Russian Jews never become Israelis

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It turns out that not everything is going so smoothly in expansionist Israel. It seems that there is no single society in this state formation, although the very Zionist principle of its creation simply obliges this unity to be even deeper than in normal, historically established countries of the planet.

And our former compatriots cannot absorb the Israeli "culture" at all. Which, in general, is understandable: its artificiality is subconsciously rejected by a normally developed person. And Soviet Jews, of course, were, like all Soviet people, developed normally.

In short, a very informative passage from the book of a Jew about Israeli society.

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Institutional infrastructure

The role of "Russian" public organizations, of course, was not limited to providing opportunities for the institutional identification of new repatriates and old-timers.

It was also significantly broader than the tasks that most researchers see in the activities of "Russian" organizations, namely: compensation for forced lossessocial, economic and professional status of many immigrants and narrowing their cultural spacein the unfamiliar environment of the host state *.

In addition to these really relevant roles, especially at the beginning of the integration process, other general-forming functions were no less important. More generally, they can be defined as the provision of cultural, educational, informational and social services to people from Eastern Europe; satisfaction of their specific consumer and psychological needs; realization of professional, political and economic interests; and furthermore, providing space for intense cultural and political dialogue within and between communities.

Thanks to these general-forming functions, "Russian" organizations appear in two most important (in the context of this topic) hypostases. Firstly, public organizations form the “visible” institutional framework and “boundaries” of the community of new immigrants. SecondlyIn the political sphere, these structures act as organized groups of political interests and pressure, influencing the process of making political and administrative decisions both through direct lobbying and serving as channels for political mobilization of the Russian-speaking population.

As a result, the core of the infrastructure of repatriates from the USSR / CIS in Israel, for obvious reasons, are the political organizations described above:

(a)"Russian" parties and repatriate branches of all-Israeli structures;

(v)non-party political organizations and movements, including those that, for various reasons, were not registered as parties, and those that do not have electoral plans;

(With) “Non-political” public organizations that form the “outer circle” of formal political structures.

Accordingly, the position, program and principles of activity of these structures, the total number of which probably reaches several dozen, are obviously oriented along the usual political and ideological divide in Israeli society. Applying the principles of classification of political associations adopted in Israel, these organizations are divided into "right", "left" and "centrist".

In the first group, in addition to "Aliya for Eretz Israel", which has already been discussed, there is a close to it in ideology and methods of activity "Analytical group MAOF" ("Takeoff") in Haifa, created by immigrants from the USSR of the 70s.

At the moment, the MAOF, whose head is Alexander Nepomnyashchy, includes dozens of Russian-speaking intellectuals who conduct diverse analytical, information and propaganda, publishing, lecture, and national cultural activities in the spirit of the views and views of the so-called "national (t e. right) camp ", mainly among the Russian-speaking intelligentsia of the North and Center of the country *.

Amuta Mila, a union of right-wing journalists writing in Russian, and the Association For the Jewish Majority of Israel headed by lawyer Zeev Faber, created to fight for amending the Law on Return and Emigration Policy, are similar in structure and tasks. The MAHANAIM society, the role and activity of which has already been mentioned above, can also be referred to this group.

Among the non-party and near-party organizations of the left, the amuta "Teena" headed by M. Amusin stands out, which is mainly engaged in the preparation of journalistic materials and propaganda of the ideology of the left camp among immigrants from the CIS.

Teena has the closest ties with the extreme left-wing parties of the Israeli political spectrum - Meretz and Demvybor, through which, according to available information, funds are being mobilized to finance Amuta projects. (Among the latter - the publication of numerous brochures and socio-political Russian-speaking magazine "Time to search", which is especially distinguished by the "left" orientation of its employees and published materials against the background of the "right" Israeli Russian journalism).

To the same group of organizations adjoins the formally non-partisan so-called "Institute for Democratic Leadership", actually established in 2000 as a branch of the Democratic Choice party. The President of the Institute is the party leader Roman Bronfman. The institute, whose tasks are defined as the preparation of a new generation of "Russian" public elite - politicians, journalists and public figures and their upbringing "in the spirit of democratic values" Peace Process”in the Middle East.

From the organizations of the center-left orientation, we will name the Congress Russian-speaking press (chairman - Aaron Moonblit), ideologically and organizationally close to the party of Labor, and the "International Jewish movement Aviv" Alexander Shapiro.

The first organization initiated dozens of meetings and discussions on topical issues of Israel's foreign policy and social development, which were attended by Hebrew-speaking, Russian-speaking and Arabic-speaking Israeli politicians and journalists.

The Aviv movement, which has branches in all major cities of Israel, as well as in Russia, the United States, Germany and Australia, has also organized a number of projects in the field of national education, the fight against anti-Semitism and the spiritual absorption of immigrants in Israel.

Human rights movements also adjoin the group of political repatriate organizations, many of which belong to the "external" circle of various kinds of repatriate or all-Israeli parties (most often of the left camp, but not only).

Among them are the Association of Lawyers in Defense of the Rights of New Immigrants, the Forum for Civil Marriages and the Alternative Association.

The latter two organizations advocate the introduction of the institution of civil marriage, the rights of mixed families and the expansion of the rights of unorthodox (reformist and conservative) religious movements, including “ the abolition of the monopoly of the orthodox rabbinate »To register marriages and divorces, manage local religious councils and issue documents on conversion to Judaism (which gives the holders of these documents the right to Israeli citizenship).

Among the most "exotic" human rights organizations of this group, the movement "Russian Forum Against Homophobia", created by a group of Russian-speaking activists for the rights of homosexuals and lesbians, stands out.

On the other hand, the Movement to Combat Anti-Semitism, whose activists have been monitoring for many years, can be classified as a human rights organization. manifestations of anti-Semitism in Israel (the source of the latter, as a rule, is the local Arabs and representatives of the non-Jewish part of the Aliyah, who arrived in the country as members of Jewish families).

The structure-forming nucleus of the community of repatriates also includes compatriot unions, which, in turn, are subdivided into categories.

The first should include the all-Israel unions, which claim to unite all immigrants from the USSR / CIS. Formally "non-partisan", most of these unions are quite obviously associated with one or another political camps and movements. The most influential associations of this kind - the Zionist Forum, traditionally associated with the right-wing ("national") camp, and the Association of People from the USSR / CIS associated with the Labor Party, has already been discussed above.

Other movements of this kind - the Non-Party Federation of Immigrants from the CIS or the Union of New Olim - have less obvious political overtones (although the fact, for example, that the former is headed by the former leader of the “Russian” Moledet, Zoriy Dudkin, can say a lot about the political orientation of this structure).

Severe financial and organizational crisis of most of these associations and especially the main "umbrella" structures of the Zionist Forum and the Association of Immigrants from the USSR / CIS, political advances and pressure from "sponsors" (primarily the Sokhnut) gave rise to various options for their unification.

One of these actions was the Congress Russian-speaking communities, which is in the process of being organized, and it is still too early to say whether it will be able to play the planned role of a "superzontic" structure (similar to the "superfederations" such as the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine or the Eurasian Jewish Congress created in Eastern Europe in recent years).

Another category of compatriot unions is made up of associations of repatriates at the local level - the Organization of immigrants from the USSR in Ashdod, the Organization of immigrants from the USSR in Nahariya, etc.

All these structures, despite their "declared non-partisan" status, can play - and some do play a significant role in the creation of municipal and general Israeli political movements.

The third group is represented by Israel-wide associations of immigrants from specific cities and regions of the USSR, as a rule, with branches at the local level. Among the most influential structures of this kind, we note the Organization of Immigrants from Ukraine; Society of Ukrainian-Israeli Relations; Organization of immigrants from Belarus, Organization of immigrants from Bukhara, Union of organizations of immigrants from Georgia, Association of immigrants from Moldova, Association of immigrants from the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Birobidzhan, Leningrad, Chernivtsi community, etc.

Tens of thousands of olim participating in meetings, excursions, conferences, seminars, fundraising campaigns and other events of these associations are the objects of close attention and intense competition between the main "Russian" and general Israeli parties.

Another influential group of repatriate organizations is their professional associations, which began to take shape almost earlier than the rest of the "Russian" structures.

In addition to the fact that the olim professional associations were a place of concentration and communication of active and energetic people - and this could have a political influence on occasion - the special social role of these organizations was the result of two more circumstances.

