LADIMIR,GOONI K

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elk
MIA 't

ore than anything else,

it's the years that fly by.

Happy 5757.

Michael Kable receives initial assistance at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Russian Immigrants
In A New Land

SIMON GRIVER

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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The Airline of Israel

• COLORWORKS STUDIO OF INTERIOR DESIGN •

•

Thanks to all of you for such a wonderful year!

Wishing you good health, much happiness and prosperity
throughout the coming year.
Barbi Krass and all of us at Colonvorks

32500 Northwestern Highway • Farmington Hills • 851-7540

•

the entire community a
RPPY and f ealthy New Year

Ofrey Schoenberg and Staff of
,Video Protection Service, Inc.

R30

CELEBRATION
CONNECTION

DIRECTORY

in our
Classified Section

■

0

n the eve of Israel's 48th
anniversary, a group of
new immigrants arrive at
Ben-Gurion Airport from
Mineralnyvne Vody, between the
Black and Caspian seas in south-
ern Russia. They're just a con-
tingent of some of the 6,000
people who begin new lives in the
Jewish homeland each month
from the former Soviet Union.
Three of the passengers on one
of several flights that day were
Dr. and Mrs. Michael Kable and
their teen-age son, Misha. Unlike
most of the new immigrants ar-
riving nowadays, the Kables do
not have a single known relative
in Israel.
Undaunted, the Kables have
already decided to go directly
from the airport to Kiryat Ata
near Haifa, where old college
friends from the medical school
at the University of Stavropol in
southern Russia, who preceded
them to Israel, will help them
with their initial absorption.
Michael, 38, a trim, slim and
fsir-haired physician from
Stavropol, is optimistic. He be-
lieves that Israel is a dynamic
country that will offer good eco-
nomic prospects for he and his
family. His wife, Tatyana, a pe-
tite brunette paramedic, talks of
Israel in more emotional terms.
"As a Jew, I have always
dreamed of living here," she says.
"But I never imagined that it
would actually happen."
The Kables were flown to Is-
rael by the Jewish Agency from
the Northern Caucasian to of
Mineralnyvne Vody after the nec-
essary arrangements were made
by the JAFI emissary in nearby
Nalchik. The Jewish Agency is
funded in large part by the UJA
Federation Annual Campaign.
For the past 10 years, Michael

and Tatyana had worked in a
hospital in the northern Cau-
casian spa resort of Esentuki.
The Kables worked in the ca-
al ty department at the hospi-
tal, handling emergency cases.
Michael realizes that it will be dif-
ficult for him to find employment
as a doctor in Israel.
"The Jewish Agency emissary
in Nalchik explained to me," re-
counts Michael, "that I must pass
difficult exams in order to receive
my license to practice and that
even then it will be difficult to find
employment. But I must think
positive. This is a rapidly grow-
ing country and I am confident
that diligent and capable people
like us can get work in our pro-
fession."
"In any event, we must learn
to walk before we run," adds
Tatyana. "First we must register
for a Hebrew language ulpan and
learn the language and culture
while we get our basic orienta-
tion, and then in a few months
we can worry about our profes-
sional matters."
Michael and Tatyana were
surprised to learn that their ar-
rival in Israel came on the eve of
Israel's 48th Independence Day.
"We know little about Zionism
and Jewish culture," says
Tatyana. "But I am anxious to be
re-acquainted with my Jewish
roots. My family fled to southern
Russia from Ukraine following
the Nazi invasion in World War
II. Many of my relatives perished
in the Holocaust. We never per-
sonally experienced any anti-
Semitism in Russia but it was
always in the air."
"Anti-Semitism goes hand in
hand with political instability,"
adds Michael. "We have been
thinking about aliyah for three or
four years. But we timed our em-