0 Menorah," says Dr. Tankred Golenpolsky. "Somebody
has to finance the enlightenment ofJews in this coun-
try.
"Even if we naively perceive that all the Jews will
emigrate, Israel can only take 150,000 a year," says
0._ the editor of the Jewish Gazette, the only national Jew-
ish newspaper. "It will take at least 20 years for all
the Jews to emigrate and those who will be here will
lose their Jewish identity."
Sitting in the national press club lounge here, Dr.
Golenpolsky, 60, at first offers some apparently well-
rehearsed cliches. Some people say those cliches are
a result of too much cooperation with Soviet author-
ities, resulting in the need to offer their line of rea-
soning. Many of those same critics, however, admit
that such behavior may have been necessary to start
the newspaper three-and-a-half years ago.
The biweekly, owned and edited by the scholar
turned businessman turned journalist, sells 42,000
copies an issue — 17,000 of which are bought on news-
-
stands in 188 cities.
The eight-page publication includes reports from
correspondents around the Commonwealth, a Torah
column and a children's corner. Feature articles cov-
er topics such as personality profiles, Jewish life in
other Diaspora communities and the history of Rus-
sia's Sephardic Jews. What his country's Jewish pop-
ulation needs, Dr. Golenpolsky forcefully argues, is
hands-on assistance from American and Israeli Jews.
"We need scholarships for Jewish kids who will
go and study abroad and come back," he proclaims. "I
have the feeling that American Jews wanted to pay
the way for our children to go to Israel instead of
theirs."
A relentless advocate of vocal Jewish expression,
he consistently struggles with an unlikely enemy —
fellow Jews.
"In Gorbachev's parliament we had 15 Jews," he
says. "None of them would stand up and identify with
the problems of the Jews."
Dr. Golenpolsky, who holds a Ph.D in Afro-Amer-
ican literature from Moscow University, says the ma-
jor stumbling block to thriving Jewish communities
in the new Commonwealth of Independent States is
Jews themselves.
"If Jews manage to overcome the shtetls and stop
being ashamed that they are Jews, then there will be
Jewish life," he says. "I can't say this is in existence
today, but I can say that gradually it is appearing."

More Jewish Than You
h en I speak to the students in my Hebrew

classes on the first day I say, 'I am Russian and I am
more Jewish than you because I understand Yid-
dishkeit. You are more Russian than Yiddish,' " says
Dr. Valery Afinogenov.
A researcher at the Russian Academy Of Sciences
Institute For Oriental Studies, he has taught private
Hebrew lessons to more than 150 Jews during the
past two years. Though he himself is not Jewish, his

tionalist anti-Semitic
Russian group. He
brushes off such en-
ifJews stop being
counters as the reac-
ashamed that they are
tions of an
Jews, then there will
unimportant fringe el-
ement.
be Jewish life."
Dr. Afinogenov's ini-
— Dr. Tankred tial interest in Jews
Golenpolsky was a sidetrack to his
research. "I started to
study Jewish culture as
I studied the economy
of Israel," he said.
"When you deal with
the people and the his-
tory you feel something
in your heart for them;
they become close to
research includes the role ofJews as an ethnic people you." Along the way he became
fluent in Hebrew.
in Russia, and comparing the developing economies
Unlike many of his Hebrew students, he will stay
of Israel and Russia. •
in this country. "But if I were a Jew I would not know
Amid the cacophony of people vying for seats at the exactly what I would do," he admits.
one McDonald's here, Dr. Afinogenov analyzes the
Russian economy, anti-Semitism and the concept of
Jews as an ethnic minority.
"Since there was an anti-Semitic policy in our coun-
try for so many years many Jews tried to change their
nationality and names on their passports," explains
the 30-year-old professor. "Many of them have been
bbi Adolf Shayevich's name is anathema to vir-
assimilated because of this and that is why I tell them, tually every Jewish activist in pre-Gorbachev cirdes.
`You are not Jewish.'
Many consider the Soviet-appointed chief rabbi of The
"None of my students, for example, reads Taruthh," All Union Congregation Of Jewish Religious Com-
he adds, using the correct Hebrew pronunciation for munities a KGB informant at best.
the compilation of the Torah, Prophets and Writings.
'We had to cooperate. It's hard to say whether it
"They know nothing about the customs and the hol- was too much," says the rabbi, who tends to speak
idays so I have to explain it to them."
of himself in the third person.
His close association with Jews has brought him
"We thought it was forever and that communism
threatening telephone calls from Pamyat, the na- was so strong that it would not crack. We admired
Sakharov's courage, but
didn't believe deep in-
side that he was right,
that we would see these
changes."
And while he still
speaks of a positive fu-
ture for Jews in Russia,
Rabbi Adolf Shayevich his message has been
tempered by the reali-
defends his
ties of the day. And he
cooperation with
says he would advise
young people to emi-
Soviet authorities.
grate to Israel, for the
"It's hard to say
sake of their own chil-
dren.
if it was too much,"
Recently returned
he says.
from a two-month tour
of the United States
with the synagogue
choir, he stresses that
for American Jews even
a conceptual under-
standing of Jews in his

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Questionable Leader

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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