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'''Grigory Kheifets''', also known as '''Grigori Kheifetz''', was the San Fransisco [[KGB]] station chief, or ''Rezident'', during [[World War II]].

'''Grigory Kheifets''', also known as '''Grigori Kheifetz''', was the San Fransisco [[KGB]] station chief, or ''Rezident'', during [[World War II]].

Kheifetz first contact with [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] came at a party to raise money for [[Spanish Civil War]] refugees hosted by Kheifetz's mistress, [[Louise Bransten]] on December 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor. <ref>Pavel Sudoplatov, Anatoli Sudoplatov, Jerrold L. Schecter, Leona P. Schecter, ''Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness -- A Soviet Spymaster'', Little Brown, Boston (1994), pg. 175.</ref>  Kheifetz managed to meet Oppenheimer alone for lunch later in December 1941 where Oppenheimer told Kheifetz about the Einstein-Szilard letter to Roosevelt and provided details on the current status of the US atomic research program. <ref>Jerrold Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'', Brassey's Inc., Washington, DC, 2002, pgs. 47-49.</ref>  Kheifetz advised Moscow by cable from Washington that the outstanding physicists in the Allied world including Nobel Prize winners and giants like [[Albert Einstein]], were involved in a secret project.  This changed Moscow's attitude toward about the atomic project.

Kheifetz first contact with [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] came at a party to raise money for [[Spanish Civil War]] refugees hosted by Kheifetz's mistress, [[Louise Bransten]] on December 6, 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor. <ref>Pavel Sudoplatov, Anatoli Sudoplatov, Jerrold L. Schecter, Leona P. Schecter, ''Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness -- A Soviet Spymaster'', Little Brown, Boston (1994), pg. 175.</ref>  Kheifetz managed to meet Oppenheimer alone for lunch later in December 1941 where Oppenheimer told Kheifetz about the Einstein-Szilard letter to President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] and provided details on the current status of the US atomic research program. <ref>Jerrold Schecter and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'', Brassey's Inc., Washington, DC, 2002, pgs. 47-49.</ref>  Kheifetz advised Moscow by cable from Washington that the outstanding physicists in the Allied world including Nobel Prize winners and giants like [[Albert Einstein]], were involved in a secret project.  This changed Moscow's attitude toward about the atomic project.

[[Elizabeth Zarubina]] and Kheifetz persuaded Oppenheimer to share information with 'antifascists of German origin,' which provided a rationale for taking [[Klaus Fuchs]] to [[Los Alamos]]. Oppenheimer agreed to hire, and promote these people, provided he received confirmation of their opposition to Nazism before they came to the project.

==California on the Crimea==

 

In 1943 a world-famous actor of the Moscow Yiddish State Art Theater, Solomon Mikhoels, together with well-known poet Itzik Feffer, toured the United States on behalf of the Jewish Antifascist Committee. Before their departure, [[KGB]] Chief [[Lavrenti Beria]] instructed Mikhoels and Feffer to emphasize the great contribution of Jews to science and culture in the [[Soviet Union]]. Their assignment was to raise money and convince American public opinion that Soviet [[anti-Semitism]] had been crushed as a result of [[Stalin]]'s policies. Kheifetz made sure that the message they brought was conveyed to [[Manhattan Project]] Director [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]].  

In 1943 a world-famous actor of the Moscow Yiddish State Art Theater, Solomon Mikhoels, together with well-known poet Itzik Feffer, toured the United States on behalf of the Jewish Antifascist Committee. Before their departure, [[KGB]] Chief [[Lavrenti Beria]] instructed Mikhoels and Feffer to emphasize the great contribution of Jews to science and culture in the [[Soviet Union]]. Their assignment was to raise money and convince American public opinion that Soviet [[anti-Semitism]] had been crushed as a result of [[Stalin]]'s policies. Kheifetz made sure that the message they brought was conveyed to [[Manhattan Project]] Director [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]].  

In 1944 and the first half of 1945, Stalin's strategic motivation was to use the Jewish issue as a bargaining chip to bring in international Jewish capital to rebuild the war-torn Soviet Union and to influence the postwar realignment of power in the Middle East. Stalin planned to use Jewish aspirations for a homeland to attract Western credits.  

In 1944 and the first half of 1945, Stalin's strategic motivation was to use the Jewish issue as a bargaining chip to bring in international Jewish capital to rebuild the war-torn Soviet Union and to influence the postwar realignment of power in the Middle East. Stalin planned to use Jewish aspirations for a homeland to attract Western credits.  

The plan to lure American capital was associated with the idea of a Jewish state in the Crimea was called California in the Crimea. Kheifetz widely discussed the plan in America.

The plan to lure American capital was associated with the idea of a Jewish state in the Crimea was called California in the Crimea. Kheifetz widely discussed the plan in America.

Stalin apparently had abandoned the plan for a Jewish republic in the Crimea. "Stalin was of a different opinion on the solution to the problem of the Jewish people. He did not support the idea of a Jewish republic in the Crimea. Without any consequences the [Jewish Antifascist Committee] letter found its place in the archive. It was taken out four years later and was given the matching color of an indictment for dozens of innocent people," writes Arkady Vaksberg in Literaturnaya Gazeta,7 in answer to a reader's inquiry whether the idea of setting up a Jewish republic in the Crimea was Beria's provocation for a campaign against the Jews or whether a letter to Stalin actually existed and was seriously considered.  

 

Kheifetz said that Oppenheimer was deeply moved by the information that a secure place for Jews in the Soviet Union was guaranteed. They discussed Stalin's plans to set up a Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic homeland in the Crimea after the war was over. <ref>''Special Tasks'', pg. 50.</ref>

 

Kheifetz and [[Elizabeth Zarubina]], the wife of North American Rezident [[Vasili Zurbin]], persuaded Oppenheimer to share information with "antifascists of German origin," which provided a rationale for taking [[Klaus Fuchs]] to [[Los Alamos]]. Oppenheimer agreed to hire, and promote these people, provided he received confirmation of their opposition to Nazism before they came to the project. Under Oppenheimer's initiative, Fuchs was given access to material that he had no right to look at.<ref>''Special Tasks'', pgs. 109, 193.</ref>

 

On the request of Kheifetz and confirmed by [[Earl Browder]], Oppenheimer provided cooperation in access to research for several of KGB tested sources including a relative of Browder. <ref>''Special Tasks'', pg. 3.</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', Random House, 1999. ISBN 0788164228 </ref>

A memo from Vselovod Merkulov to Lavrenti Beria dated October 2, 1944 read:  

A memo from Vselovod Merkulov to Lavrenti Beria dated October 2, 1944 read: