Mr. Nechemia Levanon worked for the Israeli government in various secret roles which few knew about. Under the guise of an agricultural attaché at the Israeli embassy, he made contact with Jews in the Soviet Union, including many Lubavitcher Chassidim. He helped them by transferring Jewish religious items and the Rebbe’s divrei Torah. This work stopped after he was caught red-handed and was expelled from the Soviet Union as an undesirable. * Stories from behind the scenes and about his special yechidus with the Rebbe – based on his testimony in the book “HaRebbe V’ha’Mossad” by R’ Yosef Yitzchok Kaminetzky. * Part 2 of 2.
The fear was great. Time and again the diplomats would ask themselves whether these Jews who always said nobody was following them, were mistaken. It was possible that among the Jews with whom they had regular contact, there could be one or a few who willingly or not were reporting to the KGB about their forbidden relationships.
“This made me lose sleep on many a night,” recalled Levanon. “However, over time we became less cautious. In the end, the KGB showed up. Shock. To us, this was unexpected, sudden, and very painful.
“It was at the beginning of July 1955 and I was supposed to meet with one of the local activists by the name of Guberman, in the home of the Levin family, in the Malachovka quarter of Moscow. The meeting was arranged for ten at night. When I left my house I did not notice anyone following me. Guberman was already in Levin’s house when I walked in.
“The three of us spoke for about half an hour. I brought them Jewish reading material. On the table were envelopes which contained letters I was to send to Israel. At 11:15 there was a knock at the door.
“Guberman covered the material I had brought while I took the letters and put them in my coat pocket which was hanging on the chair.
“Don’t be frightened, it’s surely my daughter. I am waiting for her,” said Levin reassuringly. He went to the door.
“The door was locked with a heavy bolt. There was the squeaking of the bolt and then Levin cried out. Some hefty men burst into the room. The first one grabbed Guberman and pulled him away from the table. He placed his other hand on the newspaper which covered the material I had brought.
“The next guy jumped at me. I swiftly removed my diplomatic ID from my pants’ back pocket. He was probably frightened by my hand motion and he grabbed me. When he saw my diplomatic ID, he released my hand, opened the ID and apologized.
“A third guy took my coat and took out the envelopes. ‘Don’t touch my coat. You have no permission to search me,’ I shouted. He replaced the coat but held onto the letters. ‘Put those envelopes back! I suspect you also pushed something into my pocket!’ I said forcefully. ‘Fine,’ said the man, ‘until we verify your identity, I won’t touch your coat, but I’m not returning the envelopes.’
“One of the goons dealt with Levin and another one with Guberman. From Levin they only wanted ID while they ordered Guberman to empty his pockets and place everything on the table. After searching Guberman one of the men said, ‘This is the criminal Guberman,’ and he held out an arrest warrant.
“The officer in charge called the office and reported: ‘We managed to arrest the man. During the arrest the owner of the apartment was present as well as another man by the name of Nechemia Levanon who claims he is a foreign diplomat. Pass this on to my commander.’
“After a while, the commander showed up. When he entered, they were all silent. He turned to me and said, ‘Mr. Levanon, do you have any complaints or requests?’
“I said, ‘I have a request - that you release me immediately! And I want my coat back.’ He gave me my coat and went over to the phone. I heard him ask that the representative of the Foreign Office come quickly. The strongmen made a list of all the material I had brought and at the end of the report they wrote that the material was written in the ‘Israeli language.’
“About an hour after midnight the officer from the Foreign Office came. I knew him as a worker in the Protocols Division. The commander asked him to identify me. ‘What need is there for identification? That’s Mr. Levanon,’ he said.
“The man from the Foreign Office said I should return home with an Israeli embassy car. In the meantime, a photographer showed up and took pictures of all the documents scattered on the table. At two o’clock the embassy car came and took me home.
“The next day I reported to the ambassador about what had happened and we decided on what immediate steps to take. We put all our efforts into trying to find out what had happened to the Jews with whom we had been in regular contact and to warn those that the KGB had yet to discover.”
