Rebecca Naomi Jones: The Wreckage is made possible by funding from the Ford Foundation.
Additional funding is provided through the American Jewish Education Program, generously supported by Sid and Ruth Lapidus.
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Archival Audio – Brezhnev’s Death Newsreel:
High atop the Kremlin tonight, a Soviet flag at half-staff: a symbol of mourning for Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, President of the Soviet Union, General Secretary of the Communist Party for eighteen years, the power behind those Kremlin walls.
Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather reporting. The death in Moscow of Leonid Brezhnev thirty-nine days before his 76th birthday came as no real surprise – he had been very ill for several years – reportedly suffering from a stroke, cancer, and heart trouble. But as expected as a death as it may have been, it nevertheless had a stunning impact around the world…
Rebecca Naomi Jones: In a period of just ten short years, the Soviet empire began to crumble: its invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979–a move to expand the Communist sphere of influence–brought about the end of détente with the United States. The death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in November 1982 closed a long and stagnant era. And by 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power ushered in both reform – and instability. His policies would ultimately spell the collapse of the Soviet system. Out of that slow fracturing came movement: hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews looking for new lives beyond its borders.
Meanwhile, throughout the campaign to free Soviet Jews, American Jewish aid organizations deployed caseworkers around the world to help resettle Jewish emigrés. Organizations like HIAS – the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society – assisted Jewish emigrés in finding new homes in the United States, Israel, Canada, and other nations, just as they had done after World War II.
From the American Jewish Historical Society, this is The Wreckage: Open Up the Gates. I’m your host, Rebecca Naomi Jones. This week, we meet The Stateless. Our story begins with an historic interview.
Archival Audio – Brokaw and Gorbachev:
From the Kremlin in Moscow, NBC News presents A Conversation with Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Here with the leader of the Soviet Union, NBC News correspondent Tom Brokaw.
BROKAW: General Secretary Gorbachev was already in place when I arrived for our interview in the Cabinet Room of the Council of Ministers in the Kremlin. We had agreed to talk for an hour. NBC News had informed the General Secretary of areas of interest, but the interview was spontaneous and unrehearsed.
BROKAW: Well, I don’t think we’re going to lower the wall here this evening, but maybe we can do something about human rights. How can you persuade the world that there is new thinking and new sensitivity on the part of the Soviet Union if you simply do not let the people who live in this country come and go as they please without risking their citizenship?
GORBACHEV: We have built up a new atmosphere in the country, an atmosphere of glasnost, openness, and we have plans to go on moving forward the process of democratization and glasnost. All this is being done on the initiative of the CPSU, the Communist Party.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: Joining us is Dr. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the Rabbi Edward Sandrow Chair in Soviet & East European Jewry at the Hebrew University.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: Gorbachev, through his policies of glasnost and perestroika, which were a kind of liberalization of Soviet society and openness to the rest of the world, begins to, in a way, put a friendlier face on the Soviet regime—does nothing in terms of Soviet Jewish immigration, but there is certainly change afoot in the Soviet Union.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost – openness – and perestroika – restructuring – were intended to revitalize the Soviet system. As the state loosened its grip, citizens could speak more freely, criticize the failures of their government, and even engage with Western culture. Yet with those freedoms came disturbing developments. Nationalist movements took off, and public antisemitism soared.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: The press really started to flourish in the Soviet Union in its last years. And unfortunately, old hatreds got out of the closet and into the public square. And the most violent amongst them were the antisemites who no longer fear Soviet authority because antisemitism had been outlawed since 1918, but here in the late eighties, the police force simply isn’t able to enforce anything.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: In the summer of 1988, President Ronald Reagan met with General Secretary Gorbachev at the Moscow Summit. While the two leaders negotiated the thawing of the Cold War, American Jewish activists investigated reports of antisemitic offenses. Pamela Braun Cohen, president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, spoke out.
