Notes & News
NOTES & NEWS ; Soviet American Jews | Are Observant Jews | Being Jewish is important to more than 90 percent of the Soviet Jews who immigrated to the United States between 1977 and 1981, contrary...
...There are now more than 250,000 applications for admission into the U.S...
...included with the package was an application for the Great Comebacks Award, which Fine promptly filled out and sent in...
...By chance, though, she met someone who had some American-made ConvaTec appliances...
...All applicants applying for entrance into the U.S...
...Barry A. Kosmin of the Council of Jewish Federations recently surveyed immigrants born in the Soviet Union in 1924-1971...
...Many people think that something (bad) will happen soon...
...Jewish men apparently were able to postpone their deaths until after this meaningful occasion...
...The U.S...
...And it is not certain that all first-degree relatives—spouses, unmarried sons, unmarried daughters or parents of persons in the U.S.—will be granted entry either, according to Royce Fichte, director of the Washington Process Center, a joint facility of the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service...
...Housing subsidies required beyond the first year, however, are covered entirely by the Israeli government...
...There are 50,000 spaces allotted for all refugees from the Soviet Union for 1990...
...The mortality rate for Jewish men for death by natural causes fell 23 percent below the expected level just before Pesach and rose by 23 percent directly afterward in a study by David P. Phillips and Elliot W. King, sociologists at the University of California at San Diego...
...I felt very lonely and depressed after the operation," Fine said...
...costs are paid by contributions from HIAS, the U.S...
...That number has risen steadily since 1987 when it stood at 12,000...
...These expenditures, however, do not include the cost to Israel for housing construction, industries, roads, sewage, power stations and other facilities required to absorb 100,000 new immigrants...
...The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) estimates the cost of settling the same family in Israel for one year at $18,000...
...Neither stress nor overeating can account for this phenomenon, according to the researchers, who attribute it to psychologically significant events...
...Will Death Stand Aside for Pesach...
...will become independent— able to survive apart from organizational support—in the first year, the same cannot be said of Soviet immigrants in Israel...
...If a second-degree relative is scheduled for an interview, that interview could be pushed back indefinitely as long as there are first-degree relative applications being received...
...Jews can put off death until after Pesach according to several new medical studies...
...Two previous studies, one in 1981 by the Council of Jewish Federations and the other, a 1984 survey by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York support Kosmin's findings (see "How Jewish Are Soviet Immigrants," June 1989...
...Once screened, most Soviet Jews are granted entry...
...Transportation to Israel is covered entirely by the Jewish Agency, at approximately $1,000 per person...
...In the United States Jews are four times more likely than the general population to suffer from IBD...
...U.S...
...Her "comeback" is particularly notable because of the lack of progressive treatment for IBD in the Soviet Union...
...Interviews are granted according to U.S...
...Furthermore, while it is expected that the average immigrant in the U.S...
...NOTES & NEWS ; Soviet American Jews | Are Observant Jews | Being Jewish is important to more than 90 percent of the Soviet Jews who immigrated to the United States between 1977 and 1981, contrary to what is often printed in the Jewish press about Soviet immigrants...
...from Soviet Jews...
...These applicants have priority for interviews, regardless of their status, and they receive half of the interview spaces at this time...
...government—the Federal Matching Grants program pays half the costs for the first four months— and by local UJA federations and other organizations in the Jewish community...
...They found a 35 percent decrease in the mortality rate for older Chinese women before their holiday with a 35 percent increase in the rate immediately afterward...
...Before I could barely work a half hour a day, but now within a few months I have been thrust into a full life," Fine said...
...Phillips and King's 1988 study was reinforced more recently when Phillips with Daniel G. Smith studied the death rate among older Chinese women before and after the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival...
...Fine wrote to ConvaTec, a subsidiary of the Squibb Company, and explained her situation...
...still has 36,000 applications for Soviet immigration received before October 1, 1989...