Nechemia Levanon and his two colleagues, emissaries of the Mossad in Moscow, Moshe Kehat and Moshe Sela, were soon expelled from the Soviet Union. The official excuse was behavior not befitting a diplomat: anti-Soviet activity, disseminating anti-Soviet material, smuggling forbidden literature, etc.
The authorities in Moscow preferred that the expulsion be kept quiet and “suggested” that Israel also not announce the expulsion. Israel agreed. Levanon was upset and demanded of his bosses in Israel that they take the opportunity to protest in the west against the Soviet Union, but they refused and decided not to react.
The expulsion of three Israeli “diplomats” who were involved in spreading Judaism throughout the Soviet Union for two years was never officially publicized.
Even after Levanon and his friends were expelled from the Soviet Union, the Mossad continued its work among Russian Jews. New emissaries were sent to the Soviet Union under the guise of Israeli embassy workers in Moscow. The secret work among the Jews of the Soviet Union continued until the Six Day War when the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic ties with Israel.
Since the emissaries’ activities were under the constant surveillance of the KGB, many of them were “burned” and the Mossad had to replace them quite often.
In the 60’s, mass demonstrations began to be organized in the US on behalf of Soviet Jewry. At the time, world Jewry thought that local Jews were behind the demonstrations. Now it can be said that the Israeli Mossad was behind the demonstrations. They organized them all. The Mossad sent its representatives to Washington and New York and they were the ones who encouraged and organized the demonstrations. The senior representative of the Mossad in the US was Nechemia Levanon. He was the spirit behind all the demonstrations that took place throughout the US on behalf of Russian Jewry.
The Rebbe spoke sharply against the demonstrations and often said they were harmful to the Jews in Russia. The Rebbe often spoke painfully against those demonstrations at farbrengens. Those who heard him thought the Rebbe was fighting American Jewish organizations that were behind the demonstrations, but now we know that the Rebbe was opposing the Israeli Mossad.
Levanon says about this:
“By the middle of 5728, the Rebbe had expressed his doubts about the efficacy of the public battle on behalf of Soviet Jews. He told this to Yoram Dickstein, a Mossad representative in New York, when he accompanied a member of the consular mission on his visit to the Rebbe. Yoram tried to convince the Rebbe that without public political pressure Moscow would not change its attitude toward the Jewish minority.
“Half a year later, at the beginning of 5729, the Rebbe’s representative in Israel gave a message to Shaul Avigur. The Rebbe wanted to let Shaul know that he had gotten word from a reliable source that if Jews in the west stopped their public demonstrations and protests, the Soviet government would allow many Jews to leave. Avigur said he would authorize the Mossad’s representative in Washington to talk to the Rebbe. At Avigur’s request, I called the Rebbe’s office and without delay, his secretary made me an appointment with the Rebbe. According to those in the know, I was given a very respectable time, midnight.
“I decided to have Yoram Dickstein join me. In conversations like this, which are completely off the record, I considered it important to have someone else present to listen and draw his own impressions. On the night of our appointment there was a snowstorm and the flights from Washington to NY were canceled. I set out by train but the heavy snow caused many delays and the train arrived very late.
“In the snowy city, close to midnight, there was no taxi to take me to Brooklyn. I called Yoram and the Rebbe’s secretary, and the meeting was postponed for another week. This time we were ‘punished’ and the meeting was scheduled for two in the morning.
“On our way to Brooklyn, Yoram told me details about his first visit to the Rebbe. From what Yoram told me and from other stories I formed my expectations of the encounter.
“This time we were early. In the waiting room I had the feeling that I had entered a special world which I had never encountered before. It was a world that was a sort of unreal combination of the mists of Jewish history in Eastern European towns and American efficiency and dynamism, which included media and public relations that are part and parcel of the modern corporate culture.
