# Moshe Decter

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{{short description|American activist for Israeli causes (1921–2007)}}
'''Moshe Decter''' (October 14, 1921 – June 28, 2007) was a New York intellectual, and a prominent activist for Israel and Jewish causes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/nyregion/05decter.html|title=Moshe Decter, 85, Advocate for Soviet Jews, Dies|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=2007-07-05|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-08-26}}</ref> His articles in [The New Leader](/source/The_New_Leader) and [Foreign Affairs](/source/Foreign_Affairs) 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,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics: Israel versus the American Jewish Establishment|last=Lazin|first=Fred|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2005|location=Lanham, Md|pages=27}}</ref> served as executive secretary of the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews and was director of research of the [American Jewish Congress](/source/American_Jewish_Congress).<ref name=":0" /> He worked for [Nativ](/source/Nativ_(liaison_bureau)) or officially for Lishkat Hakesher or The Liaison Bureau, an [Israel](/source/Israel)i liaison organization that maintained contact with [Jew](/source/Jew)s living in the [Eastern Bloc](/source/Eastern_Bloc) during the [Cold War](/source/Cold_War) and encouraged ''[aliyah](/source/aliyah)'', or immigration to Israel.<ref>{{Cite book|title=When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry|last=Beckerman|first=G.|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2010|location=Boston, MA, and New York, NY|pages=75–76}}</ref> After the collapse of the [U.S.S.R.](/source/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](/source/Embassy_of_Israel_in_Washington%2C_D.C.).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://forward.com/news/obituaries/11136/moshe-decter-85-activist-for-soviet-jewry-00126/|title=Moshe Decter, 85, Activist for Soviet Jewry|access-date=2016-08-26}}</ref>

He was the father of Joshua Decter from his second marriage to the late Paula Decter; and he was the father of Naomi Decter and the late [Rachel Decter](/source/Rachel_Abrams), from his first marriage in the 1950s to the late [Midge Rosenthal](/source/Midge_Decter) (who retained the Decter surname after their divorce).

== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Decter, Moshe}}
Category:1921 births
Category:2007 deaths
Category:Jewish American community activists
Category:American community activists
Category:Place of birth missing
Category:Place of death missing
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:Soviet Jewry movement activists

{{US-activist-stub}}
Category:American Jewish Congress members

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Moshe Decter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Decter) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Decter?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.