56

Friday, February 18, 1977

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Services Aiding .Adjustment of , Soviet Immigrants
Described in Former Detroiter's Year Book Article

NEW YORK - Soviet
Jews who have come to
the U.S. in recent years
by and large have become
self-supporting and
well-adjusted within a
few months, according to
an article on "Soviet Jews
in the United States" in
the 1977 edition of the
American Jewish Year
Book.
Of the 11,000 such im-
migrants who have come
to this country in the past
decade, the article states,
almost half have settled
in New York and almost
all have been aided in ad-
justing to their new lives
by local JewiSh social and
communal agencies.
The Year Book, the au-
thoritative record of
-events and trends in
Jewish life, is published
jointly by the American
Jewish Committee and
the Jewish Publication
Society of America.

In the article, Joseph
Edelman, who is research
director of the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society
and former - director of
programming and com-
munications media for the
Jewish Community Coun-
cil of Metropolitan De-
troit, points out the dif-
ficulties most Soviet Jews
have in making the transi-
tion from a closed, to-
talitarian society to an

open society demanding
individual initiative and
responsibility.
He writes: "For the

first time, they must cope
with the fact that in this
country, fees have to be
paid for medical services;
that to attend a univer-
sity costs money; that one
has to seek actively an
apartment and assume a
financial risk when going

•

also become accustomed
to the American way of
paying for their needs,
such as bank loans,
mortgages, credit cards
- all strange to them."
The author describes
this group of immigrants
as having had "a high de-
gree of training and ad-
vanced schooling. - Of
those in the labor force, 28
percent were profession-
als, 11 percent engineers,
and- 12 percent techni-
cians.

The preponderance of
professionals and aca-
demics, the article re-
lates, has made for prob-
lems in job placement.
"This is not only in terms
of numbers and the relaL
tively limited positions av-
ailable, but of their qual-
ifications. The almost total
isolation of Soviet society
for many years meant that
they, like all Russians,
were denied, or were li-
mited in access to informa-
tion from abroad about
new developments and the
literature in their fields of
specialization.

JOSEPH EDELMAN
"This tended to create
into business; that there large gaps in the know-
is job competition in the ledge and skills of most
job market, and that they professionals, particu-
might not always be able larly of physicians, who
to find positions in occu- often are unaware of new
pations for which they drugs and techniques de-
considered themselves veloped in the Western
fully trained. They must world, and engineers,

Speaking About the Weather

BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.)

The country is ex-
periencing an exception-
ally cold winter. One way
perhaps of coping with it
is to think ahead - of
Spring. Take down your
Bible and turn to the
Song of Songs:
"For lo, the winter is
gone, the flowers appear

on the earth and the voice
of the turtle dove is heard
in the land."
Think of that turtle
dove singing. Don't you
feel warmer at once?

Some of the rabbis of old
have_ shown ways of get-
ting warmer in winter.

I like especially the
story of Rabbi Hayim Au-
erback of Lutzitz.
One cold winter day, a
poor man visited him with
tears in his eyes. His wife
had just given birth to a
baby and there was no
wood to heat the room in
which the mother and__
child lay.
Rabbi Auerbach then
knocked on the window of
a wealthy Jew who was a
neighbor.

"Come in, rabbi," cried
the rich man, "and tell me
what you want. Why stand
out there shivering"

But the rabbi would not
go in. "No," said the
rabbi, "you must come
out."
The rich Jew then came
out and the rabbi told him
the story of the Jewish
mother and child lying in
the cold.
"But you could have
told me that on the in-
side," said the rich man.

"No I wanted you to
come out in the cold, so you
would appreciate the situ-
ation better."

The rich man 'im-
mediately saw to it that
the poor man had his
wood for fire and also I be-
lieve the rich man himself
felt warmer inside.
Another 'rabbinic story
that warms the heart is

told of Rabbi Wolf
Barazer. One time, he
suddenly disappeared
right in the middle of a
Jewish festive gathering.
They went looking for
him and found him stand-
ing outside freezing be-
side the hackman's horse.
The rabbi had seen the
hackman standing freez-
ing and told him to go in
and warm hiinself for
awhile and he took his
place standing and freez-
ing, guarding the horse.
So a mitzva can keep one
warm.

Samuel Gompers, presi-
dent of the American Fed-
eration of Labor, in his
early days was a cigar
maker and he told of a
novel way one of his fellow
cigar makers kept warm.

The cigar maker could
have bought an overcoat,
but he figured out a more
economical way.
Two drinks of whiskey
made him as warm as
though he had an over-
coat and since he only
needed an overcoat for
the two coldest months,
he concluded it was
cheaper to use the two
drinks method.
But there is a better
method for saving the
price of an overcoat and
reducing the fuel bill- go
to Israel. You won't usu-
ally find much snow
there. That's why it at-
tracts so many birds.
The bird population of
Israel has grown greatly
since the Jews moved
back there. The birds
seem to be some of our
, best friends.

