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time when the nation needs ef-
fective new strategies.
What all this has to do with
the Jews is this: there are still
well over 1 million Jews in the
former Soviet Union, now free to
emigrate, but who choose to stay
for a variety of reasons, includ-
ing their hopes for a better life in
the land of their birth.
Jews, like Americans in gen-
eral, are reluctant to face up to
the possibility that history just
hit the pause button on yester-
day's nightmares.
'People look at the emigration
numbers and the low number of
anti-Semitic incidents, and they
have a hard time believing we
have a problem," said Rabbi
Mark Staitman, chairman of the
National Conference on Soviet
Jewry, an organization that has
to fight harder and harder to get
the attention of American Jews.
"And, frankly people are tired;
having worked so long and so
hard to get to this point, we don't
really want to think about the
possibility that it could get worse,
and that we could have to mobi-
lize again to meet a difficult sit-
uation."
Jewish organizations have
been schizophrenic on the issue
since the demise of the Soviet
"The more we do to
bring Jewish life to
[the former Soviet
Union], the greater
are the chances that
people will identify
as Jews."
— Rabbi Mark Staitman
Union. Some groups continue to
urge Jews to get out while the
getting is good. What's taking
place now in the former Soviet ,
Union, they argue, may be more
of a respite than a transforma-
tion; the specter of Vladimir V.
Zhirinovsky seems to confirm
that view.
At the same time, Jewish
groups have sought to nourish
the awe-inspiring revival of Jew-
ish life throughout the region. So
even while they are reminding
their Russian friends that emi-
`-) gration is the best long-term so-
lution, they are providing the
wherewithal for the rebuilding of
Jewish institutions in these coun-
tries — institutions that may, in
the long term, reinforce ties to a
nation that will never be safe for
Jews.
"Our policy has always been to
allow people to make these kinds
of decisions fcr themselves," said
an official with a major Jewish
group. "If they prefer to stay, it's
our duty to help them live Jew-
ish lives."
But that duty may reduce the
feeling of vulnerability and im-
minent threat that it will take to
get this stubborn population out
of an inhospitable land.
Yet, in a limited way, at least,
supporting the Jewish renais-
sance in Russia may serve a use-
ful purpose. "As it is becoming
possible for people to live as Jews,
more and more are coming out
into the open," Rabbi Staitman
said. "Our estimates of how many
Jews live in the former Soviet
Union keep going up. The more
we do to bring Jewish life to peo-
ple there, the greater are the
chances that people will identify
as Jews — and therefore, the
greater the chance for aliyah [im-
migration to Israel]."
So rebuilding Jewish life in
these areas may contribute to cre-
ating a Jewish identity that will
increase the likelihood that Jews
will get out while the doors re-
main open. But that awe-inspir-
ing Jewish revival could be a
deadly trap if it is regarded as a
permanent part of the landscape
in this most inhospitable of cli-
mates for Jews.
And if Jews here close their
eyes to the seething forces at play
in the former Soviet Union, they
will be ill equipped to reach out
to a Jewish population that still
needs our help, just as an inward-
turning American public is ill
equipped to face up to the deci-
sions awaiting us in a still dan-
gerous world. ❑
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items is noon Thursday,
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date. The deadline for
birth announcements is 10
a.m. Monday, four days
prior to issue date; out-of-
town obituaries, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, three days prior
to issue date.
All material must be
typewritten, double-
spaced, on 8'/2x 11 paper
and include the name and
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