by pnina levermore
In 1967, just as activism on behalf of Soviet Jews was beginning in America, a group of determined San Franciscans formed the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry. In the decades that followed, working with the Jewish Community Relations Council, the BACSJ was one of the most significant local focuses of the movement.
Demonstrations were held at the then-Soviet Consulate on Green Street, visiting Soviet cultural and peace delegations were welcomed, and support of the entire Bay Area community was mustered.
One of the main focuses of Soviet Jewry activism in the Bay Area community, in addition to the plight of Natan Sharansky and other well-known refuseniks, were the cases of ordinary Soviet Jews, especially ones with separated families, who could not leave.
Today many of these ordinary Soviet Jews are now living in the Bay Area and have become active members of our community. Tens of thousands of Russian Jewish émigrés reside in the Bay Area. They are high-tech entrepreneurs, physicians and Jewish community leaders. Indeed, much of the flavor and character of the Bay Area Jewish community now has a Russian accent.
Jews who were prepared to leave behind all that was familiar brought with them energy, optimism and determination to succeed. They have made an imprint on our community and business landscape, especially that of Silicon Valley. The impact has been both energizing and challenging, as the émigrés brought new perspectives and passions to a variety of issues. This could be seen with respect to events in Israel. The fact that most of the émigrés have relatives in Israel has strengthened the direct connection that our community has with Eretz Yisrael.
Hundreds of Jewish leaders in the Bay Area cut their teeth on Soviet Jewry activism. At age 19, now-JCRC Director Rabbi Doug Kahn was one of the founders of the Bay Area Council, as was John Rothman. David Waksberg, executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Education and president of Congregation Kol Emeth, preceded me as director of the Bay Area Council during the tumultuous years of 1981 to 1995. Hundreds of young Jewish students traveled to Washington, D.C., for the historic 1987 march on Washington. Many of today’s pro-Israel activists learned the business fighting for Soviet Jews.
But what of the Soviet Jews who now live in Russia and the other former Soviet states? Throughout the years of the Soviet Jewry movement, many in our community believed that we would never win, and that the Jewish community in the Soviet Union would be driven to extinction through Soviet cultural genocide. Others believed that if we did win, most of the Soviet Jews should make aliyah to Israel. Today, however, the 1 million Jews who live in the former Soviet Union compose the third largest Jewish community in the world.
In the decade and a half since the fall of the Soviet Union, dedicated grassroots Jewish leaders in Russia have produced a miraculous regeneration of the community. In the early days of perestroika, Jewish communal life began to emerge from the shadows. Today both Chabad and the Reform movement are active across the 11 time zones of the region, and hundreds of independent day schools, youth centers and Jewish Community Centers operate in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as the provinces.
Rebuilding Jewish communal life in Russia is an ongoing process, and the conditions under which it is taking place are often dangerous. While state-sponsored anti-Semitism is no longer a problem, there is a rising level of xenophobia and fascism in Russia. Anti-Semitism and hatred toward people of Caucasian appearance are the most virulent expressions of the fascists’ war against all minorities, and their actions are becoming increasingly brazen.
To protect the Jews, it is essential to combat ethnic and religious hatred in all its forms. Russia’s Jews cannot be safe unless all minorities in Russia are safe, unless the society they live in is governed by tolerance and the rule of law.
In the years since our founding, the Bay Area Council has taken on a new name — the Climate of Trust Council — but we continue to carry on the commitment that drove the Soviet Jewry movement and our Bay Area founders. Our work promotes tolerance and civil society in Russia, so that Jews and other minorities do not have to live in fear.
Pnina Levermore is the executive director of the Climate of Trust Council, formerly the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California