Soviet Jews Facing Danger over Increased Anti-semitism

Jews in the Soviet Union are facing a “dangerous situation” because of increasing anti-Semitism, a leading Soviet Jewish activist warned Wednesday.

Fear of anti-Semitism is the principal reason some 250,000 Jews are expected to apply to emigrate from the Soviet Union in 1990, Aleksandr Shmuckler, president of B’nai B’rith in Moscow, suggested at a luncheon in his honor at the B’nai B’rith International headquarters here.

The luncheon, at which Shmuckler was presented a Chanukah menorah, was sponsored by B’nai B’rith and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.

Emigration is not the only way Soviet Jews are trying to find safety. Shmuckler said that during a meeting this month with officials from Birobidzhan — the autonomous region set up in the 1930s for Jews — he was surprised to see some of the thousands of letters from Jews asking to be allowed to settle there.

Shmuckler said recent conflicts between nationalities in which people were killed has demonstrated that the government was unable to protect the victims.

“If a pogrom was to begin, for example, in Minsk or other cities, we don’t know who will protect Jewish people,” he said. “I am not sure that the government will protect the Jewish people.”

This is one of the reasons Shmuckler and other Soviet Jewish leaders are organizing an All-Union Soviet Jewish Congress to be held in Moscow Dec. 19-21, out of which they hope to create a national Jewish organization.

FIRST MEETING IN 72 YEARS

At least 126 Jewish organizations from 70 cities are expected to attend the congress, the first such meeting since a Jewish conference was held in Russia two weeks before the 1917 Revolution, Shmuckler said.

But while several anti-Semitic organizations have recently received official recognition from the Soviet government allowing them to publish newspapers and magazines, neither the congress nor Jewish organizations have received such recognition. This means that it could be cancelled by a whim of the government.

The problem for the government is that “if authorities recognize the congress, they will have to recognize the structure which we will create after the congress,” Shmuckler said.

He said this new organization, which will have three co-presidents, will be one of the means for “the protection of Jewish people.”

It will do so by trying to return Soviet Jews to their tradition, values and history. “Most Soviet Jews know nothing about Jewish culture,” he said.

Shmuckler was on the verge of emigrating when B’nai B’rith made its first official visit to the Soviet Union in December 1988. This resulted in the creation of a B’nai B’rith chapter in Moscow followed by other units in Leningrad, Riga, and Vilnius.

An engineer by profession, the 29-year-old Shmuckler is now concentrating on working for the Jewish community. He is vice president of the Soviet Jewish Cultural Association and editor of a Jewish publication.