New opportunity arises to Aid Jews in Former Soviet Union

Fifteen years after we stood together in Washington, D.C.,
to rally for Soviet Jewish emigration, we have a second opportunity to save
hundreds of thousands of Jews.

Through the National Council of Soviet Jewry’s (NCSJ)
efforts in the successor states of the former Soviet Union (FSU), we fight
anti-Semitism, work for the return of Jewish communal property and help create
an atmosphere in which Jewish life can once again flourish.

The story of post-Soviet Jewry is told through the many
people who work every day with survivors of the Shoah, with young adults who
are transforming life in Ukraine and with the children who represent the future
of the Jewish community.

Rabbi Yakov Bleich, chief rabbi of Ukraine, has lived in
Kyiv for 13 years. Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki, chief rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine,
has lived there for 10. They have built new lives and are raising their
children there.

Elsewhere, representatives of the Joint Distribution
Committee, the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government, some of whom grew up
in the FSU and made aliyah, have returned to Ukraine — frequently bringing
Israeli-born family members with them — so life will be better for Jews in the
21st century than it was in the last.

The NCSJ’s advocacy work allows these remarkable people to
build a vibrant Jewish community there — to succeed, unimpeded by obstacles. We
are proud to assume the helm of NCSJ, through which U.S. Jewry maximizes its
political and communal potential.

As the umbrella organization for advocacy on behalf of Jews
in the FSU, NCSJ is uniquely positioned to focus communities and governments on
the civil and political needs of more than 1 million Jews.

Our latest visit to the FSU, just prior to assuming
leadership of NCSJ, reaffirms the important role that U.S. Jews can and must
play. These successor states are home to the third-largest Jewish population in
the world.

This past October, we visited Ukraine. Government and
community leaders, including the president, prime minister, speaker of the
parliament and state secretary for foreign affairs, engaged us in extensive
discussions about expanding opportunities for Jewish life. It is true that
significant difficulties remain for Ukraine’s 400,000 Jews, but U.S. Jews who
sustained the struggle for Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and 1980s would be amazed
to see the Jewish revival occurring all across the FSU.

In Dnepropetrovsk, we observed a community with a major
synagogue, a day school with 750 students, Jewish outreach and educational
programs and health facilities that are a model for other communities in the
FSU. We met and were thoroughly impressed with local lay leaders, who give of
their own time and resources to build communal institutions.

We saw firsthand the work that the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee and local communities like Boston have achieved in true
partnership with the community that is generally considered the most successful
and effective example of Jewish revival and continuity in the FSU. This trip
reinforced the message that U.S. Jewish political advocacy fosters the
development and revival of Jewish communities in the FSU.

As the past year has reminded us, Jews in the FSU continue
to confront serious anti-Semitism. In Belarus, cemeteries have been desecrated,
vandalism is rampant and a new religion law criminalizes unauthorized religious
and communal activities.

In Russia, booby-trapped anti-Semitic signs called for
violence against Jews, and individual Jews were singled out for physical abuse.
In Ukraine, a mob attacked Kyiv’s historic Brodsky Synagogue. Sadly, the roots
of anti-Semitism are stronger than those of tolerance.

To their credit, political leaders in Russia, Ukraine and
several other successor states have condemned anti-Jewish violence and
propaganda and have begun implementing proactive measures to combat hatred of
Jews. While problems remain in every country, these leaders are learning
lessons from their national history and applying them to the future, for which
Americans and American Jews can rightly claim some of the credit.

The organized U.S. Jewish community persistently reaches out
to convey that anti-Semitism is incompatible with integration into the modern
world. We advocate pluralistic and democratic values. Ironically, the
repudiation of popular anti-Semitism in some of the successor states surpasses
that of some established Western European democracies.

Since October 2001, when President Bush sought U.S. Jewish
support for “graduating” Russia from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, an important
evolution in U.S.-Russian relations has been realized. No longer do Russian
leaders dismiss concerns for religious freedom as meddling in their internal
affairs.

In the November 2001 historic exchange of letters between
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, both
governments reaffirmed the importance of fighting anti-Semitism, restituting
communal property and observing international commitments regarding religious
freedom. Such developments underscore the impact U.S. Jewish advocacy continues
to have at home and in the successor states, and of the indispensable role the
United States plays in promoting freedom and democracy.

Restitution of communal property, including confiscated
synagogues and other buildings and land, is addressed in the U.S.-Russian
exchange of letters. This issue is vital to the revival of Jewish communal
life.

Service-providing organizations on the ground must spend
millions of dollars on welfare and education, leaving scant resources available
for purchasing buildings. Getting back communal buildings, stolen by the
Soviets and Nazis, could make all the difference in assuring the continuity and
intensity of Jewish life.

Elderly survivors of communism and the Shoah deserve decent
dining and medical facilities; their grandchildren deserve schools; all deserve
access to the synagogues and community centers that once proudly stood at the
heart of their cities. Time is running out as elderly Jews perish, and too many
youngsters grow up without the chance to learn about Jewish religion or
culture.

Our travels also remind us that these community leaders and
activists are equal partners with us. They still have tremendous political and
economic needs, but they have a developed sense of community agenda and
direction, of responsibility as leaders and of their connection to Klal Yisrael
(the Jewish people).

Across the successor states, U.S. communities are turning
relationships into partnerships, along the lines of NCSJ’s Kehilla Projects.
American Jews are not just supplying financial resources but helping to carve
out a safe and secure niche for communal activity.

We must continue our efforts. We invite you to join us as we
witness the rebirth of this vast Jewish community. Personally inspiring, it is
also a responsibility we owe to our brethren and to our own ancestors, so many
of whom emigrated from there.

There are tremendous needs and risks still ahead, which
demand our continued involvement. But the payoff has already proven beyond the
wildest dreams of rallies and refusenik visits that now seem so long ago. The
rules have changed, but the game is the same: securing a Jewish future.

Dr. Robert J. Meth and Joel M.
Schindler are, respectively, chairman and president of the National Council of
Soviet Jewry: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States
Eurasia (