possible, in the end, at least officially, they never take place...
...Villela, despite strong opposition from George Balanchine, also brought several members of the company to the Panov apartment...
...There is no central coordinating structure of Jews in the Soviet Union...
...In the sort of action that would be repeated again and again, Soviet authorities seek to have the West accept as "representatives" those who are deemed appropriate by bureaucratic officialdom...
...Kuznetsov was pleased but said little, while Dymshitz smiled broadly...
...The highlight of the visit is to be Rabbi Levin's address at Hunter College...
...They had been sentenced to death in 1970 at the First Leningrad Trial for their part in trying to steal a plane to take them first to Sweden, then to Israel...
...The American Jewish community may have many faults...
...He requested a typewriter, some paper, a place to work, and right then and there began a ning...
...Galina was immediately told to "find another husband" and was transferred to the corps de ballet...
...Yet, despite this commitment, there remained the problem of translating ideas into effective action—a problem, incidentally, not unique to the Carter Administration...
...A movement is inevitably something different from the sum of its parts...
...The American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry was convened (in Washington) in April 1964...
...He quoted Roman Rutman, a Moscow Jewish activist who urged the West not to pay "this robbery...
...Valery believed that only he could determine what would most help his cause...
...There were continued appeals to the West, even a hunger strike...
...They visited Europe, England, the United States...
...Thus, it was only a matter of hours that separated them from a labor camp in Perm, or exile, and a luxurious hotel room in New York...
...He later told us that despite the oppressive environment of the labor camp, he had tried to keep physically strong (he had played soccer in the past) and had kept his spirits alive by continuing to write and hiding the material...
...For the next two years, the Panovs were abused and victimized...
...In the blustery March air, a large cake was cut, and the pair of dancer's slippers which had adorned it, still encrusted in chocolate, was put aside to present to the Panovs upon their release...
...Although the harassment continued, Panov resisted...
...In advance, a sensitive associate from the Jewish community bought shirts, underwear and ties that fit the five men and were better made than the "official" wardrobe given them in Moscow...
...The Secretary of Commerce, the Vice President and political and personal advisors in the White House also became involved...
...They had been heroes, as well as symbols, to the Jewish community for so many years...
...Ginzburg broke into a big grin when he saw the packet...
...Meanwhile, invitations have been extended to the aged rabbi from leaders of the Synagogue Council of America, the Conference of Presidents and the National Community Relations Advisory Council...
...By coincidence she had been there, continuing her campaign to free him and other Jews in labor camps...
...At the press conference the next day, the participants included Jewish community representatives, Baptist leaders, Ukrainian groups and some former dissidents who had left the Soviet Union or had been expelled earlier...
...Following an aborted trip to the United States when he was 19, Panov (born Shulman) was forbidden to leave the USSR to tour with the company, in spite of the success he had achieved...
...Do not pay this ransom money," Soviet Jews said, just back us up with the "moral outcry" we need...
...Still, supporters in the West remained hopeful, and at last, in June, 1974, the Panovs arrived at Lod airport, wearing colorful costumes from the Soviet Union...
...He was angry, but he was torn: "I like Soviet Russia," he wrote...
...Brzezinski demonstrated this in April, 1979...
...He begins by speaking of peace and the need to build bridges between the two nations, and he is applauded...
...there was no common language...
...Dymshitz had recently become a grandfather and was anxious to get to Israel to see his family...
...perhaps it was because of the drama of "taking on" the Soviet Union...
...Would I want to meet them...
...The next day, when he felt more comfortable and talked more freely, it became clear that all the materials, all the words of explanation and interpretation that we in the U.S...
...When I reached him, he was courteous and firm...
...I don't know if Michener did...
...One day in early August, 1972, we got a phone call from James Michener, who volunteered to help...
...he never concludes it...
...Late one Friday afternoon, I received a message to call the National Security Advisor...
...It reinforced the knowledge that the movement for Soviet Jews in this country cannot afford the luxury of simple views or simplistic responses...
...It was hypnotic, especially in the early evening darkness, the lights moving under him...
...Ten years ago, few Americans—save for ballet critics and afficionados— would have recognized the name Va-lery Panov...
...He was put into prison, in a cell with three prisoners who had artificial limbs...
...Aleksandr Ginsburg, the former organizer of the Prisoner's Fund for imprisoned dissidents and their families...
...Following a year of vilification, ostracism and physical threats, a massive public campaign was organized in the United States and England...
...The details of the arrangements began to emerge...
...Ambassador McHenry, the second-in-command at the US Mission to the UN, was in charge, assisted by staff from the NSC and the State Department...
...We laughed together...
...The first problem was the language barrier, despite the few Americans who spoke Russian...