“We weren’t bored. The place - the secretaries’ office, also served as the waiting room. The crowd of visitors that came in and out did not leave the secretary with a free moment. And what a crowd it was. From the exchange of words that I caught an astonishing picture emerged. One person came from Tunisia and wanted to report to the Rebbe about the Talmud Torah that he said had begun to operate. Another fellow told about a yeshiva in Istanbul while a third brought news of a school in Belgrade. There was also a shliach of the Rebbe who reported from Kabul in Afghanistan, I think it was about a mikva that was built. One visitor, wearing a nice suit, was a well-known businessman from Cincinnati who was happy to hear from the secretary that the Rebbe would see him soon.
“From chance conversations that we heard and conversations we had with visitors waiting their turn, we formed the impression that we were in the operations hub of a giant, global organization. In the bookcases we could count Chabad publications in ten different languages.”
This is what Levanon wrote of his meeting with the Rebbe:
“We spent over an hour and a half in the Rebbe’s room. At first I spoke cautiously and with a great deal of respect, but as time went on and the debate grew sharper I had to change my tone. I reported to the Rebbe on developments and repeated what Shaul Avigur said about the negative reactions to the Rebbe’s suggestions that the protests and demonstrations stop for a while. The Rebbe did not accept our arguments which did not surprise us, for the Rebbe had made it clear that he was opposed on principle to all demonstrations and thought they were ineffective and even harmful. The Rebbe maintained that a great change had taken place in Moscow regarding aliya.
“The Rebbe repeated that he knew for a certainty that if nothing untoward would happen on the political front, thousands upon thousands of Jews would be allowed to leave the Soviet Union for Israel, including young people and many children. The Rebbe averred that about 5000 people would go and it would be soon, maybe still that year. For this reason he opined that it was forbidden to do anything that could thwart this.
“The Rebbe said that even if he was wrong about demonstrations not helping, he asked us to use some restraint for a brief period lest we were mistaken. In every respect, said the Rebbe, their leaving is so important that if his approach had even a modicum of correctness, then common sense dictated that they accede to his request. He, the Rebbe, knew of the great work of Shaul Avigur in helping free Jews and therefore he was convinced that Shaul would agree with him, but the government was pressuring him because of Israeli political interests - the desire to keep tensions high between Moscow and President Nixon and in general, to criticize the Soviet Union.
“The Rebbe went on to say that he understood this desire of the Israeli government and was willing to support it, but for the sake of this great matter of aliya he asked that they stop, even for a bit of time, whether for half a year or at least until after Pesach. He heard of the plans to send matzos and Hagados to Soviet Jewry but he asked that no demonstrations be made and they should not print ads in the papers. If they acceded to his request, the damage would not be as great and it would be possible to renew demonstrations by Shavuos.
“I told the Rebbe that I had been working on behalf of the Israeli government for years and was very familiar with the Soviet regime. This was not the first time the Soviets were trying to mislead us. The Israeli government thought that the cessation of pressure from the west would be interpreted as abandoning the lot of Russian Jewry to an anti-Semitic government that sought to assimilate the Jewish minority.
“The Rebbe’s tone and my tone were sometimes quite sharp, but we ended the conversation quietly with my promising to convey the Rebbe’s position to Avigur. The Rebbe expressed his sorrow over not being able to convince us so that it would be easier to convince Avigur.
“When the Rebbe spoke about the change that began in the Kremlin’s policies, he connected the matter of aliya to the invitation that many rabbis received to visit Moscow to celebrate the birthday of Rabbi Levin, rabbi of Moscow. He noted that two of the rabbis, Teitz and Hollander, received an invitation from R’ Levin himself which noted that the travel permits were assured.
“The Rebbe spoke decisively about the arrival of 5000 olim or as he put it, many, many thousands. He even mentioned that Chabad had to prepare to absorb 400 families.
“I politely rejected the Rebbe’s request. I thought it was quite possible that the powers that be in the Soviet Union had conveyed a message through the Rebbe’s ‘agents’ in the Soviet Union that thousands would come if the demonstrations stopped and that this is why the Rebbe did not want to anger the Kremlin. However, we rejected the Rebbe’s request and the demonstrations continued in full force.
