With all the complexity and ambiguity of the processes set in motion by glasnost and perestroika, beginning in 1987, the authorities showed signs of a more tolerant attitude toward Jewish matters as a whole, including Jewish culture, Judaism, and Soviet-Israeli relations.

A Soviet version of the American musical Fiddler on the Roof was performed in one of the Moscow theaters. The Soviet film from the 1920s, the Commissar, which condemned antisemitism but had never been permitted to be shown, was screened in front of a selected audience at a Moscow film festival. On October 2, in honor of the 100^th  anniversary of the birth of the artist Marc Chagall, an exhibition of his works opened at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It was also announced that a Chagall museum would be opened in his birthplace, the city of Vitebsk. On October 10, the Moscow Jewish dramatic studio theater began planning a concert of Jewish music entitled “I love you so.”[1]

A change in the attitude toward Judaism was also noticeable. A delegation from the Rabbinical Council of America headed by Rabbi David Hollander visited the USSR from May 6 to 17, 1987. In a meeting with Konstantin Kharchev, chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs, the delegation was given a promise that six Soviet Jews would be permitted to study in the U.S. in order to become rabbis in the USSR. The possibility was also discussed of opening rabbinical seminars in Leningrad, Moscow, and Tbilisi at which visiting American rabbis would help with instruction. In August, five thousand copies of the Bible in Russian and Hebrew that had been sent from New York became available in synagogues in Moscow and other cities. On September 10, Leningrad Choral Synagogue was accorded the right to offer religious education and on September 17, permission was given to restore the mikveh there. On April 1, 1988, Rabbi Arthur Schneier and Cantor Moshe Geffen, who had arrived from the U.S., conducted the Passover service and seder in the Moscow Choral Synagogue together with Rabbi Yuri Kozhenevich of Moscow. At the same time, Rabbi Adolf Shaevich and Cantor Vladimir Pliss from Moscow’s Choral Synagogue conducted similar services in the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan. Arthur Schneier was the first Western rabbi who was allowed to conduct an official religious ceremony in the Soviet Union on one of the most important Jewish holidays.[2] On May 26, 1988, upon his return from talks in Moscow with officials from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the noted Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz reported that Western scholars would be given access to the Judaica collections in Soviet libraries and archives. On June 2, 1988, in accordance with an agreement between the Russian Council on Religious Affairs and the American Appeal of Conscience Foundation, ten thousand prayer books in Russian and Hebrew arrived in Moscow.[3]

In the course of perestroika and democratization, Soviet-Israel relations began to thaw. On May 4, 1987, a six-member Soviet delegation headed by the writer Sergei Baruzdin arrived in Israel to take part in the celebration of the 42^nd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.[4] After a series of secret meetings between Nimrod Novick [then advisor to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres] and Soviet representatives, in accordance with a request by the Soviet party, a Soviet diplomatic delegation arrived in Tel Aviv on July 12 of that year. It worked out of the Finnish Embassy, which represented Soviet interests in Israel. The eight-member delegation, headed by the deputy director of the Foreign Ministry’s consular division, Evgenii Antsupov, planned to stay in Israel for three months to deal with passport issues of Soviet citizens and also to inspect the real estate of the Russian Orthodox Church.[5] The first three-month term was extended for another three months.

After some time, the Israeli Foreign Ministry asked its Soviet counterpart to afford Israel the opportunity to carry out analogous functions in the Dutch Embassy, which represented Israel’s interests in the USSR. The USSR granted the request, and in the summer of 1988 an Israeli diplomatic delegation left for Moscow. Yakov Kedmi returned to Moscow as part of this delegation.[6] Allowing the Israelis to reoccupy their former embassy building, which had been empty since June 1967, was the next important event on the path to the full restoration of diplomatic relations. The move had great psychological significance for Soviet Jews, who formed long lines in front of the building to receive entry visas.

On July 26, 1987, a Russian Orthodox Church delegation headed by Metropolitan Filaret, head of the Church’s foreign relations division, arrived in Israel to celebrate the 140^th anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church presence in the Holy Land. The delegation was received by President Haim Herzog and Minister for Religious Affairs Zevulun Hammer.[7]

Israeli politicians, scholars, and public figures began to visit Moscow more frequently. Emissaries from the Liaison Bureau had traveled regularly in the past, but for the most part, they were people with foreign passports or dual citizenship. In 1987 Israelis without dual citizenship began to feel at ease in Moscow.

On August 14, 1987, fourteen members of the Israeli Academy of Sciences, including professors Ernst Kraus and Shlomo Avineri, participated in the Eighth Congress on Philosophy and Logical Methodology, which was held at MoscowStateUniversity.

