Union of Councils for Soviet Jews Records

The American Soviet Jewry Movement was initiated in the early 1960s, when the first public protests were made by American Jews against the suppression of Jewish religion and Jewish national culture in the Soviet Union. Though random and spontaneous, those actions started to attract attention of the mainstream Jewish community and led to creation of the first organizations devoted specifically to the support of the Soviet Jews, namely the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry (AJCSJ) and Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) in 1964. The former, due to the conflicts in tactics and strategy, proved to be dysfunctional and failed to effectively pursue the goals set at its creation. It placed emphasis on the work using the official channels, but lost dynamism and was considered by many as rather a think tank than a defense organization. It was replaced by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in 1971. The latter organization, SSSJ, limited itself to work mostly within the college students' ranks and among youth volunteers. A need was thus felt for a more broadly determined and more community-oriented organization.

The widely publicized Leningrad Trial incident, in which 34 men and women were accused of hijacking a plane at the Leningrad airport in order to emigrate, prompted many American Jews to protest against the injustice of the Soviet regime, and multiplied grass roots organizations.

A broad-based grassroots network was created in 1970 by, most notably, Louis Rosenblum of the Cleveland Council on Soviet Antisemitism, Si Frumkin of the Union of Council for Soviet Jews, Zev Yaroslavsky of the California Students for Soviet Jews, and Harold Light of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews.

Originally founded as a confederation of six grass-roots organizations, Union of Council for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) eschewed the inefficiencies that afflicted the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry by establishing its own strategy. UCSJ initiated wide scale person-to-person contact with Soviet Jews via mail and phone, as well as effectively engaging volunteer American travelers to the Soviet Union. UCSJ representatives were tasked with locating and making contact with Refuseniks in order to research and coordinate relief for their cases. UCSJ shared its know-how and extensive information database with a wider American Jewish community. Eventually, UCSJ's methods were adopted by organizations like the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.

Among the widely successful programs developed by UCSJ were "Adopt-a-Family" (matching American and Soviet Jewish Refusenik families), "Adopt-a-Prisoner" (sending packages and monitoring the conditions of imprisonment for the Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience), Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning (matching Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in America with those in the USSR in order to perform in absentia ceremonies for the children in the USSR, who were barred from the Jewish coming of age rituals by the Soviet law), and Tarbut (sending literature on Jewish culture and religion to the USSR). UCSJ regularly published newsletters and reports including Alert (1974-1989) and Quarterly Report (1982-1990), and later Refusenik Update, Congressional Handbook for Soviet Jewry, and Antisemitism in the USSR-Status Report.

The Union of Councils became a pivotal communications hub for the Soviet Jewry movement, maintaining extensive contacts, chiefly by telephone, and tracking the status of Soviet Refuseniks and Prisoners of Conscience. UCSJ was regularly the first among the Soviet Jewry Movement organizations to receive important news from Soviet Jewish activists, relaying crucial updates on Soviet Jewry to the media and United States elected officials. From 1971 to 1991 a Soviet Jewry Congressional Vigil headed by House Representatives Tom Lantos (Calif.-D) and John Porter (Ill.-R) was held largely due to the efforts of UCSJ. UCSJ received broad recognition for its successful advocacy of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment of 1973. In 1976 President Jimmy Carter pledged via telegram to UCSJ to support the "full religious and cultural opportunities for Soviet Jews," as well as their right to emigrate. He declared that "he would not hesitate to use trade to effectuate that purpose." ¹ UCSJ was instrumental in initializing national and international campaigns of support for the Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience including Anatoly Sharansky, Vladimir Slepak, Ida Nudel, and Vladimir Begun, making them household names in the American Jewish communities as well as to many non-Jewish Americans, and providing material and moral support for their families and relatives. In 1987 the UCSJ national president Pamela B. Cohen of Chicago made an unannounced visit to the Soviet Union where she met with hundreds of Refuseniks.

In discord with the views of several other major American Soviet Jewry Movement organizations and the Israeli government, which advocated for the emigration of Soviet Jewry from the USSR in order to re-settle them exclusively in Israel, UCSJ defended the right of Soviet Jews to choose their place for immigration, not limiting their destinations to Israel alone. This position was particularly disagreeable with the Soviet authorities, who treated Jewish emigration as repatriation (nominally provided for by the Soviet law) rather than a human rights issue.

In discord with the views of several other major American Soviet Jewry Movement organizations and the Israeli government, which advocated for the emigration of Soviet Jewry from the USSR in order to re-settle them exclusively in Israel, UCSJ defended the right of Soviet Jews to choose their place for immigration, not limiting their destinations to Israel alone. This position was particularly disagreeable with the Soviet authorities, who treated Jewish emigration as repatriation (nominally provided for by the Soviet law) rather than a human rights issue.

Two affiliated organizations, the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center (SJLAC) and the Medical Mobilization for Soviet Jewry provided efficient analytical, logistical and technical support for the activities of the UCSJ.

UCSJ remained active after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the beginning of mass Jewish emigration to Israel, the United States, and other Western countries. UCSJ local representation committees were established in most of the states of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). Currently, UCSJ monitors anti-Semitic activities in the Former Soviet Union. The organization is now officially called Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. ²