CLOSE-UP the ultimate source for oll your travel accessories , 6253 ORCHARD LAKE RD. NORTH OF MAPLE RD. In Sugar Tree • West Bloomfield DAILY 10 to 6:30 • THURS. 10 to 8 • SUN. 12 to 5 • CALL: 855-3180 The Staff Of Alf/ iy Salon wishes everyone a healthy & happy new year On The Boardwalk, Orchard Lake Road 855-6377 Best Wishes For A Happy and Healthy NEW YEAR To All Our Customers & Friends Orchard Lake Road, S. of Maple • 855-5529 We Will Be Closed For. The Holidays DAVID HOLZEL Qc6lyt-i8 Intimate Apparel APPLEGATE SQUARE Northwestern & Inkster- Thurs. 10 8 353-5522 - We Thank You For All Your Wonderful Patronage And Wish You The Very Best New Year and all the girls 30 FRIDAY, -SEPT 25, 1987 visit because the gate is a little open;' says Oleg Slut- sky, a co-owner of the Sunrise Cafe chain. He holds his hands to his head in horror, illustrating the shock of remembrance the emigres experience when they reach Russia. "My God, never will I go back for a visit!" Slutsky says he does not find America too socialistic or liberal. "I accept what is. Everything I found, I like." Julie Shapiro agrees. "I accept American democracy, the American style of liv- ing." Says Mark Shapiro: "I know some people who go to the extreme. They want to prove themselves. I want to be who I am. I am by no means an extremist. I am in the middle. I love some things, L don't like other things." Stanislav Kovalsky believes the right-wing and libertarian philosophies em- braced by some Russians is merely a reaction to life in the USSR, a way of purging the Soviet way of life from their minds. "I think it's on Staff Writer Thurs. — Rosh Hashanah Sat. — Yom Kippur} . Continued from Page 28 the surface. I don't think it's real convincing?' "Most Russians here are Republicans," Irina Kovalsky notes, offering an interesting reason why: "To us in Russia, 'democratic' means communism?' The move to the right, then, appears to be a response to everything Soviet, even political ter- minology. "They want to forget everything that was;' explains Oleg Slutsky with a beautiful understatement, "because it wasn't so nice?' This distancing from the past has caused problems for at least one emigre's relations with family still in the Soviet Union. "We don't belong there anymore. You're not one of them anymore;' says Ina Sushin, who has lived in the U.S. for 12 years. She visited her family not long ago, before they, too, emigrated. "They look at you as if you're still one of them, but you're not. It's a very strange feeling. It's like a guilt feeling." For those with relatives in the USSR, there is a feeling that now is the time to get them out, "to use this as Vladislav Kovalsky puts it. "We're afraid that it will be for a very short time," says Irina. Can the new immigrants arriving in Detroit • learn anything from the veterans? "When we came here, we were like babies," recalls Oleg Slutsky: "We changed our life. completely." "They should take their time and select a field they will enjoy doing. A great deal of our life is spent at work," says Emily Valk. "If you work hard and want to succeed, this is the country to do it." The Kreynin family, in their fourth month in the United States, may want to consider this advice. It is unclear if they understand how many changes they will have to make here. They do appear to. understand the major lesson learned by the Russians in America, even if they do not fully perceive its ramifications. As Maya observes in halting English: "The future is in our hands now?' ❑ - glasnost," Why Do Soviet Jewish Emigrants Prefer America To Israel ON THE BOARDWALK Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30 Rebels . 0 f the more than 265,000 Jews who left the Soviet Union in the past 20 years, -over 165,000 went to Israel. Another 91,000 came to the United States, about 2,000 of them to the Detroit area. All were allowed to leave on Israeli visas. Despite this, an increasing majority of Soviet Jews shun Israel. The growing "dropout" rate has long been a source of friction between Israel and immigrant aid groups such as HIAS. Israel, in need of immigrants, does not like to see potential Israelis going to other places. Once in transit points in Vienna or Rome, the emigrants, who could be granted immediate Israeli citizenship, may declare their preference to travel on to the U.S. and receive refugee status and a visa from the American consul. This rankles the Israelis who argue that a person with instant citizenship can hardly be considered a refugee. Prime Minister Yit- zhak Shamir has even re- quested that the U.S. stop granting refugee status to the Soviet Jews. All sorts of schemes have been proposed to stem the dropout tide, in- cluding flying the emigrants either directly or indirectly from • the Soviet Union to Israel. There, say the Israelis, the Russians can decide, like any other Israeli resident, if they want to stay or go. But memories of America turning its back on refugees from the Holocaust have proven to be stronger to American Jews than Israeli arguments, and neither American Jews nor the U.S. government seem interested in changing the status quo. The Russians who arrive in the U.S. now do so to join their families, one reason for the steadily increasing dropout rate. This year,. 1,197 — slightly more than one-quarter —. of the 3,899 Jews who left the Soviet Union went to Israel. But those who opted for America in the 1970s — when about 60 percent went to Israel — had other reasons. Alex Goldis, a refusenik for two years, says he had "definite Zionist aspirations. But, if I would be honest, [I had] a desire to come to a land of opportunity. I was getting negatiVe impres- sions of engineering oppor- tunities in Israel. Mostly I was charged materialistical- ly?' Michael Kuchersky, a co- owner of the Sunrise Cafe chain, served three years in the Soviet army before he emigrated. That experience prompted him to choose the U.S. over Israel. "Everybody said, 'You go to Israel, you'll be in the army again! " Another factor which may contribute to the dropout rate is the anti-Israel pro- paganda to which all Soviet citizens are exposed. The propaganda factor leads Israelis to conclude that if. the Russians saw Israel first, they might like it. Sam Valk says he has an Israeli uncle who "tried to veer me to Israel." Valk and his wife, Emily, had their sights on the U.S., however. "It was our choice:' argues Ina Sushin, indicating that her decision to come to America was not so much a rejection of Israel as it was an expression of free will. "That's what.leaving Russia is all about, making choices."