| There are 3 million Jews in the Soviet Union. THREE MILLION.
It should not surprise you much that out of 3 million Jews, some will
be enemies of Jews, some will openly collaborate with an all-powerful
dictatorship which discriminates against Jews.
I was really surprised and dismayed to hear that you had never heard
of refuseniks. I guess this means the message needs alot more publicity
than it has gotten to date! In the early 70's there was a CHANGE in
soviet policy in that applications from Jews requesting the privilege
to leave the Soviet Union were allowed. (That's right, it's not a
RIGHT in the Soviet Union to travel freely to other countries. It's
a slave/prison state.) I don't have with me the numbers of people allowed
to emigrate, but they ranged in the low thousands to low tens-of-thousands
for a few years. In the last couple of years, the number of people
allowed to leave has been drastically cut back, to a few hundred per year.
People who apply for the right to leave are considered enemies of the state.
Since in the Soviet Union the state controls most aspects of a person's
life, people considered enemies of the state no longer 'enjoy' the good
graces of the state. They lose their jobs, they are refused admission
to universities, their children are publicly disgraced and discriminated
against in schools, etc. They live from hand-to-mouth, often surviving
only because of the help of organizations in the free world. That's if
they're lucky. If they're not lucky, their activities in lobbying for
the freedom to emigrate, or their activities in keeping alive Jewish
education and religious practise, land them in prison camps, convicted
on charges of treason, hooliganism, etc. They're called
'refuseniks' because they have applied for permission to emigrate (which
is clearly a momentous step from which there is no turning back) and
been refused.
They depend on our help in two important ways. 1) Their situation must
be publicized. Tyrants care about public opinion, even Soviet tyrants.
Writing letters to refuseniks helps because it lets the government know
that these people have friends, who care and make a stink about what
happens to them. It also, obviously, helps someone who is living on
the outskirts of society and at the edge of the law to know that YOU
care about him. Also, writing letters to the Soviet Foreign Minister,
the Soviet Ambassador to the U.S., to President Reagan and your congress
representatives helps. (I'll bring in addresses soon).
2) $$$$$$$Money$$$$$$$$ The organizations to which you can contribute
do the following things: a) buy prayerbooks, religious articles,
hebrew language books, etc and get them to refuseniks b) fund people
to travel to the Soviet Union and visit refuseniks. This is extremely
important. c) give money, whe~ and where possible, to refuseniks, to
help them stay alive. d) lobby in congress on issues that are relevant
to pressuring the Soviet Union in freeing refuseniks, and in lifting the
oppression under which Jews live. e) collect information on refuseniks
and people imprisoned or exiled for Jewish activities. A national database
pooling the information that the different organizations have is being
data-entered now.
The local organization is called Action for Soviet Jewry, I'll get the
address tomorrow, and I can't imagine a better use of your tzedaka
(charity) dollars or time. The primacy attached to the mitzva of freeing
Jewish captives has meant the difference between Jewish survival and
extinction in our history -- more so than questions of intermarriage,
reform vs. orthodox, women being counted in minyanim or not, making aliya
vs not making aliya, and all the rest (They're also important issues, of
course). When we think about the holocaust we all say Never Again.
Saying it is not enough; dedicating some part of our attention, money and
time to freeing Soviet Jews (and other captive Jews, for example in
Syria and in Ethiopia) is what we can do, in our generation, to match
our saying Never Again.
Kathy
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| Re: .0
WRT Jewish Anti-semites, they ARE the worst kind!! I have run into this
situation with my local PD. I have been a Special Police Officer for ~7
years and used to work regularly on the Dept., either as a volunteer or
paid details/shifts. There is only one full-time Jewish officer and ~8-10
Specials. I put up with so much anti-semitic shit from this jerk that it
got to be unbearable. [This in a Town of ~60% Jews, and at the time there
were 2 Jews amongst the 3 Selectmen.]
At one point I alluded to the whole problem with the late Police Chief,
but finally after a lot of abuse to a few Specials, he got the complete
run down and this jerk was punished (not specifically for the
anti-semitism, but a lot of physical and mental abuse leveled at two
particular Specials, one Jew and one non-Jew). Unfortunately, this
slackard is still on the force. He even had the gall to stop me one day
and ask me to fix the Union's coffee pot which burned up a resistor!
He feeds the anti-semitic attitudes of some of the other officers. I think
he does it to be "cool", but no-one has any respect for him (not even the
Townspeople).
