64 Friday, October 5, 1979
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Russian Immigrants: Overcoming Language and Culture-Shock
' By BARBARA LEWIS
Jewish Welfare Federation
Tatiana Vulman didn't
know she was Jewish till
she was in the third grade.
The teachers had it writ-
ten down in their books
what the st'slents were; and
a friend of mine saw that I
was Jewish and she told
me," said the pretty, fair-
haired 13-year-old. "I was
the only Jewish girl in my
class."
It's a long way from Mos-
• cow, where Tatiana's par-
ents had to protect her from
the knowledge of her reli-
gious origins, to Berkley,
Mich., where the Vulmans
have lived since moving to
the U.S. a year ago.
Living openly as a Jew is
just one of –the many
changes Tatiana and other
immigrant children have
had to face. But if she and
two of her friends, Inna Lib-
kind and Irini Yudkovich,
are any example, the transi-
tion is not too difficult.
Their biggest problem,
the girls agreed, is their
lack of fluency in
English. Although they
started learning English
two years, ago, most of
their knowledge has been
acquired since they ar-
rived here. Irina's family
came to Detroit last
spring; Inna's family ar-
rived just a few months
ago. Both girls are from
Leningrad, which Irina
describes nostalgically
as "a beautiful city."
All the girls had been to a
synagogue only once. "In
Moscow there is only one
synagogue," Tatiana said.
"I went once, but it was very
crowded and I couldn't get
inside."
at
enrolled
Now
Yeshivath Beth Yehuda,
the girls are learning about
their Jewish heritage in
addition to English and
other school subjects. Their
families have begun to
attend synagogue services
regularly and to openly
celebrate the Jewish holi-
days.
Professional educators
and social workers who deal
with immigrant children
agree with the three teens
that mastering English is
their biggest problem.
Younger children adjust
more easily, both to the lan-
guage and to the cultural
differences.
"Russian schools offer
a lot less freedom than
our schools," said Alicia
Karr, casework super-,
visor at Resettlement
Service, the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation member
agency which coordi-
nates community serv-
ices to Soviet refugees.
"Russian teens want to
conform to their American
peers, and at-the same time
they want to live up to the
expectations of their par-
ents, who are used to the
Russian educational sys-
tem. This sometimes causes
social conflicts for them."
"In high school, about
half the immigrant stu-
dents do well and the other
half not so well," said
George Giannetti, director
of bilingual programs for
the Oak Park Public
Schools, where many new-
comers' children are
enrolled.
"Attendance is some-
times a problem — some of
the Russian students tend
to skip classes a lot. I think
it's a problem of culture-
shock, not just ordinary ado-
lescent problems."
The Oak Park district,
which has immigrant
students from more than
a half-dozen ethnic
groups, has a bilingual
Two of Detroit's three
Jewish day schools, which
are supported by the Allied
Jewish Campaign - Israel
Emergency Fund, also have
substantial numbers of
Russian students.
Hillel Day School has
about 20 Russian stu-
dents, mainly in grades 1
through 4. Yeshivath
Beth Yehuda has more
than 50 children from the
USSR. Akiva Day School
currently has only one
Russian children work side-by-side with Ameri-
cans in both English and Hebrew classes at Hillel Day
School.
program in which stu- Russian student.
"When we get them
dents learn English; in
addition some regular young enough they perform
school subjects are like the rest of our students
taught in the students' — some great, some not so
great," said Rabbi Robert
first language.
"Some are able to switch Abramson, Hillel's head-
over to all-English classes master. "Their problems are
in one year," said Giannetti. individual problems, not
problems unique to Rus-
"Most take three years."
The district has a Russian sians as a group."
bilingual advisory commit-
One of the most impor-
tee, composed of students' tant functions of Hillel, and
parents, which meets other Jewish schools, is
periodically and has been turning the students on to
"very supportive," Gian- knowledge and enjoyment
netti said.
of their Jewishness, he said.
"A family's level of Yid-
dishkeit depends on where
in the USSR they came from
and what were their mo-
tives for leaving Russia.
Some left because they
wanted to be practicing
Jews, others because they
wanted material benefits or
more personal freedom," he
said.
"Jews from Moscow
generally don't know
Pesach from popovers.
But Lithuania, and sev-
eral other areas, were not
part of the USSR until
after World War II. In
families from these areas,
some parents, many
grandparents, learned
Hebrew and managed to
maintain some Jewish
atmosphere in their
homes."
About 20 Russian chil-
dren attended Camp
Tamarack last summer.
They adapt well to the camp
program, since there are
similar programs in the
USSR, Berman said. "They
don't get homesick, but they
need someone to talk to.
They don't like to talk to the
counselors, either because
of the language barrier or
because of a general dis-
trust of authority."
Tamarack has started to
hire older Russian teena-
gers as kitchen and mainte-
nance staffers, he said.
"Having them around helps
the younger kids, even
though they aren't directly
involved with them."
The Jewish Community
Center has also hired a few
teenagers — to act as trans-
lators for the Russian chil-
dren. Almost all the immig-
rant children are placed at
Tamarack br the Center day
camp during their first two
summers here.
"We try to place two
Russian children to-
gether within a group, as
a sort of 'buddy system',"
said Cal Lefton, director
of group services at the
Center. "And we try to
place them with the more
experienced counselors."
Many of the day -ginpers
have a parent e ad in
the Center's Englisii classes
for immigrants. "They ar-
rive and depart on the bus
with their parents, rather
than with the other cam-
pers," he said.