Archival Audio – Pamela B. Cohen Briefing:
We felt that we needed to be there to tell the real story of the Summit, that while the General Secretary and while President Reagan were discussing human rights, there was a very important story beneath the surface. And that story was of the growing antisemitism in the Soviet Union. And we had heard that there were rumors of pogrom [sic] in the Soviet Union, in Moscow, in Leningrad, in Kiev. And we received information which said that there were posters which were being hung on the walls of very important establishment buildings which said, and we have the text, which said: “Jids! By what name, by what right, do you call yourselves Soviet people? You are the scum of the earth! Death to Jews.”
Rebecca Naomi Jones: Activists vented their distress over the ongoing treatment of Soviet Jews. How could a society proclaim to be “open” and “transparent” while failing to address its deep-seated prejudices and human rights abuses?
Archival Audio – Washington Live:
Welcome back to Washington Live, this is Anne Orleans and this is my guest, Dmitry Mikhaylov, and Ruth Newman…
We’re seeing people who are driven, at this point, in desperation to go on hunger strikes in order to protest and demonstrate their demands for their basic human rights, which are guaranteed to them under all sort of international agreements, which the Soviets have signed in each case. We’re seeing where there are young people who are still not allowed to attend the universities. We’re seeing vicious antisemitic quotes, anti-Zionist propaganda in the Soviet media. The press is still filled with all kinds of vitriolic material.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: The Soviet Union was unraveling. Gorbachev’s reforms had promised renewal, but delivered chaos in the form of hyperinflation, failing factories, and widespread bankruptcy. The government’s inability to pay people’s pensions led to panic, and ultranationalist groups leaned on a familiar scapegoat in the Jewish people. Fearful of what was to come, many Soviet Jews felt an even greater urge to leave.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: It is a kind of flight that’s based on a lot of fear and in search of a better life, because it’s clear to pretty much anyone that things are not going to get better in the Soviet Union anytime soon. And Jews in particular—there’s a kind of collective memory amongst Jews in the Soviet Union, those who remained in Eastern Europe, that there’s a—and as a historian, this is borne out time and time again—when there is public chaos in Eastern Europe and in Russia specifically, it’s only a matter of time until anti-Jewish pogroms begin. It hadn’t happened in the Soviet Union for a very long time. But that kind of collective memory, I think, created a kind of almost, if not panic, a communal concern.
Therefore, in 1988, ’89, when Gorbachev opens the gates for emigration for Jews and other minorities, very quickly, a wave of Jewish emigration begins. More people would have emigrated from the Soviet Union to escape this scary chaos, but only certain minorities were allowed free exit. And over the course of the next two years, until the Soviet Union disintegrates entirely in 1991, many, many tens of thousands of Soviet Jews are emigrating every month from the Soviet Union.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: After the gates opened, millions of Soviet Jews left the collapsing empire—an exodus unmatched in the post-World War II era. Most emigrated to Israel or the United States, seeking opportunity and security after decades of repression. But their paths sparked debate within the global Jewish community, revolving around a contentious question: where should they settle?
Archival Audio – “Our Life” Documentary:
They have only two options. A limbo status in America, with no chance of citizenship and for which they must anyway find a financial sponsor for life – or Israel, a country eager to welcome every Soviet Jew. For these families, many with relatives already in America, neither option is bearable.
Jewish Interviewee (RNJ): We left the Soviet Union … on Israeli visas … because it was the only way to get out … in our visas, it is written “Israel S.U.” “Israel or any other country.” … We cannot be compelled to go there.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: As Jewish emigrés left the Soviet Union in unprecedented numbers, they wrestled with life-changing decisions. Many remained committed to the Zionist vision of the Soviet Jewry movement and chose to live in Israel. Others looked toward the United States, drawn by family connections and the promise of greater opportunities. But open borders in the East did not mean open arms in the West. U.S. immigration policies grew restrictive following the influx of Soviet applicants.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: The only place Soviet Jews could go to starting in 1990 that would accept them freely was Israel. The United States in the 1970s had passed legislation with the support of the Jewish community in the United States to consider Soviet immigrants, Soviet Jewish immigrants, as refugees in the United States. That meant that they could bypass the regular quota system that the United States had at the time for immigrants. Whoever came out, Soviet Jew, could immediately go into the United States with no obstacles. That was ended by Congress in 1990. And so the only address that Soviet Jews really had at first was Israel, and that would remain true in the coming years.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: In 1990, Congress passed the Lautenberg Amendment – which once again eased strict requirements for being granted refugee status for certain groups, including Jews and Christians from the Soviet Union – and the U.S. reopened its gates to a greater number of Soviet emigrants. Many took advantage – favoring America as their final destination over Israel. They became known as “the dropouts.”
