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Since the inception of Project Judaica, JTS has struggled to find
appropriate faculty members willing
to work in Moscow alongside local instructors in Hebrew language
and other topics. The practice during the past few years has been
for regular and/or adjunct JTS faculty members to come to Moscow
in one- or two-month rotations, teach in an intensive format, and
then return to the United States or Israel. Because few such individuals
are able to teach in the Russian language, Project Judaica students
are required to learn English. Jewish-subject courses for first-
and second-year students often must be taught through an interpreter.
In response to a question, Dr. Kupovetsky said
that entrance to Project Judaica
is dependent upon satisfactory scores in a general state admissions
exam plus English-language skills. The most talented students, he
said, generally go into business or law, not humanities. Professional
opportunities for graduating students are “a problem,”
he acknowledged. Very few work in archives because compensation
for such work is very low. Some graduates have gone abroad, some
are in graduate school here or abroad, and others are working for
the Russian Jewish Congress, JDC, Israeli government representations
in Moscow, Jewish day schools, or in positions outside the Jewish
organizational world.
Despite their inability to find employment in fields
for which they have trained, Project Judaica students have made
several notable contributions to Jewish scholarship, asserted Dr.
Kupovetsky. They have compiled detailed guides to Jewish materials
in Moscow archives as well as research information about Jewish-related
archives elsewhere in Russia, in Ukraine, in Belarus, and in the
Soviet Army. Project Judaica also has published a Russian-language
anthology of Jewish literature.
Some academic observers in Moscow believe that
Project Judaica is an intrinsically flawed undertaking, citing several
problems inherent in the program.
First, as noted, few positions are available in archival work and
the low compensation for such positions is a deterrent to filling
those vacancies that do exist. Second, Project Judaica students
are taught and trained according to American methodology, which
does not prepare them for employment in the Russian educational
environment. Third, visiting American and/or Israeli instructors
lack the influence and associations with colleagues that are necessary
to assist graduates in finding appropriate employment in Russia
or neighboring countries. Fourth, the English-language teaching
culture at Project Judaica actually encourages students to identify
with the United States or England and to pursue careers in an English-speaking
country.
In response to a question about other Masorti programs,
particularly those of a popular outreach
nature, in Russia, Dr. Kupovetsky said that both he and Dr. Fishman
were concerned about this issue. In reality, he said, the Masorti
movement does the least post-Soviet Jewish outreach of the three
major streams in Judaism. Chabad, he continued, does the most, and
the World Union for Progressive Judaism (Reform) is beginning to
implement its own programs. He is pessimistic about Masorti outreach
because the Masorti movement itself has not identified post-Soviet
Jewish outreach as a priority. Funding for outreach work seems unavailable.
The Masorti movement must define itself and its objectives in the
post-Soviet states, he said.
9. Maimonides Academy
is a tuition-free state-supported undergraduate institution offering
a five-year undergraduate degree in modern Hebrew.36
Many students also learn English and/or Yiddish. Language study
is complemented by enrollment in courses in Jewish history, Jewish
tradition, and related subjects. The writer spoke with Mikhail
(Micha) Chlenov, Dean of the Academy and an instructor in
Hebrew and other courses. An anthropologist by education and outlook,
Dr. Chlenov also is President of the Russian Va'ad.37
Dr. Chlenov said that Maimonides Academy currently
enrolls 120 students, 40 percent of whom are Jewish. Graduates teach
at Maimonides and in Jewish Agency ulpans, and some work for the
Joint Distribution Committee. A few teach Hebrew in Jewish day schools,
but the low compensation level at most day schools discourages more
graduates from selecting that career path, said Dr. Chlenov.
In addition to his teaching and administrative
responsibilities at Maimonides Academy, Dr. Chlenov also teaches
at CJSC and at Project Judaica. Multiple teaching assignments are
common in Moscow, said Dr. Chlenov, because compensation at one
institution is rarely sufficient for support of a family. Circulation
of faculty among different institutions is beneficial in that it
reduces the likelihood of destructive competition between them,
observed Dr. Chlenov.
10. Vladimir Shapiro
is a sociologist at the Jewish Research
Center (also called the Jewish
Scientific Center) at the Russian
Academy of Sciences. The writer met with him at his home.
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Dr. Shapiro observed that emigration
of Jews from Russia has increased and probably will remain
at a high level for the foreseeable future. Emigration, he said,
is generated by the economic situation, which has not improved
since the ruble devaluation of August 1998. The value of most
salaries, he continued, has decreased by two or three times. The
war in the Caucasus is expensive to sustain, absorbing funds that
the government should be investing in productive enterprise. Foreign
investment also has declined, a product of the 1998 economic crisis
and recent scandals involving money laundering and other forms
of corruption. Few people seem optimistic about the future; therefore,
many who are able to emigrate do so.38
The Russian government has paid back
salaries in most regions and pension
arrears in all regions of Russia. The major factor stimulating
these payments, especially pensions, is the forthcoming Duma election
in December and Presidential election in 2000. A 600,000-member
political party consisting entirely of pensioners supports Gennady
Zyuganov and his Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
A party of veterans also is inclined to the Left, many hoping
to re-create the Soviet Union whose superpower status had generated
inestimable pride. Dr. Shapiro noted that payment of back salaries
and pensions had halted the frequent strikes of unpaid teachers,
physicians, and others, thus returning domestic peace to Russia.