In contrast to previous years, a large Israeli delegation of thirty people was permitted to attend the Moscow International Book Fair, which took place from September 8 to 14, and Israel was allotted a spacious pavilion. The censorship, of course, was still operating: the regime did not allow in twenty books in Russian and 2000 Israeli posters as well as fifty Russian-language books belonging to the Americans.[8]

Western Jewish leaders also began to frequent Moscow in order to discuss Jewish problems and sound out the possibilities for new initiatives. Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress [WJC], and Morris Abram, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, visited the USSR from March 25 to 27, 1987, where they met with the top Soviet leadership. They subsequently issued a statement in New York emphasizing the need to develop Jewish religious and cultural life in the USSR.[9] Isi Leibler, president of the Asian-Pacific division of the World Jewish Congress, arrived in Moscow as an official guest of the Moscow synagogue for a visit that lasted from September 20 to 29, 1987. Liebler held a series of meetings with refuseniks, the editorial board of the Yiddish journal Sovetish Heymland, Andrei Sakharov, members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and also with Soviet officials. Aleksandr Goldfarb, a professor of microbiology at Columbia University and formerly a well-know human rights and Zionist activist in the USSR, arrived on November 12 for an eight-day visit, his first since his emigration in 1975. Goldfarb was greeted at the airport by representatives of the Soviet Academy of Sciences[10] and met freely with his refusenik friends.

The more liberal atmosphere reinvigorated already existing activist groups and stimulated the rise of new ones. Hebrew instruction expanded considerably in both Moscow and other cities. The Cities Project continued its work, and camps to train out-of-towners operated regularly outside of Moscow. The harassment of Hebrew teachers ceased but attempts to register officially as Hebrew teachers were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, some of those who had been forced to halt their language teaching under regime pressure returned to that activity. I also resumed teaching although there were sufficient teachers at that time. In the summer of 1987 and spring of 1988, I organized camps in the Caucasus mountains for advanced students and teachers from Rostov-on the-Don and Taganrog.

The “Poor Relatives” group, that is, those who had not received documents certifying the lack of material claims on the part of remaining relatives, renewed their activity. On September 19, 1987, twelve refuseniks from that group wrote to the CPSU Central Committee requesting that their relatives either declare their financial claims or sign a waiver of such claims. On October 14, on the eve of a televised broadcast connecting the USSR Supreme Soviet and the U.S. Congress, about forty refuseniks held a meeting near the television center at Ostankino, demanding that the authorities accept other people’s testimony about the lack of material claims on the part of those who remained. The police dispersed the demonstration.[11] In support of the same demands, Anna Kholmianskaia, wife of the former prisoner of Zion Aleksandr Kholmianskii, conducted a hunger strike from October 18 to November 10.[12] On November 7, about 200 refuseniks conducted a hunger strike in support of similar demands.[13] An article in the newspaper Sovetskaia Rossiia on November 27 defamed the “poor relatives.”[14] Having failed to receive concessions from the authorities, the “poor relatives” began to hold protest demonstrations near the workplaces of their relatives who refused to give them documents certifying the absence of material claims.

Women’s groups also became more active. A third group, “Jewish Women against Refusal,” was formed in September 1986, consisting of a consolidated collective of about fifteen women by the end of the year. Additional women from Leningrad, Kharkov, and Vilnius joined the group. It consisted of wives of longtime refuseniks who had been through many trying times and were well acquainted with each other. They and their families were well known abroad. They called themselves a Zionist group as all their members immigrated to Israel.

The women participated in demonstrations, traveled to commemorative sites of mass burials of Nazi victims, and organized seminars. “We were at Babi Yar three times on the anniversary of the mass shootings there,” recounted Inna Uspenskaia.[15] “I remember our placing a wreath there with the inscription ‘To the unfortunate generation from the generation of hope.’ We traveled to Minsk, where we were not allowed to conduct a memorial meeting, and to Riga. About a dozen of us used to meet in Moscow every week at one of our apartments. It was our spiritual refuge. You know, we still remain close and enjoy getting together.”

