The World Jewish Congress is saddened to learn that Martin Wenick, a trusted colleague and leader in the struggle to free Soviet Jews, died on May 7 at the age of 80, due to complications of COVID-19.
Wenick was a seasoned diplomat for the US State Department, serving under its auspices for 27 years. Upon his retirement in 1989, he assumed the role of executive director of the National Council for Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), a coalition of Jewish organizations including the WJC that worked to support Jews living under Communist rule and restriction, and to assist the movement of Jewish refuseniks from behind the Iron Curtain. As a fluent Russian speaker from his years stationed in Moscow in the 1970s, Wenick was instrumental in the release of Jews at the fall of Communism. He later went on to become the executive director of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the lead Jewish agency helping to resettle 140,000 Soviet Jews in the United States.
Mark Hetfield, HIAS’ president and CEO, eulogized Wenick as “a great leader of HIAS…. I will always be grateful for everything he taught me, for the example he set, and for the opportunities he gave me.”
The NCSJ was later renamed the National Council Supporting Eurasian Jewry and remains an affiliated organization of the World Jewish Congress.
