ALL THE BEST NAMES NOW AT THE
Bendersky said of the kib-
butzniks. "They've helped
us through the maze of the
bureaucracy. They've ob-
tained precious information
for us. Being here has even
helped us master Hebrew
more quickly because we've
been part of a Hebrew-
speaking society from the
start."
Still, Luba and Oleg have
no intention of staying on
once they've found jobs. "I
suppose it's a matter of
taste," she said. "The people
here have been wonderful to
us, but Hatzerim is like one
big family, and we really
want to remain a small fami-
ly, by ourselves."
Mr. Bendersky even wor-
ries that their soft-landing
on the kibbutz may work
against them in the long
run, by having denied them
the "street smarts" needed
for life in the big city.
Still, they can certainly
understand why others
might want to stay: some for
lack of opportunities, others
because they like kibbutz
life.
A lack of choice is certain-
ly not the reason why Mark
and Tanya Rothstein have
chosen to remain on Kibbutz
Ein Hashofet, in the rolling
Hills of Menashe on the
southern Carmel Range.
Mark, a 27-year-old doctor,
works in a hospital in the
nearby city of Hadera.
Tanya, 22, who has also
studied medicine, has now
switched to biology at Haifa
University and will be
teaching in the kibbutz
school.
Their arrival at Ein
Hasofet was a fluke. When
they were approached by a
scout at the Tel Aviv hotel to
which they were taken
directly from the airport
upon their arrival in Israel,
they had no notion of what
kibbutz life was like. "But
we didn't know anyone in
the country," Mr. Rothstein
explained, "and we really
had nowhere to go, so we
weren't resistant to the
idea."
Today, almost a year later,
they're still at Ein Hashofet
because they like it there.
"People are much warmer
here than they are in the
city," Mr. Rothstein said.
Besides, he added, he and
Tanya are in something of a
unique situation.
"If there are negative sides
to life here, we spend so
much time outside the kib-
butz that we don't feel
them," he said.
Igor and Julia Schiffrin,
technicians in their 20s from
Dnepropetrovsk in the
Ukraine, arrived in Ein
Hashofet under similar cir-
cumstances, but with grave
misgivings.
"We didn't know very
much about kibbutz life,"
said Mr. Schiffrin. "But the
little we did know made us
fear that we would be
separated from our 6-year-
old daughter." (In the
original kibbutz format,
youngsters slept in special
children's houses. But on
Ein Hashofet, like most
other kibbutzim today, chil-
dren now live with their
parents.)
Now, the Schiffrins are in-
terested in staying simply
because they feel at home. In
fact, they scoff at the idea
that Soviet immigrants
would be particularly resis-
tant to a collective lifestyle.
"This way of life is not
natural for people who come
from the United States,"
Mrs. Schiffrin pointed out,
"but we came from a so-
cialist country. So for us it's
natural."
In fact, both report that
they feel closer to the friends
they've made at work and to
the parents of children in
their daughter's class than
to the other Russian families
living around them.
Four of the 11 immigrant
families who have lived at
Ein Hashofet during the
past year are considering
remaining for good. But cer-
tainly not, like in the old
days, out of any ideological
commitment.
"Most people don't think
in such terms," Mark Roths-
tein remarked. "They're
simply being practical. The
kibbutz is beautiful, with its
trees and fresh air. And it's
marvelous for children."
"The Soviet immigrants
don't know beans about kib-
butz ideology, just as they
know almost nothing about
Zionist ideology and
precious little about
Judaism," said Ein
Hashofet's liaison with the
newcomers, Hanan Cohen.
Mr. Cohen can certainly
identify with that. An ex-
New Yorker, he himself
came to Israel some 30 years
ago not out of ideological
commitment, but as a
tourist. He stayed because
he liked what he found. (To-
day he's on the Jewish
Agency's Board of Gover-
nors.)
The Russians will stay, he
believes, not just because the
kibbutz solves many of their
practical problems but be-
cause it offers them things
on which they put a
premium: a high level of ed-
ucation for their children
and a high level of culture
for themselves.
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