And Still They Come

Despite the intifada, Israel still attracts immigrants.

SHOSHANA LONDON SAPPIR
Jewish Renaissance Media

Jerusalem

W

hen Michael
Sternwasser arrived
from Belarus in May
with his wife and 13-
year-old daughter, one of the first
words Hebrew words he learned was
pigua, terrorist attack.
Sternwasser, a 48-year-old retired
Red Army officer, knew before he
made aliyah that Palestinian terror
attacks were frequent. His 23-year-

www.:

10/12

2001

20

Shoshana London Sappir is a writer
in Jerusalem.

old son, who immigrated a
and it has terror attacks,
Yana Nezerova, 31,
year earlier, is a security
but still people here live
and Sasha Libster,
guard at the Jerusalem Mall 21, study Hebrew
well. There, they have
and he kept the family well
everything — water,
in her room at
informed. But, Sternwasser
land, resources — but
Ulpan Etzion
said, he hardly had a choice in Jerusalem on
there is nothing in the
in moving to Israel.
stores,"
he said.
Sept. 16
After 25 years of military
Sternwasser is a living
service, he said, the overall
example of the curious
collapse of public systems in Russia
fact that, despite the year-old
left him out of work and homeless. He
Palestinian intifada (uprising) with
is not sure how he will integrate into
its daily dose of fatal violence, Israel
Israeli society; he is too old to serve in
still continues to draw Jews from
the army, the police or even as a
around the world who hope they will
guard, he has been told. But Belarus
find a better life.
offered no future for him or his family.
Some 40,000 immigrants arrived
"Israel is small, it doesn't have
since the intifada began, and about
good land, it is hot, it is out of water
that number is expected in 2001.

While the total is 25 percent lower
than the previous year, aliyah officials
expect a continued flow from
Ukraine and Russia. Others will
come from Argentina, Ethiopia,
France, England and even a trickle
from the U.S.
"They know Israel still has more to
offer them than where they are corn-
ing from," said Mike Rosenberg,
director general of the Jewish
Agency's Aliyah Department. "The
situation in most of their countries is
pretty bad and being part of the
Jewish people, having a place to go,
gives them a relative advantage over
other people in those countries."
"We call it the push and the pull,"
said Rosenberg. "There is no ques-
tion the pull of Israel has weakened
because of the security and economy
problems, so most people are coming
because of the push. After all, Israel
was created for people who felt they
need to have a place to go."
And Israel continues to encourage
immigration, offering benefits such
as a $5,000 grant to immigrants
from poor countries and a $2,500
loan, to help them out for the first
year. There are also tax breaks, free
Hebrew school and subsidized room
and board at immigration centers for
the most needy arrivals.
In his meeting with Russian
President Vladimir Putin last month,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
complimented Russia on the way it is
encouraging growth of its Jewish
community. But he warned Putin
that he would still try to persuade an
additional 1 million Jews to join the
1 million who emigrated to Israel
from the former Soviet Union over
the last decade. Sharon has appealed
to the American Jewish community
to pitch in to help cover the cost of
their absorption.

Steady Stream

The hopes and worries of many new
arrivals are easy to find at Ulpan
Etzion, a residential Hebrew school
for immigrants in Jerusalem.
One student there is Sasha Libster,
21, a computer programmer who
arrived from Ryzan, near Moscow, in
July, as part of a group of young peo-
ple coming without their parents, or,
as the Jewish Agency prefers to say,
"before their parents." He is studying
Hebrew and expects to be drafted
into the army when he finishes. He
has been planning his aliyah since the
age of 16 and developments in Israel
in the last year were no deterrent.