.110 Nita 'a'rk

REPRINTED FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1990

United States may be forced
into a politically dangerous
backtrack, risking the unity
of its Arab allies by exercis-
ing its Security Council veto
in order to stop yet further
deterioration in Israel's dip-
lomatic predicament.
The most likely scenario
now — one which is an-
ticipated in Jerusalem and
one which the United States
will almost certainly be
obliged to scotch — is an at-
tempt by the UN to an-
ticipate the central recom-
mendation that it was fully
expecting its fact- finding
mission to deliver: a call to
dispatch a UN force to
protect" the Palestinian
inhabitants of the occupied
territories.
Whatever its sentiments
about Israel, the Palestin-
ians and Jerusalem, the
Bush administration simply
cannot afford to turn its back
on its most powerful re-
gional ally at a time of in-
tense military danger. Nor
can President Bush afford to
court fresh sources of do-
mestic disaffection at a time
when opinion polls show
that his popularity ratings
have entered a period of free-
fall.
By now, however, the
damage — to Israel, at least
— has been done. The net
result will be a vicious cycle
of still more violence, more
bloodshed, more UN resolu-
tions, a greater concentra-
tion of attention on the
Arab-Israeli dispute and an
increased strain on the
Western-Arab alliance
which the United States has
so painstakingly striven to
assemble in the Gulf.
Washington's decision to
score political points with its
new-found Arab allies by
turning its back on Israel,
albeit briefly, may prove to
be a costly error.
By attempting to face both
ways at the same time, by
raising expectations among
the Palestinians and, in
effect, by setting the pace for
his Arab allies, President
Bush may find that the
Security Council vote will
ultimately explode in his
face.
That vote, according to
Israeli officials, has signall-
ed the start of an unpredic-
table wave of blood-letting in
Jerusalem, an event which
led Defense Minister Moshe
Arens to lament this week
"a ravine of hatred:
It is, moreover, a vote that
could also ultimately pro-
duce disastrous conse-
quences not only for Israel
but also for America's
carefully constructed Gulf
alliance.

"

Where Children Teach Parents to Be Jewish

By JOSEPH BERGER

Special to The New York Times

NEW YORK, Oct. 9 — American
yeshivas and Hebrew schools are
transforming thousands of immigrant
Jewish children bred in the atheistic
culture of the Soviet Union into observ-
ant Jews, carrying more than a few
parents along in the process.
The metamorphosis is almost palpa-
ble at the Torah Academy in Queens,
where boys who just a year ago were
scarcely aware they were Jewish are
now wearing yarmulkes and ritual
fringes.
But it can also be found in Atlanta,
Baltimore, San Diego, Youngstown,
Ohio, or any of the two-dozen communi-
ties where most Soviet families are set-
tling.
Parents who never honored so basic
a Jewish ritual as circumcision are, in
response to challenges from their chil-
dren, observing dietary laws, keeping
the Sabbath, learning Hebrew. Some
men are asking for painful circumci-
sion operations.
The transformations Mire not been
without their moments of family differ-
ences. In the Khanin family of Queens,
Irina Khanin serves separate meat and
dairy dishes and struggles to observe
the Sabbath. But her husband, Victor, a
geologist, must work on Saturdays,
sometimes brings home food that is not
kosher and is mystified by his family's
religious revival. Yet, Mrs. Khanin
said, he has had himself circumcised
and takes deep pleasure that their
sons, Dan, 15 years old, and, Michael,
10, are attending yeshivas.
"I want them to haye options in the
future, to choose what kind of life they
will lead," Mrs. Khanin says. "If I cut
this religious upbringing, they won't
have the option to choose."
Chaya Kessler, a teacher at Akiva
Academy in Youngstown, which has

taken in 14 Soviet children on full schol-
arships, said that when parents see off-
spring observing Jewish customs, the
memories of a grandmother's Sabbath
habits may quickly come to mind. But,
Mrs. Kessler said, some "think it's
phony."
"You were an atheist before and
here you become a believer," she said.
The Board of Jewish Education of
Greater New York says there are 5,500
Soviet children among the 190 yeshivas

Soviet children this year and waived
the $8,000 annual tuitions.

But Mr. Geffen said he had no illu-
sions that the Soviet immigrants would
all become devoted Jews. "We will af-
fect a percentage of these families per-
manently," he said. "But we have to
acknowledge the distance they have to
go to overcome a lifetime worth of
alienation."
Mr. Geffen's comment touches the
principal question hovering over the
phenomenon : will it have an enduring

impact?

Yeshivas draw
Soviet emigres to
their faith.

and day schools, which are somewhat
more secular than yeshivas, in the New
York metropolitan area. They now
make up almost 8 percent of the nearly
70,000 yeshiva students in the area.
The numbers have spurted sharply
as a glasnost-minded Soviet leadership
has recently permitted 40,000 Jews a
year to emigrate, with 19,000 settling
around New York. Last year, 2,200
Jewish children entered the New York
yeshiva system, said David Mann, the
board's executive director. By com-
parison, 2,500 Soviet Jewish children
entered public schools, according to the
city's Board of Education.

A Lifetime of Alienation

Orthodox schools are not the only
ones absorbing Soviet children. On the
West Side of Manhattan, the Abraham
Joshua Heschel School, which draws
children from Conservative, Reform,
Orthodox and secular homes, took in 10

When the first Soviet Jews came to
the United States in the mid 1970's,
Jewish organizations furnished shelter
and job training but naïvely assumed
that education would take care of itself,
just as it had for earlier generations of
other immigrants. But they failed to
appreciate how cut off from Judaism
the Soviet immigrants had been.
By contrast, Mr. Mann said, recent
immigrants seem more aware of their
Jewish identity, probably as a result of
more tolerant official Soviet attitudes
toward religion. They arrive knowing
there is a Jewish educational network
in America, Mr. Mann said, and in
some instances ask for specific
schools. Families with few relatives or
friends in the United States often find
in yeshiva circles a sense of belonging.
This time, he said, Jewish grOups are
alert to the educational needs. In New
York, five schools exclusively for im-
migrants have sprung up almost over-
night. Together, they instruct 800 chil-
dren.
These children go home and tell par-
ents struggling with the new country
what they are learning, and their influ-
ence, educators say, carries more
weight than it would in a deeply rooted
American home.

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

39

