Mulla Ben-Zvi — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

My parents, Pesia Appelstein and Benjamin Cvizon were born in Kaunas. Both studied at the municipal gymnasium in Hebrew. During World War II, Mother managed to escape to Tashkent and Dad was in the Kaunas ghetto and later in the Dachau concentration camp. They survived the war, met in Vilnius and got married.

I was born in Vilna on May 27, 1948. My name is Samuel (Molla) Cvizon. I studied at the University of Vilnius. At the age of 23, I immigrated to Israel with my mother. Dad stayed in Vilnius and built a new family. Both have already passed away. The Association of Vilna and Vicinity is one of the most important bodies in Israel for preserving the glorious heritage of Vilna Jewry in particular and Lithuania in general. It is important to preserve it, nurture it and pass it on to future generations. Lithuanian Jewish culture and spirit brought deep values ​​to the whole world and made them an integral part of the spiritual development of the whole world. That is why I am happy to be an integral part of the Association of Vilnius and Vicinity in Israel.

Shmuel Ben-Zvi (Samuil Tzvisohn) was born in Vilna, Lithuania on 27.05.1948 to Holocaust survivor parents Binyamin and Pessia Tzvisohn.

He studied History, Philology and Hebrew at the University of Vilnius, and Sovietology (Russian Studies) at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

He was an activist for Aliyah and led the struggle for Jewish culture which involved obtaining permission from the Lithuanian authorities to appear on stage with Yiddish and Hebrew songs, official and unofficial records of performances, making contact with Israel to receive material and production scripts, preserving written material about Jewish culture, and organizing events for Jewish festivals and demonstrations for Aliyah.

He was arrested several times in Lithuania by the authorities because of his activities and in 1971 was kept in prison for two weeks. He was a dancer and one of the directors of the Jewish dance group that formed the basis of the company “Anachnu Kan” (“We are here”) in Israel.

• In 1971 he immigrated to Israel and continued the struggle for unrestricted Aliyah and the release of Prisoners of Zion. He served as General Secretary on the public council for Soviet Jewry. He organized demonstrations for Aliyah, in Jerusalem, London, Paris, New York and Reykjavik.
• In 1972 he was one of the first to establish the “Anachnu Kan” company whose performances received rave reviews all over the world. He also served as spokesman and administrative director for the company.
• He served as Director of Overseas Broadcasts, and presented programs for immigrants at the Israel Broadcasting Authority, as well as being Editor-in-Chief of “Kaleidoscope”, a TV program for Olim (immigrants) on Channel One.
• He was Director of radio broadcasts for the Central Elections Committee in different languages during the years 1996-2010 (consultation and translation).
• He served as Director of Jewish Agency representatives in Vienna and Moscow, and in this capacity was responsible for receiving immigrants at European airports and train stations on their way to Israel, taking care of them at transit points and accompanying them on their way to Israel from Moscow, Vienna and Budapest.
• Today he serves as CEO of the audit committee for the Association of Journalists and is a member of the board of the Association of Jews from Vilna and Vicinity in Israel.
• He is married to opera singer, musician and pianist Eva Ben-Zvi, has a daughter - Hava Goldwasser - from a previous marriage, and a son – Zvi Orliansky - from Eva’s previous marriage.

Ben-Zvi's participation in bringing Soviet's Jewry to Israel is told in an interview in Vesty newspaper 2019 (here is a translation

The exodus of Soviet Jewry began 30 years ago, at the end of 1989. The newspaper “Vesti” found the man who was sent to Moscow for this mission. In a unique interview, Shmuel Ben-Zvi explains how this mass Aliyah began.

Some 950,000 Jews made Aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Today, these Olim (immigrants) and their children comprise 15% of the Israeli population. The mass Aliyah changed the character of the Jewish state forever. But not everyone is aware of the serious dilemma faced by the organizers of this exodus. Shmuel Ben-Zvi tells us all about it. “Will we live to see the day when airplanes from Moscow land at Ben Gurion airport one after the other – and our Jewish brothers, who have been imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain, are allowed to return to their historic homeland?” – he wrote in the daily newspaper Yediot Achronot in 1989.

“I am from the previous generation, so my opinions might be considered old-fashioned, even somewhat strange nowadays,”, said Shmuel Ben-Zvi to Vesti in an interview celebrating 30 years of the mass Aliyah of the ‘90s. "We fought so hard for unrestricted Jewish emigration in the ‘70s, so I understand that it could cause confusion, even bitterness, because people ask why we didn’t fight for human rights at the time and try to overthrow the giant Soviet regime. But we were aware of the choice that we made, which is the reason why this struggle was a success in the end.” “We told them time and again: the fate of the Soviet Union was none of our concern. All we wanted was one thing: freedom for the Jews. People born in the ‘80s and ‘90s find this hard to understand. But when we got out at the time, in the ‘70s, one thing was sure: the door was slammed shut behind us, there would be no going back. That’s why we were so adamant: if we leave, it’s to Israel, period.”

Shmuel Ben Zvi devoted a large part of his life to the issue of returning to the homeland. At first, he was an activist in the struggle for the right to leave - “Let my people go” - and served as Director of the Jewish Union in Vienna and Moscow, dealing with transferring Jewish people to Israel. Afterwards he dedicated himself to immigrant absorption as director of foreign language broadcasts on “Kol Yisrael” radio.

Ben-Zvi’s Zionist activities began in 1972. During the mid-1950s his father, together with a number of like-minded people, founded a Jewish song and dance company, in which Shmuel participated from a young age. The shows were very successful, and very few guessed that, while rehearsing for their performances, the group members had another life “working underground”, fighting for the release of Prisoners of Zion and sending them to Israel. Ben-Zvi was arrested after having taken part in a protest march from Vilna to Ponar with Lithuanian Jews all wearing the Star of David on their chests. However, in spite of the great demand to prosecute the Jews, they managed to avoid legal action. Ben-Zvi made Aliyah in 1972. The famous Lithuanian group was formed soon afterwards and even changed its name to one that was much more relevant: “Anachnu Kan” (“We are here”). Even Golda Meir, who was Prime Minister at the time, attended the shows.

The old-new team continued combining successful tours with activities in aid of human rights. “We found ourselves unwittingly in the limelight of the struggle for rights for Soviet Jewry”, Ben Zvi recalled in the interview. “During our tour in London we organized a demonstration in support of Soviet Jewry, and held gatherings in other cities. The initial signs that something was about to change came in 1986, when Scharansky was released and made Aliyah to Israel. This was the first breakthrough. But many prisoners of Zion and “refuseniks” still remained in the Soviet Union, and organizations such as the Public Council for Solidarity with Soviet Jewry, of which I am the director, the Jewish Agency and the communications bureau (“Nativ”) began making preparations because they believed that Aliyah was on the cards, and there was something in the air that gave the impression that this was about to happen. When Reagan met with Gorbachev in Reykjavik in 1986 or 1987, representatives of Jewish organizations from Israel staged a rally on the streets. By the way, even before the two presidents met in Reykjavik, we managed to arrange a press conference in support of the prisoners of Zion, which attracted a lot of attention.

In other words, hope abounded. Did you ever believe that the number of Olim in the 1990s would reach one million?  - No, at the time no-one even dared to think about it. We finally realized that the ice had broken around 1989. We were constantly on the phone with the prisoners of Zion. We followed what was happening with Yuli Edelstein and how Ida Nudel was being persecuted. The struggle at the time was not for mass Aliyah, but rather for the release of the relatively few prisoners of Zion, which became symbolic. Masses of people who are prevented from travelling abroad are a difficult concept to grasp. So we preferred to focus on the fate of specific individuals. At a press conference in Iceland when some journalists tried to insist that we were making much ado about nothing, we brought specific examples, such as: 24 prisoners of Zion imprisoned at the time, 400,000 Jews dismissed from their work places. One million people wanted to leave the USSR, but were afraid to take any steps to do so.  But when we spoke of specific numbers, or gave explicit details, it worked.

I was offered the position of head of the Jewish Agency in Vienna which I accepted with alacrity, as I considered this work to be extremely important. I had several duties to fulfil: firstly I had to make my presence felt there, to set up a transit point for Israelis who wanted to visit the USSR, because that was not so easy at the time. Visas had to be arranged, and this meant having a good working relationship with the Russian embassy in Vienna. Therefore, and most importantly, my mission was to explain to everyone in Austria that Soviet Jews leaving the USSR on Israeli visas were obliged to travel to Israel. When it was discovered that Israel had played a part in closing the options for Soviet Jews to emigrate to the US, resentment was rife among many people who did not see themselves living in Israel, because what this really meant was that they were prevented from emigrating to the US, Germany or other countries. I am a product of the Aliyah of the 1970s. At that time all we thought about was to leave in order to go to Israel. I always believed that if we left on Israeli visas on our way to another country, we were being dishonest on three levels. Firstly, we were being invited to Israel, and secondly, we were leaving the Soviet Union on Israeli visas, i.e. we were deceiving the Soviet authorities, but that was alright. And thirdly, when we were making waves all over the world demanding to let Soviet Jews go, but then we were letting them go anywhere they want, just not to Israel, it’s as if we were deceiving the entire world. So I was sure that Israel was doing the right thing.

Now I am convinced that it was the correct decision to make in the ‘70s. On the other hand, during the ‘90s Jews were allowed to emigrate freely. But this fact did not register immediately. In 1989 I was insistent that Israel should be the only country for immigration, and the people who sent me to Vienna were well aware of this. My initial shock at my new work place was when I began to meet groups of Soviet Jews coming from Moscow: out of a group of 200 people, only 15 expressed the desire to go on to Israel. The others went to other countries, anywhere but the Middle East. At that point I began to realize that if someone escapes from a country that limited his freedom he should have the right to decide where he wants to live. We found accommodation for them in apartments rented by the Jewish Agency in central Vienna. There we provided them with all their needs for 2-3 days, until their flight to Israel. All other arrivals were taken care of by representatives of the Joint. This was how the system worked. Interestingly, the immigration police in Vienna wanted everyone arriving on Israeli visas to continue on to Israel. Accordingly, the local police willingly helped us Jewish Agency representatives rather than our “competitors”.

Didn’t you take advantage of this situation by persuading people to choose in favor of Israel? – No. I understood even then that whoever insists on going to live in Israel will get there, and others will find ways not to do so. I think that in this case everyone had a hand in it – the government, the Jewish Agency, and the Communication Bureau. Eventually, Israel managed to persuade the US that now when the USSR was on the verge of collapse and a semblance of democracy was emerging, it was preferable to play fair. If you want to come to Israel, you’re welcome. If you want to go to America, submit a request in general terms, without using Israel as a cover story or a transit point. I had no regrets then, nor do I have them now. We truly believed in what we were doing.

Did you ever meet people arriving in Vienna who only then suddenly understood that all exits were closed to them apart from Israel? It must have been disappointing, maybe even tragic for many of them. – Yes… I told them that Israel could not have done it any other way, because to provide validity for the struggle and its demands, our country’s relations with the US depend on us playing fairly. Sure, during the ‘70s no-one was dealing with this: people were dying, they were rotting in prisons and there was no time to think of anything else, just to get out. But in the ‘90s it was all completely different. There were no more prisoners of Zion. This required different tactics.

I arrived in Moscow in November with a visa for a few months. This was one of the toughest periods of my life, especially day-to-day living. During my first trip the carburetor froze in the car that had picked me up, and thus began the Muscovite period of my life. I had an unheated apartment on the 16^th floor, with an elevator that sometimes worked, but more often, didn’t. Then there was a container with condensed milk that had been shipped from Israel as a goodwill gesture to starving Moscow, intended for hospitals and orphanages. The container was stolen at the airport.

When did you realize that Israel’s plans for mass Aliyah from the USSR were being implemented? - When people started queuing up at the Consulate. This would happen every day. People came from all over the country because the only option for them was to leave from Moscow. They would spend the nights in churches, on the streets, even in the winter. Nativ dealt with issuing visas but they were unable to handle the masses of applications coming in. It was during the winter of 1990 and everyone had a lot of work. Everyone wanted only one thing: to leave before their exit was blocked, as long as permission was being granted. Bookstalls selling dictionaries and other learning material began to appear next to the Embassy.

How did relations with the Russian authorities develop in this new reality? – We had normal working relationships with them. They even tried to get things moving as much as they could. Occasionally I managed to be interviewed for the Russian media, where I made it a point to mention issues that related to cooperation between our two countries, among other topics. I told them frankly that Israel is aware that Russia wants to improve its relations with the US. And it makes sense that if people can be free to leave and the Jews are being well-treated, this would change the balance of power and nurture mutual understanding between the countries, and this is what eventually happened.

Masses of people passed through the Jewish Agency in Moscow during your tenure. Did you manage, in spite of the never-ending stream of people, to relate to specific cases, to the fate of the individual, to remember different faces, to really help? - Of course. There was one family who came to get visas only to discover that their scheduled appointment slot was only in two days’ time. They came up to me in fear and trembling: “We haven’t got anywhere to live. If we can’t get our visas now, our departure will be postponed for years. What should we do?”

So what did you do? - I took them home with me. I couldn’t go to the Embassy and ask to schedule an earlier appointment because every appointment involved people like them. So this family stayed at my place for two days until their paperwork was completed. There was another family: the grandfather worked in the Space Center and was prohibited from leaving the country for life. The grandson worked in the state archive, and he also had problems where leaving the country was concerned. So what did I do? First of all, the grandson became my personal chauffeur and after that, we started to look for a way to get permission to leave. In the end they all received permits, including the grandfather.

There were a number of couples in Moscow on the verge of getting divorced owing to the issue of “to leave or not to leave”. So I had to have some intimate conversations with them, to persuade them not only not to destroy the family unit, but also to make amends and make Aliyah with one another. And those personal moments and meetings were very important to me. They gave me the feeling that I could achieve things not only on a global level but also by helping individual human beings. And as they say, the rest is history.

The Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Yitzchak Herzog, spoke about that: “Helping Jews to return to the Land of Israel is at the core of our activities. Our organization has been working this way since its inception. At the end of the ‘80s, Jewish Agency emissaries managed under difficult conditions and with time limits to create a whole system whereby they helped hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former USSR to move to Israel, and today their emissaries work all over the world and help whoever wants to make Aliyah to Israel and make a new life for themselves – at home”. “Nativ” is an independent administrative unit at the Prime Minister's Office. To this day “Nativ” operates among Jews and their families throughout the FSU countries in order to tighten their ties with the State of Israel and broaden their knowledge about Israeli achievements, culture and heritage.

Written by Mula Ben-Zvi