|
In response to a question about antisemitism,
a subject within her REK welfare and culture professional portfolio,
Ms. Muterperel confirmed that REK has entered into a partnership
with the Anti-Defamation League
of the United States to combat antisemitism and promote democracy
and tolerance in Russia. This effort will be directed by Lev
Krichevsky, former correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency in the successor states. The precise nature of the REK
anti-defamation undertaking in the successor states is still being
defined, said Ms. Muterperel.
Antisemitism in Russia had increased markedly during the last
year, Ms. Muterperel noted, attributing its growth to the forthcoming
Duma and Presidential elections. In fact, she continued, the current
upsurge in anti-Jewish bigotry is “natural” because
many Jews are influential in government, provide financial support
to various candidates, and try to sway public opinion in favor
of specific contenders through the media that they own. She believes
that antisemitism will subside after the elections, but that it
will not decline to its previous low levels in the early to mid-1990s.
On the Russian Jewish Congress
in general, Ms. Muterperel said that it is evolving over time.
She perceives its public image as very positive and believes that
it is a “prestigious” organization with which to be
associated.
13. Mikhail (Micha) Chlenov
is the longtime President of the Russian Va’ad,
an organization founded in 1989 with the goal of representing
all of Soviet Jewry. In an interview at Maimonides Academy, where
he is Dean, Dr. Chlenov said that the Va’ad will hold its
next Congress in December of this year.46
He hopes that the Congress will elect his successor so that he
can become Chairman of the Board, a less time-consuming position.
The Presidium of the Va’ad had met earlier in October,
continued Dr. Chlenov, to discuss the “function and niche”
of the Va’ad. He perceives its role
as a “union of lay and professional activists”47
in Russian Jewish affairs. In contrast, he said, the Russian Jewish
Congress is an organization of donors, not activists. However,
he remarked, Vladimir Gusinsky and Alexander Osovtsov believe
that REK is an “umbrella organization for all other Jewish
organizations”. Dr. Chlenov made it clear that he considered
such an assessment of the REK role to be unwarranted. The Va’ad,
he said, would like to work with REK and with Jewish religious
groups.48
In response to a question about financial
support for the Va’ad, Dr. Chlenov said rather vaguely
that various local individuals and organizations, JDC, and the
World Zionist Organization all contributed to the Va’ad
budget.
Speaking generally about changes in Moscow between October 1998
and October 1999, Dr. Chlenov said that conditions
of daily life had deteriorated since 1998. The continuing
“political turmoil”, particularly the disarray caused
by the forthcoming elections and the various banking-related scandals,
is “nerve-wracking”. No one trusts any one else or
any institutions. Prices of many goods have declined, but retired
people still cannot survive on their pensions. Oddly, the war
in Chechnya has created some unity among Russians as support for
government policy in that region is widespread; thus, the Chechnya
war has introduced a measure of stability into Russian life. Dr.
Chlenov continued that he is concerned about the forthcoming elections
to the Duma in December and the Presidency in June. He is not
worried that extremists will come to power; however, he fears
that extremists will be strengthened by their increased access
to the media during this period and by the perceived need of some
candidates to reach out to extremists in order to broaden their
political bases.
Reflecting on post-Soviet Jewish
demography, Dr. Chlenov said that he “respects”
the research of Hebrew University scholar Sergio
DellaPergola that shows an end-1997 estimate of 325,000
“core” Jews in Russia.49
He thinks that a forthcoming census (in 2000) will confirm these
figures. However, he continued, this demographic estimate does
not constitute a “programmatic imperative”, alluding
to the large number of intermarried families in which a non-Jewish
member might be interested in Jewish programs. Dr.
Mark Kupovetsky of Project Judaica estimates that 1,200,000
individuals in Russia are eligible for Israeli citizenship under
provisions of the Israeli Law of Return, added Dr. Chlenov. In
any case, continued Dr. Chlenov,50 the Jewish birthrate is very
low, well below the level at which the Jewish population would
replace itself. In fact, about 12 Jews die for every Jew who is
born in Russia. Assimilation remains a very strong force. Six
of the 15 most prominent Jews in Russia are listed as Russians,
rather than Jews, in their internal passports, said Dr. Chlenov.51
|
14. The Jewish Community of Moscow
(Еврейская
община Москвы;
previously called Moscow Jewish Religious Community or Московское
еврейское
религиозное
общество;
retains acronym MERO from earlier
title) was established in 1999 as a successor organization to
the Moscow Jewish Congress. The Moscow Jewish Congress, a branch
of REK, was effectively dissolved when its leader was arrested
and imprisoned for financial wrongdoing. The writer spoke with
Dr. Pavel Feldblum, a
young physician who is the Executive Vice President of MERO. Dr.
Feldblum is highly regarded among Moscow Jews.
