Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Soviet conduct toward Jewish culture generally stands in clear violation of international treaties to which the USSR is a contracting party. The UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education (ratified by the Soviet Union in August, 1962) specifies in Article V, paragraph 1(c) "the right of members of national minorities to carry on their own educational activities, including the maintenance of schools...[and the] use of the teaching of their own language." With respect to both Hebrew and Yiddish culture and schools, Moscow blatantly breaches the UNESCO Convention. Similarly, it abridges the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by denying Jews the right "to enjoy their own culture, to profess their own religion or to use their own language.' Finally, the USSR stands in clear violation of the Helsinki Final Act which, in Principle VII, requires signatories to fulfill "obligations as set forth in international declarations and agreements...including inter alia the international Covenants of Human Rights by which they may be bound."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

For Soviet Jews it is more than the abridgement of both international law and international treaties which is at stake. Deprived of Jewish cultural facilities, restricted in effective and free access to Judaism and Jewish tradition, and confronted by deepening anti-Semitism, they today are almost totally prevented from emigrating and being reunited with their families and kin in Israel. In the words of some 130 leading Soviet Jewish activists, in a desperate plea sent to the Soviet Party Congress in February, 1981, they "face the threat of a national catastrophe." A more desperate cry has not been heard in recent Jewish history,

Mr. BONKER. Our final witness is Aleksandr Goldfarb. Reference was made to him earlier. He is a refusenik. I trust he will provide the subcommittee with his personal experience as a victim of religious persecution in the Soviet Union.

Mr. Goldfarb, it is a privilege to have you before the subcommittee.

STATEMENT OF ALEKSANDR GOLDFARB, REFUSENIK

Mr. GOLDFARB. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for letting me speak here. I am also grateful to the National Conference who brought me here.

I am Aleksandr Goldfarb. I am 35 years old. I was born and lived in Moscow until the age of 28.

In 1975, I immigrated to Israel after a 2-year long fight for an exit visa.

I have a father who is 64 years old. He is a retired professor of genetics in Moscow. For the past 3 years he has unsuccessfully tried to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. My father is a sick man. During World War II, which in the U.S.S.R. is called the Great Patriotic War, he was severely wounded in Stalingrad and had his leg amputated. He has diabetes and a blood circulation problem with his second leg.

There is a danger that it will also be amputated. He cannot obtain proper medical care in Moscow and completely depends on insulin that I manage to get in from abroad. He cannot get adequate medical care in Moscow.

In short, my father is in big trouble.

My grandfather was an old Bolshevik and active participant in the October Revolution. In 1952 he was arrested on false accusation of being an "underground Zionist," which he was not, and only Stalin's death saved him from being shot. I think the history of the three generations of our family represents what has been happening to the Jews in the Soviet Union during the years of Soviet power and what is happening now.

During all these years, especially the last 30-35 years, we witnessed and lived through an ever-increasing wave of anti-Semitism. I think the reason for this wave is the general upsurge of nationalism in the Soviet Union.

The fact is that now no one takes Communist internationalist slogans in the U.S.S.R. seriously, but everyone thinks seriously about his ethnic origin.

The Soviet Government uses this new nationalism of the Russian people and other people to create a fear and hatred of everything foreign and, as an international enemy No. 1, this propaganda uses the "international Zionist conspiracy.'

It is not simply condemning the Jews on the international scene, but in everyday life it turns actions against each and every individual Jew in particular.

There is no escape from it. Being Jewish in the Soviet Union is not just belonging to a certain club or religious community. You are branded with this label officially, and it appears on your internal identity card.

It appears in every questionnaire that you have to fill out from the moment you go to the kindergarten. It is featured in every question of employment, of admission to higher education institutions, and actually it is a racial issue.

You can get baptized and become a priest, but from the official point of view you will still be considered Jewish.

For the men on the street, the Jew is a representative of an international evil, part of a worldwide plot which is to be blamed for attempting to bring economic disaster to the Soviet Union and which finally results, for the men in the street, in the lack of consumer goods and bread in the shops.

For the authorities, we are the fifth column of the free world. Particularly since Israel is a free country we are representatives of the free world or, as they say, international imperialism in the Soviet Union.

Let me now say, Mr. Chairman, that this new upsurge in national feeling affects not only the Jews, but the Jews found there is no way to practice Jewishness in any positive sense in the Soviet Union because the lack of opportunity to study Hebrew has been well documented here.

I, myself, started to study Hebrew in an underground group in Moscow and we had to gather at a new place in strict secrecy. Our teacher was himself self-taught. The Hebrew teacher had been denied permission to register as a Hebrew teacher.

