The Story of the Jewish Defense League:
One week later, the following AP dispatch was sent from Moscow: "Soviet authorities recently ordered medical treatment for labor camp inmate Silva Zalmanson after threats by militant Jews in the United States that 2 Russians would be killed there if she died in the camp..."
In 1973, as I campaigned for the Knesset in Israel, I spoke at a gathering in a private home in Kiron. During the question-and-answer period, an Israeli sharply attacked me and we got into a rather angry debate. A middle-aged woman, who had been sitting quietly, then raised her hand and, apologizing for her inability to speak Hebrew very well, explained in Yiddish that she was a relatively new arrival from the Soviet Union. She then said:
" I do not know very much about politics and I only came this evening because I heard that you were here. When I left the Soviet Union, my friends made me promise if I ever saw you to thank you in their name for all that you have done for us."
There was a very long silence in the room. I could not say a word, but that said more to me than all the foolish words of tbe Jewish groups and leaders and made up for some of the moments of frustration and disillusion. It did not even matter that, as I campaigned, Soviet immigrants seized my hand, wept, kissed me-and then, in the election, voted for the other parties.
It really was not so terrible. In the end, it only proved that the immigrants from the Soviet Union really were Jews.