The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics: Israel versus the American Jewish Establishment (review)

One of the greatest exoduses in Jewish history occurred in the latter half of the twentieth century when over one million Soviet Jews emigrated from their homeland to the United States, other western countries, and Israel. Fred Lazin's carefully documented examination of the response of American Jews to the Soviet Jewry crisis of the late 1960s through 1989 explains how the American Jewish community came of age during this struggle. The maturation of the community is demonstrated by his comparison of the political behavior and influence of Jews throughout this several decades-long crisis to its response to the persecution of European Jews during World War II. Meticulously documented through access to the extensive archives of the Jewish Agency and through interviews with many of the key players, his case study provides new insights into the growth and political maturity of the American Jewish community.

In Part One, Lazin describes the key role played by the Israeli government in the 1960s and '70s, in particular, in educating American Jews and American society at large about the plight of Soviet Jewry. Only in the past five or six years did people not intimately involved in the Soviet Jewry issue learn of the role of the Israeli government, and particularly of the Liaison Bureau, in initiating and directing the Soviet Jewry advocacy movement in its early years. Lazin's work documents in depth the work of the Liaison Bureau. For example, he notes that, from its organizing role in the 1971 Brussels Conference, the Liaison Bureau acquired formal contacts and influence with activists in every country. The Bureau's early influence came partly from its success in convincing the activists that it had better information on the Jews' condition in the U.S.S.R. From his thorough description of meetings, policy statements, and organizational actions, the pivotal role of the Israeli government in shaping the movement's early years in the U.S. is fully revealed

In Part Two, Lazin details how the early influence of the Israeli government gave way before an increasingly independent position taken by American Jewish leaders and organizations. Lazin analyzes the "dropout" phenomenon, the situation, whereby at one point in time, most of the Soviet Jewish émigrés chose to resettle in the United States or other western European countries rather than in Israel. The main point of contention with Israel was American Jewish leaders' adoption of "freedom of choice" for the destination of the Soviet émigrés. Lazin notes that "underpinning freedom of choice was the collective memory of the American Jewish experience during and after the Holocaust" (95). The American Jewish establishment, led by the Council of Jewish Federations and supported by the leadership of the local federations, resisted Israeli pressure and rejected an Israeli proposal to stop aiding Jewish émigrés who resettled in the United States. This American position stemmed from the "memories of political inaction and impotence in the face of closed American gates during the Holocaust together with a commitment to freedom of choice, the Jewish tradition of rescuing prisoners, organizational interests, and a desire by some to rejuvenate the American Jewish community" (129). This divergence in goals and policy from the Israeli government marks, so Lazin argues, the maturing of the American Jewish community.

The final section of the book examines American Jewish advocacy during the Gorbachev era. Here Lazin analyzes how the American Jewish community's political maturity resulted in more effective political behavior in comparison with the communal response to the 1930s crisis. Unlike the 1930s, Jewish communal leaders in the later period had access to government officials. At the same time, when the American government sought to limit the number of Soviet Jewish émigrés to the United States, the leadership of the Jewish community supported this position, advocating direct flights from Eastern Europe to Israel. This policy change, for all practical purposes the abandonment of the...