SPECIAL REPORT ❑ THE NEW EXODUS
Soviet Jews are pouring into Israel at a rate of more than 1,000 a week, the largest influx in the history of the state.
housing, education and oth-
er needs.
Jewish federations around
the United States are watch-
ing the Ra'anana experi-
ment and discussing wheth-
er, like Project Renewal of a
decade ago, this will be the
next major cooperative ef-
fort between American Jew-
ish and Israeli communities.
Bielski seemed proud of
Ra'anana's accomplish-
ments with the 50 Soviet
Jewish families who have re-
cently arrived. He described
how the adopting families
prepare the newcomers'
apartment with flowers,
cake and a welcome sign.
"Here we do it differ-
ently," he said during a lun-
ch meeting. "We don't con-
centrate on the big numbers
but on the small details and
on the people."
Bielski's pitch is for the
Jewish Agency and Israel's
legendary bureaucracy to
stay away from direct ab-
sorption and let the cities
and towns handle it them-
selves.
"Nationally, no one is in
charge because everyone is
in charge," he said. "The
only solution to housing and
job problems is to let the
mayors handle them. I am
convinced that this is the
model — give responsibility
to the mayors, who are di-
rectly responsible to the
people.
"Walk around the streets
and you will see happy peo-
ple," he said.
The journalists split up
into small groups, and each
visited a newly arrived Sovi-
et Jewish family. Five jour-
nalists who walked up to the
third floor of a modest,
three-story building were
greeted by the warm smile of
1 5 -year-old Anna
Mendelevich, the only child
of Yisrael Mendelevich, a 52-
year-old doctor from Len-
ingrad, and his wife, Polina.
Anna was a charming
host, and her English was
very good. She explained
that her mother, a stenogra-
pher, was at work, and her
father, who would soon be
employed in his profession,
would be home shortly.
Anna's grandmother, who
was ailing, was in her room.
The family cat, found recent-
ly on the streets of
Ra'anana, prowled around
the sparsely furnished
apartment. The living and
dining room walls were bare
except for a map of Israel, a
Jewish calendar and a list of
words written in Russian
and Hebrew.
Anna said the family left
Leningrad last February on
ten days' notice and arrived
in Israel in the summer, af-
ter spending several months
at a transit camp near
Rome. Life in the USSR was
good on the surface, she
said. The family lived in a
large apartment in down-
town Leningrad, but there
was much anti-Semitic pro-
paganda.
When Anna's father arriv-
ed, he amplified his daugh-
ter's statement.
"Economically, things
were alright for us, but we
felt that we were not in our
home, not in our country,"
he said, as his daughter
translated his Russian to
English. "We wanted our
daughter to grow up Jew-
ish."
He said there was no pos-
sibility to study Hebrew,
and that Israel is a country
where "you can be Jewish
and not necessarily reli-
gious."
From the Soviet media,
the family heard that Israel
was a land of terrorism and
constant violence. But from
Kol Yisrael, Israeli overseas
radio, they heard a more re-
alistic portrait of the Jewish
state.
"What we have found here
is that people are happy and
they are not afraid of any-
thing," Anna said. "I feel at
home here."
She was excited that a
number of her Jewish
friends from Leningrad were
expected to arrive in Israel
soon. Her father was opti-
mistic about the family's
new life and said that the
wave of Soviet Jewish emi-
gration is just beginning.
"They will come because
the anti-Semitism [in the
USSR] is bad and getting
worse."
Growing Frustration
That Soviet Jews will be
coming to Israel in ever
greater numbers, spurred on
by fear of increasing anti-
Semitism within the USSR,
is one of the few points that
everyone in Israel seemed to
agree on, particularly Soviet
Jews themselves. Those in
Israel believe that there is
an urgent need to rescue So-
viet Jewry before the pros-
pect of pogroms becomes a
reality.
Soviet Jews themselves
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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