Recalling Dr. Shapiro’s remarks one year previously on
the absence of a strong work ethic
in Russia, the writer asked him to comment on this issue again.
Dr. Shapiro responded by saying that, as during the late Soviet
period, people feel that their work has no value and, therefore,
that they do not work very diligently. Working conditions are
unpleasant, bureaucracy is stifling, co-workers often are uncultured,
theft and corruption are common, and scandals (компромат
or kompromat, i.e., compromising
material) erupt with some frequency at all levels. The militia
(police) demand bribes for everything. It is as if one is living
in a jungle. Relating his observations to the forthcoming elections,
Dr. Shapiro said that voters will vote against
specific people, as opposed to casting their ballots for a particular
candidate.
Yabloko
(Apple) seems to be the most popular political party among the
intelligentsia and among Jews, said Dr. Shapiro, because it espouses
democratic values. As of mid-October, polls showed that it might
win 12 percent of the seats in the December Duma
elections. The center-left coalition (All Russia/Fatherland
led by Evgeny Primakov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov) might win
40 to 50 percent. Almost no Jews support Zuganov
or Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
said Dr. Shapiro. If Presidential
elections were held in mid-October, no one candidate would
emerge the clear winner in first-round balloting. Evgeny
Primakov and Zuganov would each win 40 to 45 percent of
the total vote and would then stand again in a run-off.39
It is likely that Primakov would be able to attract more allies
from the defeated candidates and would win the second round and
become the new President. Russia would then have a Jewish President.40
Acknowledging that many Jews fear that a Jewish Prime Minister
might be uncomfortable for the Russian Jewish population, Dr.
Shapiro commented that matters of heritage and career (as an Arabist
and spy) aside, Primakov is stable, sophisticated, and capable
of being very charming.
In response to a question, Dr. Shapiro said that he is more pessimistic
than optimistic about the Jewish future
in Russia. He does not anticipate calamitous events, such as pogroms,
a Russian version of Kristallnacht,41
or the re-emergence of a communist state in Russia. However, antisemitism
will continue, sometimes at a consistent level, sometimes rising
and then falling. The economy will remain weak. The economic situation,
political instability, family members living abroad, demographic
factors independent of emigration (i.e., high intermarriage rate,
low fertility), and antisemitism are factors in encouraging continuing
emigration. Ties with family members abroad serve as a real “pump”
(насос) in pulling Jews out of Russia.
A study that he conducted in the fall and winter of 1997 shows
Russian Jews with: In Israel In U.S.
first-degree relatives 30% 16%
cousins, aunts, uncles 74% 61%
close friends 67% 52%
The 1989 Soviet census enumerated 528,182 Jews in Russia, said
Dr. Shapiro. Since that time, about one-third of the Jewish population
(170,000 to 175,000 people) has emigrated, according to both the
Russian government and the Jewish Agency. Therefore, about 350,000
Jews remain in 1999. By the year 2009, predicted Dr. Shapiro,
a maximum of 150,000 Jews in Russia -- and perhaps as few as 100,000
-- will identify themselves as Jews. They will constitute an elderly
population with very low fertility.
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36. Five
years is the normal duration of undergraduate study in the (post-)
Soviet Union. High school graduation normally occurs at age 17,
i.e., one year earlier than in the United States and some other
countries.
37. Dr.
Chlenov’s remarks on the Va’ad and other Jewish communal
issues are recounted in the section of this report on Jewish communal
organizations. See pp.29-30.
38. Dr.
Shapiro said that his own 28-year old son emigrated six months ago
and is now living in New York, as is Dr. Shapiro’s former
wife. Dr. Shapiro, who was born in 1937, expects to remain in Moscow
as long as he is able to continue working in his profession. He
is in daily contact with his son through e-mail and ICQ telephone.
39.
Note: In November, Russian media controlled by Boris Berezovsky
mounted a fierce assault on Primakov and Luzhkov, questioning their
fitness for high office. The intent was to malign the coalition
leaders so as to boost the Presidential prospects of Vladimir Putin,
current Prime Minister and favored candidate of retiring President
Boris Yeltsin and the Kremlin “family”. Most observers
believe that Mr. Berezovsky’s campaign was effective in limiting
the Communist Party share of Duma seats to 24 percent in the December
Duma elections, increasing the pro-Kremlin Unity Party’s share
to 23 percent, and limiting the Primakov-Luzhkov coalition’s
seats to 13 percent. Candidates associated with Yabloko won barely
six percent of the Duma votes.
40. Evgeny
Primakov was born as Yonah Finkelshtein in 1929 in Kyiv. He does
not identify as a Jew.
41. Kristallnacht
or “Night of the Broken Glass” refers to November 9,
1938, when government-inspired forces rampaged through German cities,
attacking Jews, Jewish-owned property, and synagogues. Because many
windows were broken, the Aktion
became known as Kristallnacht.
Thirty-six Jews were reported killed, another 36 severely injured,
more than 800 shops and 170 dwellings were destroyed, 76 synagogues
were destroyed, and another 191 synagogues were severely damaged.
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