When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman

When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

WOW WOW WOW.  This was an incredibly well-researched and well-executed book.  At 500+ dense pages, there were some sections where I slogged through a bit, but I am really glad I read this.

When I was a child, my dad took me to Washington DC with our synagogue to protest Soviet Jewry - I might have been 10 or so (it was the late 1980's) and I can remember being taught that Jews in Russia weren't allowed to practice Judaism and that we were going to DC to get our congressmen to change that.  I can remember singing the song the title of the book came from, and I can remember having a "Russian twin" who I mentioned at my bat mitzvah.  Books in my Hebrew School library abounded on this topic - Monday in Odessa is the one I remember most clearly.

So I was interested to read this book to fill in the gaps in my knowledge - little did I know it would be a sweeping history of Jews in the Soviet Union starting in 1963.

Beckerman puts forth two major factors that drove attention to the plight of Soviet Jews that were not clear to me as a 10-year-old.  One was that many American Jews felt guilty that they did not pressure the government to do more to save Jews during WWII, and saw this as an extension of the Civil Rights movement in their own country.  The other was that newly minted Israel needed an influx of immigrants to ensure its safety in numbers and voting.  These two factors are discussed at length throughout the book.

But part of why I enjoyed this book is that Beckerman also painted characters so quickly and sharply that it was easy to get to "know" people.  And there were all sorts of community organizers in the US, USSR, and Israel, there were politicians, dissidents, and many other types of people who joined in the fight.  Famous ones included Heschel, Weisel, Carlebach, Reagan, and most famously Shcharansky.  But the lesser-known people were also heroes fascinating to follow.

Things in the USSR were no joke.  For decades, Jews were regularly harassed, arrested, imprisoned, and exiled to Siberia.  They weren't allowed to practice Judaism (although many did in different degrees of secret), they couldn't learn Hebrew, or speak positively about Israel.  They lost their jobs once they applied for visas out, but few visas were approved and then they were stuck in the country where it was illegal not to have a job.  This was tens of thousands of people - 'refusniks' who could not leave.

There are many other dimensions to this book that I could write about - Soviet-US relations, politics in Israel, a long section appropriately dedicated to Shchransky's imprisonment, American immigration policy, examinations of the prevalence then fall of Communism within the USSR - but I'd summarize by saying that if this time in history is in any way intriguing to you, this is *the* book to read.


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