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: And so when this crisis emerges, the dropout crisis, and more and more Soviet Jews are simply sort of staging sit-in strikes in the airports in Rome and in Vienna, the Israeli government is not crazy about this at all. On the contrary, they begin to demand that these Soviet Jews be sent, no matter what, to Israel first. If they want to later on change their minds once they’re in Israel, they can go on to other destinations.
But once people started showing up on the flights from Russia, from the Soviet Union, saying, well, we don’t want to go; we want to go to the United States, or to Canada, or to Australia, or to South Africa at the time; of course, the officials from the Jewish Agency were flipping out because this was never supposed to be part of the plan.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: For the Jewish Agency and Israeli leadership, the goal remained Aliyah — the immigration of Jews to the Jewish homeland, an endeavor viewed as critical to Israel’s national security and identity. But in the perspectives of many Soviet Jews, these pressures appeared to violate their newfound sense of freedom.
Archival Audio – “Our Life” Documentary:
Jewish Interviewee (RNJ): I’ve developed a feeling of hostility… not towards Israel itself, or its people… but toward the Israeli authorities… it’s because of the methods the Israelis employ through the Jewish Agency… they use any means available… literally to push people who don’t wish to go to Israel into going there. I don’t accept this. I consider I’m in a free country. For the first time in my life I can make a free choice, and I’m not being allowed to.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: For their part, the American Jewish organizations were very conflicted about all of this because certainly, in a perfect world, they had hoped that Soviet Jews would indeed go to Israel because most of these American Jewish organizations and the people who worked in them were Zionists. That being said, they recognized and said out loud that although we would prefer that, the fact that these Soviet Jews, having come out of an authoritarian society—we must give them freedom of choice. We cannot imprison them twice, meaning let them just rot in the Soviet Union, so it was thought, or be prisoners in the Soviet Union, and then us, in a way—American Jewish organizations—forcing them to go to a place that they don’t want to go, which is in Israel.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: At the transit hubs of Vienna and Rome, the air was thick with uncertainty. Activists from the United States and Israel attempted to influence the emigrants.
Archival Audio – “Our Life” Documentary:
Uh, for those of you who do not know me, my name is Jonathan Davis and I immigrated to Israel from California twenty years ago.
First of all, I think the attitude of people from Israel like me, who come here, should not be that we are very angry with those people who do not go to Israel. We would like to see many of you in Israel, but we realize that everybody has the right to choose where they wish to live, and I am very much against forcing anyone to live in my country in Israel.
Israel is interested in Soviet Jewry. And if my dream could come true, all Soviet Jews would come to Israel. (Why?) Because I think Israel could be a much better place to live with more people, because I think Israel could be a real economic powerhouse if it had more manpower, and because I think primarily, these Soviet Jews would be much better off in Israel than they would in the United States of America, where I come from.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: The dropout phenomenon had stoked impassioned arguments between American Jewish and Israeli leadership, occasionally boiling over in public disputes. These were fundamental disagreements over the destinations of Soviet Jews, and the political often turned personal.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: The dropout crisis was never resolved. I believe, having observed the continuation of that relationship, that that was the first point at which a true schism begins to emerge between American Jewish organizations—not American Jews. There’s a difference—American Jewish organizations and the government or governments of Israel.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: As tensions mounted between Israeli and American Jewish advocates, thousands of emigrants stood trapped in a bureaucratic “no man’s land.” HIAS caseworkers stepped in to help – one person, one family, and one journey at a time.
