LEV KRI CHE,VS KY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Tula, Russia
or decades, Faina and
Anatoly Sanevich kept
their Judaism private.
Natives of Ukraine,
where they both survived Nazi
ghettos as small children, the
couple spoke Yiddish to each
other at home. But unwilling to
complicate their children's lives,
they spoke Russian with their
two sons.
Every Passover they would
have matza on their table — they
didn't hold a full seder — but
kept this fact a secret from their
neighbors and colleagues.
Their need to live double lives
changed in the waning years of
the Soviet Union.
The Jewish community was
among the first to benefit from
the opportunities provided by
Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or
openness, initiated in the late
1980s-. The most obvious benefit
was the lifting of emigration
restrictions, which resulted in a
massive wave of aliya to Israel.
Those who remained behind,
now numbering about one mil-
lion, were no less affected by the
changes.
Thousands of Soviet Jews took
a keen interest in what only a
few underground activists, risk-
ing jail, would have dared to
explore under Gorbachev's prede-
cessors.
"All of a sudden, Jews stopped
being one of the best-kept state
secrets," Anatoly Sanevich recalls.
"We just realized we could speak
freely about what we had been
forced to be silent: our Judaism."
Cities across Russia have seen
Jewish cultural societies and
organizations take the place of

tives in Ukraine. Then someone
gave me a video of Israel," says
the 24-year-old primary school
teacher.
"There are few of us here, but
Tubs Jewish Revieal -
we
want to create an environ-
Most of Russia's Jewish revival
ment
in which we and our kids
has occurred in Moscow and a
will
feel
comfortable,'-' says
handful of other large cities,
Bronshtein,
who is also a leader
including St. Petersburg.
of the local synagogue's -youth
But the Sanevich family is
group.
helping to spearhead the Jewish
Tula, a three-hour drive south
revival in Tula, an industrial city
of Moscow, has been a center of
that, like the rest of the country,
Russia's munitions industry for
is reeling from the economic cri-
centuries. The city is known as
sis that began last August.
the home of samovars (the metal
The city of 600,000 has a
urns with a spigot, used to boil
Jewish community of 3,000,
water for tea).
most of them working as engi-
Jewish life here started 150
neers, doctors and teachers.
years ago. The right to settle in
Each year some 100 to 120
Tula was restricted to Jews draft-
Jews emigrate to Israel and a
ed into the military, as well as
few dozen more leave for
Germany and the United States. • limited numbers of skilled Jewish
craftsmen, workers, wealthy mer-
But Jewish leaders here say they
chants and doctors.
do not feel the community is
During the first decades of
dwindling.
Bolshevik rule after the
This is probably the most
Communist Party's Russian
striking feature of Russia's
Revolution of 1917, the city's
Jewish revival: Despite continu-
three synagogues were closed
ing aliya and emigration, Jewish
down. Many members of Tula's
life is touching more people
Jewish
community today migrat-
each year. There is a widespread
ed
here
from Ukraine and
belief — which can't be mea-
Belirus
after
World War II.
sured statistically due to the lack
Tula does not boast any high-
of reliable sources — that the
profile Jewish projects that would
number of Jews in cities like
make even local headlines — and
Tula remains the same, even
no synagogues have been rebuilt.
though a significant number of
The city's leading Jewish
people leave each year.
organization
is the Chesed
"Our Jewish population
Center,
led
by
Faina Sanevich.
increases not through births, but
Part
of
the
American
Jewish
through new people who have not
Joint Distribution Committee-
been previously known as Jews,"
. established network of social
says Faina Sanevich, who is the
and welfare organizations in the
full-time director of Hasdei
former Soviet Union, the center
Neshama, a welfare center that
provides basic services, such as
serves the Jewish elderly and poor.
food and health care, to dozens
Inna Bronshtein, for example,
of elderly Jews impoverished by
discovered her Jewish identity 10
the chaos of post-Communist
years ago.
Russia.
"I saw a Jewish wedding when
RE-EMERGE on page 12
my family was visiting our rela-

the small circles of refuseniks and
Zionist activists that operated
during Soviet days.

