THE JEWISH NEWS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
THIS ISSUE 60c
CLOSE—UP
FEBRUARY 10, 1989 / 5 ADAR I 5749
A Closing Circle
For Soviet Emigres
Israel wants as many Russian immigrants as possible,
but doesn't have the capacity to absorb them.
DAVID HOLZEL
Israel Correspondent
Indivisible As Night
,The son of a Methodis rn: n e
through Black Power politics and Catholic mysticism befor
"nd,and,s ,are .011e,..
Jewish working parents have
limited options when it comes
to day care for infants and toddlers.
Jerusalem — Gershon and
Eleanora Schneider slowly ascended
the steps to their friend Yanna
Berkovsky's apartment. It was night,
and the light at the top of the stairs
wasn't working, so the couple, both in
their late 60s, had to climb the three
outside flights in the dark.
The top offered a beautiful view of
the lights of Jerusalem — and the diz-
zying prospect of a-fall to the bottom
of the staircase.
Though living conditions in an
absorption center are difficult, the
Schneiders would be happy if only
they could stay. But their landlord,
the Jewish Agency, is seeking their
eviction.
The Schneiders have lived in the
Gilo Absorption Center since their
aliyah from the Soviet Union three
and a half years ago. Berkovsky has
lived in the center for four years. New
immigrants are provided living space
in an absorption center for up to six
months, and the Jewish Agency has
issued repeated eviction notices to
Berkovsky and the Schneiders
threatening prosecution. But the
families say they have nowhere else
to go.
"We are of pension age," Gershon
Schneider says of himself and his
wife. "We have no money to buy an
apartment."
Berkovsky, who found work as a
library assistant, says the absorption
system in Israel is alienating her. "In
Russia, I had strength against anti-
Semitism," she said. "I told myself
that I am a good human being and
they aren't. Here I have the feeling
that I don't know who I am.
"If every half year I receive a let-
ter that says I have to leave or I'll be
taken to court, I feel like a law
breaker?'
Berkovsky and the Schneiders are
typical of many older Soviet immi-
grants who have been shut out of
Israel's expensive housing and nar-
row job markets, and for whom the
country's absorption bureaucracy has
nothing more to give.
In a year when a record number
of Jews are expected to be allowed to
leave the Soviet Union — a population
Israel would dearly love to have set-
tle here — the Jewish state is less
prepared than ever to receive even the
relatively small number who will
choose to come here.
"There is no accommodation for
new arrivals," says Yuri Shtern,
spokesman for the Soviet Jewry
Zionist Forum, an advocacy group
founded here last spring. "Many ab-
sorption centers have been closed,
there is no rental housing, and all
other housing is expensive."
Israel is faced with a double
whammy: the embarrassing statistic
that some 90 percent of Soviet Jewish
immigrants will continue to opt for
the United States over Israel, and the
fact that Israel seems ill-equipped to
handle those who do choose aliyah.
Surely there is a correlation between
the two, with many Soviet Jews hear-
ing while still in the USSR that life
in Israel is too difficult and deciding
that if they are allowed to leave they
will go to America.
One answer to the problem is to
inject more money into the system,
says Shtern. The Israeli budget is fac-
ANALYSIS
ing another round of cuts, so the re-
maining option is to use funds raised
by Diaspora Jews, especially
American Jews, Shtern says.
According to Natan Sharansky,
the forum's chairman, the group pro-
posed to the Jewish Agency leader-
ship a year ago holding a special fund-
raising campaign. The Russian ac-
tivists were turned down.
The need for a special campaign
took on an added urgency for activists
last month when it was learned that
United Jewish Appeal funds for Israel
might be cut to spend more in the
United States, particularly to assist
Russian emigres.
At a meeting of the Jewish Agen-
cy Executive in New York in January,
Simcha Dinitz, chairman of the ex-
ecutive, reversed his position and
came out in favor of the special cam-
paign. The still-evolving plan for the
campaign includes both practical and
ideological elements, according to
Howard Weisband, the Agency's
secretary general. It acknowledges
the reality that the majority of Soviet
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