Russia: The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) including mandate, past and present activities, funding, links to other organizations, bias and credibility; whether or not it encourages emigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union (1999-October 2000)

In the section "Who We Are" of its website, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) provides the following:

UCSJ was founded in 1970 as a coalition of local grass-roots "action" councils supporting freedom for Jews of the Soviet Union. As the Soviet Jewry movement gathered steam in the 1970s, more councils were formed, more individuals became involved, and UCSJ grew to become the largest independent grassroots Soviet Jewry organization in the world.

UCSJ comprises 12 member councils in North America. UCSJ's main office is located in Washington, D.C., with an additional office in Highland Park, IL. In the former Soviet Union, UCSJ sponsors eight bureaus: in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Lviv (Ukraine), Riga (Latvia), Tbilisi (Georgia), and Minsk (Belarus). Funding and supervision of the St. Petersburg bureau are provided by the Bay Area Council for Jewish Rescue and Renewal.

The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), also known simply as the Union of Councils, is the largest independent grassroots organization advocating for Jews and human rights in the former Soviet Union (FSU). By monitoring and advocating the causes of the persecuted Jewish minority, UCSJ's activity also promotes the human rights and security of all. We accomplish this by advocating to government officials in the US and abroad on behalf of the victims of persecution in the FSU, providing material and spiritual programs, publicizing antisemitism, fascism, and human rights abuses, and promoting freedom of emigration from the FSU and protection of immigrant rights in the United States (n.d.).

The UCSJ is located at 1819 H St., NW Suite 230, Washington, DC 20006, United States of America (ibid.).

The UCSJ's Website refers to a partnership program called Yad l'Yad ("Hand in hand" in Hebrew) described as:

... a partnership program connecting UCSJ local member councils and participating synagogues and schools in the United States with communities in the former Soviet Union (FSU). In each partnership, a caring, personal Jewish relationship is fostered. Those involved in Yad L'Yad from the United States provide technical, financial and moral support, as well as, educational leadership training, for those in the FSU.

Yad L'Yad delivers food and medicine to the Jewish elderly, and supports Jewish education, religious life, and Jewish communal development. Yad L'Yad also helps to develop ethical Jewish leadership, and provides an additional mechanism for monitoring and advocacy efforts in regions far from UCSJ's existing human rights bureaus in Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Baltics and Central Asia. Yad L'Yad has been a very effective vehicle for targeting small and provincial Jewish communities throughout the FSU with humanitarian aid.

Currently, over 90 active partnerships exist, continuing to make Yad L'Yad the most extensive partnership program on behalf of FSU Jews in existence (ibid).

With respect to funding, the UCSJ's Website indicates that:

The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Approximately two-thirds of our financial support is provided by the generosity of thousands of individual member-donors and dozens of family philanthropic funds. Additionally, in recent years, UCSJ has received government grants for human rights work from the National Endowment for Democracy and the Rule of Law Program of the U.S. Agency for International Development – the U.S. foreign aid program; and has benefitted from the support, inter alia, of the Jackson, Koret, Levinson, MacArthur and Moriah foundations. UCSJ is wholly independent and thus receives (and requests) no funding from UJA-CJF [United Jewish Appeal-Council of Jewish Federations] allocations (ibid.).

The UCSJ also indicates on its website the following organizations as its affiliates: American Association of Jews From the Former Soviet Union, Canadian 35's, Center for Russian Jewry, The Center for Human Rights Advocacy, New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Soviet Jewry Committee of Oslo, Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, 35's Women's Campaign for Soviet Jewry (London) (ibid.).

According to UCSJ's research and advocacy director, the Union does not encourage Jews to leave countries of the Former Soviet Union, though they do advocate for the right of every Jew to leave. The UCSJ regularly provides Jews willing to emigrate with documentation on immigration policies of various countries.

No information by sources other than the UCSJ could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) [Washington, DC]. N.d. FsuMonitor.Com. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2000]

Union of Council for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) [Washington, DC]. 13 October 2000. Telephone interview with the research and advocacy director.

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB Databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) [Washington, DC]. December 1999. Antisemitism, Xenophobia and Religious Persecution in Russia's Regions 1998-1999. Washington, DC: Union for Councils of Soviet Jews (UCSJ).

Internet sites including:

Amnesty International (AI)

Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

The Moscow Times

Transitions

World News Connection (WNC)