FirstlyThe repatriation of hundreds of thousands of qualified specialists, the number of which was comparable in a number of industries, or even several times exceeded the number of already existing local personnel (not to mention specialists in those areas that were generally absent in Israel), significantly narrowed the integration opportunities of the local market.

All this has become a serious challenge to the Israeli society and state, for which the integration (including professional) of aliyah, along with ensuring the safety and well-being of citizens, is one of the three main national priorities.

In turn, the need to integrate these professionals has prompted organizational and financial efforts at the level of major projects of national importance. The struggle in the Israeli establishment, which was waged around these topics, in essence, boiled down to two approaches: purely "charitable" - in the spirit of supporting socially weak groups of the population or including professional absorption programs olim in the context of the search for new socio-economic prospects for Israeli society at the end of the 20th century. v.

“Russian” professional associations, which in the course of time were actually recognized as the spokesmen of the olim group professional interests, played a significant role in the development and adjustment of the policy for the absorption of repatriates from the USSR and post-Soviet countries.

Second a circumstance is the fact that Soviet Jews of the USSR belonged to those groups of Soviet society whose professional achievements had an autonomous (non-material) value and were recorded at the level of consciousness. Accordingly, in Israel, most of the immigrants were not ready to accept the loss of such a hard-won production status *.

Because of this, their “professional patriotism” (professional commitment) has become an easily mobilized political resource, nourishing the feeling of “offended communal dignity,” which, as noted, played an important role in the emergence of “Russian” political movements.

As an example, let us cite the influential Union of Repatriate Scientists of Israel (which united representatives of fundamental natural and humanitarian sciences) and the Association of Scientists and Engineers from the USSR ANRIVIS (engineers, architects and applied scientists). Both groups emerged in the early 90s with the aim of solving integration problems hundreds of researchers and highly qualified teachers who came from the USSR / CIS to Israeli universities, colleges and research centers.

Although the problems of many olim scientists have not yet been resolved, the combined efforts of "Russian" politicians, public organizations of repatriate scientists and their colleagues from among the indigenous Israelis and old-timers who supported them brought results, in the second half of the 90s the projects of Giladi and KAMEA appeared that significantly expanded the existing absorption programs in science *.

The same unions, as well as the engineering association "Union of Repatriate Engineers" (SIRI) itself, have made considerable efforts to adapt almost 100 thousand engineers who have arrived in Israel since the beginning of the "big aliyah" (almost 2/3 of them still do not work in their specialty).

In addition to organizing various kinds of retraining seminars, Hebrew, English courses, computer training and vocational guidance, associations, as pressure groups, played a role in the adoption and optimization of government programs.

Among them - the expansion of the system of "technological greenhouses" (public centers with the participation of private capital for the development of promising technologies), the initiation of BASHAN projects - the integration of engineers and scientists in industry and the implementation of their projects in the field of high technologies and (together with the Ministry of Defense) the Fund of Defense Projects destination.

In addition, unions of scientists and engineers have achieved the creation of a network of Science and Technology Houses, organizing advanced training courses, providing grants and providing scientists and development engineers with patent, marketing, organizational and other services to promote their developments.

Another effective repatriate union is the Association of Repatriate Teachers. It was founded in 1990 with the aim of professional absorption of teachers who came from the USSR, to optimize the integration of Russian-speaking students into the Israeli school and university systems, as well as to create alternative options for those elements of the education system that, in the opinion of the repatriate teachers, were not sufficiently developed. *.

Already at the beginning of the 90s, educational and advisory centers of the association were established in almost 40 cities of the country, in which, according to the methods of "complementary enriching education" developed by former leading Soviet educators, many of whom arrived in Israel as part of the aliyah of the 90s, about 5 thousand students studied.

Another professional association of repatriate teachers - amuta "Mofet" went even further, initiating the creation of a system evening schools, the organizers of which - Yakov Mozganov and his supporters - were guided by the example leading metropolitan physics and mathematics schools of the former USSR … In 1994, some of these schools received the status of day state secondary educational institutions "Mofet", which was already mentioned above.