The women formed a group called “The Second Generation,” which initiated joint efforts to allow their grown children, who faced the threat of army conscription, to emigrate on their own. They thus tried to break the vicious circle of having their children’s future ruined by their parents’ status as refuseniks. Dmitrii (David) Shvartsman, one of the leaders of the group, told me of their success:

 

Refusenik children gained the opportunity to apply for an exit visa independently of their parents and not to have their parents’ secrecy restrictions apply to them. There were around fifty people in our group. It included the children of Abramovich, Prestin, Evgenii Yakir, Krichevskii, and others. Independent second generation groups arose also in Leningrad and Kiev. … We were in contact with others in Riga and Odessa. The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) took us under their wing. We were also supported by a London student organization called “Students’ Campaign for Soviet Jewry.” The majority of the group received exit visas at the beginning of 1988. The phenomenon of the second generation received considerable attention in the West. In April 1988, a seminar entitled “The Second Generation of Refuseniks” was held in London. [16]

 

The majority of refuseniks lost their jobs and simultaneously the opportunity to receive medical care. In 1984, Leonid Goldfarb, a refusenik doctor, spoke to the Uspenskiis about organizing medical aid for the refuseniks. He contacted Western Jewish organizations (The 35s in England and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry in America), which quietly began to send medicines, at first only to Moscow and then also to Leningrad. In January 1986, Goldfarb emigrated and turned the enterprise over to the Uspenskiis.

As Igor Uspenskii explained:

We gradually organized a group of our own doctors and some non-refuseniks also voluntarily helped us. On the one hand, we thus created a data base of medicines and sick people and a group of local doctors who were willing to give consultations and, on the other hand, doctors from abroad who were willing to see patients began to visit. They would bring with them the elementary medical equipment needed to carry out a basic examination, and we organized modest reception hours for patients.

In addition to the practical aid, such concern gave moral support to the refuseniks: people understood that others cared about them and were thinking of them. There were many cases in which ill people traveled abroad and upon their arrival were given the necessary medical care.

Did you treat only Muscovites?

Out-of-towners also turned to us. In addition, we helped prisoners of Zion, particularly later ones such as Lenia Volvovskii, Aleksei Magarik, and others. Their wives would contact us. We gave them vitamins in the guise of candies as it was forbidden to send them medicine.

The Uspenskiis also helped democratic dissidents in health matters such as providing necessary medicines to labor camp returnees. In these matters the Zionist movement did not restrict itself to its own circle.

 

Information Bulletin

After a lengthy break, a new periodical appeared in Russian─The Information Bulletin on Issues of Repatriation and Jewish Culture. In addition to publishing publicistic articles, analytic remarks, and protest letters, the bulletin offered a brief description of events related to the Jewish movement, and it quickly became popular. Starting at the end of 1987, the Liaison Office printed it in large amounts─25 to 30,000 copies─and sent it to various points in the USSR. Presenting information in real time, this bulletin became a reliable source for subsequent research, including for this book.

Two young enthusiasts, Vladimir Khinich and Aleksei Lorentson had attempted to publish an information bulletin earlier but it was more like preparatory work. Even before those two received exit visas in November 1987, Yosif Begun brought in Aleksandr Shmukler, another young refusenik, to work on the bulletin. For seven years Shmukler had been unable to apply for an exit visa because of his parents’ refusal to give him the necessary documents. A chess expert, he ran a chess school in the Pioneers youth organization building, which afforded him time to take care of other matters.

Shmukler recalls his work on the Information Bulletin:

I tried to maintain a telegraphic style of chronicling. Begun gave money for the bulletin and we printed it, at first by photocopying, but that was expensive and the bulletin was heavy. Later it was done in a centralized way via Mushinskii’s Jewish Information Center. That was another service of “Mashka.” Volodia Mushinskii’s work relieved us of a great amount of labor and concerns because everything operated like clockwork with him. At some point Begun found a person who began to produce it on a rotary press.

Were you the editor-in-chief?

Yes, I had already become the editor-in-chief.

In that position did you become acquainted with the central circle of activists?

Yes, but that wasn’t my only role. For example, Alia Zonis from “Poor Relatives” would call to say that they were going to demonstrate, and she would ask whether we could send someone.

Directly over the telephone?

Yes. Sometimes they did it on purpose so that the police would detain them while they were on the way in order to draw more public attention to their cause. Later, there were people who took the bulletin and began to distribute it in various places. Sometime around July 1987, you invited me to join “Mashka” and I wound up in the center of many events there.

Were out-of-towners also on the editorial board?

