"Russia is no less dangerous than
Israel," he said. "It has anti-Semitism
and crime. I feel much better here."
Sasha does not expect his family to
follow him to Israel, yet feels quite
secure in his choice, calling his
friends at the ulpan his new family.
Ulpan officials know how the fami-
lies may worry, however. After the
devastating August suicide bombing
of a downtown Jerusalem pizzeria,
the officials gave their students an
open line to call home. They lined
up for hours and in an assortment of
languages, mostly Russian, told their
parents they were fine, and not to
worry.
Yana Neverova, 31, who arrived
recently from Omsk in Siberia, came
to be with her own people, not from
economic necessity.
Her two careers — as a systems
engineer and a teacher of English
and Chinese — meant she had a
good job in Siberia, but she said,
My mother is Jewish. She always
told me about our culture and our
tradition. Israel is the motherland of
our ancestors. Here, I'm not afraid to
say I'm a Jew. In Russia, I tried not
to tell."
How does she cope with the strain
of terrorist attacks and constantly
being on guard? "I don't think about
it. I hope everything will be all right.
Whenever something happens, I
always call my family to tell them I'm
okay. I don't wait for them to hear
about it on the news first, I call them
right away so they hear it from me.
"I'm happy I came here and my
parents are happy I am. I hope they'll
come too after my sister graduates
from university."
"
Escaping Russia
Ina Lipshitz, immigration coordinator
at Jerusalem's Kiryat Menachem
Community Center, says although
immigrants continue to arrive in the
working-class neighborhood, many are
afraid of Jerusalem because of the
security situation and prefer other
locations.
A veteran immigrant after 10 years
in Israel, Lipshitz arrived as part of
the great wave of immigration that
followed the collapse of the Soviet
Union. She was young then, she says,
and saw Israel as a sort of adventure.
Today's arrivals are more likely to be
coming to join family members who
are already in Israel, or making the
move out of despair.
Lipshitz sits behind a Formica desk
covered with files and helps the
Israel Insight
THE ISSUE
While Palestinians claim that Israel
unfairly restricts their commerce to
maintain an economic superiority
over them, Palestinian actions can
also have a significant negative
effect on the Israeli economy.
BEHIND THE ISSUE
While Israel's economy is larger and
stronger than that of the
Palestinians, Palestinian violence
has done much to weaken it. The
tourism sector is suffering greatly,
and it is now more difficult for
Israel to attract foreign investment.
These and other factors have result-
ed in an unemployment rate in
Israel approaching 10 percent.
— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit
neighborhood's newcomers fill out
forms and learn their way around
Israeli bureaucracy. One of her
clients is Yevgeny Garipurin, 47, who
came from Uzbekistan last November
with his four children and one
grandchild. Divorced for the last
seven years,' he has been raising his
children alone.
He was driven out by the rise of
Islamic power in his country. "The
Moslems there are not anti-Semitic or
against the Jews in particular," he said.
"They are against anyone who speaks
Russian, because they perceive the
Russians as their former occupiers."
Garipurin said most Russian-speak-
ers fled Uzbekistan when Uzbek,
which he does not speak, became the
official language. "The schools are in
Uzbek, the kindergartens, the televi-
sion and the radio. I couldn't under-
stand anything anymore. All the
Russian professionals lost their jobs."
Although Uzbekistan has been sub-
ject to guerrilla warfare along its bor-
der with Afghanistan, Garipurin
lived in a quiet part of the country
where there was no danger of terror-
ism. Despite the conflict with the
Palestinians, he feels safer in Israel
because the country is generally law-
abiding and he believes the children
have a future.
"For seven years, I was raising the
children alone and had no work and
no help. Here, I get government sup-
port until I start working. It's not
much money but I know it is coming
in each month. But what is most
important, here the children can go to
school and get a good education."
4 4 T didn't need too much con-
vincine, but my parents
"pushed me over the edge" and
I decided to take off
on the Teen Mission
to Israel in the sum-
mer of 2000.
Sure, it sounded like
a really great experi-
ence and I knew that JUNE 30-~
I could gain a lot out
of the trip, but would the Teen
Mission be a fun way to
spend my summer?
I quickly realized that this
summer would be like no other —
making new friends with
American and Israeli teenagers,
riding camels, rappelling down
mountains, wearing
togas...
8 CHU1G CO DO.
And the connection
I felt to Israel, and
still feel, is some-
HIV
thing that I will
ST 5, 2002 always cherish. It
is a connection that
is more than spiritual. In Israel,
I got the feeling of being home.
W 20021
But was it fun?
No. It was much, much more."
For information, call Trudy Weiss at (248) 203 1485
-
Visit us on the Web: www.thisisfederation.org
Fail/Winter
2001-2002
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❑
10/12
2001
21