14
Friday, July 13, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
s soon as you walk into the
University of Michigan
office of Prof. Zvi Gitel-
man, there's no doubting
that he is an authority on
Soviet and east European politics.
His bookshelves are crammed
with volumes in Polish, Russian,
Czech, Hebrew and Yiddish; stacks of
journals, scholarly articles and
copies of Pravda and Izvestia are
piled high on his various desks and
tables. It is hard 4 find a place to sit,
and the telephone is a constant inter-
ruption.
Dr. Gitelman, who lives in
Southfield and commutes to Ann Ar-
bor, received his Ph.D. from Colum-
bia and has been a professor of politi-
cal science at Michigan for more than
a decade. He is associated with U-M's
Center for Russian and Eastern
European Studies and has written
numerous articles on Soviet Jewry in
publications ranging from Soviet
Jewish Affairs to Moment. He is also '
the author of two major full-length
volumes: Jewish Nationality and
Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections
of the CPSU, 1917-1930, and Becom-
ing Israelis: Political Resocialization
of Soviet and American Immigrants.
Dr. Gitelman has spent much time in
places like Leningrad, Warsaw and
Jerusalem doing primary research.
He has been following the fortunes of
Soviet Jews for a long time.
Those fortunes are at a low ebb
withinthe Soviet Union right now. In
1979: 51,000 Jews emigrated to the
West; four years later, the figure
plummeted to just 1,315. Only 229
were let out through the first three
months of 1984.
Nonetheless, about 300,000
Soviet Jews have made new homes
BY HENRY SREBRNIK
for themselves since 1971, mainly in
Special The Jewish News
Israel and the United States. Who
From
Front Page
are they, and how are they faring?
Dr. Gitelman pointed out that
there are geographical, cultural and
ideological differences between those
Soviet Jews who made aliyah to Is-
lies of Byelorussia, the Ukraine and
rael and those who decided to come
Russia proper. "They have been liv-
here.
ing mostly in the big cities — Lenin-
The overwhelming majority of
grad,
Moscow, Kiev, etc. The implica-
the 80,000 Soviet Jews in America —
tions of this is that these are third-
a full 87 percent — come from the
and fourth-generation Soviet Jews,
Soviet "heartland," the Slavic repub-
who have lived under Soviet rule
SIA
EN'T
IN
U-M expert and Southfield resident Dr. Zvi
Gitelman analyzes the current impasse in
Soviet Jewish emigration.
RETURNING TO RUSSIAN ROOTS
University of Michigan Pro-
fessor Zvi Gitelman has returned
to his "roots" by making Soviet
and Eastern European politics his
life's work.
A New York native, Dr.
Gitelman recalls' as a child sitting
with his Russian-born father in
shul and listening to stories about
Russia.
Dr. Gitelman was an English
major at Columbia University
when he decided that he wanted to
read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in
the original Russian. He took Rus-
sian classes, and "a fascinating
course on Eastern European poli-
tics" put him on his present path.
After joining the U-M faculty
in 1968, Dr. Gitelmah met and
Married Detroiter Marlene Cern.
They have two children, Yitzhak
I
•
and Miriam. The Gitelmans
helped found the Hebrew Day
School of Ann Arbor, and now that
they live in Southfield they are
members of Young Israel of South-
field.
Dr. Gitelman is also a
member of the board of Akiva He-
brew Day School, and he is a
member of the Detroit Soviet
Jewry Committee of the Jewish
Community Council.
The Gitelmans have traveled
to Europe and Israel several times
on extended visits to do research.
The family will live in Israel next
year while Dr. Gitelman serves as
a Fulbright lecturer at Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and con
ducts research on ethnic relations
in the Soviet Union.
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rog,
since 1917 or so," explained Dr.
Gitelman. "Russian is their culture.
They have had no contacts with
Jewish learning and Jewish com-
munities for half-a-century or more.
Their Jewish knowledge is usually
very weak, their Jewish identifica-
tion in substantial part negative. The
Soviets deprived them of positive
Jewish culture, yet insisted they re-
main Jews, and they suffered from
that identity."
The Soviet definition of nation-
ality is strictly biological — it derives
from the 'identity of the parents —
and is included on every citizen's
internal passport. Many Jews were
therefore known as "invalids of the
fifth category" in reference to the sec-
tion of the passport which describes
nationality.
By contrast, a full third of those
160,000 Jews who became Israeli
dim originated in Georgia and cen-
tral Asia, and another quarter were
from the western regions ofthe USSR
— the Baltic states, eastern Poland
and Moldavia — annexed only dur-
ing World War II. "These Jews man-
aged to preserve Jewish identity, and
especially religious traditions, much
better than the Russian Jews," said
Dr. Gitelman. Those Jews coming
from areas that as late as 40-45 years
ago were part of politically-dynamic
Jewish communities and a
worldwide Jewish culture "have
more highly-developed Jewish con-
sciousness and a knowledge of the
Jewish world. They are more tradi-
tional, so it is natural for them to
gravitate towards the Jewish state."
Dr. Gitelman feels that many of
the highly-educated and culturally-
assimilated Jews who came to the
United States thus had no particular
"pull" towards Israel, yet their di-
minishing opportunities in the
Soviet Union resulted in a situation
where they felt "push" from ,that
society.
"The U.S. offers them — in their
perception, anyhow — greater voca-
tional and social opportunities, more
upward mobility. There is also a sub-
tle psychological factor at 'work —
people from a great country tend to
want to go to a similar country rather
than a small country in perpetual
danger. There is also the phenom-
enon of chain migration. Once you
got a critical mass in America, they
attracted relatives, friends and ac-
quaintances. Since the resettlement
has been positive, they sent favorable
messages back to Russia."
But, even though they were
pushed out for economic reasons,
"this is not to say they don't have
some positive feelings towards
Judaism," qualified Dr. Gitelman.
"Many of them do — they have sent
their children to Jewish day schools,
and have been involved in Jewish
cultural, social and religious activi-
ties. Though there are no hard data
as yet, it appears they are no less
involved with the Jewish community
than native-born Americans. They
also show a strong interest in, and
sympathy for, Israel, even if they are
not Zionists."
Of the Soviet Jews who have
come to the United States, "rarely
has America had such a highly-
skilled immigration." About .40 per-
cent have some Soviet higher educa-
tion, and many are trained in scien-
tific and technological fields. Since
Soviet manpower needs in these
areas are great, and these areas are
less politically sensitive than the •So-
cial sciences, humanities, political
vocations and the secret police, fewer
barriers are raised against Jews.
H
owever, Soviet engineers
and technicians are gener-
ally more specialized and
narrowly trained- than
their American counter-
parts, explained Dr. Gitelman, and so
they cannot easily transfer their
vocations and educations to the
American economy. "We are also
quite restrictive regarding foreign
medical personnel. Soviet medicine
is somewhat different. For example,
in their use of drugs, they tend to be
much more conservative. Their .-
equipment is less advanced than
ours. Their whole organization of
medical care is radically different, so
considerable adaptation is required
of these people."
A higher proportion of highly-
skilled Soviet Jews are employed at
their level of training in Israel than
in the United States.' "Naturally, Is
rael is sensitive to the need to employ
immigrants," noted Dr. Gitelman,
and two major bureaucracies,• the
Jewish Agency and thelsraeli Minis-
try for Immigrant Absorption, are
involved. This produces results: by