Yes. Yosif Yurovskii from Lvov was responsible for dissemination in Western Ukraine and Leonid Govzman from Ivano-Frankovsk for collecting information and distribution. Yakov Tsukerman─a professional journalist and publisher─dealt with everything concerning Leningrad after Sema Frumkin’s departure. The Muscovite Igor Mirovich joined the editorial board but quickly departed. Once in Israel, he settled in Beersheva and began to send material about his life there. He wrote a column on absorption. Meir Kharev, a mathematician from Baku, distributed the bulletin in Azerbaijan and wrote many items from there. Naturally, Yosif Zisels had an important role in the bulletin. He published a similar bulletin in Ukraine, and we included his material in our bulletin. Then they included our bulletin in theirs and printed and distributed it. In Uzbekistan Binyamin Binyaminov and his relative Rafik Nektalov set up a network of ulpans and distributed the bulletin. There were also several correspondents there who wrote for us. And, finally, there was Lenia Raitsen on whom I relied the most in my work. He collected material daily and manned the telephones, which were always ringing. Raitsen had been a Jewish movement activist for many years. Do you remember a tall fellow with a youthful face and totally gray head of hair? He remained active under Chlenov. His home telephone number was printed on the cover of the bulletin along with his address.

How many people were on the payroll?

Around twenty. The only one who didn’t receive a salary was Valia Lidskii. He represented the religious element on the editorial board. He and Vlad Dashevskii provided me with people to verify everything connected with religious canons and traditions. In fact, there were a mass of people around us. Lena Roitman was secretary of the editorial board. Valerii Sherbaum, whom you introduced to me, was a member of the board. Mozus Truskinovskii replaced Sherbaum when he left. Edik Markov participated very actively in the bulletin; he was on the editorial board and we gave his telephone number to people in Leningrad. In addition, there were people who dealt directly with organizing, receiving, storing, delivering, and distributing the bulletin. It was the most widely read samizdat publication. The Lishkat Hakesher actively supported it.

The bulletin ceased publication because you left?

Not only because I left but also because in 1991 it was possible to publish everything legally, including Jewish publications. Tankred Golenopolskii then began to publish his newspaper [Evreiskaia gazeta].

 

The Legal Seminar

Soon after the Moscow symposium on secrecy issues, a seminar on legal issues organized by Vladimir Kislik and his wife Bella [Gulko] began to operate in Moscow. “No one at that symposium on secrecy suffered because of it,” Bella Gulko told me. “On the contrary, people left. And then we conducted our first seminars. A group of seven people formed the nucleus, including Zhenia Grechanovskii, Zhenia Liberman, Feliks Kochubievskii, and Gena Reznikov. We met every week and every two to three weeks we held an open meeting, which many people attended.”

The seminar was not limited to theoretical issues. The Kisliks were sharp and fearless. They organized consultations next to OVIR, brought legal suits against enterprises and ministries that refused to give written replies concerning the issue of secrecy classification, organized joint visits to official reception rooms, and so forth. The seminar, which met at their apartment, quickly became popular among refuseniks. Activists from other cities often came to the seminar sessions; visitors also included foreign guests and representatives of international human rights organizations. A few months after the start of the seminar, I invited Vladimir Kislik to participate in the work of Mashka.

I recall that you demanded that enterprises give a written justification for the reason that people in their employ spent many years in refusal on grounds of secrecy, I said to Vladimir.

Completely true.

Bella managed to receive an official document stating that her ministry had no secrecy claims in her case, that is, the KGB was lying all the time.

She not only received it, but she also organized a group of about thirty people from her Radio Industry Ministry. They went there and demanded papers from the ministry on the existence of a secrecy classification. She obtained the power of attorney from many people and organized about thirty suits against that ministry and other ministries that refused to give them a written reply. Bella and her friends organized constant consultations near the Moscow OVIR. They set up a little table and chair near OVIR, where they sat and advised people. We submitted a personal suit for each person refused on secrecy grounds and sought a Western lawyer to represent that individual. Irwin Cotler was particularly helpful. We ultimately found Western lawyers for a large number of refuseniks. We immediately sent them information on Bella’s suits and other documents and initiated a correspondence. That activity continued up until our departure in March 1989. Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, even a Ukrainian Catholic bishop came to us for advice.

 

The Friendship Society and Cultural Ties with Israel

The Society for Friendship and Cultural Ties with Israel held its founding meeting on July 10, 1988. About seventy people attended, including participants from Leningrad, Vilnius, Kiev, Baku, Derbent, Liuberets (near Moscow), Tbilisi and Moscow. As prescribed by law, the founding meeting adopted a charter and program and formed a council and a presidium, after which documents were sent for registration to the Council of Ministers and the USSR Supreme Soviet. The presidium included V. Dashevskii, V. Koretskii, Yu. Kosharovskii, E. Markov, V. Meshkov, A. Ostrovskii, S. Frumkin, A. Shmukler, and N. Shpeizman. Koretskii served as secretary of the society. We did not elect a chairman.

