SPECIAL REPORT
❑
THE NEW EXODUS
The Zionist Dream
Is About To Be Tested
With the need to absorb up to a million Soviet
Jews in the next deca4 Israel is willing but is
she able? A first-hand report.
GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
erusalem — In an im-
passioned speech to an
international gather-
ing of Jewish journalists,
Jewish Agency Chairman
Simcha Dinitz said he is not
worried about the "historic
challenge" of absorbing
huge numbers of Soviet em-
igrants, that Israel has nev-
er been more prepared.
But even as Dinitz spoke,
a top Jewish Agency aide
leaned over and whispered to
me: "We don't even have a
plan."
What's going on?
Soviet Jews are pouring
j
into Israel at a rate of more
than 1,000 a week, the
largest influx in the history
of the state. And Israeli
leaders appear ecstatic
about the prospects of bol-
stering aliyah.
"While we are gathered
here, planes are arriving at
Ben-Gurion Airport bring-
ing hundreds of new olim
(emigrants to Israel) from
the Soviet Union," Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir
said in welcoming the 170
delegates from 30 countries
to the Third International
Conference of the Jewish
Soviet Jewish Aliyah
More Soviet Jews are arriving in Israel every five days than arrived in the five
year period of 1982-1986.
24
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1990
Media. "The only limit is the
number of airplanes avail-
able for their transporta-
tion."
He and other Israeli lead-
ers described the current
situation in the most dra-
matic terms: a revolution, a
unique moment in Jewish
history, a miracle.
But can Israel provide
housing and employment for
hundreds of thousands of
Soviet Jews? How can the
economy take it? Who will
bear the burdens, and at
what price?
During the 12-day media
conference, journalists met
with government officials,
Israeli reporters and newly
arrived Soviet Jewish emi-
grants to explore this new
exodus. But the official re-
sponses to questions often
come in the form of smiles,
shrugs, or a wave of the
hand, as if to say, "that's
not the point."
Dinitz articulated this at-
titude best when he prom-
ised that "every Jew will be
absorbed," and boasted:
"We have made a mess of
everyday life. But give us an
impossible task and no one
does it better."
Is Dinitz just whistling in
the wind, putting up a good
front for journalists while
privately in a panic? Or does
the Jewish Agency and the
government really have a
method of dealing with an
influx of as many as one mil-
lion Soviet Jews in the next
decade?
"There is no plan," ex-
plained a top correspondent
with Yediot Achronot, Isra-
el's biggest newspaper.
"But what good are plans
anyway? This is something
we have to do. So we'll do
it."
,
He is excited about the
prospect of the Russian ali-
yah, saying it will "shake
up" Israeli society for the
good. But he acknowledged
that there will be difficulties
along the way.
Nowhere is the difference
between the Israeli and A-
merican mentality greater
than on this issue.
Israelis don't seem to
worry. They describe the
challenge in Zionist terms,
an opportunity to provide
the Jewish state with much-
needed security and stabili-
ty. They display a sense of
bravado by dismissing the
details of absorption. Ein
breira, they say, we will do it
because we have no choice.
American Jews, on the
other hand, express grave
concerns about the financial
responsibilities and worry
what will happen if the ab-
sorption doesn't go well and
the Soviet Jews become dis-
illusioned or worse.
Absorption
Experi ment
Ra'anana, a city of 53,000
near Tel Aviv, could be a key
to the success or failure of
Israel's absorption process
because it is an experiment
in "direct absorption."
Until now, new olim in Is-
rael were sent to absorption
centers, ideally for six
months but often for as long
as two years, while they
learned Hebrew in intensive
Ulpan classes and looked for
jobs and permanent hous-
ing. This expensive process
did not allow for olim to be
mainstreamed into Israeli
society.
The Ra'anana experiment
is Israel's first community-
sponsored direct aliyah pro-
gram, and is geared toward
integrating the newcomers
more effectively and eco-
nomically.
In placing the burden di-
rectly on a municipal level,
the program calls for the
newcomers to be greeted at
the airport by a city repre-
sentative. The olim are then
brought to their new home, a
furnished apartment rented
on the open market, and
greeted by their "adopting"
family. This volunteer fami-
ly will invite the new olim to
their home, help them get
settled and, perhaps most
importantly, act "as a spe-
cial resource team, using
their connections to get
these people established,"
according to literature on
the program.
Described by residents as
an Israeli Yuppie communi
ty, Ra'anana features mid-
dle and upper class homes
(some selling for $300,000
and up) and large numbers
of American and South Afri-
can olim. Many commute to
professional jobs in Tel Aviv
each day. A Ben & Jerry's
ice cream shop recently
opened on the main street.
Success of the direct ab-
sorption program is depen-
dent on bureaucratic coordi-
nation, a large volunteer
network and adequate fund-
ing. Ra'anana is making
progress in part because the
project was established by
the new mayor, Zev Bielski,
an energetic former shaliach
in South Africa and aliyah
activist who is president of
the Israel Forum, an Israeli
equivalent of the American
Jewish community's Young
Leadership program. Bielski
helped convince the Metro-
West Jewish Federation of
central New Jersey to sup-
port the program with
$500,000 to help pay for