Major strides in Soviet-Jewish and Soviet-Israeli relations have been reported by a World Jewish Congress delegation that traveled to the USSR last month.
The unprecedented direct flight of WJC President Edgar Bronfman’s private jet from Moscow to Jerusalem was only one high pint of a trip that included meetings between high Soviet officials and members of the Jewish organization.
WJC Secretary-General Israel Singer and Elan Steinberg, the group’s executive director, apprised members of the WJC-American Section of their trip at a recent meeting here.
The visit included the first open meetings in recent memory between members of the Soviet government and a Jewish organization. So unabashed were the Soviets about dealing with the Jewish group that the meeting between Soviet Foreign Minster Eduard Shevardnadze and WJC leaders was broadcast on Soviet television.
Tass, the Soviet news agency, published a report of the proceedings within 45 minutes after completion of the two-hour meeting. It was followed by a similar report in Izvestia. The reports included direct mention of talks on the question of Soviet Jewish emigration and religious rights.
“The phones were ringing off the hook in Moscow,” said Singer. He said refuseniks were “exhilarated” to see him on television, wearing his yarmulka and standing next to Shevardnadze and other high Soviet officials.
THREE OF 150 STILL REFUSENIKS
Singer produced a photograph taken last year in Moscow with WJC representatives surrounded by 150 refuseniks. Of that group, only three are still waiting to emigrate, he said.
Singer and Steinberg emphasized that Soviet officials had no problem with the fact that they visited refuseniks. Unlike previous, surreptitious meetings, the time refuseniks came openly to their hotel room, Singer said.
The WJC also openly brought in boxes of books to be distributed to refuseniks, including books on the Hebrew language, religion and Jewish history.
Soviet officials indicated that teaching of Hebrew and Jewish religion would soon be legal, Singer said. He was told that Hebrew teachers would no longer be harassed and that publication of Jewish magazines, heretofore underground, would be officially sanctioned.
Singer said that in Moscow, they spoke with Procurator General Ivan Rakhmanin about prosecution of Nazi war criminals, as well as the Kurt Waldheim case, because of Waldheim’s presence during World War II on the eastern front.
The Soviet official accepted a first-of-its-kind invitation to participate in a conference on Nazi war criminals to be held in New York in the fall, said Singer.
Sources also disclosed that the meetings in Moscow included discussion of the many provisions impeding so many refuseniks from emigrating, including the “secrecy,” first-degree relatives” and “poor relatives” rules.
The Soviets told them they expected 10,000 Jews to emigrate this year, and indicated better relations would enable even more.
That level of emigration would represent a 25 percent increase over the number of Jews allowed to leave in 1987, and ten times the total for 1986. But it would still be a far cry from the more than 51,000 Jews allowed to leave in 1979.
But, Singer cautioned, “The key element in determining the success of all this is performance. Assurances alone are not sufficient.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
