bwives of diplomats hesitated to go out alone to the super-
bmarket. The children—one hundred and fifty of them—no
blonger were permitted to go to Central Park with their
bbicycles. “It’s like jail,” said Natalya Grigoryev, and Dr.
bInessa Avdeyev added that “it is a kind of psychological
boccupation.”
bIn a heartwarming, ironic comment, one of the Russians
bsaid that her dentist who was Jewish (what else?) had has-
btened to assure her that he disapproved of the JDL and that
b“it did not represent the views of the Jewish community of
bNew York.” To which the Russian complained, “It would be
bhelpful if they would speak out more vigorously. Only the
bLeague has been active and if others don’t react it seems they
baccept what is going on.” We could not help but smile
bbecause Jewish apathy to what was going on inside Russia
bhad always been our major target. Now we had shown that
bwe could use that apathy for the advantage of Soviet Jews,
btoo.
bNot only was the harassment itself an alarming thing for
bthe United States, but the Soviet retaliation escalated. In
bMoscow the cars of three American correspondents, Jay
bAxelbank of Newsweek, Anthony Astrachan of the
bWashington Post, and Michael R. Johnson of the Associated
bPress, were vandalized in broad daylight. W. Averell Har-
briman, the well-known troubleshooter, suddenly showed up
bin Moscow and told reporters that he deplored the JDL acts
bbut said that retaliation by the Russians would be “counter-
bproductive.” He repeated the US assertions that it was try-
bing to prevent further assaults, a thing that the Soviets could
bnot believe. This was due to their failure to understand the
bAmerican concept of due process and the fact that, to quote
bthe police in a New York Times news story of January 7,
b“They’re [the JDL] a tough bunch.”
bOn January 11, Soviet Ambassador to the United States
bAnatoly Dobrynin abruptly flew home without saying good-
bbye to any American officials. The New York Daily News
bheadline read: “Dobrynin Goes Home and Ice Gets
bThicker.” It certainly had, and the thought that it might
btake only one more serious blow, such as the shooting of a
b