News Brief

Only 79 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union in January, according to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.

Boris Smolar is a name that became synonymous with “Global Jewish Journalist Number One.” His name is indelibly etched in Jewish literary history. His passing is an irreparable loss to Jewry.

Boris Smolar’s journalistic beat was the world Jewish community. Wherever he went, he also left an indelible mark as a Jewish activist humanely inspired to relieve want, to strive for justice for his people, to enlighten government officials on the status of his fellow Jews, and to seek amelioration and succor for them.

This was true everywhere — in the Soviet Union, where he reached into high government echelons with his appeals for persecuted Jews, in prewar Nazi Germany, in Rumania, in the Middle East, and in the Jewish Yishuv (pre-State community) in Palestine and subsequently in Israel.

In the process, he befriended international leaders, and the heads of the world’s Jewish communities became his friends and associates in major causes. That is how the Warburgs, the Strauses, and the Habers, among others, came to consult him on major Jewish issues. That is how he became the adviser and guide, the unofficial diplomat and emissary of the Jewish people.

CLARION CALLS TO ACTION

In that process, too, he became the interpreter and evaluator of the major Jewish rehabilitation and relief movements as well as of the reconstruction and rebuilding taking place in Israel. His columns became clarion calls to action for the many causes for which he was a dedicated activist. The United Jewish Appeal, American Jewish Committee ORT, and a score of other causes counted him as their most effective voice.

His Zionist commitment was especially expressed in his deep devotion to the Jewish National Fund. His recent gifts to JNF and the forest in Israel he and his wife Genia planted were their expression of loyalty to a cause and enrollment in tasks for Israel’s upbuilding.

There is a deeply moving effect of Boris’ attachment to Genia that is almost providential. Genia had a genius all her own. She was not in the limelight, yet she had a genius for letter writing, and her correspondence was cherished by Israeli and American leaders.

When she became bedridden, Boris devoted his entire time — his very life — to her. In the frequent telephone conversations I had with him in the past few years, his comment on his own and Genia’s state of health always was, “I want to live one hour after Genia.” It was his way of saying that his life’s aim had become to provide the protection his ailing wife needed.

His wish was fulfilled. His Genia’s death occurred only 15 hours before his own.

The world’s Jewish communities will miss him, Jewish leaders will miss him. For me, his death means the loss of the dearest friend and most cherished professional associate.