The following interview with Richard Schifter was conducted by Yuli Kosharovsky over email in May 2010. Rather than an exact copy of the correspondence, text below is structured in a question-and-answer format for readers’ convenience. Punctuation and grammar are original.

Correspondence from May 5, 2010:

Yuli: Dear Mr. Schifter,
We have met a number of times during the challenging days of perestroika in Moscow whose memories I cherish. As you have probably been told I’m now writing the 4th volume on the history of the Soviet Jewry Movement which covers the 80’s. I’m fully aware of the tremendous role the Reagan administration and you personally played to promote freedom of emigration. I would be very grateful to you if you would take the time to answer my queries about your activities.

Richard: It is good to get this message from you. I am happy to answer your questions. Quite frankly I am glad that someone remembers my engagement in the effort to change Soviet policy on emigration. You may find some relevant material in my recent Book, which I co-authored with my Russian counterpart, Anatoly Adamishin. The title is “Human Rights, Perestroika, and the End of the Cold War.”

Yuli: First, some personal data – where and when were you born; and what is your family background?

Richard: I was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1923. My father was a native of Stanislau, now Ivano-Frankivsk in the Western Ukraine. My mother was born in the village of Filipowka, near Garwolin, in Poland. My father owned a drug store. My mother helped my father run the store.

Yuli: Do you have personal recollections of Nazi anti-Semitism?

Richard: I was in Vienna on March 11, 1938, when the Nazis took over. From then until I left on December 4, 1938, we all experienced antisemitism daily. After the Nazi take-over, the school I attended was reorganized, with Jews in my class being separated from non-Jews and placed in the last benches. Later on the schools were further segregated and Jews were not allowed to come through the major entrance or be present in the school yard during recess. — My parents were arrested on October 27, 1938, when all Jews in Germany who were Polish citizens were arrested. They were released after one day and told to leave the country quickly. I also remember November 10, which has since become known as the day after Kristallnacht. I was sick then and in bed, and my father hid under the bed all day, afraid that the police would come to arrest him. — I should add that antisemitism in Vienna preceded the arrival of the Nazis. It was instilled in believing Catholics by the Austrian Catholic Church. I remember being told by a classmate that I was personally responsible for the killing of Christ. Given the serious problem of anti-Jewish discrimination, my parents and I were in agreement that I would attend university in Vienna and then emigrate. I recall wanting to become an agronomist and then emigrate to what we then called Palestine.

Yuli: How did you manage to deal with being the only survivor in your family; to get a good education and succeed in life?

Richard: I had gotten a good education in Vienna. When I came to the United States at the age of 15, my relatives took me in and enabled me to finish high school and attend college. (I worked part-time to earn some money.) I was not quite 20 when I entered the army, having graduated from college by then.

Yuli: How did your path in the Reagan administration evolve as head of the Department of Human Rights under George Shultz?

Richard: Jeane Kirkpatrick was a good friend of mine. When she was appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations, I was practicing law. A few days after she had started on her job, she called me and said: “Dick, can you be in Geneva next Tuesday.” I said “yes” and started my work at the UN Human Rights Commission. I served there and also as Deputy U.S. Representative in the United Nations Security Council, also at Jeane’s recommendation. Then, in 1985 I had a call from Elliott Abrams, who was to leave the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights to take on the position of Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He asked whether he could recommend to Secretary Shultz that I succeed him. After some delay, I said “yes” and was appointed.

Yuli: You said on several occasions you followed the American Administration policy strictly and objectively. How did it happen that this policy was so pro-Jewish? Or it wasn’t?

Richard: It certainly was pro-Jewish, and the pro-Jewish sentiment came from the President and the Secretary of State. As for Reagan: my theory is that his interest and concern started in 1937, when he moved to Hollywood and got into the movie industry, where there were many Jews who were greatly troubled over what was happening to Jews in Nazi Germany. His general outlook on world affairs was, I believe, colored by his experience in the Nineteen Thirties and early Forties, living in Hollywood and experiencing developments, including the Holocaust, in the company of Jewish friends. Gorbachev was recently quoted as having said that whenever he got together with Reagan, the issue of Jewish emigration was the first that he raised. — As for George Shultz: he is a thoroughly decent person. My guess is that in his academic career he met many Jews and became well acquainted with them. I heard him tell the following story: One of his very best graduate students at the University of Chicago was an Israeli. In 1967, he told Shultz that as a reservist in the Israeli Army he had been called into active duty. Shultz told him that he should finish his thesis, that the Israeli army did not need one additional soldiers. The student’s response was: “If every reservist were to say that, my country would be lost.” The student left and died in the Golan during the 1967 war. Later, when Shultz visited Israel, he made a point of visiting the Golan. He said that he then understood the threat that was posed to Israel. — Against this background, I need to emphasize that what the Soviet Jewry Movement accomplished was to put the Soviet Jewry issue on the agenda of the U.S. Government, and then, in 1981 and 1982, two people who were highly sympathetic acceded to the highest positions of leadership.

Yuli: What was the mechanics of NGO influence on the human rights policies?

Richard: As I have just indicated, the Soviet Jewry Movement put the Jewish emigration issue on the agenda of the U.S. Government. — NGO’s generally played an important role in the development of the U.S. human rights policy in the Nineteen Seventies, by encouraging the adoption of human rights legislation by the Congress.

Yuli: Did Soviets try to bargain emigration for concessions from American side, did they try to limit emigration to national minorities?

