August 30, 2022

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader whose reforms, including allowing massive numbers of Jews to emigrate to Israel, changed his country and the world, died at 91.

Russian media said Gorbachev died Tuesday in a Moscow hospital.

“Michail Gorbachev has died,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Moscow’s chief rabbi from 1993 until this year, said Tuesday on Twitter. “3 million Soviet Jews owe him their freedom.”

It was clear when Gorbachev rose to power in 1985 that he would be different from his predecessors as secretary general of the Communist Party. He was younger, more vibrant, more open to acknowledging where communism had fallen short in the Soviet Union.

But his rise was at first was inauspicious for the movement that had sought for decades to allow Jews to freely emigrate, against the Soviet regime that prevented them from leaving and often punished them for seeking exit at all.

The number of Jews allowed to emigrate in 1985 was already low, 1,140, and slipped further to 914 in 1986. The sense among Soviet Jewry activists was that the new and relatively young leader was even more regressive than his predecessors.

His Western outlook seemed cosmetic. Visiting Britain in 1984 as a senior member of the Politburo, a year before his rise to leader, he shopped and joked — and snapped at a lawmaker who asked him about religious restrictions, “You govern your society, you leave us to govern ours.”

But then in 1987, the numbers of Jews emigrating began rising precipitously, reaching 185,000 in 1990, spurred in part by bold advocacy by American Jews that made releasing their Soviet brethren a politically wise maneuver for Gorbachev. At the same time, Gorbachev oversaw an end to restrictions on religious worship and most dramatically, opened the gates for the most famous of refuseniks and so-called “prisoners of Zion,” or those who had been imprisoned for their Zionist activity, including Natan Sharansky, Ida Nudel and Yosef Begun.

In a statement an aide delivered in 1991 at Babyn Yar, the killing field in Ukraine where Nazis launched the final solution seeking the annihilation of Jews, Gorbachev condemned all forms of antisemitism.

Gorbachev’s reforms affecting Jews were part of a much broader revolution he led to end the Cold War, the decades-long Soviet-U.S. standoff that many in the west feared would heat up into a nuclear conflict.

He and U.S. President Ronald Reagan joined in successful disarmament talks, and Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika (reconstruction) and glasnost (openness) introduced unprecedented freedoms of expression and organization to the Soviet Union. He decentralized the confederation, handing more power to the republics in a move that would eventually lead to their independence.

Gorbachev resigned after a failed coup in December 1991 that sought his ouster. He had bested the plotters but the economic uncertainty and the devolution of power created a sense of chaos and left him open to criticism that he was no longer the right man to lead Russia in an age of monumental transformation. He slipped into the obscurity of private life, much of which he spent with his beloved wife Raisa until her death in 1999.

Leaders of American and western Jewish organizations surprised themselves after his ouster by praising the leader of a nation they had once joined Reagan in reviling as an evil empire.

“Though Gorbachev was late in breaking out of the human rights gate, the positive changes he ultimately initiated would have been unthinkable to us in the Soviet human rights advocacy movement a decade ago,” the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, among the most strident of advocacy groups, said at the time.

A pocket of admiration endured in Israel, where Gorbachev got a hero’s welcome in 1992. He got awards, honorary degrees and, much to his bemusement, a new breed of potato named for him.

Gorbachev delivered during that visit a nuanced assessment of the antisemitism that had plagued his country. Antisemitism, they said, was “officially denied in policy but encouraged in practice.”

“In the days of Stalin, especially after World War II, antisemitism was introduced into domestic and foreign policy,” Gorbachev said. “Even after the death of Stalin, this state of affairs continued, but not in openly repressive forms.”

Speaking to a reporter after that speech, he said he also regretted the results. The exodus of what by then was at least 350,000 Jews, was, he said, a “loss for our land and society.”

Gorbachev had not publicly commented on Russia’s invasion this year of Ukraine, formerly part of the country he governed, although his foundation urged its speedy end. The invasion has cooled relations with the west that Gorbachev had warmed — and has spurred yet another wave of Russian Jewish emigration, to Israel and elsewhere.

An event marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress concluded Monday night in Basel, Switzerland with a gala ceremony that brought together more than 1,400 delegates from 40 countries.

