When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman Page A
Authors: Gal Beckerman
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assassinated.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations had the power to mobilize but not quite the will. Founded in 1953, the Presidents Conference, as it was colloquially known, was a reaction to complaints from members of the Eisenhower administration who were dealing with a constant stream of Jewish leaders arriving to discuss the issue of Israel, each one making essentially the same points. A deputy of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles suggested that the major organizations, including the three big defense ones—the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League—and the various religious authorities consolidate their forces, at least on the topic of Israel. They formed an umbrella group of twelve. This provisional conference soon became a permanent organization with its own executive. It also became the de facto foreign policy arm of the American Jewish community, especially following the 1956 Sinai campaign, when Israel's belligerence needed to be explained and defended.
Though the issue resonated with some of the individual members of the Presidents Conference, the condition of Soviet Jews, as much of it as was known, had never provoked anything more than a rhetoric of concern. Goldberg's modest proposal—of directing attention to the problem with a communitywide conference—was anathema. The Jewish establishment was plagued by its own stultifying redundancy. In 1952, Jewish leaders concerned about their own paralysis had commissioned a study, the McIver Report, which came to the conclusion that there were too many organizations doing the same thing and wasting their energies fighting over limited resources. The three defense organizations were all founded early in the century and, despite slight differences in tone and organizational culture, all had essentially the same goal: to fight anti-Semitism at home and abroad. Then there were the organizations that represented each of the three major religious denominations, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. These sometimes united under the title of the Synagogue Council of America. On top of these groups were the community's two major umbrella organizations: the Presidents Conference, the official political voice of the community, and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, which also included representatives of all the other organizations. This group was a coordinating body founded in 1944 to synchronize the activities of Jewish communities at a local level. All this led to a near-constant jockeying for funds and power. There was already some resentment about the Presidents Conference siphoning money and purpose from the individual groups. Any new initiative—even a conference—would necessarily mean more competition.
Adding to this anxiety was the fact that most of the men who made up the leadership of the Jewish establishment did not think it was time to abandon a strategy of quiet diplomacy. Nahum Goldmann was the very embodiment of this view. A dapper elder statesman of the Jewish world, Goldmann was both president of the World Jewish Congress and head of the World Zionist Organization, which effectively made him the most powerful Jewish leader after the Israeli prime minister. He was a Lithuanian Jew who had grown up in Germany and worked in the Jewish division of the foreign ministry until Hitler came to power. Though a lifelong Zionist, he believed in the importance of maintaining a vibrant Jewish community in the Diaspora (part of the reason he founded the World Jewish Congress, an organization devoted to Jewish life outside of Israel).
Goldmann believed foremost in caution, in using a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer. In early 1964, he told an interviewer from the Hebrew University's student publication the
Ass's Mouthpiece,
"It is wrong to generate too much activity on behalf of Russian Jewry, because this could endanger the very existence of three million Jews."
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations had the power to mobilize but not quite the will. Founded in 1953, the Presidents Conference, as it was colloquially known, was a reaction to complaints from members of the Eisenhower administration who were dealing with a constant stream of Jewish leaders arriving to discuss the issue of Israel, each one making essentially the same points. A deputy of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles suggested that the major organizations, including the three big defense ones—the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League—and the various religious authorities consolidate their forces, at least on the topic of Israel. They formed an umbrella group of twelve. This provisional conference soon became a permanent organization with its own executive. It also became the de facto foreign policy arm of the American Jewish community, especially following the 1956 Sinai campaign, when Israel's belligerence needed to be explained and defended.
Though the issue resonated with some of the individual members of the Presidents Conference, the condition of Soviet Jews, as much of it as was known, had never provoked anything more than a rhetoric of concern. Goldberg's modest proposal—of directing attention to the problem with a communitywide conference—was anathema. The Jewish establishment was plagued by its own stultifying redundancy. In 1952, Jewish leaders concerned about their own paralysis had commissioned a study, the McIver Report, which came to the conclusion that there were too many organizations doing the same thing and wasting their energies fighting over limited resources. The three defense organizations were all founded early in the century and, despite slight differences in tone and organizational culture, all had essentially the same goal: to fight anti-Semitism at home and abroad. Then there were the organizations that represented each of the three major religious denominations, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. These sometimes united under the title of the Synagogue Council of America. On top of these groups were the community's two major umbrella organizations: the Presidents Conference, the official political voice of the community, and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, which also included representatives of all the other organizations. This group was a coordinating body founded in 1944 to synchronize the activities of Jewish communities at a local level. All this led to a near-constant jockeying for funds and power. There was already some resentment about the Presidents Conference siphoning money and purpose from the individual groups. Any new initiative—even a conference—would necessarily mean more competition.
Adding to this anxiety was the fact that most of the men who made up the leadership of the Jewish establishment did not think it was time to abandon a strategy of quiet diplomacy. Nahum Goldmann was the very embodiment of this view. A dapper elder statesman of the Jewish world, Goldmann was both president of the World Jewish Congress and head of the World Zionist Organization, which effectively made him the most powerful Jewish leader after the Israeli prime minister. He was a Lithuanian Jew who had grown up in Germany and worked in the Jewish division of the foreign ministry until Hitler came to power. Though a lifelong Zionist, he believed in the importance of maintaining a vibrant Jewish community in the Diaspora (part of the reason he founded the World Jewish Congress, an organization devoted to Jewish life outside of Israel).
Goldmann believed foremost in caution, in using a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer. In early 1964, he told an interviewer from the Hebrew University's student publication the
Ass's Mouthpiece,
"It is wrong to generate too much activity on behalf of Russian Jewry, because this could endanger the very existence of three million Jews."
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