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taxing our resources, calling for the
training of more Rabbis and teach
ers, and calling for adjustments in
the age-old pattern of synagogue
life and the relationship of Rabbi
and people, it brought the synagogue
into new and sharp focus as the
center of Jewish life in the Amer
ican community. It has come to be
the representative agency of the
Jewish community. It has centered
Jewish life in the positive and truly
relevant interests of Judaism as a
way of life. Without ignoring the
needs of defense of the position of
the Jew or the importance of phil
anthropy, it has directed the Jew
in
by CHARLOTTE LUB1N
Crowds jammed the steps of the
Synagogue of Moscow and blocked
off half the street on the first Sat
urday morning of the Moscow
Youth Festival last summer.
"This is the first time in 20 years
that many of us have come to syn
agogue,” the man next to me said,
“We just came to see the Israelis”.
“And the Americans,” a woman
added. Within seconds after my ar
rival, I was surrounded by a group
of people, mostly middle-aged men
and women, who eagerly asked
about life in the United States- A
girl in her middle twenties threw
her arms around me. “All my life
I’ve wanted to meet an American,”
she said. Several old men spoke to
me in Yiddish, delighted when I
was able to stumble through an an
swer. “Is it good for the Jews in
America?” I was repeatedly asked.
Inside the synagogue, the Rabbi
of Moscow was telling a group of
young Americans who had come to
the synagogue on a guided toui
with an official interpreter, how
well off Jews were in the Soviet
Union. Outside, among the people
to whom I was speaking, grim, an
xious faces, notes slipped into my
pocket, cautious looks and mum
bled or whispered phrases told a
different story. Later, when I was
able to speak to people alone, the
story became clearer.
In Russia today, anti-Semitism
seems to take the form of discrim
ination instead of persecution.
While the death of Stalin ended
most of the terrorism, Soviet life is
still filled with anxiety for many
Jews.
Every evening the Jews of Mos
cow and elsewhere flocked to the
hotels where the American and Is
raeli delegations were staying. In
English or Hebrew, Yiddish oi
Russian, they told their tales of
suffering during the last years of
Stalin’s regime; a son who died in
Siberia, a neighbor who disappear
ed, an entire family wiped out be-
toward Judaism that teaches values
for living; toward Judaism as a
spiritual outlook, as a source of
moral purpose, as a means of dis
covering the true worthwhileness
of living. I believe it but fair and
reasonable to say that while the
suburban synagogue has changed
the trend of Jewish life toward this
direction and has fixed our eyes
on this more natural and essen
tial goal of our Jewishness, it has
yet to fulfill the promise of ach
ieving a more effective, a richer
and surer means of making Jud
aism a living experience for the
mass of Jewry in our time.
Girl
In Moscow
cause the suspicion of “cosmopoli
tanism” had fallen on one of its
members.
“Everybody suffered under Sta
lin,” a middle-aged schoolteacher
said. "But for the Jews it was a
special kind of horror- We were
singled out as a group particularly
deserving of suspicion and hostility.
We looked upon every non-Jew as
a potential member of the secret
police, and we knew that even
fellow Jews—close friends -could
be compelled to serve the MVD.”
Many of the older Jews cannot
believe that the rule of terror has
ended. The habits of caution, the
suspicion and the anxiety persist.
“How can we be sure that govern
ment policy won’t suddenly change
and the persecution start again?”
I was asked.
Signs of fear were evident even
among the younger Jews. A young
chemist’s hand tightened on my
arm when he saw what he believed
to be a “watchman”’ or secret
policeman in the crowd; a lawyer
refused to meet me in a public
restaurant but agreed to talk to me
in a deserted corner of Gorki Park;
a girl who had been my companion
all evening suddenly behaved as
though she did not know me when
we were approached by two young
Russian men.
While fears of the police state
exist among many Jews, the more
prevalent concern — especially
among the younger people, the stu
dents and intellectuals—is with
more subtle patterns of prejudice.
Most Jews I spoke to agreed that
anti-Semitism today is manifested
in some forms of discrimination in
employment and in education, and
in denial of access to the power
structure in the Soviet Union. Jews
believe generally that it is difficult
for them to become university pro
fessors, particularly in the humani
ties. During the last years of Sta
lin’s rule, many Jewish university
professors were dismissed from
their positions. “Most of them have
not gotten their old jobs back,” I
was told by a man, himself a vie-
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