Soviet Jewish Emigration
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Historical Background
-Soviet Jews were declared as refugees under international law as they faced constant Antisemitism and discrimination in the Soviet Union, this Antisemitism only increased with the fall of the Soviet Union by the late 1980s
-Soviet Jews were able to emigrate in two large different waves from 1966 to 1979 and from 1987-1993, where 340,000 Soviet Jews migrated to the United States and another 550,000 immigrated to the Jewish nation of Israel
-The two main American Jewish organizations that were involved in this emigration process was the American Jewish Joint Distribution Society (JDC) and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
-As there were many other parts and movements behind this emigration process, I only focused on the differences between these two American Jewish Organizations
Goals of My Research
-to understand Soviet Jewish Emigration through these two main American Jewish organizations and their disputes on Soviet Jewish emigration
- explore the role of the Jewish state of Israel in this emigration process and Israel's influence on American Jewish organizations
- distinguish what it means to be Jewish and a Zionist in the contemporary era
-to decipher if Soviet Jewish emigration was a modern Jewish diaspora
- to try and add more of the Soviet Jewish perspective into the existing scholarship, as the entire emigration period is framed between the American Jewish establishment and Israel
- to create a basis of knowledge and start my graduate school project from this specific thesis on the JDC and HIAS
Research Process and Historiography
The decision to choose
Results and Findings
- HIAS stuck to freedom of choice throughout the emigration period, where they followed international law over what Israel wanted. It was always up to the emigrants if they wanted to live in Israel and be Zionists. HIAS continues to follow these principles to this day.
-For the JDC , they saw a connection between Zionism and Judaism, leading it to support sending all of the Soviet Jewish migrants to Israel.
- However, neither organizations was solely universal or communal, but both organizations did lead to one side of the nationalistic/cosmopolitan spectrum.Both organizations reacted differently on the question of where do Soviet Jews belong in the modern Jewish diaspora.
- It is too simplistic to group all American Jewish organizations together, as just these two separate organizations were vastly different and there is no American Jewish monolith.
- The creation of Israel never united these two different American Jewish organizations and argues that Israel does not have an overpowering roll on all Jewish organizations in the world.
- Soviet Jewish emigrants went through immigration processing in Vienna and Rome, where HIAS and the JDC met and helped them migrate to a new home as refugees running from the Soviet Union
- By the 1980s it was blatantly clear that the Soviet Jews preferred going to America over Israel causing a dropout phenomenon as they left on Israeli visas but then migrated to the United States. This process embarrassed the Israeli government, as they believed that all Soviet Jews belonged in their biblical homeland of Israel
- HIAS believed and adhered to the principle of freedom of choice, meaning it thought that the Soviet Jews should all have a choice in choosing where they wanted to migrate to. This process follows international law.
- The JDC on the other hand helped the Soviet Jewish emigrants no matter what through aid, but it agreed with Israel that all Soviet Jews belonged in Israel, clashing with HIAS.
- For primary sources, I went to the HIAS archives at the American Jewish Historical Society, used annual reports from the JDC online archives, along with newspaper and government sources.
-As for secondary historiographical sources, scholars have argued on whether the Soviet Jewish emigration crisis led American Jewish organizations like HIAS and the JDC to be more communal or universal based in their values.
- Scholars like Frederick Lazin and Michael Barnett have argued that the Soviet Jewish emigration crisis led American Jewish organizations to focus more on strictly Jewish issues and less on a more universal liberal framework.
- However scholar Joshua Michael Zeitz argues that it was around the time of the Soviet Jewish emigration crisis and the cause of the 1967 War in Israel that brought American Jewish organizations to debate on how they will balance both universal and Jewish issues. This is a debate they continue to struggle with today.
- Scholars like Inga Veksler and Jonathan Dekel-Chen see the Soviet Jewish emigration crisis in terms of the American Jewish clash between Judaism and Zionism. This thesis asks if there is a connection between the two, where it is debatable if being Jewish necessarily means being a Zionist and if all Jews belong in Israel.
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) vs the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
-HIAS was established in 1881 in New York City to help Jews who were fleeing from pogroms in Eastern Europe. Over time, HIAS was able to help more than Jewish refugees, as Jewish immigrants in America needed less help. Today, HIAS helps refugees from around the world whether they are Jewish or not.
-HIAS has followed more worldly liberal values rather than focusing on strictly Jewish communal issues.
- The JDC was founded in 1914 to give aid to Jews around the world, where its other goal is to bring back Jewish faith to those who may have lost it in the Jewish diaspora.
-The JDC continually follows more Jewish communal values rather than international policies causing tension between HIAS and the JDC
- The state of Israel has much more influence on the JDC than HIAS, but they are both independent American Jewish organizations
Forced Zionism?
The Role of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in Soviet Jewish Emigration
Photos From the JDC Archives
Photos from the HIAS Archives
By Monica Kleyman
Adviser: Professor Sciarcon
Class of 2020