On the one hand, the two-day conference celebrated how Theodor Herzl’s vision set forth on August 29, 1897 in Basel transformed into the thriving reality of modern Israel, participants said. On the other hand, the event distanced itself from setting any formal agenda or debating specific policies.

The event was organized by the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the same group created during the First Zionist Congress. At the first congress, 208 delegates from 17 countries voted to work together to establish “a publicly and legally assured home” for the Jewish people in Palestine.

“Herzl’s vision 125 years ago included not only the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, but also the establishment of a model Zionist, leadership society committed to creating a better world,” explained WZO Chairman Yaakov Hagoel. “Herzl’s vision spoke of the establishment of a Jewish leadership that would lead the Jews of the world to one national home, and exactly 50 years after the establishment of his dream, the State of Israel was established.”

Due to threats of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the Swiss government allocated more than 5 million Swiss francs to secure the event, and closed the Rhine River to ship traffic and the airspace above for the duration of the conference.

‘A breath of fresh air’

Delegates discussed the implementation of Herzl’s dream and their own vision for the Jewish people for the next 25 years.

The congress was divided into two parts: The Herzl Leadership Conference, focused on modern Zionism in light of Herzl’s vision, and the Impact Conference, which brought together 125 entrepreneurs and innovators to share ideas about how to ensure a Jewish future.

“This is a commemoration … not a meeting with resolutions or elections,” stressed Michael Jankelowitz, WZO’s international spokesman.

He told JNS that Hagoel’s idea was to bring together Zionists from around the world “for something festive—to celebrate, to have fun and to discuss the future.” He said the hope was that the event would give Jewish leaders “a push” to keep striving for Jewish peoplehood.

“It was a breath of fresh air to come to an international conference where there was no fighting, but people united with one goal: Jewish people, Jewish unity,” he added.

Jankelowitz said the Impact Conference was standing room only. A speech by businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams about the power of sports to unite Jewish people worldwide was chatted about in the corridors for hours after it was over.

A discussion with Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel on Israel’s impact in space was “very popular,” he added.

Building bridges between Israel and the Diaspora

Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern, head of the Jewish People Policy Institute, told JNS that “the spirit was very optimistic, despite the fact that many of us feel that Jewish identity outside of Israel is eroding.”

He cautioned that “the Congress is a symbolic gathering where people talk. But we should take the next step.”

For example, he highlighted a pressing need for the U.S. and Israeli Jewish communities—the two largest communities in the world—to work together more effectively for a common future.

“Many of us believe that the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora is about to change,” he said.

If in the past, Israel was a needy country, today it is an economic superpower, he said. If American Jews used to see Israel as core to their identity, today around 40% of young Jews in North America do not consider Israel important to who they are.

He asserted that it is Israel’s responsibility to take the first steps toward supporting the Diaspora by offering affordable Jewish education abroad.

Stern added that Israel must also play a role in ensuring Jewish life can thrive in the Diaspora, such as opposing government policies that ban fundamental Jewish needs, like ritual slaughter or circumcision.

Finally, he said it is crucial for Israel to educate the young generation of Israel about Jews in the Diaspora.

“We talk very highly about Israel as a nation-state of the Jewish people. Nationality is the main thing for identity as Israelis,” Stern said. “But we talk about Israelis alone and not about a nation. We need to teach about the Jewish nation.”

He explained that the reason the WZO is essential is because Jews in the Diaspora do not vote for the Israeli Knesset and therefore their interests are “not in the heart of Israeli politics, which is a problem.”

Stern said, “We need a new Herzl and a new Zionist Congress, not for the purpose of establishing a state or defining identity, but to breathe the spirit of solidarity and Jewish brotherhood into an era of strife.”

“We have different visions about the future and each vision has its merit,” he continued. “Disputes make us a dynamic and rich society. But we need someone, a movement, a person, that will teach us how to live together despite the disputes.”

David Yaari, chairman of the Kol Israel faction, expressed similar sentiments. He told JNS, “Just like Basel was used as a place to declare what would drive the founding of the State of Israel, we have here the opportunity to bring leaders from around the world together to imagine the next 125 years. I hope there will be concrete next steps that can reinvigorate the Zionist movement globally.”