How Jewish Are Soviet Immigrants?
Feldman, Steven
How Jewish Are Soviet Immigrants? Contrary to what a number of Jewish leaders have been saying, recent studies show that Soviet Jewish immigrants are becoming more Jewish the longer they live in...
...Even those immigrants who are aided by Jewish organizations are often lost because the community thinks that after a few years the immigrants do not need any special attention...
...If they know it will be in a language they can understand, they will come," Rashkovsky says...
...Vladimir Matlin, whose weekly 45-minute radio program Obzor Evreys-koi Zhyzni (Review of Jewish Life) is broadcast into the Soviet Union by the Voice of America, has also noticed a difference between the newer immigrants and those who arrived a decade earlier...
...The 1984 survey was conducted by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York...
...They should go with them to the dentist and doctor the first time, to get their driver's license and social security number...
...from Leningrad at a supermarket or when he realizes that all it takes is one phone call to get a telephone installed...
...With regard to observances held in the home, 41 percent of N.Y...
...The American Jewish community, Rashkovsky says, put its efforts into applying political pressure to get Jews out of Russia and didn't give enough thought to what would happen to those Jews once they came here...
...They're not typical assimilated American Jews...
...The most un-Jewish city in Russia...
...The most recent wave of immigrants, those who have left under Gorbachev's somewhat more relaxed policies, "are coming with a stronger Jewish identity," Cantor Kazansky says...
...These attracted about 60 of the 600 Russian Jewish emigres in the area...
...Soviet immigrants reported lighting Shabbat candles in 1984 as opposed to 24 percent in 1981...
...Getting them to participate in the community has not received the attention it deserves because, though vital, such efforts are not "romantic...
...Russian immigrants, after many years of bitter experiences with repressive bureaucracies, are deeply distrustful of all institutions...
...The American family should pick them up at the airport and the next day take them to a supermarket...
...We fought very hard to get them out but now we're losing them," said Feldman, the most pessimistic of MOMENT'S interviewees...
...And much of American Jewish life revolves around institutions—synagogues, federations and social agencies...
...The organizations think they should be "mainstreamed because they are no longer new immigrants," says Feldman...
...There's three hours of talking, and then everyone eats bitter herbs...
...Several of the emigres interviewed by MOMENT stressed that the place in the Soviet Union an emigre comes from is more important than age or year of arrival in determining how quickly a Soviet emigre family will become part of the American Jewish community...
...Gorky...
...Within the overall American Jewish community the question of the Jewishness of Soviet immigrants looms larger than ever, with the expansion of Soviet emigration and the consequent rise in resettlement costs (See "How Much Does It Cost to Resettle Soviet Jews...
...They need deprogramming...
...This is not significantly different from the 23 percent of New York area Jews who are regular attenders, Simon reported...
...Not in numbers but in attitude...
...In areas where integration of Soviet immigrants into American Jewish life has been sluggish, many emigres blame a lack of effort on the part of the American Jewish community...
...Rabbi Rashkovsky believes Russian-language services can play an important role...
...There was an enormous leap from 1981 to 1984 in the number of Soviet immigrants who said they wanted their children to observe the Sabbath (42 percent in 1981, 81 percent in 1984) and to spend time in Israel (12 percent in 1981, 80 percent in 1984...
...He cites, with amazement, a letter he recently received from listeners in Gorky asking for religious and educational materials...
...The American Jewish community was not ready 15 years ago—and it is still not ready—to handle the problems of Russian immigration," according to Reform rabbi Victor Rashkovsky, who emigrated in 1973 and who now has a pulpit in Oak Ridge, Tennessee...
...p. 19...
...The second respondent said, "I give speeches to Jewish groups all over the country and I always ask whether there are any Soviet Jews in the audience...
...By 1984, 22 percent of N. Y. Soviet Jews reported regular synagogue attendance...
...ization also nearly doubled over these three years, from 20 percent in 1981 to 35 percent in 1984...
...They don't know what's happening...
...She notes that the longer Soviet immigrants live in the United States, the more likely they are to attend services on holidays important to American Jews, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur...
...in fact, some statistics indicate that Soviet Jewish immigrants in the New York area may be more Jewishly involved than the overall New York Jewish population...
...He urges that every immigrant family be adopted by an American family of similar age and education...
...In fact, Feldman thinks it's a mistake to expose Russian immigrants to too much religion at first...
...Soviet immigrants involved with a Jewish organ* The 1981 study was sponsored by the Council of Jewish Federations and co-directed by Rita J. Simon...
...As Russians have become more nationalistic in the past few years, Jews have become more Jewish, Matlin says...
...Zionist organizations, Jewish community centers and Jewish fraternal groups claimed the major part of this membership...
...Only 37 percent of the overall N.Y...
...After five years the average Soviet family has been in a typical American home twice...
...When asked why they doubted the findings of the 1981 and 1984 surveys, one shrugged and answered, "You know who did them—the Federation...
...An analysis of the two studies can be found in "Three Years Later: A Comparison of the Socioeconomic Adjustments and Jewish Identities among Soviet Immigrants," by Rita J. Simon...
...Comparatively more people in the Soviet Union have some basic knowledge of Jewish life...
...While a student rabbi at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Rashkovsky commuted bi-weekly to Kansas City to lead Shabbat services and adult education classes in Russian...
...The last thing to do is to take them to shut Now, after one week of being here, they see an Orthodox seder...
...He has also led Rosh Hashanah services for Soviet emigres in Detroit (drawing about 500 people) and was preparing to conduct a seder in Chicago for an expected turnout of 600...
...and the author of the 1981 study.* In 1981 only 6 percent of Soviet Jewish immigrants living in the New York metropolitan area were attending synagogue regularly...
...That will make an impression...
...They benefitted from the revived interest in Jewish life in the 1970s...
...Boris Kazansky, a Soviet immigrant who is cantor at Philadelphia's Congregation Rodeph Shalom, observed that interest in Judaism has been growing, especially among parents of young children...
...Two studies of Soviet Jewish immigrants in the New York metropolitan area, one done in 1981 and one in 1984, show that on every issue— synagogue attendance, their children's education, observance of practices and rituals, and friendship patterns—Jewish ties and identities grew stronger and more pervasive in only three years, according to Rita J. Simon, a sociologist at American University in Washington, D.C...
...XLIX, No...
...Rabbi Feldman goes further...
...When a special effort is made, the results are On every issue— from synagogue attendance to friendship patterns— Jewish ties grow stronger...
...American Jews say: 'You come to us and adapt to our institutions.' Iranian and South African [Jewish immigrants] have responded by saying: 'We're strong enough to build our own Jewish institutions.' But the way private groups work in the U.S...
...All they know is that they've suffered for being Jewish—they were blocked from music school or beaten...
...The absence of data was the most striking impression to come out of this meeting," reported David Harris, AJC's Washington representative...
...Jewish Social Studies, Vol...
...Steven Feldman...
...No further studies have been made since the 1984 Federation survey, he said...
...j j------AJC's Harris agrees that Jewish religious and secular organizations have not made outreach to Soviet Jews a priority item...
...It turns them off completely...
...The longer they stay in the U.S., the more they take on the characteristics of the American Jewish community," says Simon...
...This doesn'l work...
...Feldman continues, "Let them get jobs with a Jewish-owned business...
...Asked whether it was important to them that their children get a good Jewish education, 97 percent of the New York area Soviet immigrants said it was important in 1984, compared with 79 percent in 1981...
...There's a more constructive view of Jewish values...
...They'll see that they're closed onyom tov because it's a Jewish holiday...
...Twice as many New York area Soviet immigrants enrolled their children in Jewish day schools in 1984 (35 percent) as did other American Jews living in New York (18 percent...
...Can you imagine...
...What should the Jewish community be doing to improve matters...
...Kazansky acknowledges, however, that in Philadelphia it is largely the old, those with a memory of pre-Communist religious life, who are regulars at synagogue...
...Contrary to the data in the two Federation surveys, the anecdotal reports at the AJC meeting reflected the sense that bringing Soviet immigrants into the Jewish fold is "a lost cause," according to two participants who asked that their names be withheld...
...The Americans will learn something about American bureaucracy when they see the amazement on the face of a Ph.D...
...Contrary to what a number of Jewish leaders have been saying, recent studies show that Soviet Jewish immigrants are becoming more Jewish the longer they live in the United States...
...The first few years, they are busy establishing themselves...
...It's naive and unrealistic to expect them to run to synagogue as soon as they arrive," Feldman explained...
...In March the American Jewish Committee (AJC) called together leaders of Jewish organizations and of the Soviet Jewish community to air the question...
...The number of N.Y...
...Feldman, a 1987 graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, adds, "We've never before had a group of Jewish immigrants who were passionately atheistic...
...For one thing, it must realize its usual approaches won't work with this unique subculture...
...Jewish life is strongest in the Baltic States—Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania—because they were annexed by the USSR only in 1940, so the pressures of state-sponsored atheism have not been present for as long as in other parts of the country...
...is alien to the Soviets and they have flot organized themselves effectively," Harris said...
...Jewish population reported lighting candles...
...Back in Russia, if they participated in a religious holiday, it was apt to have been Passover or Chanukah— celebrations of Jewish peoplehood and pride, says Simon...
...This theme was reiterated by Rabbi Leonid Feldman, who left the Soviet Union in 1976 and is now the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Palm Beach, Florida...
...This was up from 29 percent in 1981...
...It demands everyday work, but it's not good publicity," Rashkovsky says...
...Leaders in the Soviet immigrant community interviewed by MOMENT sounded a more optimistic note...
...I seldom find any...
...1, Winter 1987...
Vol. 14 • June 1989 • No. 4