Although MERO offices are located in the Choral Synagogue associated
with Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Dr. Feldblum stressed that it
is a secular organization with a much broader (шире)
agenda than many religious groups. It has nine
directorates (управления):
mass information (средства
массовой информации);
religious affairs; Jewish education; Jewish culture; welfare;
facilities; elderly housing; Jewish cemetery; and infrastructure
development (such as kashrut certification). Now in its first
year of operation, MERO is funding seven institutions: three day
schools (Etz Chaim, Beit Yehudit, and #1311), a yeshiva, the Passin-Waxman
Children’s Center,52
the Chamah soup kitchen, and a Jewish cemetery. It works with
REK and with JDC in co-sponsoring some of these endeavors.
Fifty individuals are members of the MERO Board
of Directors/Board of Sponsors, each of whom has contributed
between $10,000 and $40,000 to MERO. In some cases, Board members
represent a specific Jewish organization, which pays the membership
fee. Board members may designate their contribution for a specific
project.
Observers note that the MERO giving level is lower than that
of REK (usual minimum of $50,000), thus providing a comfortable
affiliation for many successful Jews who are affluent, but not
as wealthy as those associated with REK. However, some MERO Board
members contribute to both REK and MERO.
Dr. Feldblum stressed that MERO has no ambition to become an
“umbrella” (зонтичний)
organization, “controlling” all Jewish life in Moscow.
However, several other individuals with whom the writer spoke
support the notion of MERO as an umbrella organization, suggesting
that a respected broadbased group should develop a computer data
base of the 120 Jewish organizations said to exist in the Russian
capital. Many of these organizations, it is believed, are little
more than family groups with no clear agenda; however, observers
lack the means to determine which organizations are important
and which are inconsequential.
15. The writer met with Rabbi
Berel Lazar, Head Lubavitch Emissary in Moscow and Russia,
and also head of the Federation of
Jewish Communities of the C.I.S. Because this organization
had not assumed a public political character at the time of the
writer’s visit, the meeting with Rabbi Lazar is reported
in another section of this report.53
16. Chamah is a multi-faceted
Jewish organization with programs in religion, education, and
welfare. It is associated with the Chabad
movement, but operates independently of the Ohr Avner and Federation
of Jewish Communities support organizations that fund most other
Chabad-related groups in the post-Soviet states. Chamah activity
is concentrated in Moscow; a smaller center is located in southern
Russia, in the city of Rostov-on-Don.
Chamah was established in the 1950s by followers of Chabad as
an underground organization committed to helping Jews in Russia
return to their roots. A Moscow native, Rabbi
Dovid Karpov was attracted to the organization as a young
man in the late 1970s. Now serving as its head rabbi, he met with
the writer at the Chamah synagogue, Darkei
Shalom (Ways of Peace),
located in the Otradnoye district of Moscow.54 Rabbi Karpov estimates
that 20,000 to 30,000 Jews live in the area, a figure that may
be somewhat high.
Chama operates three major programs
in Moscow: the synagogue,55
its Jewish Educational Center for Children,56
and a large soup kitchen. Additionally, Rabbi Karpov pursues several
special projects. The largest of these is support (food, medical
assistance, psychological consulting, life-cycle event celebrations)
to about 20 at-risk low-income Moscow Jewish families. Together,
these families have approximately 30 children, some of whom are
chronically ill (physically or emotionally). In many cases, parents
are incapable of caring for their children or finding appropriate
support services for them. Rabbi Karpov would like to develop
special housing and programs for these families, but he foresees
little likelihood of finding appropriate funding for such a project.
Rabbi Karpov also does outreach work among Jews in prisons.
|

46.
See p. 22 for the section of the interview dealing with Dr. Chlenov’s
role in academic Judaica.
47. Dr.
Chlenov also is a member of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish
Congress.
48. In
several previous meetings, Dr. Chlenov had described Russian national
Jewish organizational life as managed by a triumvirate of more-or-less
equally influential organizations: (1) REK, which is engaged primarily
in fundraising; (2) the Va’ad, which is the political center
of Russian Jewry; and (3) KEROOR (Конгресса
Еврейских
Религиозных
Общин и Организаций
России; Congress
49. See
“World Jewish Population, 1997” in American Jewish Year
Book, 1999 (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1999), p. 568.
“Core” Jews are defined as those “who, when asked,
identify themselves as Jews; or, if the respondent is a different
person in the same household, are identified by him/her as Jews”.
Ibid., p. 545. Professor DellaPergola’s work also concluded
that 132,000 core Jews reside in Ukraine, 19,000 in Belarus, 6,500
in Moldova, and 16,700 in the Baltic states. Many Jews inside the
successor states believe that these figures, especially those for
Ukraine and Moldova, are low.
50. See
pp. 20-21.
51. Dr.
Chlenov did not identify the 15 “most prominent Jews”.
52. See
pp. 33-35.
53. See
pp. 43-46.
54. Otradnoye
is a recently developed working- and middle-class northern district
of the Russian capital. The synagogue is a red brick structure standing
in close proximity to two other red brick structures, a Russian
Orthodox church and a mosque. All were built in 1996-1997. Both
the church and the mosque are substantially larger than the synagogue.
55. Rabbi
Karpov said that between 50 and 70 individuals attend Shabbat services
at the synagogue on a regular basis. More participate in holiday
events.
56. See
pp. 11-13.
|
|
|
|
|