American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry
American Christians and the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry

Author: Fred A. Lazin

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-08-07

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1498583245

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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.

The Helsinki Effect
The Helsinki Effect

Author: Daniel C. Thomas

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-06-05

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0691187223

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Human rights norms do matter. Those established by the Helsinki Final Act contributed directly to the demise of communism in the former East bloc, contends Daniel Thomas. This book counters those skeptics who doubt that such international norms substantially affect domestic political change, while explaining why, when, and how they matter most. Thomas argues that the Final Act, signed in 1975, transformed the agenda of East-West relations and provided a common platform around which opposition forces could mobilize. Without downplaying other factors, Thomas shows that the norms established at Helsinki undermined the viability of one-party Communist rule and thereby contributed significantly to the largely peaceful and democratic changes of 1989, as well as the end of the Cold War. Drawing on both governmental and nongovernmental sources, he offers a powerful Constructivist alternative to Realist theory's failure to anticipate or explain these crucial events. This study will fundamentally influence ongoing debates about the politics of international institutions, the socialization of states, the spread of democracy, and, not least, about the balance of factors that felled the Iron Curtain. It casts new light on Solidarity, Charter 77, and other democratic movements in Eastern Europe, the sources of Gorbachev's reforms, the evolution of the European Union, U.S. foreign policy, and East-West relations in the final decades of the Cold War. The Helsinki Effect will be essential reading for scholars and students of international relations, international law, European politics, human rights, and social movements.