1 The Mountain Jews of Kuba, a remote
area of Azerbaijan, are among the 1.2
million Jews who live in the 15 republics
of the former Soviet Union. Despite
government tolerance, Azerbaijan Jews
fear the effects of a bitter ethnic war,
social instability and general economic
collapse. Detroit's Campaign dollars
enable the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee to provide Jewish
life there and throughout the former Soviet
Union. Still, several hundred Jews leave
Azerbaijan for Israel each month, assisted
by Operation Exodus.

2 Frieda Shomanov (left) with her

daughter and grandchildren, celebrated
their first Passover in Israel after fleeing
the civil war in Thjikistan in Central Asia.
Fewer than 3,000 Jews remain in the
former Soviet republic, where all Jewish
cultural and religious functions of the
Jewish community ground to a halt
because of fear of the surrounding chaos.
Following their rescue by the Jewish
Agency, Frieda and her family are free to
live as Jews in Israel.

3 An Ethiopian-born sergeant in the

Israeli army cradles a new arrival from
Addis Ababa -- one of 14,000 Ethiopian
Jews airlifted to Israel in 36 hours. With
support from Detroit's Allied Jewish
Campaign, the United Jewish Appeal
mounted a multi-million dollar campaign
to cover the first phase of the rescue
operation and the first year's expenses in
absorbing the new arrivals.

4 Standing in the airport departure hall,

Sonia Royzen bids farewell to her father,
Yevgeny. The 18-year-old immigrant from
Russia arrived in Israel earlier this year to
work toward a degree in economics at
Haifa University with help from the
Jewish Agency and the government.
Sonia is one of a growing number of
young people who come without family in
search of a better future for themselves in
Israel. Sonia hopes her parents eventually
will join her.

5 Two young Ethiopian Jews, airlifted
from Addis Ababa to Israel, express wishes
for a happy new year in Hebrew, Amharic
and English. Ishimafet (left) and Nanu
have been studying Hebrew at a religious
girls' high school while living in an
absorption center. Their rescue and
absorption are thanks to the Operation
Exodus appeal.

6 Bubil Yefim, an electronics engineer
from Russia, assembles wheelchairs in the
Jerusalem workshop of the Yad Sarah
voluntary organization for rehabilitating
the sick and disabled. The cost of retrain-
ing Yefim and other recent immigrants
participating in this on-the-job program is
shared by Yad Sarah, the Israel govern-
ment and the Jewish Agency.

7 Irna Kirson, a former nuclear physicist
in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, left behind ethnic
violence for a new life with her family in
Israel. Now a solar energy scientist, she
works in an incubator industry housed at
the Initiative Center of the Negev, funded
by the Jewish Agency and the govern-
ment. Irna and her colleagues are
working on innovative projects relating to
solar lighting systems and solar-powered
generators.

8

9 Yana Vortsman (right) and her friends
are among the Detroit Jewish commu-
nity's newest members. Eleven-year-old
Yana, who came here as a refugee with
her parents and sister last fall, enjoyed a
Tu b'Shevat seder sponsored by Jewish
Experiences For Families at the Jewish
Community Center's Jimmy Prentis
Morris Building. Refugees from
Uzbekistan, the family was assisted by
Resettlement Service and its sister
agencies, including Jewish Vocational
Service and Fresh Air Society.

8 The offspring of mixed marriages

learned about anti-Semitism in the former
Soviet Union. Now, in Israel, they're
learning what it really means to be a Jew.
Maxim Lieberman is assisted by Rabbi
Menachem Waldman at the Yemin Orde
Youth Village, part of a network of Youth
Aliyah villages supported by Campaign
dollars. Seventy-five percent of the 500
students at Yemin Orde are from Ethiopia
and the former USSR; the remaining 25
percent are from 22 countries, including
Israel.

