Are Soviet Jews Hungry for Their Heritage?

...They now recognize that without some awareness of what it means to be Jewish, Soviet Jews will not consider going to Israel if they decide to emigrate...

...Most Soviet Jews have also learned over the years to shun what was passed off by the authorities as "official" Jewish culture...

...The Jewish Agency was burned by this episode, and in its master plan for educational work in the Soviet Union drawn up some months later, adopted the principle of "no more buildings...

...At least 120 such associations have now banded together to form a national federation that can possibly give Soviet Jews something that they never had before—autonomous political and cultural representation on a national level...

...Many Jews from the western Soviet republics—the Ukraine and White Russia— which were once part of the heartland of East European Jewry, perished in the Shoah...

...The Jewish Agency's main areas of activity are immigrant absorption, rural settlement, urban renewal and education in Israel, but it also funds education programs for Diaspora Jews...

...As cultural activities among Soviet Jewry become the latest fad, leaders of organizations that never had much to do with the subject are running to Moscow to have their pictures taken with Soviet officials and proclaiming the opening of new chapters in the Soviet Union...

...The Jewish Agency's leadership is composed of Israeli politicians, UJA and federation leaders from the U.S., fund-raising leaders from other Diaspora countries and the heads of zionist organizations in the Diaspora, such as Hadassah, the Zionist Organization of America and Mizrahi...

...For most of the past year, however, the center operated fitfully and fulfilling the original commitment has proved excruciatingly difficult...

...There was no iceberg—only a few ice floes adrift in a vast, dark sea...

...Some organizations with long experience in the field objected to the Jewish Agency's claim to coordinate Jewish cultural work in the Soviet Union, especially as the Agency was a relative newcomer to the field...

...Last October, the Jewish Agency adopted a comprehensive plan to enhance Jewish identity, deepen knowledge about Judaism and Israel and to promote aliyah among Soviet Jews...

...The center may now be filling its mandate...

...the Joint Distribution Committee...

...they will work in teams in 22 major Jewish population centers, teaching Hebrew, arranging study groups or lectures on Jewish topics, organizing Jewish song and dance groups and providing information about Israeli life...

...There is no real Jewish community that could serve as a core of communal life...

...This includes the Yiddish journal Sovetish Heimland and the Jewish Musical Theatre of Moscow...

...Nevertheless, Israel's direct influence among Soviet Jews was limited to the narrow circle of activists, who were cut off from most of their brethren...

...But never before have the organizational and financial resources of the Jewish people been harnessed to redeem millions of Jews from spiritual and cultural annihilation...

...In one case, Rabbi Arthur Schneier of New York, through his Freedom of Conscience Foundation, found himself in competition with a joint effort of the Jewish Agency and the World Jewish Congress...

...Their Jewish roots were shallow because Jews were allowed to settle in Moscow and Leningrad only in the late 19th century...

...They are less important now for this purpose, however, since Jews can meet publicly in a variety of places...

...There's No Rush to Explore Roots To make matters worse, there is something "negative" about the synagogues the Soviets, in the past, have allowed to function...

...Moreover, Israeli leaders no longer see any contradiction, as some once did, between trying to maintain Jewish life in the Soviet Union and promoting the idea of aliyah...

...The WJC helped found the Solomon Mikhoels Cultural Center in Moscow, which embodies both the promise and problems of Diaspora attempts to disseminate Jewish culture in the Soviet Union...

...Outside Jewish organizations that worked underground in pre-glasnost days are now expanding their activities inside the Soviet Union: The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, an international consortium of Jewish organizations...

...They were also anti-Zionist...

...But so far, the masses of Soviet Jewry have not taken advantage of the new opportunities to explore their roots...

...In the United States the coordinating role has been undertaken by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ...

...Throughout the 20th century, massive efforts have been devoted to rescuing Jews threatened by physical destruction...

...At that time, Bronfman was talking about setting up dozens of Jewish community centers throughout the Soviet Union...

...Coordination is necessary to prevent Jewish organizations from competing with each other for the allegiance of Soviet Jews and from duplicating each other's work...

...so it was eventually agreed that the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem would be the central coordinating partner...

...Late last year, Hebrew teachers from Israel were sent to hold classes for six weeks under the auspices of the center...

...But others who work with Soviet Jewry, like Michael Schneider, director of the Joint Distribution Committee, have a different view...

...For reasons still unclear, the Soviets offered the building to Bronfman and Dinitz, to be used as a joint WJCJewish Agency cultural center...

