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September 10, 1993 - Image 22

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1993-09-10

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

eir travels to Azerbaijan and Georgia, local UJA benefactors
Jews caught in the throes of civil war.

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

trip to the former Soviet
Union as a fact-finding mis-
sion. Participants spent
three days in Georgia,
where uprisings create
political chaos, and a day in
Azerbaijan, which is torn by
civil war.
The safety of all living in
those areas is jeopardized.
Nearly 50,000 Jews live in
Azerbaijan, and the Jewish
population of Georgia
stands at 22,500.
"Many of them would
rather remain where they
have been all their lives, but

Travelers on a UJA mission land
in a riverbed in Azerbaijan.

here was no landing strip.
A helicopter with 35
American passengers hov-
ered over a riverbed in the
backward mountain commu-
nity of Kuba, Azerbaijan. A
stream of water soaked the
sand, which had once been
dry and better suited for
landings.
At the stream's edge,
Jewish townspeople gath-
ered to greet the Americans.
They waved to the heli-
copter as its skids touched
ground, inches below water.
The crowd's excitement
increased as the travelers
made their way toward dry
land.
Among them were
Detroiters Nancy and
Stephe-n Grand and Joel
Tauber, who were partici-

pating in a United Jewish
Appeal mission to the for-
mer Soviet Union and
Israel.
The week-long mission,
held last month, was geared
to major givers to UJA.
During the trip, travelers
pledged a total of more than
$54.1 million to ongoing
UJA efforts to resettle Jews
in Israeli and American
communities.
They met with Georgia's
President Eduard Shevar-
nadze and toured villages to
understand, firsthand, how
Jews cope with civil war in
parts of the former Soviet
Union.
"The city looked like a
ghost town," Mrs. Grand
said of Tbilisi, Georgia. "No
restaurants. No stores. No

movies. It was very, very
gray. We saw people in line
for bread. That's practically
the only place we saw peo-
ple."
Mrs.
Grand
said
President Shevarnadze told
the UJA group that the peo-
ple of Georgia are not anti-
Semitic. Still, the country is
not safe, as evinced by a
sign Mrs. Grand saw posted
outside the travelers' hotel.
It depicted a gun with a
slash running through it:
No guns in this hotel.
"The biggest job we have
is to let the Jews there
know that Israel exists.
When they feel ready to
leave, Israel will welcome
them with open arms," she
said.
Mr. Tauber described the

"They'll be
wonderful,
wonderful Jews
someday when
they get to
Israel."

Nancy Grand

as these conditions get
worse, they'll flood out to
Israel," Mr. Tauber said. "In
four years, Israel's popula-
tion has increased by 10
percent."
At a UJA-funded youth
center in Tbilisi, Mrs.
Grand broke down and
cried.
"I saw children wearing
yarmulkes and speaking
Hebrew — in these God-for-
saken places," she said.
"They'll be wonderful, won-
derful Jews someday when
they get to Israel." ❑

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