...These Soviet Jews are more likely than their American-born peers to fast on Yom Kippur and donate to Jewish charities...
...She admitted, "It is not very comfortable in Moscow...
...under refugee status are interviewed before they are accepted for entrance to ensure that they have, "a well-founded fear of persecution...
...Proving this fear of persecution is not normally a difficulty for Soviet Jews...
...During Pesach older Jewish men play a central ceremonial role, while in the Harvest Moon Festival older Chinese women perform the central role...
...But after the first year expenditure, the costs of settlement in Israel rise steeply because of the need to expand the country's infrastructure and to pay for settlement costs beyond the first year, usually unnecessary in the U.S...
...This means that up to half a million Jews could be waiting to come to the U.S., since many applications contain more than one name...
...Families of four can receive up to $37,000 in interest free real estate loans, which stimulate Israel's economy and building industry...
...These settlement costs cover transportation from the Soviet Union, housing, interviews, language training, education and retraining, linkage with the community, food, clothing and other care and maintenance...
...For further information on IBD and the Great Comebacks Award, you can call the National Foundation for Ileitis and Colitis at 800-343-3637...
...Refugee Processing Priorities...
...for one year is approximately $22,000, according to Roberta Elliot of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS...
...In Israel, Soviet immigrants can also get mortgage loans...
...Soviet Jew Wins American "Great Comeback" Award Twenty-one year-old Moscow resident Irene Fine thought she would never lead a normal life after undergoing seven operations for ulcerative colitis caused by inflammatory bowel disease, sometimes considered a 'Jewish disease" (see "Our Struggle with IBD," September 1988...
...These loans are also available to immigrants from countries other than the Soviet Union based on where they choose to settle, the size of the family and whether that family already owns an apartment...
...Employment opportunities in Israel are limited for professionals—most Soviet immigrants—and creating more jobs requires additional capital investment...
...They are almost as likely to observe kashrut, light candles for Shabbat and join a synagogue as their American counterparts...
...His data also shows nearly 70 percent attend seders and light Chanukah candles, 63 percent of parents in this group oppose intermarriage and 40 percent oppose marriage to converts...
...Your Second-Degree Soviet Relatives May Never Get Here It will be virtually impossible for Soviet Jews who are second-degree relatives— married sons or daughters, siblings, grandparents or grandchildren—of persons in the United States to gain entry into this country for the foreseeable future...
...The company responded by sending Fine some sample appliances...
...Can Soviet Jews Settle In the U.S...
...for Less Than In Israel...
...The cost of establishing a Soviet family of four in the U.S...
...Today, however, she is a vivacious engineering student who enjoys going to movies and discos with her friends...
...What the quota will be in the future is impossible to say, as it is determined yearly by a joint decision of Congress and the current presidential administration...
...Officials are not willing to hazard a guess as to how long the process of resettlement in Israel will take but the implication by all concerned is that for the average immigrant, settlement will not be achieved in the first year...
...Fine was recendy recognized in the United States with a special Great Comebacks International Award by the National Foundation for Ileitis and Colitis...
...I couldn't find people in the same position as I was...
...Getting the interview is the problem...
...The initial cost of settling Soviet Jews in the United States is about the same as the cost of settling them in Israel...
...Fine's plans, following her trip to the United States to receive the award, include finishing her engineering degree and eventually leaving the Soviet Union...
...Of the children born to this group who have reached the age of 12, 79 percent have received formal Jewish education, while 35-44 percent attend Jewish youth groups or camps...
...The $14,000 balance for the family of four is paid jointly by the Jewish Agency and the government of Israel...
...I waited two months and almost decided to write again," Fine said, before she heard that she would be honored...
...In Moscow, Fine was unable to obtain the appropriate appliances following her final operation, an ileostomy where a surgically created passage through the small intestine drains waste into a pouch worn on the abdomen...
Vol. 15 • August 1990 • No. 4
