RACHEL COWAN
RACHEL COWAN How about the Jews who will remain in the Former Soviet Union ? We have an incredible opportunity to help them. Caring about other Jews, different Jews, is a complicated mitzvah. In...
...On erev Shabbat, we went to services at Hineni in Moscow...
...Others would leave, but don't want to abandon relatives or cannot get permission from family...
...The Progressive Movement now has congregations, Sunday schools or chavurot in 20 communities in the FSU...
...We have an incredible opportunity to help those who want to be free to be Jewish in their native lands...
...But most Jews fear they will become scapegoats if the economy deteriorates drastically, which many expect it to...
...People we met said that state-sponsored antisemitism is a phenomenon of the past...
...She too is headed for Leo Baeck College to prepare for the rabbinate...
...In the old days, when we cared about Jews in the Soviet Union, we marched, lobbied and worked to get them out of there...
...Lena, a young woman who had no Jewish involvement a year ago, now directs their Sunday School and leads a parshat ha-shavuah discussion each week...
...Petersburg, local Jewish women, working with the American Joint Distribution Committee, have organized Rachamim societies to bring food to the poor and elderly and to visit the sick...
...Last May I was part of an 11-day study tour to the FSU with 20 representatives of Americanjewish foundations and philanthropies...
...Some will go on to explore and chronicle the rich archives of Jewish life and history scattered in libraries and cellars throughout the FSU...
...Best of all, we can make connections with people—either traveling ourselves, or sending somebody from our synagogue or JCC or federation to link up with Jews in Moscow, or Korsun-Schevchenkovsky, or Samara or Lvov...
...It was a year since the trip I wrote about last year...
...They love their language and culture, their professional status...
...The Archival Institute of the new, democratic Russian State University for the Humanities, in conjunction with YTVO and the Jewish Theological Seminary, has brought distinguished faculty from the United States and Israel as part of a five-year course of Jewish studies for 25 students...
...Petersburg (it was Leningrad then), and coming for the first time to Kiev and a smaller town two hours beyond it in the flowering Ukrainian countryside, I was impressed with both the expansion and the deepening of Jewish life...
...She teaches with texts learned the week before from a chasidic rabbi...
...More than 120 students have enrolled...
...Daily living is hard and exhausting—long lines for a small variety of products, two jobs or black marketing or bartering to make ends meet...
...They need teachers, texts, travel and support to build their own communities COWAN continued from page 16 and develop their own Jewishness...
...A small but significant portion of them want to live Jewish lives and they are finding their way with the help of an astonishing variety of religious, cultural and communal institutions which are growing and maturing throughout the Former Soviet Union (FSU...
...Rabbi Rachel Cowan is director of Jewish affairs for the Nathan Cummings Foundation...
...The son of their leader is studying at Leo Baeck Rabbinical College in London...
...Revisiting Moscow and St...
...On the one hand, we've got to help them get to Israel, help Israel absorb them, help them find their way in America...
...But Jews are not starving...
...In Korsun-Schevchenkovsky, a town of 10,000 Ukrainians, our group was given a royal welcome (with klezmer, Hebrew songs and dancing) by 200 of its Jewish citizens...
...The World Union for Progressive Judaism had one congregation last year, in Moscow...
...And we have the responsibility to help them stay free...
...In Kiev, we met young people who have established the affiliated Congregation Hatikva...
...Now the program will become the Jewish Free University, offering an accredited university degree in Jewish studies...
...We met a number of new businessmen who are doing extremely well in the open economy...
...Caring about Soviet Jews now means nurturing their emerging Jewish communities...
...On the other hand, there are still between one and two million Jews living there...
...They can't imagine life in a small desert country with a foreign language and no meaningful work...
...Many Jews we met planned to continue their lives in Russia or Ukraine...
...Shaul Stampfer, professor of Jewish history at Hebrew University, organized an evening adult education program in Jewish Studies last year...
...We worshiped with 80 Moscow Jews in their rented space in an Autoworkers' Union building, moved by the enthusiastic singing and the stimulating conversation with members of the community...
...They now celebrate Chanukah, Passover and Rosh Hashanah with large community festivities...
...More than 300 students enrolled...
...To speak only of Jewish culture is to ignore the difficulties of life for Jews...
...Now they are free to go or to stay— and to be as Jewish as they like...
...And it still means protecting their human rights...
...Soon they will learn how to observe Shabbat...
...Apart from the many single, elderly pensioners who need the humanitarian aid provided by the Joint and by the Orthodox religious groups, most Jews are better off than the general population...
...We can become informed— and pressure our government to provide economic aid with guarantees for human rights...
...Four years ago they knew nothing of their heritage of traditions...
...But be careful—once you forge those links, you're hooked...
...Many want to come to the States, but can't qualify for immigrant status...
...With her late husband, Paul, she wrote Mixed Blessings: Marriages between Jews and Christians (Doubleday, 1987...
...In Moscow, Kiev and St...
Vol. 17 • December 1992 • No. 6