In our press statement we said that we would work toward the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and familiarize the Soviet people with the language, history, culture, and life of the State of Israel and would also work to facilitate an objective presentation of events in Israel on the part of the Soviet media.[17] After waiting the legally permitted time of two months, we undertook to clarify the fate of our application to register. We learned that it had been sent to the Union of Soviet Friendship Societies with Foreign Countries [known by its Russian acronym as SSOD], which was located in the former Morozov residence. When we arrived there, they tried to convince us not to form a society independently but to wait until the SSOD established it. “After that, you will be able on an individual basis to join the Society that will be created.” We refused. Our interlocutor, Mr. Ivanov, then explained to us that the SSOD does not register societies but only creates them within the Union, reserving for itself all the legal and financial rights.

We, naturally, continued to operate even without the formal registration as circumstances allowed that. Our Soviet-Israel Friendship Society began to issue a Herald of the Society [Vestnik Obshchestva]. On September 21, the society opened a library of over 500 books at the apartment of Viktor Koretskii. Many guests from the U.S. and Israel, including members of the Israeli consular delegation, attended the opening of the library. On October 11, a library of sound recordings was opened.[18] The two libraries enjoyed considerable popularity among Moscow Jews. Lectures and discussions were regularly held there. The society also organized concerts of performers from the U.S. and Israel.

On April 15, 1989, the Friendship Society conducted a demonstration demanding the dissolution of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public.[19] After Koretskii’s departure, Aleksandr Ostrovskii became secretary of the organization.

 

Igud Morim [Teachers’ union]

On September 18, 1988, about sixty Hebrew teachers from Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Rostov, Baku, Chernovtsy, Zaporozhie, and Gorkii announced the founding of a union of Hebrew teachers called Igud morim [Hebrew for teachers’ union]. The participants elected three co-chairmen: Lev Gorodetskii, Avigdor Levit, and Evgenii Voronov. Subsequently, about thirty lectures were given on topics related to Hebrew instruction and to Jewish culture. “The Igud morim,” Gorodetskii told me, “was conceived as an all-Union organization. Teachers from many cities were involved in its founding. We began to publish a Herald of the Igud Morim. We did everything openly and all our telephone numbers were printed in the Herald.

 

Igud Tsioni [Zionist organization]

On August 1-2, 1989, thirty-five activists representing Jewish communities from fifteen cities held a founding meeting of the Irgun Tsioni [Zionist organization]. Lev Gorodetskii from Moscow and Mark Dishne from Baku were elected to the posts of president and vice-president respectively. On August 8, the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public published a statement in the press condemning the establishment of the Zionist Organization.[20] A year and a half earlier, it would have been impossible to imagine the founding of such an organization. The very word “Zionism” had negative connotations in the USSR, and it was impossible to mention it without attaching a string of derogatory epithets; publishing a printed organ of a Zionist organization was all the more impossible. In the West there was the impression that the Irgun had been established with the help of the WZO (World Zionist Organization), but that was not the case.

I asked Lev Gorodetskii about the founding of the organization.

I formed it at my own initiative. We very much wanted to make contact with the WZO and to join it. I had already met Simcha Dinitz, the chairman of the WZO and head of the Jewish Agency and contact with him was good. He phoned us directly at the conference and congratulated us on the founding. This contrasted greatly with the rejection that followed. At first I was told that we needed a federation of Zionist organizations of the USSR in order to join the WZO. At the end of November, 1990 we specially established such a federation in order to join the WZO but, presenting all kinds of objections, they still did not accept us. Incidentally, we were the first who tried to join the WZO.

The VAAD also tried.

That was after us. Don’t forget that the VAAD was a community organization whereas we were a Zionist one.] Later I was told it was personal because I was too far to the right for them. In May 1989, I had set up a branch of Beitar, which, as you know, is affiliated with the Likud party. For Dinitz, a member of the left-center Labor party, this was unacceptable.

Was membership in the Irgun Tsioni individual or collective?

Individual. At one point we had about eight hundred applications for membership.

As I recall, you had a publication.

Yes; we called it Kol Tsion [the voice of Zion]. Kedmi suggested the name. He, incidentally, supported us.

The fierce political struggle within Israel cast its long shadow on us. Israel is influenced by the worldwide Jewish Diaspora and depends on it in certain respects. Many Israeli political parties got started while still in the Diaspora; the presence of foreign branches, therefore, did not seem unusual in the West. It was a common practice that was in accord with Western democracy. In the USSR, however, where the Iron Curtain had fallen only a few years earlier and local Jews were completely ignorant about the Israeli political scene, such an approach evoked, at the very least, incomprehension.