Call to Divert Russian Jews From U.S. to Israel Draws Angry Criticism

By Richard H. Curtiss

"A firestorm of criticism erupted recently over the long-dormant but sensitive issue of American refugee status for Jews from the former Soviet Union... Refugees, under American law, need to show a well founded fear of persecution. But this standard was softened somewhat by Congress in 1989 after the Immigration and Naturalization Service rejected roughly half of the claims from Soviet Jews that year. "

—Staff writer Sam Skolnik, Washington Jewish Week, Nov. 4, 1993

Lobbyists for Israel have become accustomed to speaking with two voices, both of them equally strident, on the subject of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. One voice is reserved for use with hapless State Department officials responsible for administering America's refugee immigration program. The other is used for public statements welcoming Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union to the United States.

The issue dates back to the Jackson Vanik amendment which refroze the first Cold War thaw by conditioning any U.S. reciprocity to Soviet overtures for better economic relations to a loosening of Soviet emigration restrictions. Who doesn't remember the "Free Soviet Jewry" placards on virtually every Jewish institution in the United States during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s?

The eventual Soviet response was to make it possible for some Jews to emigrate to Israel, but nowhere else. When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, Jews throughout its former territories suddenly could obtain visas to leave for any country that would accept them.

By then, however, many of the earlier emigrants to Israel were returning to Russia to apply for immigration into the United States. They also were advising friends that, because of the lack of jobs for skilled immigrants in Israel, it was better to give up on the Jewish state and wait a few years longer for admission as refugee immigrants to the United States.

It was then that officers of some U.S. Jewish organizations, while still calling publicly for removal of all obstacles to Jewish emigration from the former Soviet republics, began privately seeking to increase Jewish immigration into Israel by making Jewish immigration into the U.S. harder. The issue divided leaders of national Jewish organizations from many of their rank-and-file members. The latter argued that it was hypocritical for American Jews who have made personal decisions to support Israel financially but not to make their homes there to deny the same options to their co-religionists abroad.

Taking the heat were U.S. State Department officials who, under pressure from Congress and Jewish organizations, had earmarked 55,000 places—almost half of the worldwide total of 120,000 refugee immigration slots—for political refugees to the U.S. from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Of the 55,000, 40,000 slots are reserved for Russian Jews and many of the rest are used by Armenians, who also have an effective lobby in the U.S. Refugees from all of East Asia, including Vietnamese, Tibetans, and escapees from Chinese political prisons, are allocated a total of 40,000 spaces.

Under pressure from congressional supporters of Israel, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Ambassador Warren Zimmerman, then director of the State Department's Bureau for Refugee Programs, testified at a Sept. 23 Senate hearing on refugee affairs that the Jewish refugee quota might be reduced "within the next two years. . . to bring the Soviet refugee admissions program into conformity with emerging realities in the former Soviet Union." Zimmerman indicated that the U.S. was prepared to award more of the refugee slots to people from other parts of the world who cannot return to their own countries because of a well-founded fear of political persecution and who have no other place to resettle.

There was virtually no initial public reaction to this testimony by the top two concerned U.S. officials. Then President Seymour Reich, president of the American Zionist Movement, made the mistake of saying in public what other lobbyists for Israel have long been saying in private. Reich, a former president of B'nai B'rith

International and of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that spots held for Russian Jews were preventing immigration into the U.S. by "other deserving refugees in flight from persecution," such as Bosnian victims of ethnic cleansing. Jewish groups that had kept their counsel so long as the lobbying to reduce the Jewish flow to the U.S. in order to increase the flow to Israel was done privately went public with denunciations of Reich's statement.

Public Denunciation

"According to U.S. refugee policy, a reduction in the number of Jews to the United States in no way guarantees an increase in the number of admissions of any other refugee population," said a joint statement by the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (MIAS) and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). Some Jewish leaders denounced Reich's statement in more personal terms.

"Mr. Reich knows all Jews of the former Soviet Union are still refugees," said Vice President Inna Arolovich of the American Association of Russian Jews. "Otherwise why would he suggest that they emigrate to Israel? If they were not refugees, why would Mr. Reich not suggest they simply stay in Russia and enjoy the country's democracy and freedom?" She suggested that in making his statement Reich was "parroting the dictates of the Rabin government."

HIAS Executive Vice President Martin Wenick told the Washington Jewish Week that the area of the former Soviet Union remains "very volatile." Because of this, he said, "there's a lot of validity in maintaining the present program" of earmarking 40,000 spaces for Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union.

Defending himself, Reich said his desire for Jews to emigrate from the former Soviet Union to Israel was "standard Zionist issue in the United States." He admitted, however, that he "did not anticipate the depth of feelings on this." Because 1994 refugee quotas already have been set, Reich said he hoped the issue could be debated "calmly," meaning privately, within the Jewish community.

The Jewish Agency, a semi-official Israeli government organization, estimates that some 100,000 to 120,000 Jews will leave the former Soviet Union during each of the next five years. Of these, approximately 70,000 will be admitted to the U.S. annually under present laws and practices, the Jewish Agency predicts.