Richard: No, they did not ask for concessions. It was Shultz who made a point of emphasizing that it would be much easier to get Congress to go along with arms reduction agreements if the Soviet Union stopped violating its human rights commitments. — My impression is that at the outset they wanted to allow only Jews to emigrate. When we pressed to allow Pentecostals to leave, they handled it by pretending that they were Jews, who were going to Israel. The NKVD would give Pentecostals a telephone number in Rome that they could call to get an Israeli invitation to go to Israel. They would then go to Italy and from there to the United States, but after they got Israeli visas from the Dutch consulate in Moscow.

Yuli: When did you feel a real breakthrough in emigration?

Richard: It was in September 1988. I was in Moscow and decided to go from there to Israel (which I had to do via Paris). I asked for a meeting with Shamir and started out by saying that I had just come from Moscow, that it was my sense that the gates were opening and that the numbers that would be allowed to emigrate would far exceed the numbers that the United States would allow to enter, that Israel needs to get ready with housing and jobs for the mass of new immigrants. Shamir then talked about other matters and I decided to repeat what I had said at the outset. I still remember Eli Rubinstein, who was then Secretary of the Cabinet, interrupting and saying: “Keep in mind that the name of our economics minister is Nissim.”

Yuli: When was the decision of direct flights taken? Who defined the quota?

Richard: I am not sure about the decision on direct flights, probably in 1989. It seemed to me that the quotas were originally fixed by whoever made policy for the OVIR. The foreign ministry, under Shevardnadze, tried to get the quota system abolished.

Yuli: When and how did the United States convince the Soviet Union to abandon the framework of family reunification in favor of freedom of emigration?

Richard: It was one of the first changes, in September 1987. I pressed my counterparts in the foreign ministry on that subject: Reshetov (who was Jewish, but quite disagreeable), Glukhov, and Adamishin. The point I made was that Shultz felt very strongly on this subject, which was, of course, true. My counterparts took the matter to Shevardnadze and he, in turn, got the needed support against the opponents of emigration.

Yuli: Have you an understanding of Mr. Shultz’s deep devotion to human rights and especially Jewish human rights vis-a-vie the Soviet Union?

Richard: I have answered this earlier. I should add that George Shultz is one of the finest human beings I ever encountered, with a deep commitment to distinguish between right and wrong.

Yuli: Your activities helped to save hundreds of thousands of Jewish souls for free national life. What are your feelings and thoughts about that?

Richard: As I reflect on my life, aside from raising my five children, it was the most meaningful and useful activity of my life.

Correspondence from May 7, 2010:

Yuli: I do have couple of broader sense questions.

Reagan administration came to power in 1981 in a new cold war period, when Mr. Reagan called Soviet Union an Evil Empire which he should restrain in every possible way. He also began Star Wars program, which frightened Soviet leaders greatly. What brought him and Mr. Schultz to change this approach at a time when Soviets were still in Afghanistan?

Richard: Gorbachev and Shevardnadze. Gorbachev became General Secretary in March 1985. We were wondering whether there would be any change, but for a while noted very little. Reagan and Gorbachev had their first meeting in Geneva in November 1985, a meeting in which they developed a friendly relationship. The October 1986 meeting in Reykjavik did not go particularly well. But then in December came Sahkarov’s return from Gorkyi. We began to look more closely at internal developments. I still had my doubts as to whether there would be significant change and expressed that doubt. I thought the Sakharov return to Moscow was just a public-relations gesture. Next, in January 1987 came the massive release of prisoners from the Gulag. I recall being at our morning staff meeting with George Shultz and Shultz asking me what I thought of the prisoner release. I said that I thought it was significant. I still recall Shultz smiling and saying: “If even Dick Schifter thinks it’s significant, it must be significant.” (I had been known as a strong anti-Communist.)

Shortly thereafter, Shultz decided to arrange a trip to Moscowto see whether there could be agreement on arms reduction. (I went along on this trip to discuss human rights.) Shultz came back with a very good feeling about Gorbachev, with whom he had a meeting and also about Shevardnadze, with whom he spent a lot of time. That was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Settling the Afghanistan problem was one of the outcomes of these negotiations.

Shultz’s memoir spells it all out in detail.

Yuli: Bothe Reagan and Carter administrations were strong human rights promoters. I wonder how come that Carter administration finished with Iran gate and radical islamization of Iran and Reagan’s began with release of hostages and finished with end of Afghan war and democratization of Soviet Union?

Richard: Carter mishandled the Iran situation. — Reagan took full advantage of the change in circumstances brought about by Gorbachev’s accession to power.

Yuli: From your point of view did your soviets counterparts realized the dangers for their regime of free emigration.

Richard: I asked Adamishin about it once. He said Russians love their motherland. They won’t leave even if emigration is available to everyone. I think he was right.

Yuli: If I may ask for your advice, what is the best question I can ask Mr. Schultz, whom I also met in a number of occasions?

Richard: There has been a great deal of discussion as to whether Gorbachev had or had not reached the conclusion that Marxism-Leninism should be abandoned and the Soviet Union should become truly democratic and end the government operation of the economy. You might want to ask Shultz what he thinks is the answer to that question.

Yuli: Dear Richard,

Thank you once more for your comprehensive answers.

My feelings are that the history of this exodus, the struggle for it and the results are of biblical proportions. It became a part of global history and, of course, one of the most important and glorious pages of modern Jewish history staying in one line with restoration of the State of Israel and Six Day War . It should be taught in Jewish schools all over the world in order to create positive Jewish identity in a young Jewish generations and to teach them, that when Jews are united with noble national goals, they can (with a little luck) move mountains. It also teaches that Jewish values of mutual support and responsibilities work again after national catastrophe.

I am consumed now with writing and research for my book, also an English translation of abridged version of my books. I,also, lecture from time to time and give interviews. All this beyond 5 kids and 5 grandgids and lots of friends and comrades in arms I enjoy.

I will be glad and honored to be in touch with you.