The story of saving Soviet Jewry is a long and tedious one. It extends from the 1960's to the fall of the Soviet Union, when there was a mass exodus from Russia to the US, Israel, and various European countries. Gal Beckerman in When They Come for Us We'll be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry goes through this long history in amazing detail. The story goes back and forth from the US and Russia, showing the story through specific characters that had major impact in the effort. On the Russian side the effort was mostly Zionistic in nature. The Jews wanted the right to emigrate to Israel, so thousands upon thousands of requests where sent, despite many losing their jobs and their positions in society because of it. There was also an unbelievable push to teach hebrew and zionistic literature in the cities despite it being illegal to disseminate the copies of material to teach. When we hear of saving Soviet Jewry in the US it is very US focused. What did American Jewry do to save them? is usually the question being answered. More amazing, however, is the tremendous fight Jewry within the Soviet Union was able to have despite the oppressive culture that did not want them but would not let them leave. Of course Jewry in America got together in a way that hasn't ever happened over this issue. Beckerman explains this as guilt for not doing enough during the Holocaust, and during this spiritual decimation Jews stepped up in an immense way. Quite impressively, the effort went across lines within the Jewish community.
Beckerman talks extensively about the emigration numbers for every year. In general he uses this to try and determine if there is better treatment for Jews, the higher the number the more their interests are being looked into. As expected, it was very hard to leave Russia at the time, as the leaders wanted to have their utopia which no one would want to leave. A correlate of this was how much good American Jewry was doing for their soviet counterparts. If they were able to raise the emigration numbers they were doing a good job. I found this to be too simplified, and it also makes the effort American Jewry had for naught. The reality is that when the soviet union and communism fell, so did their stranglehold on the Jews in their country. Once a more lax attitude to the other was taken in general, this attitude went for Jews as well. This had little to do with American Jewry, it had to do with the fall of the Soviet Union. In that respect, there really was nothing that we could do here in America except make the war end faster. What American Jewry could do, and did, is do as much for the Soviet Jews as possible as they waited out the regime. A close friend of my parents who is mentioned twice in the book, Glen Richter, delivered a tremendous amount of Judaic materials for specific Jews. It is in the particular that Americans were able to succeed not in the general. Beckerman makes the most important thing the general, which usually is a noble and important goal. But each person can always do the small thing to save one person which is just as important. Those small things add up and have allowed prosperous Russian Jewish communities in both Israel and the US.
Overall, this was a fantastic book for those interested in the history of Soviet Jewry. It is extremely in depth without reading like a textbook.