As for Jews in Russia, check back in this Notesfile. I know that Leo Simon
has explained some of his past in USSR. Peter Sheyner is also a Russian
Jew who finally emigrated to the US. [I think that he is on REX::.]
Len
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| I also watched the show but there was nothing new for me. I grew up in
the Soviet Union and left it for the US about five years ago. On the
show I saw familiar places, like Moscow synagogue (the only synagogue
for about 200 - 300k Jews in Moscow, the exact number is kept secret),
even some faces were familiar. Like they said in the show, the Six Day
war gave a push to awakening of national self-awareness. Many Jews in
Moscow realized that we are no longer the people who were always
beaten, abused and killed, but a great nation!
From that moment on
emigration started. But the process had a drawback. The more Jews
were leaving, the worst the government attitude became. "Positive
feedback". Foe Jewish kids it became increasingly more difficult to
get admitted to colleges, for engineers -- more difficult to find a
job, etc. But the crowd at the synagogue at high holidays grew larger
and larger. The majority of the Jews are non-believers, but they still
wanted to come to the only place in the city where they could express
their feelings open, among thousands who got together. Still there was
always some tension because of the police around, both uniformed and
plainclothed.
The street where the synagogue is located is very narrow, without
traffic. I remember one holiday when the traffic police re-routed all
the traffic from a major road to this little street to make the crowd
disperse. They succeeded, but the presence of Western camera crews
forced the police not to do it again -- there was a lot of publicity to
this fact on the Voice of America and BBC.
The cantor in the synagogue happen to be from the same village as
my father. But even without him everybody in Moscow knows that the
rabbi cooperates with KGB. The so-called Religious Council -- the
governmental agency dealing with religion -- controls by KGB. That's
why all Hebrew teachers got jailed -- the study groups always have KGB
insiders. The guy whom you saw in the show, standing at the shelf with
"4000 books no longer needed" is one of these guy, from the Council.
One of the worst things in the USSR regarding anti-Semitism, are these
"anti-zionist committees". Except the Jews, nobody there knows what
Zionism is. Since there is no other sources of information besides
governmental, people truly believe that Zionism is a kind of racism and
fascism. They are brainwashed to believe that Israel and Soviet Jews
together have a common purpose: To destroy the USSR! In order to
reinforce this belief the authority created those committees. You
should though keep in mind that people there are not necessarily
anti-Semites. I'd like to know what you will do when you are told:
"That's your speech, read it in front of the TV cameras. If you
refuse, forget about a good job. Forget also about a job at all. And
tell your family to do the same". I wonder who have guts to refuse
after that.
I also was a refusnik for more then two years. At the time it seemed
very long. They fired me from my job, not to work there is crime
punishable by law, I believe to five years in prison and a few years in
exile. I had to work under the table, and fortunately I was not
caught. But last September my friend left Russia. We applied for
emigration the same day. It took him seven years. My other friend,
who also applied with us, is still there.
I can talk for hours about this, and I did it before. Not any more as
a rule. The reason is that mostly people here say that since I hate
the Soviet regime, I am biased and my story is not completely true. To
try to change that point of view is useless. I don't even try. There
is a lot of talk about South Africa, which is necessary, of course, but
there is not much being done about the country where ALL the people are
slaves, and the Jews are even worse then that.
But for you guys reading this notesfile I can answer any question since
YOU know what we are talking about.
Leo Simon
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| Below is the message I sent to n.r.j. on the USENET. You might find
it interesting.
********************************************************************
After I posted my original article on the net, I receive a letter
showing a typical American attitude for the matter which is quite
normal. First I was going to answer but then I thought that other
people might want to know more about the Soviet Union and decided
to post it here. Since I don't have the author's permission to
quote his letter, I'll do with a few lines from it.
>I ... have good reason to distrust a lot of what I read in
>the Western press. However I have no idea whether the accounts
>of life in the Soviet Union are accurate or not. We hear much
>talk of the Evil Empire, oppression, lack of freedoms.
>...whether you can see any areas in which Soviet society is "better"
>than American society. The impression I have from the press here is
>that Soviet society is an unmitigated disaster, which is hard to
>believe.
That's right, it is hard to believe. And the Western press's accounts
of life in the Soviet Union can hardly be called accurate. Because the
reality is much worse. The reason for the misleading information is
that the Americans will not believe the truth if they are told the truth.