TABLE

I. SOVIET JEWISH ARRIVA1.S IN DESIGNATED AREAS,

1966-1975

I- HAS-Assisted USSR ;Migrants

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

Grand
Total

36
-
11

72
_

92

156
2
9
-
15

124

3

214
24
12

5
3

8
7

453
11
17
-
26
33

1,449
196
46
-
11
71

3,490
398
119
-
13
90

5,250
847
305
47
20
207

- 11,336
1,476
526
47
• 105
413

96 - 182

135

265

540

1,773

4,110

6,676

13,905

31,652 33,477

16,816

8,531

111,007

Destination

United States
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
Latin America
Europe

4

3
2

52

4
-

76

I

Totals

USSR A rrivals in Israel

2,054

1,403

224

3,019

992

12,839

who could not . keep ab-
In New York, where the
reast with discoveries af- NewYork Association for
fecting their work.
New Americans is re-
"Consequently, aside sponsible for their ab-
from coping with lan- sorption, an average cash
guage difficulties, many allowance of $4,200 is
highly educated and provided for a family of
trained emigres must ac- four to cover rent, food,
quire the, knowledge and clothing and medical care
skills long utilized by for an initial period that
Western professionals. varies with each family's
As a result, they are often needs, the article states.
With this assistance, and
frustrated because they
cannot immediately re- in spite of severe adjust-
bl
Russia
R
i n
sume the skilled occupa- men t problems,
tions for which they feel Jews who arrive in the Un-
they have been trained." ited States show an ex-
traordinary degree of
The author describes achievement in a very
the work of HIAS in pro= short time," states a
cessing the immigrants NYANA report quoted by
from the time of their ar- Edelman. "It is perhaps to
rival in Vienna until they be expected: those who
reach the U.S. He also have reached the United
discusses the immense States were not only wit-
variety of services in job ling to take the risk of ap-
placement„ housing, clo- plying for exit permits
thing, medical care and from the Soviet Union, but
counselling that local had the energy, the deter-
Jewish welfare agencies mination and the persis-
provide for them in cities tence to overcome all the
throughout the U.S.
obstacles which they faced

TABLE 6. INITIAL

Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Cleveland
Detroit
Los Angeles
Metropolitan N.J.
Miami
New York City
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
St. Louis
San Francisco
Washington, D.C.

Others

Total

"Despite
all
the
economic and social obs-
tacles, within one or two
months after their arri-
val, 80 to 85 percent of all
to Russian newcomers
have found their own
apartments. Within four
to six months, if there are
no unusual vocational,
medical or other special
problems, the average
Russian family is by and
large self-supporting and
no longer requires finan-
.
vial assistance."
These successes, the
author concludes, are due
to the joint efforts of var-
ious Jewish agencies and
the commitment of the
Jewish community. The
Russian Jews, he de-
Glares, "like the genera-
tion of their grand-
fathers, are a rich source
of potential spiritual and
cultural contributions to
American Jewish life."

SETTLEMENT OF HIAS-ASSISTED USSR MIGRANTS IN SELECTED

AMERICAN COMMUNMES,

CITIES

during their wait for depa-
ture.

Jewish
Population

94,000
180,000
253,000
80,000
80,000
463,000
95,000
225,000
1,998,000
350,000
52,000
60,000
75,000
112,500

1971-1975

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

3
-
7
2
3-
16
-
1
138
13
4

4
2
16
27
4
23
5
5
276
4
2
-
1

36
49
73
60
49
90
25
16
731
85
7
11

83
83
146
113
120
229
62
94
1,572
195
27
37

150
140
260
145
157
428
67
124
2,247
- 281
43
77

. 276
274
502
347
333
786
159
240
4,964
578
83
125

6

40

69

10

27

121
48

__2.020

10,856

5
-

1,614,500

22

84

201

662

11
1,051

5,732,000

214

453

1,449

3,490

5,250

Total

Gaza Strip Agriculture Boom
Attributed to Special Climate

GAZA - In the 1940s, instructor Mohammed
due to its special climatic Hamdan, Gaza witnessed
conditions, the Gaza reg- a serious regression in its
ion furnished a good deal vegetable growing.
of early spring vegetables
In the 1960s there was
to the markets of man-
such a lack of fresh veget-
datory Palestine.
abler in the strip that large
In the 1950s, under the quantitities had to be im-

mark with income exce-
ing $45 million.
Vegetables are grown
on some 5,500 acres - 500
acres under plastic covers
-yielding over 55,000
tons of produce.

ported daily by rail, from
Instead of importing
growing was introduced Port Said.
fresh
vegetables, the
into the strip, and groves
"Today," Hamdan says, Gaza Strip has made its
rose at every possible "That is history. In the debut as an exporter of its
place, even where water strip we grow 17,500 acres produce to Europe. "In
containing a high degree of citrus."
1976, 250 tons were ex-
of chlorine should have
There are eight mod- ported and we are looking
prevented the planting of ern, automatic packing forward to reaching the
citrus fruits.
houses and the 1976 yield 1,500 ton mark," Hamdan
According to vegetable topped the 240,000 ton says.

I

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