...The tax was progressive—it increased with the level of education and professional status of piece that appeared on the op-ed page of the New York Times...
...He thought for a moment and, in the quiet voice I had come to expect, said: "You don't understand...
...Not until the plane was airborne was their final destination disclosed...
...If we were ever really to understand the phenomenon of contemporary life in the Soviet Union, we would have to know more, we would have to try to understand...
...priate Russian leadership to visit in order to establish contact with the American Jewish community...
...I have traveled widely there and have been courteously received...
...Too soon," we said, and in a meeting with NSC and State Department advisors, it was agreed that we would hold a press conference the next day...
...Only One Thousand Words...
...Kuznetsov, with a slight smile, looked healthy and strong...
...Michener told me that he did not wish to attack the Russians...
...The President himself had declared his concern and intervened on behalf of Vladimir Slepak...
...He attempts to continue reading his prepared speech...
...That Sunday morning, Mark watched with hungry eyes as my two children walked through his room and into the next...
...But then he continues by describing the status of Soviet Jews in terms that are in stark contrast to the data disseminated by non-Soviet sources...
...Acts such as these gave the couple the courage to continue their struggle...
...Each of the prisoners had been summoned by the authorities and told nothing...
...Previously non-political artists, writers, scientists and performers became involved in the effort...
...The answer seemed obvious: write, we told him...
...At one point, Panov was convinced that the KGB was trying to poison him...
...Still, when the opportunity presented itself, officials could move effectively and expeditiously...
...Perhaps it was too much pressure for his taste...
...Martha Graham, for instance, wrote, "to let the Panovs choose their own lives" would not bring "shame...
...He married a colleague, the beautiful and accomplished dancer Galina Ragozina, and in March, 1972, the couple applied for permission to emigrate: to Israel...
...I have written favorably of Russia and will probably do so again...
...On their arrival, they were immediately whisked to the plush upper floors of the hotel...
...It was a classic case of "Who knows what is best for Soviet Jews...
...But the application of that sort of pressure remained an option that we weighed in each decision during the next decade...
...I haven't seen a child in nine years...
...They had been excited to be a part of history, although they could barely understand the drama being performed around them...
...They had handled it all quite professionally, and the U.S...
...After all, the state had made an investment in the education of its people and there remained a shortage of educated professionals...
...In the United States, major Jewish organizations make repeated requests, in vain, for "approJerry Goodman is founding Executive Director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry...
...There was much about the camp and prison experience that we needed to learn...
...I supported the Jackson-Vanik amendment...
...By this time, he had begun to develop ties with others in Moscow and Leningrad...
...He stood at the large window, 34 stories above First Avenue, and stared at the Friday evening traffic...
...But some years ago, when I wrote a novel [The Source] depicting Jewish values through some nine millenia, Jews in Russia got hold of a copy and even though they were forbidden to do so, they translated it, printed it secretly and circulated copies through Jewish communities...
...There was never any doubt, however, about the Administration's fundamental commitment to protecting human rights and its special concern for Soviet Jews...
...A similar event was held in London...
...Their arrival marked a new beginthe potential emigrant—and could be as high as $35,000 per person...
...Four parts, then, of this movement: June 1968...
...Mark switched his attention from my children to the large television screen and a standard-fare children's program, the usual Sunday morning diet common to our world...
...Marshall Shulman, as well as the dynamic and combative National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski...
...Perhaps that was because a good part of the effort was initiated outside conventional organizational channels...
...We here had initiated organized efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry some four or five years earlier, even before we knew that there were significant numbers of Jews in the USSR who would take heart from our endeavors...
...In the Soviet Union, however, he had achieved celebrity status as principal dancer in Leningrad's Kirov Ballet...
...and the Ukrainian nationalist Valentin Moroz, with his gaunt face and burning eyes...
...After the press conference, the group split up...
...He was a Jew, and was considered politically suspect, a "difficult personality...
...just a hint of hair on his shaved scalp...
...the last rabbinic conference held there took place in 1926...
...Well, I had not known it...
...Critic Clive Barnes, who knew Panov from performances in Leningrad, was in the forefront of the effort...
...There they were, suddenly, in the midst of the best of American opulence—glass, mirrors, polished chrome, rich fabrics, soft woods...
...It was a shy reunion, and, of course, very personal...
...Michener was furious...
...A decade and a half later, it is hard to remember that before the rape of Prague there had been some hope, both inside the Soviet Union and outside it, that there might be significant change in Soviet society...
...I asked...
...government had negotiated the exchange for two Soviet spies caught in New Jersey with great care...
...Valery's mother died...
...eventually, it was transformed from a loose consortium into the National Conference on Soviet Jewry...