...With a $380 million annual budget, the Agency is a partnership between the major Diaspora fund-raising organizations^—the United Jewish Appeal in the U.S...

...The project was conceived and pushed through by Isi Leibler, president of the Australian Jewish community and a vice-president of WJC...

...nor are there neighborhoods where most Jews live, or even places where they tend to congregate...

...and the Lubavitch (Chabad) chasidic movement...

...Most Soviet Jews today, then, are—Jewishly speaking—a tabula rasa...

...Since glasnost, the WJC has expanded beyond diplomatic work, acting as an opening wedge on the Jewish cultural scene, creating opportunities to be exploited by other Jewish organizations...

...In most large cities, there is no old Jewish quarter...

...Their Jewishness means litde more than what is written on their identity cards...

...In reality, those activists— who were supposedly the "tip of the iceberg"—had no silent army of passive Jews behind them waiting for the opportunity to proclaim their Jewishness...

...The episode involved a building adjacent to the main synagogue in Moscow, the Choral Synagogue on Archipova Street...

...Equally promising is the Moscow Yeshiva set up in February 1989 by Rabbi Adin Stein-saltz (see 'The Possible Dream," October 1989...

...the option lapsed and the property reverted to Schneier, who still plans to restore it and turn it into an educational center...

...Its operations have been plagued by bureacratic intrigues, constant pressures by the Jews serving on the State Anti-Zionist Committee and weak leadership shown by the center's director...

...True, for Jewish activists during the dark years, synagogues were of some use, especially on holidays like Simchat Torah, since they were the only places where Jews could legitimately meet—even though they were crawling with informers...

...They are often associated with the old state apparatus of oppression aimed at religion in general and at Jews in particular...

...In part this reflects the lack of stable, Jewish institutions in the Soviet Union...

...NCSJ president, Shoshana Cardin, said that "we don't want a situation where we are tripping all over each other in the Soviet Union...

...Dinitz failed to follow up on the offer fast enough, however...

...The WJC is a federation of Jewish communal bodies around the world...

...That is where cultural programs for Soviet Jews comes within the scope of its activities...

...Both have been essentially window dressing for outsiders, and Soviet Jews had limited access to them...

...In a class by itself is the World Jewish Congress, also headed by a billionaire— businessman Edgar Bronfman...

...In November 1988, however, while Schneier was making plans to raise funds to restore the building, a top-level delegation came to Moscow, led by WJC president Edgar Bronfman and Jewish Agency chairman Simcha Dinitz...

...Schneider believes that "without property, without a place that Jews can 'be Jewish,' there can be no sense of community...

...Since the early 1980s, Bronfman and the WJC have conducted talks with Soviet leaders aimed at improving the lot of Soviet Jewry and securing their right to emigrate...

...Now that Israel has a formal presence in the Soviet Union—even if it is not on the level of full diplomatic relations—it can work openly there among the masses of Jews...

...What Hitler failed to accomplish, Stalin relendessly pursued...

...The large Jewish population centers after the war—mainly Moscow and Leningrad— consisted of highly assimilated Jews...

...The remnants of Jewish culture that had not already been snuffed out by Bolshevik fanaticism following the revolution were ruthlessly suppressed in the postwar years...

...In the pre-glasnost period, the illusion was created in the West that intrepid refuseniks and cultural activists were the vanguard of a large mass of Soviet Jews who secretly desired to express themselves as Jews, but were afraid to do so...

...Newer entrants include the Reform and Conservative movements, B'nai B'rith and a consortium of American Orthodox organizations called the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in the Soviet Union, backed by the billionaire Reich-man brothers of Toronto...

...The program was announced with considerable fanfare, although it remains to be seen whether it will be backed up by appropriate budgets, and whether in practice it will be able to overcome the political rivalries and bureaucratic hassles that have hampered some Agency programs in other diaspora communities...

...The road to a viable Jewish culture is obviously a long one...

...As in so many other areas, the Jewish Agency, headquartered in Jerusalem, tries to coordinate efforts between Israel and the Diaspora...

...It is also important to communicate to Soviet Jews that the Jewish world is pluralistic, and that Israel and aliyah should be important components of educational work there...

...The center, named in memory of the giant of the Yiddish stage who was murdered by Stalin, was dedicated in February last year with great fanfare in the international media...

...The WZO is composed of representatives of Israeli political parties and Zionist organizations around the world...

...The idea of restoring the building next to the synagogue and using it as a religious and cultural center apparently originated with Rabbi Schneier...

...The founding conference of the Congress of Jewish Communities and Associations convened in Moscow last December...

