Ex-North American Olim
Reaching Out To Soviets
RICHARD RUBIN
Special to The Jewish News
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t takes one to know one,
they say, so it makes
sense for former olim to
use their past experiences to
help recently arrived Soviet
Jews adjust to their new sur-
roundings.
"We're trying to address
every piece of anxiety they
encounter," said Yoav Peck,
executive director of the
Association of Americans
and Canadians in Israel.
Formed in 1951, AACI has
19,000 adult members, plus
another 20,000 family mem-
bers. There are 65,000 North
Americans in Israel.
While AACI members are
offering to share their own
experiences and knowledge,
they are cautious not to
dominate the settlement of
the new arrivals, said Peck,
who is also chairman of the
steering committee of the
Council of Olim Organiza-
tions in Israel.
"We know there are
aspects of Russian culture
we know nothing about,"
said Peck, who was here re-
cently to gather support for
the organization's efforts.
"We only want to offer our
experience and expertise."
With most Soviet arrivals
not ideologically motivated
to come to Israel, Peck warns
against not effectively ab-
sorbing them into the coun-
try.
"They'll go somewhere
else," Peck said, adding it is
too early to tell whether the
absorption has so far been
successful.
"I hope what we'll have is
thousands and thousands of
satisfied new Israelis," he
said.
Most North American
aliyot took place in the eu-
phoria immediately follow-
ing Israel's 1967 victory in
the Six-Day War. The cur-
rent Soviet aliyah should be
seen as an example by Jews
still in the United States and
Canada, said Peck, a native
New Yorker who im-
migrated to Israel in 1973.
"It's a graphic demonstra-
tion of what we've been say-
ing to our fellow North
American Jews. In Israel
you don't read about history,
you make history."
AACI is working with
former Prisoner of Zion
Natan Sharansky in helping
to coordinate the dozen or so
Soviet Jewish organizations
in Israel and to cultivate
better understanding bet-
ween the new arrivals and
resident, mostly Sephardic,
Israelis.
Peck said he understands
the resentment felt by many
Sephardic Jews in Israel
over the housing, economic
and social benefits being ex-
tended to recent Soviet ar-
rivals. But the resentment is
misdirected, Peck said.
"Many of them were
humiliated by Ashkenazi
Jews when they came here
in the 1950s and 1960s.
Now, 30 years later, they see
a new wave of Ashkenazim
coming in and the entire
country is going wild for
them.
"It's salt in their wounds,
but the wounds were not
created by the Russians," he
said.
Both native Israelis and
Soviet immigrants can learn
"It's salt in their
wounds, but the
wounds were not
created by the
Russians."
Yoav Peck
from the North American
Jewish organization's use of
volunteers, Peck said.
"If Israel is going to face
the crunch of shrinking
resources effectively, we're
going to have to muster
thousands and thousands of
volunteers," he said.
With the arrival of
thousands of Soviet immi-
grants, Peck said, there has
never been a greater poten-
tial for unleashing volunteer
resources.
"Every morning there's a
new phenomenon," Peck
said, citing the pre-Passover
phonathon in which 17,000
Soviet olim were invited in
12 hours to sedarim by
Israeli families.
Israelis from North
America are also taking an
active role in the grass-roots
effort to enact election
reform in the country.
AACI recently delivered
40,000 letters from North
Americans to the Knesset
demanding election reform
in Israel.
"There's no such thing as
accountability in the Israeli
electoral system," Peck said.
"There's not even a Hebrew
word for it." ❑
Jewish Telegraphic Agency