Younger children are
placed in the Center's nur-
sery program, both during
the school year and in the
summer. "We have a buddy
system there too," Lefton
said. "We usually assign an
American child to each Rus-
sian child, and we have a
Russian speaker on staff.
The children seem to over-
come the cultural dif-
ferences really easily, but
language is a big problem."
Most of the Russian chil-
dren attend the day schools
and camping programs on
scholarships.
"We turn down applicants
only if we feel they're too old
to adjust to our program,"
said Hillel's Rabbi Abram-
son. "Otherwise, we've been
able to accommodate all.
Some families who have
been here four or five years
are now starting to contrib-
ute to their children's tui-
tion."
The Moral Bankruptcy of U.S. Black Leadership
By JULIUS LESTER
(Editor's note: Lester is
a former member of the
Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee.
This article is reprinted
from the Sept. 10 Village
Voice.) -
And so, Jews are being
used as scapegoats again.
I cannot interpret other-
wise the recent positions
taken by black leaders on
the Mideast and black-
Jewish relations. And I am
angered by how self-
righteous and arrogant
black leaders sounded:
"Jews must show more sen-
sitivity and be prepared for
more consultation before
taking positions contrary to
the best interests of the
black community."
While I understand that
such a statement comes
from years of anger at active
Jewish opposition to affir-
mative action, and how de-
eply blacks were hurt by
this opposition to what was
in our "best interests,"
black leadership still seems
to be ignorant of the fact
that Jews have been hurt by
black indifference to the
fate of Israel.
I don't recall angry
pronouncements from
black leadership when 18
Jews were killed at
Kiryat Shmona by Pales-
tinian terrorists. I don't
remember black hands
held out in sympathy
when 20 Jewish children
were murdered at
Maalot, where Palesti-
nians held a school of
children hostage. When
31 Jews were killed in a
Palestinian attack on a
bus, black leadership did
not gather before the
television cameras and
microphones to say, "No!
No! No! Not another Jew
can be murdered on this
earth."
Because blacks have been
silent while Jews continued
4-ityq.464 4
to be murdered, I am appal-
led that they dare come for-
ward now to self-
righteously lecture Jews to
"show .more sensitivity"
when black . leadership is
guilty of ethnocentric in-
sehsitivity. Arrogance is,
however, a common fault of
oppressed people when they
believe that their status as
victims gives them the ad-
vantage of moral superior-
ity. But morality is not
found in lecturing others on
morality. Morality is pain-
fully earned by constant
awareness of one's own
limitations, mistakes, and
fragile humanity. Morality
comes by constantly adjur-
ing yourself and not others
to "show more sensitivity."
It is the absence of sen-
sitivity to point the finger at
Israel's relations with
South Africa when black
leadership has failed to
exemplify the least concern
about the oppression of
Soviet Jewry. How dare
black leadership thrust it-
self into foreign affairs on
the issue of Palestinian
rights after failing to take
an interest when Jews were
fighting against the expira-
tion of the statute of limita-
tions on Nazi war crimes in
West Germany! The lack of
black sensitivity on matters
of deep and abiding concern
to Jews has wounded Jews
as much as Jewish opposi-
tion to affirmative action
has wounded us.
However, black leader-
ship not only wraps itself in
a cloak of moral excellence
it goes further and chooses
sides in the Mideast con-
flict. I shouldn't have been
surprised by this, because,
as Reverend Wyatt Tee
Walker expressed it, "The
Palestinians are the niggers
of the Middle East." Such a
statement is sickeningly
obscene. Any pro-
Palestinian sympathies I
might have had died in
Munich when 11 members,
of the Israeli Olympic team
were murdered.
But maybe blacks have
become so Western that
we don't think it is "to the
best interests of the black
community" to care that
there are still people in
the world who want to
a. 4e,ws because they
But who in the
civili-
zation has ever cared
when Jews were killed?
Why, then, should blacks
be different?
Not being different, black
leadership takes its stand
for "human rights and self-
determination for Palesti-
nians." This sounds reason-
able, but something deep
within me says that is
wrong to talk about Pales-
tinian human rights as long
as Israeli children live with
the prospect of death at
Palestinian hands. How can
black leadership even think
about self-determination
for people who attack chil-
dren? To do so implicitly
condones the murder of
children.
Black leadership should
know about the murder of
children, or have we forgot-
ten the four children mur-
dered in that Birmingham
church in 1963? And surely
we've forgotten that at the
memorial services and ral-
lies after the bombing, it
was Jews, more so than
other Americans, who stood
beside us and shared our
pain.
Black leadership insults
this very real part of black
history, not to mention in-
sulting Jews, when it says
that Jewish support for the
black struggle was given
when it was "in their (Jews)
best interest to do so." No,
that is not true, because
those Jews who supported,
worked, and died in the civil
rights movement remem-
bered in their souls the pog-
roms in Russia, the
Holocaust, the dying that is
so constant in Israel, and
because they remembered,
they made our struggle a
part of their lives.
That Jews have not
supported affirmative
action does nothing to
negate this. But this does
not seem good enough for
black leadership, which
takes the position that
the support Jews gave in
the past is to be denig-
rated now. I -nnot
understand wl ,lack
leadership lacks the sim-
ple humanity to express
gratitude for past sup-
port, as well as the anger
we feel now in the face of
Jewish conservatism.
Instead, black leadership
has acted as if Jews were re-
sponsible for Andy Young's
resignation. I thought Andy
was responsible for that,
and, with great dignity, he
explained that he needed to
be free to speak as he
wished. But, as Western
history amply demon-
strates, whenever some-
thing goes wrong it is easy
to blame the Jews.