Besides, the life there is so different that American mass media tries
to bring it to the format understandable for American mentality, and
this is impossible. However, since this is net.religion.jewish, I will
have to limit myself to this side of the matter only.
You may know that every Soviet citizen has an internal passport which
he/she must always carry. On the first page it states your name and
ethnic origin. That means that if my parents are Jewish, I am also
Jewish whether I am religious or not. This gives the authorities
tremendous advantages. The first thing they ask me when I apply for a
job, or college, or a room in a hotel, or vacuum cleaner rent, or ...,
is my passport. And if my passport says "Jewish", I got a problem.
Not with a vacuum cleaner, but with finding a job.
All that I telling you here is either my own experience or people's
whom I knew really very well, so it is not theory or exaggeration.
After I graduated from high school in Moscow, I already knew that the
best colleges in Moscow are barring Jews. No official regulations, of
course. My brother still decided to give it a try. With two of his
friends (one Jewish and the other Russian) he applied to one of the
best schools in Moscow. All three passed the tests. Then the Jewish
guys were rejected for health reasons, and the Russian was accepted.
But the interesting fact was that just a few days before that the
Russian guy was relieved from the Military duty because of his health
and the other two were OK!
This was just an example, but that was an everyday life. My friends
were rejected nice jobs, when they got jobs -- rejected promotions,
they were refused tourist visas to see other countries, etc. All this
comes from the Government. If we are to speak about anti-Semitism
among ordinary people, the Russians were always anti-Semites. During
late 50's and early 60's, when anti-Semitism was not that strong, many
Jews got education, achieve good standing in the society, and now
people cannot forgive them for it. So it was not infrequent to hear
something like "Get out of here and go your beloved Israel, Kike!".
And I couldn't do anything about it because if I tried to fight, it
would be me who will get behind the bars!
One can get used to almost everything, but the worst time was after I
applied for emigration. The Soviet government does not recognize such
a conception as emigration. In any normal country democracy is when
one can leave the country any time he wants. In the Soviet Union
democracy is when nobody wants to leave. Really, what for: Everybody
knows that the best life is in Russia! (Russian Express: Don't leave
home.) The authority recognize what they call "Reunification with
relatives living abroad". So I had to secure an invitation from Israel
from people I never knew, as if they were my relatives. We applied for
visas. The next day I was fired from the job. There is no place to
file a complaint. There is no provisions in the law that one can take
the government or police to court. After I waited for almost a
year (for any reply at all!), the Soviet troops gave "brotherly help
to the people of Afghanistan".
A few days later I was summoned to the visa agency and a police colonel
announced that "there was a decision that to give me and my family visas
to go to Israel does not serve a purpose". What purpose, whose decision?
But he continued to repeat the same phrase again and again. Where can I
file a complain? -- Nowhere. -- Who can re-consider the "decision"?
-- Nobody, and go away.
As you can see, I couldn't do anything. Officially I was jobless, not
to work there is a criminal offense, and I didn't want to go to Siberia
instead of the West! To survive, I worked under a table, and a few
parcels from somebody from Denmark with clothes items which I was able
to sell, helped us. I knew, of course, that the parcels were sent by
Jewish organizations, just the return address stated that they were
from a person, not an organization.
The whole thing was terrible! Until you know that you live in a
prison, you don't mind. But once you know that there is freedom, you
can't stop thinking about getting there! For a few years I lived in a
prison country and all my dreams were to get to freedom!
This is only a tip of the iceberg. I could tell you about the country
where the laws are substituted by special instruction which public is
not allowed to read, but to which the local authorities refer. About
workers at factories or construction sites drinking vodka every lunch
break (six ounce glass at a time -- please believe me, it is true, I
did it myself!), about standing in lines every day, for groceries,
shoes, toilet paper (average 2 hours in lines daily), about several
completely non-related families sharing the same apartment because of
shortage of apartments, etc., etc.
Of course there are some good sides about the USSR. But it is another
story, much shorter, which I also can tell you if you are interested.
I will be happy to answer any questions -- it may help you to
understand the Soviet Union better than press coverage during
Reagan-Gorbachev meeting.
---
Leo B. Simon
Digital Equipment Corp.
333 South St. Shrewsbury MA, 01545
(617)841-3521
DTN 237-3521
Mail Stop SHR-4/D26
UUCP ...decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-elwood!simon
ARPA simon%[email protected]
You realize of course that all of the above does not have anything to
do with my emloyer.
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