As a result, he couldn't have a legal income and was threatened with arrest for parisitism because Hebrew teaching is not a recognized profession in the Soviet Union.

There are no religious books published and no way to find them. If you manage to get a book in Hebrew or any artifact about Judaism or Jewish culture from abroad, it can get you in trouble.

Teaching your kids religion is a crime. No one who believes in God can get higher education in the Soviet Union because official programs of every college and university include scientific atheism as an obligatory course.

People with genuine religious beliefs just cannot get education, though it is guaranteed by the Soviet Constitution.

The history of Jews is not taught at all in the U.S.S.R., even as part of a general course of history in public schools.

I can tell you that not a single word about Jewish history in the ancient time is present in high school textbooks. I can continue this list of problems with which Jews are confronted in the Soviet Union endlessly, but I think I better leave more time for questions. I just want to say Soviet Jews are in a kind of trap, a kind of "Catch 22" situation. They are labeled as something bad for themselves and for the surrounding population. They are not allowed to escape and assimilate because they are branded in their papers. They are not allowed to practice their Judaism in any positive way legally, and I think that, given the economic situation in the Soviet Union, I can compare the situation of Russian Jews to the situation of Jews in Germany at the end of the Great Depression, just before Hitler came to power.

I would like to finish by saying that in my opinion the two and some million Soviet Jews are in grave danger.

[Mr. Goldfarb's prepared statement follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ALEKSANDR Goldfarb, RefuseniK

My name is Alex Goldfarb. I am 35 years old. I was born and lived in Moscow until the age of 28. In 1975 I immigrated to Israel after a two year long fight for an

exit visa.

I have a father who is 64 years old. He is a retired professor of genetics, in Moscow. For the past three years he has unsuccessfully tried to leave Russia for Israel. My father is a sick man. During World War II (which in Russia is called the Great Patriotic War) he was severely wounded in Stalingrad and had his leg amputated. He has diabetes and a blood circulation problem with his second leg. There is a danger that it can also be amputated. He cannot obtain proper medical care in Moscow and completely depends on insulin that that I manage to get in from abroad. In short, my father is in a big trouble.

My grandfather was an old Bolshevik and active participant in the October Revolution. In 1952 he was arrested on false accusation of being an underground Zionist" (which he was not) and only Stalin's death saved him from being shot. At the age of 72 he was attacked by a hooligan on a Moscow street who shouted at him: "dirty Jew, go to Israel."

In my view, the three generations of our family reflect well what has been happening to the Jews in Soviet Union and what is happening now. During the past 3035 years we witnessed and lived through an ever-increasing wave of anti-Semitism both as a popular feeling and a government policy. The reason for that, in my opinion, is the general upsurge of nationalistic feelings in Russia after World War II. No one there takes internationalist communist slogans seriously any more. Everyone feels strongly about his ethnic origin. The soviet government uses this new nationalism to cultivate fear and hatred everything foreign. As foreign enemy number 1 the Soviet internal propaganda uses "the International Zionist Conspiracy" which in everyday life turns out as actions against Jews. For a man in the street the Jew, therefore, is a part of international plot to bring economic disaster to Russia and ultimately the lack of food and consumer goods. For the government, we are the fifth column, representing the free world in the Soviet Union. As the result it is not only impossible for someone to live as a Jew in Russia but it is becoming more and more difficult for the Jews to survive at all.

The same process that led to the rise of anti-Jewish feelings also caused the rise of new self-consciousness among Jews. Just like others, Russians and Ukraines turned to their national identities in the past years, Jews began to search for their roots and heritage. It turned out, however, that there is no way to practice any kind of Jewishness in Russia without colliding with the government. The traditional way of life has almost disappeared due to the joint effort of Nazi occupation and communist rule in the former Jewish areas. ... There is no way to study language. A few underground Hebrew courses are subject to severe persecution. I have studied in such a course in Moscow, and every time our group had to gather at a different place in strict secrecy. Our teacher, whose own Hebrew was self-taught, was not allowed to register as a Hebrew teacher because such occupation cannot be a source of

legal income in Russia. As the result he was constantly threatened with arrest as a parasite. The religion is generally taboo in Russia. No religious books are published. Those smuggled from abroad are confiscated. Teaching your children religion is a crime. No one who believes in God can get a higher education (although it is guaranteed by Constitution). The reason is simple: a course in Scientific Atheism and an exam is obligatory in every Soviet University and College. Jewish religion is particularly ridiculed in massive propaganda campaigns and booklets. It is branded as anti-human and racist. On Jewish holidays in Moscow, the police close the traffic on nearby main streets and direct it through the quiet by-street where the only Moscow synagogue is situated. No one is allowed to stop in front of the synagogue and the whole place is cordoned by police and plainclothesmen. I remember one of these policemen openly telling me that he is sorry that Hitler did not kill us all. Any Jewish artifact, be it a Star of David, a mezuzah or a book in Hebrew is immediately considered a symbol of Israel and Zionism and can get you in trouble. I can continue with examples of that kind endlessly but I think that my time is over. Let me just say that in my opinion, due to objective historic processes and to the policy of the Soviet Government, the Jews in Russia are people who may not express their ethnic and religious feeling in a strongly nationalistic country. I feel that the best solution to this problem for every party involved is to have all Jews leave Russia as soon as possible. Given the current atmosphere there and the danger of economic catastrophe, the 2.5 million Jews there are in grave danger.

Mr. BONKER. Thank you so much for being here and providing the subcommittee with your personal experience and your views on what is occurring today in the Soviet Union.

You left the Soviet Union when?

Mr. GOLDFARB. 1975, sir.

Mr. BONKER. When you were about 28 or so?

Mr. GOLDFARB. Yes.

Mr. BONKER. Did you speak English in the Soviet Union?
Mr. GOLDFARB. Yes.

Mr. BONKER. You speak English very well. You express yourself well. Obviously you are a person of strong faith. Yet there is this institutionalized persecution in the Soviet Union. The authorities are doing everything possible to deny you the practice of your faith and to limit your educational opportunities. How is it that a few of you can manage to get through all these things, get an education and maintain your faith?

Mr. GOLDFARB. I must correct this. There should be no false impression.

I am not a religious Jew. I am not an observer of every rite. This is the way I was able to get education and to somehow advance in the Soviet Union. There would have been no way for me to get this if I strictly observed the law.

I must say my personal experience, since by birth I belonged to an educated part of Russian Jewish society, was not only of trying to get around the restrictions in education and employment, but also of suppressing my personal feelings as the price of getting the education in the Soviet Union.

I think that was the major reason why I chose to leave.

There are Jews who are integrated into Soviet society. I am sure in your capacity as chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights you must have heard of those Soviet Jews-we call them tame Jews-who deny any religious persecution in the Soviet Union.

You can make this and you will be getting all kinds of good things that one can get in the Soviet Union. But for this or for that matter, for advancing in every profession or every career, you have

to pay the price of totally alienating yourself from your people, from your heritage, from your culture, and you have to do this in the atmosphere where everyone else is not only allowed to do so, but is actively encouraged to do so by the Government.

As long as there are no separatist intentions, the government encourages culture of nationalities in the Soviet Union, be they Georgians, Ukrainians, and so on. Only, with few exceptions, like Crimeans and Tartars, probably.

With regard to Jews, it is an absolute ban. You just have to choose in the beginning. Either you completely alienate yourself from your people and then you have a chance of making it in spite of and through the restrictions, or you are banned for good.

Mr. BONKER. Dr. Korey, you made reference to the fact that there is no structural basis for Jewish people to practice their faith. You compared that to the Christians who have an institutionalized church.

The witnesses that appeared the other day said that the church is a state institution and a complete anathema to their sense of religious practice.

In other words, they know that the structure and the institution is there, but it is all state controlled and they have to practice underground as you do. They do not suffer the same degree of persecution, but nonetheless they cannot practice their faith openly. This was according to the testimony that was provided to the subcommittee.

I think the Soviet authorities have concluded that if people want to be religious, they will have to be religious on their terms. That is, through their institutions, through their instructors and so forth.

In fact, I remember in Geneva at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights when we were taking up the resolution on freedom of religion, the Soviets insisted-they didn't succeed, but they insisted we include a clause that religious faith be taught not by parents, but by the state.

One point you made, Mr. Goldfarb, was that teaching your children religion is a crime. Is that a specific crime? If so, I wonder how you control something like that? How would anymore know— teaching your children is something that is very private and is done in the home.

Mr. GOLDFARB. There is a clause in the criminal code in the U.S.S.R. which prohibits preaching outside the church. Courts consider teaching your children religion-any religion for that matter-as a criminal offense.

It can be punished by forceful removal of your child and placing it in the custody of the state.

Mr. KOREY. Čould I elaborate on just one question or one point that you made, Mr. Chairman? I think it is of some critical importance.

When you made the observations, pertinent observations that you did about Christianity and the burdens that are borne by those who refuse to go along with the officially recognized church, you have a specific problem affecting Jews in the Soviet Union that results from the character of the state's attack upon Judaism.

12-286 O 83 - 36

« ÎnapoiContinuă »