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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1990
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FITNESS
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NOV1
ANN ARBOR
347-4944 996-9553
he groundwork has
been laid for a World
Congress of Soviet
Jews.
Delegates from the Soviet
Union, Israel and the United
States met in Los Angeles
Dec. 15-16 and named five
delegates each from the
Va'ad in the Soviet Union,
the Soviet Jewry Zionist
Forum in Israel and the
United States to name an
organizing committee that
will form the international
group.
The 15 men and women
will convene in Moscow in
January at the Va'ad's se-
cond annual congress. The
Va'ad is the confederation of
220 Russian Jewish organ-
izations.
Sometime in 1991, it is ex-
pected that the World Con-
gress will be formally estab-
lished at a meeting which
will probably be held in
Israel.
As their first order of busi-
ness, the delegates from
New York, Los Angeles,
Boston, Philadelphia,
Phoenix and San Francisco
formed the American Union
of Russian Jewish Organiza-
tions and Communities to
speak for the estimated
200,000 emigres in the
United States.
The largest concentration
of Soviet Jews, around
100,000-strong, is in New
York, followed by more than
60,000 in Los Angeles, who
reside mainly in West
Hollywood.
Gregory Makaron, a leader
of the Soviet Jewish com-
munity in Los Angeles, was
elected as the first president
of the American Union.
Other officers are Vice Pres-
idents Peyrets Goldmacher
of New York and Paul
Fleyshman of Boston; Secre-
tary Boris Perlman of Los
Angeles; and Treasurer Jima
Arolovich of New York.
Mr. Makaron, a 38-year-
year-old former physical
therapist from Kiev,
sports an impressive black
beard and is now director of
his own medical clinic.
"In one way we are a very
close community, with a
common background and
which has established its
own shops, restaurants,
clinics and professional
practices," he said. - "At the
same time, we want to be
part of the American com-
munity and we are building
bridges from our island to
the larger Jewish and gen-
eral American communities.
But this has to be a two-way
street."
A common theme of the
sometimes heated delibera-
tions among the 36 delegates
was the desire of Soviet
emigres to band together for
self-help and to become
partners rather than just
beneficiaries in the process
of integrating into their new
homelands.
"Our challenge is to get
governments and Jewish
federations to change their
policy toward us from pater-
nalism to partnership," said
Dr. Roman Spektor of the
Soviet Union, who was one
of the prominent voices at
what was billed as the first
World Conference of Soviet
Jewish Solidarity.
"It is a basic human prin-
ciple to want to determine
your own fate, and that is
what we are seeking," said
the 40-year old psychologist,
a director of Va'ad, the con-
federation of 220 Russian
Jewish organizations.
Mr. Makaron, who put the
conference together over a
two-year period, added that
"as a unified body we can be
more effective in aiding our
resettlement in Israel and
the United States, in estab-
lishing ties with national
and international Jewish
organizations, and in
fighting anti-Semitism and
helping the Va'ad in the
Soviet Union."
While each of the Soviet
Jewish communities in
Israel, the U.S. and Russia
has its own agenda, "we are
all members of the same
family and as such have an
overall family agenda," said
Mr. Makaron.
One complaint at the con-
ference centered on the
perceived attitude of many
American Jews, who have a
mental picture of the Soviet
emigres as something akin
to their own immigrant
grandparents. Most vocal
was Tatiana Menaker, now a
San Francisco journalist.
Ms. Menaker said she
resented the "American
perception of Russian Jews
as helpless, like refugees
who came straight out of a
shtetl. It is such a wrong
image. During the 60 years
or so that Russia, as a coun-
try, was totally closed, a
giant scientific-industrial
complex was built, and Jews
were key participants."