American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry: A Call to Conscience

This study provides the first in-depth examination of the role and influence of American Christians in the advocacy efforts for Soviet Jewry during the 1970s and 1980s. It explores how American Catholics and Protestants engaged with American Jews to campaign for the emigration of Soviet Jews and to end the cultural and religious discrimination against them. The book presents a case study of the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry from its inception to its closure in order to better understand the complexities of the politics of interreligious affairs during this period. At the heart of the story is Sister Ann Gillen of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, who directed the Chicago-based task force under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee. The author provides a comprehensive look at task force activities, programs, and relationships, notes its ties to the civil rights movement, and offers in-depth analysis of its participation and role in the global arena. American political, religious, and ethnic leaders play prominent roles in this story, along with the national media, and countless religious and community groups across the United States. The relationship between American Jews and Israel is a factor of fundamental significance as well and plays a critical role in the development of the Task Force. This close-up analysis of the task force is based on extensive archival research and interviews with key players in its history.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Vatican II: A Revolution in Catholic Jewish Relations and the Appearance of the “New Nuns” Chapter 3: Establishing the Task Force Chapter 4: The Early Years of the Task Force Chapter 5: The Brussels II Conference Chapter 6: The Helsinki Accords and Persecuted Christians in the Soviet Union Chapter 7: International Conferences and the Interreligious Legal Task Force on Human Rights Chapter 8: Continuity and Change in the mid-1980s—an Alliance with Evangelical Protestants Chapter 9: Closing the Task Force Chapter 10: Conclusion

About the Author :
Fred A. Lazin is professor emeritus at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

Review :
American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry: A Call to Conscience offers insight into the complexities of interreligious activism, and into the driving forces of the largely successful campaign for Soviet Jewry that left such a significant imprint on the lives of Jews and others across the world. American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry is an interesting, well-written, and thoroughly researched study that fills an important gap in the scholarship of the Soviet Jewry movement and at the same time adds to our understanding of the broader issue of Christian-Jewish relations in America. A comprehensive treatment of Christian involvement in the effort to secure freedom for Russian Jews. This volume sheds new understandings of social activism in an interreligious context. At a time when some are beginning to doubt the effectiveness of interfaith collaboration, the taskforce story restores hope in the strength of such coalition building in the struggle for freedom and human dignity. This excellent and detailed book narrates, based on existing files-especially those of the American Jewish Committee and Catholic and other church records, as well as numerous interviews with those involved-how American Christians, especially Sisters Ann Gillen and Margaret Traxler, created a movement and an organization dedicated to gaining the release of Jews from the Soviet Union, allowing thousands of Jews to emigrate to Israel and the United States. Lazin is professor emeritus at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and has studied and taught at universities around the world... Thousands of lives were saved and improved by the efforts of these brave Christians and Jews, and Lazin's book rightly gives them credit and honors their memories. Fred Lazin's latest volume on the Soviet Jewry Movement reminds us of the Christians who courageously contributed to the struggle. American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry has finally found its historian. Professor Fred Lazin skillfully recounts the often overlooked but significant role that thousands of Christians played in the Soviet Jewry liberation movement. His well-researched book is both scholarly and highly readable, and it tells an important story about the power of constructive interreligious efforts in an historic battle for human rights.