...Kuznetsov told us how he wrote his notes on paper (which was obtained in mysterious ways), and how he got them out...
...Although security was very much in evidence, word had leaked to the press, and reporters immediately clamored for interviews...
...The tax was allowed to die, without official pronouncements...
...Elef Milim," he kept repeating...
...Who should take responsibility for the five men...
...He picked up a pen, and deftly executed, on the poster, a small sketch of himself...
...Things had moved too quickly...
...Whatever the reason, there has been a special dynamism to the communal effort for Soviet Jews, despite the te-diousness of much of the work, despite the setbacks, despite (or because of...
...Yet almost from the start, the groups that were formed to work for Soviet Jewry were known as a "movement" rather than as an "organization...
...An expression of moral outrage was enough, not too angry or hysterical...
...But without them, it is nothing...
...on Russia, only honor...
...He believed that support from abroad helped his situation...
...the sharp policy debates that have cropped up over the years...
...Valery was totally banned from the public, forbidden to perform or even to practice in the studio, a cruel punishment for a dancer whose skill can only be maintained by daily hard work...
...Moreover, Panov was denounced publicly by his colleagues and was constantly threatened with trials—for "beating his mother-in-law," for "not working," for "hooliganism," for "slandering Soviet reality" and forgiving information about his life to people in the West...
...And when the New York City Ballet went to the Soviet Union in the fall of 1972, Edward Villela helped organize a statement from his colleagues to be presented to Soviet authorities...
...committee including Beverly Sills, Joanne Woodward, Louise Nevelson, Lotte Lenya, Betty Comden, Hal Prince and Carol Chan-ning was formed, and a demonstration and party were held on the occasion of Valery's 36th birthday, near the Plaza Hotel in New York...
...The Russians needed time and a way to back down...
...Balanchine failed, and the group that went was the first of many such groups and individuals, celebrities who would meet with the Panovs...
...he seemed to say...
...Even when we hugged, it was hard to fathom their presence...
...Of course," came my excited reply...
...I asked him why he was watching it, since he could not understand the language and, anyway, it was a children's program...
...They danced, and they met the many people who had worked so hard on their behalf...
...Although Panov had asked to meet the great Balanchine, he not only refused but also threatened members of the company who accepted the invitation with dire consequences...
...While this reflected the openness of the Administration, it also suggested a lack of cohesion...
...He stared, transfixed...
...Later, he defended Anatoly Shcharansky when the young activist was accused of spying for the United States...
...Finally, when he says that synagogues were closed in the USSR because "Jews prefer to worship in private," some can no longer contain themselves...
...While Kuznetsov knew passable English, Dymshitz spoke only Russian and a little Hebrew...
...Vera and Isaac Stern hosted an elegant reception in New York...
...To get our job done, we soon learned that we simply had to meet with all of the players...
...But in those early days of struggle, there was no one who could objectively represent Jews in the USSR, and the communication so eagerly sought between the Jews of the Soviet Union and the Jews of the United States did not take place...
...Celebrity cases such as those of the Panovs and the Tarassuks proved to be of enormous help to the cause, because through them Soviet abuses and injustices came to the attention of people in the West who had never before considered the "dark side" of Soviet life...
...We knew that Jews in Soviet prison or labor camps who are not actual criminals are Zionists...
...He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his head, as if to suggest that it did not go with the clothes...
...Finally, the powers-that-be decided that private agencies with proven records of interest and involvement would assume the responsibility, and each was so alerted...
...Our government also seemed unsettled...
...He and Galina were eventually forced to stop dancing altogether and feared that they would never again be able to perform even if they were finally to be released...
...perhaps it was because of the increasing boldness and even heroism of Soviet Jews themselves...
...There was much we did not know about life in the camps...
...Such as it was, that hope ended in the spring of '78...
...The next several months were bitter...
...He had never seen so many cars, never witnessed such a sight...
...He was supportive and remained sensitive, due to his own escape from Europe during the Holocaust...
...It was shocking to see them, standing there in their ill-fitting clothes: Pastor Georgi Vins, stiff and a bit paunchy in spite of his experiences...
...And then he showed us how his last set of notes was brought out, under the eyes of the guards, when he was informed that he was to "get ready to go to Moscow...
...Rak Elef Milim...
...It is painful to watch...
...And Valery exhibited another artistic talent, one learned while exiled in his Leningrad apartment...
...In our dealings with the Carter administration, there always seemed to be too many people involved...
...Michael Blumenthal, the Secretary of the Treasury, dealt with aspects of trade...
...Although Panov was a loner—an outsider—when he began his struggle to emigrate, Moscow's Jewish leadership soon recognized that his celebrity status could be helpful in publicizing the plight of all refuseniks...
Vol. 8 • January 1983 • No. 2
