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southern Lebanon. He said he is against
violence on principle but convinced
there is no other way to protect Israel.
Zadov also tracks how the Russians
have been trying to suppress the rebel-
lion in Chechnya and notes that if his
family had not moved to Israel, he
likely would have been drafted into
the Russian army and been involved
in that war.
"With the situation there," he said,
"I look at everything objectively. I can't
do that with the
here. Here it
is an emotional issue for me. Here I
care, I have more of a connection."
The young immigrants talk, as people
their age often do, of traveling and seeing
the world — possibly studying abroad
for a while — but in the end, they say,
they would return to Israel. That's not
necessarily for any deep Zionist or reli-
gious reasons, but just because Israel has
become "home" for them.
"I really enjoy living in Israel. The
education level is high and so is the
level of technology here," said Zeitlin's
brother, Eli, who also studies comput-
er science and mathematics. e, I, m not
against studying for my master's in the
States and seeing the world, but I'll
live here when it comes time to raise a
family, whenever that may be."
Kagan, who said she sees the army
as the great equalizer of Israeli society,
is looking forward to participating in
this Israeli rite of passage. She will be
drafted this summer. Ureter, who said
she didn't like the idea of spending
two years of her life "serving coffee to
officers" as a female soldier, opted to
do a year of national service. She was
able to choose the job she wanted to
do at a hospital laboratory.
Their immigrant parents have been
a pivotal force in Israeli politics —
helping elect first Binyamin
Netanyahu and then Ehud Barak, and
likely to play a major role in decisions
about Israel returning the Golan
Heights to Syria.
Most of their parents continue to
keep up to date with news from the
old country through cable television
and Russian-language newspapers, so
the dinner table conversations at home
tend to reinforce the sense of a degree
of separation from the nation in
'which they live.
"I don't try to be like Israelis and I
don't try to disconnect from being
Russian," Zadov said.
"I don't try to change myself," he
continued. "That was my life, and I
don't try to erase it; it is something
that joins what I am today. But it's
like a big scar in your heart which
doesn't go away." ❑

Out Of The Shadows

RE-EMERGE

from page 7

In addition to the welfare center,
Tula has another Jewish address: a home
for Jewish culture, where some 25 chil-
dren are enrolled at the Hebrew school.

Led By The Young

A striking feature of the ongoing
Russian Jewish revival is that it is
increasingly dominated by Jews in
their 20s and early 30s.
Yevgeny Katz, a 37-year-old engi-
neer whose interest in Judaism has
developed only during the past few
years, is now one of the handful of Tula
Jews — and the only one under age 75
— who can read from the Torah scroll.
Tula's rabbi, a young graduate of
Moscow's yeshiva, comes to the city
every weekend and holds services in
various locations. What the communi-
ty calls its synagogue is a tiny space
rented in an old one-story, wooden
house owned by the city.

Despite continuing
aliya and migration,
Jewish life is touching
more people each year.

Faina Sanevich says her major
concern has been getting more space
from the municipality to house the
welfare center, the synagogue and
the old-age home.
Like other Russian Jewish communi-
ties, Tula must rely on aid from abroad
to fund its basic needs. In addition to
the JDC, a few other groups have fund-
ed some of the community's projects.
For example, the New York-based
Jewish Community Development Fund
in Russia and Ukraine supports several
groups in Tula, including the klezmer
band; which is known as one of the best
in Russia.
Occasional help comes from Tula's
sister congregation, B'nai Torah, in
Highland Park, Ill., with which Tula is
linked through a Union of Councils for
Soviet Jews program. But most of the
Jewish programs here would not be pos-
sible without the help of local donors.
While the future of Jewish life in
mid-sized Russian cities such as Tula is
unclear, there are signs that it will
continue: Large numbers of Tula Jews,
including many of the 80 percent who
are intermarried, are still taking steps
to reclaim their Jewish identity.
"People need this. Otherwise, why
would over 20 kids sign up for the
Jewish kindergarten?" Bronshtein asks. ❑

