When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone; The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman (review)

This is a very interesting, well-written and often moving book. It provides valuable information about the actions and views of many of the better known refuseniks in the Soviet Union and of some of the key grass roots Soviet Jewry movement activists in the United States. The best sections deal with the Jewish activists in the Soviet Union. Beckerman traces the histories of individuals and groups who, while living in an oppressive and harsh dictatorship, struggled admirably to remember the Holocaust, to discover, preserve and expand their Jewish identity and to emigrate.

Beckerman's treatment of the Soviet Jewry movement in the U.S. is more problematic. His focus is on the grass roots movement. His hero is Lou Rosenblum, an American Jewish scientist living in Cleveland. Rosenblum's shame at the failure of American Jews to save European Jewry during the Holocaust led to his desire to save the Jews of the Soviet Union. Beckerman also gives credit to the important role of Jacob Birnbaum and others in the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ). Beckerman provides little information, however, about the Union of Councils and several of its leaders, including Pamela Cohen and Lynn Singer. He also is silent about the role of the paid professionals who turned the Union of Councils into an effective lobbying agency.

The Soviet Jewry movement in the U.S. involved hundreds of thousands of American Jews. Yet Beckerman, while noting the presence of establishment organizations and the Israeli Liaison Bureau, gives almost all the credit for success to the grass roots activists. Take, for example, his conclusion that ". . . what distinguished these ["grass roots"] activists from the salaried men and women working at the offices of Jewish organizations in NYC was the sense of personal connection—they imagined themselves working for the refuseniks" (354). In other words, he is arguing that late American Jewish Committee staffer Simon Segal, who worked for years on the issue of Soviet Jewry long before the grass roots activists awoke, was less concerned or connected to Soviet Jews than Rosenblum or Birnbaum. When there is someone in the establishment Beckerman likes, then he fudges the distinction. For example, Beckerman sees Malcolm Hoenlein as a grass roots activist through the SSSJ. But Hoenlein achieved prominence in the struggle as the executive director of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. While the conference included several grass roots organizations, it was set up and funded by the UJA Federation of New York. Most of its lay leaders were from the establishment.

Beckerman's denigration of the establishment may be seen in the credit he gives Natan Sharansky for the success of the December 1987 D.C. demonstration against Gorbachev that attraced a reported 250,000 people. He fails to mention that two years before the event, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council established a committee of staff and lay persons to organize a Campaign for Summit II in D.C. Though the summit was postponed, a reorganized committee involved dozens of American Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), B'nai B'rith and Union of Councils. While short visits by Sharansky, beginning in May of 1986, may have inspired many to attend, the various planning committees, in place for two or more years, also deserve credit.

Most of the book is based on interviews with the refuseniks and activists. Beckerman too often sees events only from their perspective. He cites too few sources to support most of his assertions and conclusions about the position and role of the various actors in the United States. For example, he talks about post-war American Jews feeling shame at not being able to prevent the Holocaust and not being able to stand up for their own interests. However, prior to Arthur Morse's 1968 While...