Archival Audio – “Our Life” Documentary:
Krasnovsky, Vitaly? This is the American visa, you keep it in this bag. Don’t open it until you get there (thanks a lot), just give it to the immigration officer. Next. Milchik, Vilya? There is your American visa. Don’t – don’t open it, just give it to the immigration officer. Okay, thank you.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: At the noisy and bustling processing centers in Vienna and Rome, workers from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society – HIAS – directed Soviet Jews to their new homes. For over a century, HIAS had been at the forefront of refugee aid, helping Jews and non-Jews alike in their pursuit of safety and stability. With Soviet emigration expanding, the organization’s mission found new urgency. Staff members met emigrants as soon as they stepped off the planes and trains, arranging housing, food, and legal guidance. For tens of thousands of Soviet Jews, HIAS represented the final bridge to freedom.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen: They’re pretty heroic in their efforts. In any case, they start to arrange landing spots in Jewish communities in the United States and in Canada for those Soviet Jews who are demanding freedom of movement and going elsewhere, other than Israel.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: Mark Hetfield, who currently serves as the President of HIAS, first joined the organization in 1989 as a caseworker in Rome, Italy.
Mark Hetfield: I actually answered a want ad, a help wanted ad in The New York Times in 1989 when they were recruiting Russian speaking caseworkers to work in Rome, Italy, which really sounded like a dream job because I would be able to speak Russian all day. I was a Soviet studies major in college and live in Rome at the same time. It’s a very unique opportunity and so I answered the ad. I passed the Russian proficiency test miraculously, and I was sent to Rome.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: A caseworker’s job proved immensely challenging. Each day entailed navigating the competing needs of thousands of stateless emigrants – people with no homes and no clear futures. Beyond the human struggle were bureaucratic obstacles. The fickle nature of the U.S. immigration system made this work demanding and at times, heartbreaking.
Mark Hetfield: When you left the Soviet Union, you gave up your nationality on your, on your travel document. It actually said “stateless” – the travel document that was issued by the, the Soviet government. So you had nothing, you had no nationality, um, no nothing. You just had the hope and the expectation of going to the United States or one of those, uh, three other countries, which were taking much, much smaller numbers than the US was.
And, and, and so here it was that you were told, no, you, you can’t come, and you were given a denial. And then yes, you would file a request for reconsideration and then that would be denied. I also worked on request for reconsideration because I had one year of legal experience as a paralegal, so they assigned that to me as being part of my work.
But those were not successful because we didn’t actually know what the basis was for the denial, right? The US Immigration Service basically just said that you are denied refugee status, but didn’t explain why. So we had to guess what the basis for denial was and then try to appeal that and overcome it. That was a, a real challenge. Created a lot of anxiety in everybody.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: Ultimately, caseworkers found their work to be deeply rewarding. Beyond the paperwork and policy battles, it was about rebuilding Jewish lives and identities.
Mark Hetfield: These are people who were subject, who were victims of a cultural genocide, you know, for the prior, prior three generations. And what our job was, was to reunite Jews with Judaism and with the Jewish life that they would find meaningful, and that would be a Jewish life that they would choose for themselves. That was the most meaningful part of the job.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: For years, Soviet Jews had lived behind walls – of silence, fear, and control. Now, with each family that resettled and with each life that started anew, those walls grew weaker. And by the decade’s end, they would fall entirely.
Rebecca Naomi Jones: From the American Jewish Historical Society, I’m Rebecca Naomi Jones. This episode was written and produced by Andrew Sperling, Shaul Kelner, and Gemma R. Birnbaum. Recording, sound design, and mixing were done at Sound Lounge. Transcription is provided by Adept Word Management. Archival material is courtesy of the collections of the American Jewish Historical Society and its Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement, the CBS News Archive, the NBC News Archive, and ITV Studios.
For episode transcripts, additional resources, and links to the collections featured in this episode, visit ajhs.org/podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform which helps others discover our series.