“When we parted the Rebbe inquired as to Avigur’s health and asked us to send his regards.
“Erev Pesach, a package of shmura matza came with my name on it to the Israeli embassy, with the Rebbe’s blessings.”
***
Two years went by. At the Yud Shevat farbrengen of 5731 the Rebbe spoke about the Jews in Russia. The sicha went on for over two hours!
The Rebbe repeated all the details of his conversation with Levanon without mentioning his name. One by one, the Rebbe negated all of Levanon’s claims. The Rebbe mainly spoke sadly about the serious results of Levanon’s refusal to accede to his request.
When the Rebbe spoke about “the man who sat with me and refused to accede to my request,” everyone thought the Rebbe was talking about one of the askanim or the rabbanim who organized the demonstrations, but now we know that the sicha was about that yechidus with the man from the Mossad, Nechemia Levanon.
The Rebbe said, “… So too, regarding demonstrations for Jews who live in a certain country [the Soviet Union]. When I began creating a stir that demonstrations not only were ineffective but were even harmful, they came to me with the claim (which is seemingly justified): Why was I making a loud commotion and with such publicity? I should have acted behind the scenes from the outset, maybe that would help. And only if secret activity did not help, then we would see further.
“Here we see the absurdity of this claim. The person who came to me with these claims should have seemingly used the same approach. Why do you go and print things against me when you could have asked me quietly and if it would not be effective, then you could have seen what to do further …
“The truth is that the claim is justified. Before taking public action, you need to do things quietly and I did so! For three years, nonstop, I have stormed and begged and pleaded in every possible way to stop harming Russian Jews! You want to wage a cold war with the Soviet Union, do what you want, even though I think it causes serious damage, but why must you endanger all Jews? For three years I tried to work behind the scenes and perhaps, if I had gone out with a great tumult we would not have reached the situation in which we are in today.
“There are those who ask, who says my approach is right? So now I have no choice and I must speak derogatorily about Jews. I will tell a story, something that occurred during my earliest efforts, secretly, to stop demonstrations.
“Less than three years ago, I received certain knowledge from over there that they are about to enable hundreds of families to leave Russia. This knowledge came not with ruach ha’kodesh (prophetic spirit) but came from very authoritative sources. Furthermore, those who organized the demonstrations received the same information!
“When I received the news, I knew that it also was received by the organizers of the demonstrations (and they may have received it before me, for whoever was involved in the subject heard the same information and was updated, it’s just that the newspapers did not report it). So when I had the opportunity to speak with representatives of the organizers of the demonstrations, I asked them:
“It’s a few months before Pesach and since you are about to organize a big demonstration for Russian Jews on Erev Pesach, I request that you postpone it until Erev Shavuos. You don’t have to accept my approach to demonstrations. I only ask that you postpone it at least two months.
“The reason I asked for the postponement of the demonstration was since clear information was received that hundreds of families were about to receive permission to leave there, if the authorities learned that they were about to make a large demonstration, they were likely to take those exit visas from those Jews and these hundreds of families would remain behind the Iron Curtain!
“I told those representatives, even if you don’t believe me, I am not asking you to stop demonstrations altogether. Make a bigger demonstration on Erev Shavuos than you are planning on making on Erev Pesach. What do you have to lose by postponing the demonstration for a few weeks? I maintain that the demonstration Erev Pesach can harm hundreds of families!
“They discussed my request and after a few days they informed me that they rejected it because they thought my information was incorrect and they stood by their decision to organize a demonstration for Erev Pesach.
“What were the results of that demonstration? Those hundreds of families who had exit visas are still in the Soviet Union! Their situation became much, much worse. Because until that Pesach they were able to live their lives peacefully, while now they are suspected of having a connection with that demonstration.”
That is the story about the connection Nechemia Levanon had with Chabad Chassidim in Russia. It’s a pity he did not listen to the Rebbe who knew better than all of them about the welfare of the Jews of Russia.