...These activities are to operate out of private flats or public halls—a sort of "floating" Jewish community center...

...Whether those Jews who remain can be rescued—culturally and spiritually—is an open question...

...Israel's relations with Soviet Jewry have for years been marked by a painful paradox...

...He thinks efforts should be made by Soviet Jewish groups to recover Jewish buildings, mainly synagogues, that were confiscated by the state...

...This institution seems to be operating well, despite occasional obstacles thrown up by the government bureaucracy...

...The classes were held without any major hitches, and no attempts were evident by anti-Zionists to prevent people from signing up freely...

...Now there is practically no limit on the religious or educational materials that can be sent or brought in...

...Soviet Jews have also been able to hire halls to hold their lectures and to teach Hebrew and Yiddish...

...The training there was woefully inadequate, and one of the "requirements" for selection was a willingness to cooperate with the KGB...

...So the Budapest seminary has produced Soviet rabbis who, in the era of glasnost, show litde potential for becoming the spiritual and communal leaders of a renewed Soviet Jewry...

...The building next door, originally part of the synagogue complex during World War II, was used as a hospital, and then taken over by the state as a geriatric facility...

...We will also monitor the state of cultural activities in the Soviet Union for our constituent groups...

...the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Israel...

...and Keren Hayesod in other countries— and the World Zionist Organization (WZO...

...Moreover, about 200,000 of the more Jewishly motivated Soviet Jews went to Israel during the 1970s...

...The main job of these rabbis, when they came back, was to inform on their fellow Jews, and to be especially watchful of any contacts between foreigners and Soviet Jews...

...The most promising attempts to create a scaffolding for Jewish communal life since glasnost have been the independent Jewish cultural associations that have sprouted all over the Soviet Union...

...The work has barely begun and it may be difficult at this point for the masses of Soviet Jews to invest their energies in long-term efforts to revive Jewish culture, in view of the urgent desire to emigrate that has begun to sweep their community...

...As for religious life itself in the pre-glasnost period, it attracted mainly old people, misfits and fanatics...

...These have sprung up not only in places like Moscow and Kiev, but also in remote towns such as Perm or Tashkent...

...It is more accurate to speak of a Jewish population than a community...

...The JDC has no plans to invest in such facilities, although other groups, mainly Orthodox ones, may be willing to fund restoration of synagogues...

...For Soviet Jews who have grown up since World War II, then, the synagogue as an institution represented something to be shunned, a reaction reinforced by the antipathy to religion drilled into them by the state...

...Coordination is especially needed because the sudden accessibility of Soviet Jewry has created a "gold rush" of organizations moving fast to stake a claim—sometimes with embarrassing results...

...Only the Zionist idea was capable of inspiring the Soviet Jewish activists to such heights of dedication and readiness for self-sacrifice...

...In the past several years, however, emissaries and teachers sent by religious organizations in Israel and elsewhere have begun to rehabilitate the synagogue as an institution in a few places...

...In Latvia the building that once housed the Jewish theatre of Riga was handed over to the new Jewish cultural association, and is being used as a cultural center...

...In pre-glasnost days, Israelis could not cultivate direct contacts with Soviet Jews...

...Not long ago, the main problem for outside Jews who wanted to help was how to smuggle religious articles, books on Judaism or Israel or tapes of Jewish music into the Soviet Union and how to make the "drop...

...The Jewish Agency plan now is to establish a network of educational emissaries to be sent from Israel...

...Nevertheless, as Mikhail Chlenov, a leader of the Jewish cultural movement, has said, even if hundreds of thousands leave in the next few years, there will still be a need to reconstruct a foundation for Jewish life for those who remain...

...Working with WJC is the former director of Jewish Musical Theater, Mikhail Gluz, who is now director of the Mikhoels Center...

...After Stalin crushed all other expressions of Jewish life, such as the vibrant Yiddish stage and literature that persisted during the 1930s and 1940s, he left a few dozen synagogues and a handful of rabbis as token concessions...

...Without the initial Zionist inspiration from Israel, no movement for Jewish rights would have developed among the Soviet Jews themselves...

...the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, headed by Rabbi Arthur Schneier...

...Because no yeshivot or rabbinical seminaries were allowed, replacement rabbis were trained at the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest...

...In addition, Soviet Jews are to be brought to Israel for training as cultural activists...

...The agreement between Leibler and the Soviet Ministry of Culture called for the Mikhoels Center to provide Hebrew classes, host lecturers from Israel, and establish a library, audio-visual center, Jewish bookstore, and coffee house...