Until 1989 most Soviet Jews wanting to immigrate to the United States left on visas for Israel via Vienna. In Vienna, with the assistance of American aid organizations, thousands of Soviet Jews transferred to Rome and applied for refugee entry into the United States. The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics examines the conflict between the Israeli government and the organized American Jewish community over the final destination of Soviet Jewish Zmigrés between 1967 and 1989. A generation after the Holocaust, a battle surrounded the thousands of Soviet Jewish Zmigrés fleeing persecution by choosing to resettle in the United States instead of Israel. Exploring the changing ethnic identity and politics of the United States, Fred A. Lazin engages history, ethical dilemma, and diplomacy to uncover the events surrounding this conflict. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of public policy, immigration studies, and Jewish history.
Fred A. Lazin is the Lynn and Lloyd Hurst Family Professor of Local Government at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Putting the Soviet Jewry Issue on the Public Agenda in the United States: From Indifference to the Jackson-Vanik Amendment Chapter 3 Freedom of Choice and the Committee of Eight: Israel Versus the American Jewish Establishment Chapter 4 Round Two of the Freedom of Choice Debate: The Israelis Fail Again Chapter 5 The 1980s: The Soviet Jewry Advocacy Movement is Kept Alive Chapter 6 The Reagan Gorbachev Summits: Moving Toward a Resolution of the Soviet Jewry Issue Chapter 7 The Conflict over Turf in the American Soviet Jewry Advocacy Movement: The Dominance of the CJF Chapter 8 The Final Struggle over Soviet Jewish Emigration: A Quota that Ended the Freedom of Choice Debate Chapter 9 American Jews, Soviet Jewry Advocacy, Israel and American Politics: American Jewish Leaders Redefine Their Political Interests
What People are Saying About This
Joel D. Aberbach
This important study focuses on the American Jewish community and the ways it tried to influence U.S. policy on Soviet Jewry, often in conflict with the views of the government of Israel. It makes a significant contribution to understanding the influence of organized groups generally, and provides particularly fascinating material for those interested in the complexities of Jewish politics and communal life in the United States.
Ira Katznelson
This thoughtful, deeply-researched book about the politics that affected the destination of Soviet Jewish émigrés powerfully illuminates key issues characterizing the relationship between governments, organizations, and communities in Israel and the United States. Written by an accomplished scholar at home in both countries, it makes important contributions to our understanding, among other subjects, of immigration, ethnicity, advocacy groups, ideological conflict, and political entrepreneurship.
Princeton N. Lyman
Fred Lazin's book covers one of the great humanitarian campaigns of our time. But even beyond the struggle over the fate of Soviet Jewry, it provides wonderful insight into the ways in which humanitarian impulse, public policy, and civic society come together in America. Lazin has provided a valuable account of how the system can work when there is sufficient good will and dedication to do the right thing.
Henry Feingold
Future researchers of the Soviet Jewry movement in America are given much to build on in this exquisitely researched study that touches all bases of this complex subject. Researchers in this area cannot afford to ignore this work.
Kenneth D. Wald
In this important new study, Fred Lazin lays bare the tensions and contradictions embodied in the 'We Are One' slogan deployed by American Jews to signal solidarity with Israel. Rather than bow to Israel's strong desire to channel all Soviet Jewish refugees its way, American Jewish leaders initially demanded that immigrants select their own destination. When it eventually became clear that the costs of settling so many refugees in the United States would overwhelm local federations, only then did the US Jewish leadership accept a cap on Soviet Jewish immigrants. As Lazin shows, this decisive event marked a kind of declaration of independence of American Jewry, an assertion that its interests, rather than Israel's, would automatically govern community priorities.
