"Silent No More": Saving the Jews of Russia, The American Jewish Effort, 1967-1989.
Nelson, Anna K.
"Silent No More": Saving the Jews of Russia, The American
Jewish Effort, 1967-1989. By Henry L. Feingold. Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 2007. ix + 400 pp.
This book is about both an important era in American Jewish history and a chapter in cold war history. From 1967 to 1989, the efforts of
Jewish organizations and their congressional friends to allow Soviet
Jews to emigrate became a crusade with clear diplomatic repercussions in
Soviet-American relations.
Feingold begins with some historical background to illustrate that,
even before the twentieth century, American Jews, deeply concerned with
the fate of Russian Jews, established a tradition of seeking government
intervention. He then points to Jacob Schiff, who campaigned to prevent
loans or credit to a cash-starved Tsarist government. He also draws
attention to the endemic, consistent antisemitism in Russia that
persisted even as Tsars were overthrown, Lenin and Stalin came and went,
and Brezhnev bargained with American diplomats over emigration. Feingold
thinks that without this pattern of antisemitism, the desire to emigrate
would have been less intense.
It was not until Richard Nixon became president that the movement
for emigration took off and immediately crashed into the efforts for
detente that marked Nixon and Henry Kissinger's foreign policy. The
history of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which Feingold thoroughly
explores, is where the diplomatic cold war met American Jewish history.
President Nixon and National Security Adviser Kissinger set out to
improve relations with the Soviet Union as part of a complicated plan
that the president hoped would help conclude the war in Vietnam. After
signing the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) in 1972, Kissinger
moved to further implement detente. He answered the strong Soviet desire
to obtain most favored nation (MFN) status by promising it would be in
the new trade bill before Congress.
But Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, vehemently opposed to
detente, scuttled that promise by introducing an amendment that tied the
MFN provision to the release of all persons, mostly Jews, who wished to
emigrate. As Feingold points out, Jackson was a Christian from Seattle
who battled on behalf of Soviet Jews for two years against "a
heavily accented Jewish refugee" who kept closing the gates (146).
Moreover, the story of Jackson-Vanik is remarkable for another reason.
Although there had been individuals in the Jewish community seeking to
counter Soviet policies, Jackson presented his amendment without the
backing of Jewish organizations which, at first, were a "reluctant
Jewish cavalry" and only later became the necessary army (146).
When the amendment finally passed, Feingold believes it marked a turning
point in Jewish political advocacy. He also points out that it removed
"the stigma of Holocaust abandonment" that American Jews had
carried as heavy baggage (147). The book includes an entire chapter on
human rights because, in Feingold's view, the Jackson-Vanik
amendment landed the first blow in that fight.
New problems arose when the emigres began to emerge from the Soviet
Union. They carried Israeli visas, and Israel was eager to accept them
because of what the author refers to as a demographic deficiency.
Instead, many emigres became "drop outs," choosing to come to
the U.S. and other countries (149). Tensions arose between the American
Jewish organizations themselves, the Israeli organizations, and Israel.
The author treats in some detail the problem of proliferating Jewish
organizations, and their tendency to disagree.
After discussing the new tensions with the Soviets that emerged in
the Reagan years and the freedom that came in 1989, Feingold concludes
with some afterthoughts. Here he may give too much credit to the efforts
of Jewish organizations on behalf of the emigres. Political leadership
was also essential. Without the leadership of Jackson and his committed
staff members, emigration would, indeed, have waited until 1989.
By the time the Jews could freely emigrate, the United States was
no longer an option, and so Israel, with financial help from the U.S.,
finally received and assimilated hundreds of thousands of new
immigrants. Feingold concludes on a very positive note.
Most of us can remember the pictures of Russian Jews stepping from
airplanes to Israeli soil. To the observer, it seemed that a
disproportionate number carried musical instruments. As one reporter
quipped, those without musical instruments were probably pianists. No
wonder the Soviets were loathe to let them go.
Anna K. Nelson
American University
