Rootless cosmopolitan: Encyclopedia II - Rootless cosmopolitan - Background

Rootless cosmopolitan - Background

Towards the end and immediately after World War II, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) grew increasingly influential to the post-Holocaust Soviet Jewry, and was accepted as its representative in the West. As its activities sometimes contradicted official Soviet policies (see Black Book), it became a nuisance to Stalin's absolute power. The CPSU Central Committee auditing commission concluded that instead of focusing its attention on the "struggle against forces of international reaction", the JAC continued the line of the Bund — a dangerous designation, since former Bund members were to be "purged". In January 1948 the JAC's head, popular actor and world-famous public figure Solomon Mikhoels was killed in a suspicious car accident. This was followed by eventual arrests of JAC's members and its termination.

The USSR voted for the 1947 UN Partition Plan of Palestine and in May 1948 it recognized the establishment of the State of Israel there, subsequently supporting it with weapons (via Czechoslovakia, in defiance of the embargo) in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Many Soviet Jews felt inspired and sympathetic towards Israel and sent thousands of letters to the (still formally existing) JAC with offers to contribute or even volunteer for Israel's defense, which could be considered the fifth column.

In September 1948, the first Israeli ambassador to the USSR, Golda Meir¹, arrived in Moscow. Huge enthusiastic crowds (estimated 50,000) gathered along her path and in and around Moscow synagogue when she attended it for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.

The September 21, 1948 edition of Pravda contained Ilya Ehrenburg's article Regarding one letter, in which he criticized anti-Semitism but argued that the fate of Soviet Jews was assimilation into the united "Soviet people". Later he admitted that it was ordered by the Politburo. (Source: Joshua Rubenstein, Tangled loyalties. The Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg)

These events corresponded in time with a visible upsurge of Russian nationalism orchestrated by official propaganda, the increasingly hostile Cold War and the realization by the Soviet leadership that Israel had chosen the Western option. In addition, Jews were being considered a security liability for their international connections, especially to the United States of America, and growing national awareness. By the end of 1948, the USSR switched sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict and began supporting the Arabs against Israel, first politically and later also militarily; this policy was maintained throughout the Cold War.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki