Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry

The Records of Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movements of the American Jewish community in the 20th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.

Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry was formed by Judy Lash Balint in 1974. Upon returning from a trip to the U.S.S.R., where she and her husband visited Refuseniks in Ukraine and Russia Mrs. Bailint felt the need to force the issue of Soviet Jewry onto the Seattle communal agenda. She initiated Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry and with the help of local attorney Leonard Schroeter made contact with other groups interested in the Soviet Jewry issue. In 1975 Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry became formally affiliated with Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. By establishing relationships with congressmen and senators the SASJ focused political pressure which produced significant successes on behalf of individual Refusenik and prisoner cases. For many years Seattle was a center for the Citizen Diplomacy movement which found the city hosting many delegations of visiting Soviet officials and major conferences. In May 1987 Seattle and sister-city Tashkent in Uzbekistan brought the U.S./Soviet Sister Cities Conference to Seattle. In July 1990 a conference on human rights accompanied the Goodwill Games in Seattle. At these events and others, such as the Phil Donahue "Citizens Summit" television exchange with Vladimir Pozner, the SASJ was pivotal in creating a coalition of local groups concerned with the issue of Soviet Jewry, and adherence to the principles of the Helsinki Accords. The vigilance of the SASJ and other local groups made their presence felt at the events mentioned above, as well as many other events, and helped to shape the agendas at these meetings.

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