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Elul 5771
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
Page - 25
The Real Saviors of Soviet Jewry: It Was Not Mikhail Gorbachev Who Deserves the Credit
By Giulio Meotti ast month marked the 20th anniversary of the failed coup against the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, an action which precipitated the dissolution of the USSR in December of the same year. The Soviet implosion opened the door to a massive aliyah of Russian Jews to Israel. On the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the largest, most rooted, and most culturally vital Jewish community in the world was that of Russia. Seventy years later, with the demise of Communism, the Jewish community of Russia was shrunken and assimilating. Immediately upon his resignation, Mr. Gorbachev was proclaimed a hero by the “establishment” leadership of the Soviet Jewry movement. Some US rabbis declared that Gorbachev was “the man who let my people go.” It’s a false, perverted image of the Soviet tragedy.
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Connections continued from page 24 fore she met and married her husband prompted her to volunteer to work with Mrs. Shteingart. “Coming from a family of ba’alei teshuva, I relied heavily on being set up by friends and family members. I found it even harder because I just didn’t have the kind of connections other people had. There were times when I could go half a year without a suitable suggestion. Frum singles websites were just starting, and, in those days, there weren’t many quality singles’ events to go to,” she said. Many Reasons Asked why it has become so difficult for singles to meet, she said the reasons were “too numerous to count.” Experts in the field have pointed to explanations ranging from busy work and school schedules to “pickiness” based on unrealistic expectations fueled by the media. Mrs. Shteingart knows all this and is not expecting her work with Bergen Connections to be easy, but she said she expects it to be rewarding. S.L.R.
Inappropriate Credit During the first years of Mr. Gorbachev’s rule, the number of Jews exiting plummeted and key refuseniks, such as Ida Nudel and Vladimir Slepak, continued to have their exit visas denied. Others, like Yosef Begun, remained in the Gulag. Mr. Gorbachev did not speak out against growing antisemitism in the Soviet Union. It is completely inaccurate to credit Mr. Gorbachev with the Jewish mass emigration. The credit belongs to those who forced Mr. Gorbachev’s hand. Mr. Gorbachev did not of his own volition pull the
lever to open the doors. It was others who forced his hand, leaving him little choice but to allow it to happen. Those others are the saviors of Soviet Jewry. Prisoners When the USSR crumbled economically, to obtain the assistance he desperately needed, Mr. Gorbachev allowed emigration. Prisoners of Zion, refuseniks and dissidents—men and women who spent years languishing in Soviet prisons and labor camps—they, too, forced Mr. Gorbachev’s antisemitic hand.
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