Moshe Decter (October 14, 1921 – June 28, 2007) was a New York intellectual, and a prominent activist for Israel and Jewish causes. His articles in The New Leader and

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

first brought the persecution of Soviet Jews to the attention of journalism and policy elites as well as ordinary citizens in the 1950s and 1960s. Decter also co-wrote with James Rorty a book entitled "McCarthy and the Communists" in 1954 - one of the first major attacks against Republican Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. He established and directed the Jewish Minorities Research bureau, served as executive secretary of the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews and was director of research of the American Jewish Congress. He worked for Nativ or officially for Lishkat Hakesher or The Liaison Bureau, an

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i liaison organization that maintained contact with

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s living in the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and encouraged ''

aliyah ''Aliyah'' (, ; ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine (region), Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the Israel ...

'', or immigration to Israel. After the collapse of the U.S.S.R., he worked as an editor of the ''Near East Report'' and served as an adviser to the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He is the father of Joshua Decter from his second marriage to the late Paula Decter; and he is the father of Naomi Decter and the late Rachel Decter, from his first marriage in the 1950s to the late Midge Rosenthal (who retained the Decter surname after their divorce).

References

1921 births 2007 deaths Jewish American community activists American community activists Place of birth missing Place of death missing 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Soviet Jewry movement activists {{US-activist-stub American Jewish Congress members