The stateization and bureaucratization of this system in the late 90s led to the exit of the Mozganov group from the Mofet camp and the creation of a new system of elite education USSR / CIS). Similar schools were also established by other groups of immigrant teachers in Kfar Saba, Ashdod, Beer Sheva and other places.

Thanks to the activities of the Union of Repatriate Teachers, as well as other competing and collaborating groups in Israel, by the beginning of the 21st century, an integral system of "alternative" education had developed - about 10 day schools and more than 250 non-formal schools, hundreds of "Russian" family kindergartens and nurseries, about 700 clubs and studios, 25 colleges and courses, as well as 6 Israeli branches of CIS universities, leading teaching in Russian language and Hebrew *.

As we can conclude, the creation of a holistic alternative education system, which absorbed thousands of teachers, methodologists and researchers, being a community institution, but which, despite the widespread use of the Russian language and Russian pedagogical principles, in the full sense of the word "Russian", has become the largest organizational. cultural and political achievement of the community of immigrants from the USSR / CIS.

Other professional organizations include the "Institute for Progressive Research" in Arad, the Sociological Association "Aliya", the influential Association of health workers-olim, the amutu of technical workers MATAM, the association of advertising creators "APPA", as well as creative unions (Russian-speaking writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, athletes, etc.).

A special group of trade unions was formed by former servicemen of the Soviet army and law enforcement officials. The main purpose of these organizations, including the association of former militia workers "Shield and Sword", the union of former security and security personnel "Opor", the society of combat dog handlers "People and Dogs", which was already discussed above, as well as other similar structures, there was a desire to gain recognition from the government and the use of their professional experience in the Israeli law enforcement system. (They have not been able to achieve this yet. (although many members of these associations were employed by the police and security services on a one-to-one basis.)

Even more symbolic for the community was the creation of the "Russian" battalion "Aliya", which arose as an association of volunteers - former officers of the Soviet Army and the armed forces of the CIS countries, many of whom had experience in fighting in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other "hot spots" and insisted on using their experience in the context of a new round of Arab terror. After lengthy discussions, the Ministry of Defense made a decision to include the "Aliya" battalion in the professional composition of the border troops ("mishmar ha-gvul"), which, in addition to the designated function, also perform the functions of anti-terrorist forces and internal troops (such as the Russian OMON).

The weight and importance of olim's professional organizations varied. Some, like the aforementioned Union of Teachers, the Unions of Scientists and Engineers-Repatriates of Israel and a number of other professional associations, could be proud of a certain political influence and notable achievements in the professional adaptation of their members.

Others existed on paper and, in fact, besides the founders themselves, few represented. Finally, there was also a significant number of so-called “compensatory” professional organizations, whose main task was not so much the solution of practical problems of employment in the specialty, but the provision of a place for psychologically comfortable “professional communication”.

A typical example of such organizations is the Union of Russian-speaking filmmakers, which in 2002 had more than 700 members, and most of whose activities were devoted mainly to the analysis of their former creative achievements. The organization's success in promoting new films and employing its members has been relatively modest. (The most notable success in this area among immigrants from the USSR in Israel was achieved by director S. Vinokur, who had no connection with the Union, who received an Israeli Oscar and was invited to teach at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts.)

Such organizations should rather be classified as charitable associations designed to solve social problems specific to immigrants from the USSR. In turn, among the structures of these categories, several groups are also distinguished.

Thus, unprofitable building associations played a special role among organizations whose goal was to solve the social problems of aliyah. Some of them, such as the aforementioned competing organizations, the Association "Roof for the Needy" and the amuta "Building Progress", developed a concept and a mechanism for solving the housing problem.

Others, like the well-known association "Orot" in Caesarea, which introduced the model of construction of high-quality cheap housing, or amutot "akademaim" (persons with higher education), such as "Gal" in Lod, were directly involved in the development of new urban areas as organizers and general customers. quarters.

Finally, there are examples of "Russian" construction projects that combine the goals of solving the actual housing problem with the creation of "like-minded settlements". Among the latter, the already mentioned "Maale Mahanaim" - a quarter in the city of Maale Adumim, the core of whose inhabitants were former members of the underground religious-Zionist movement in the USSR, and the "Russian" kibbutz in Galilee, stand out.

It should be noted that all these organizations were influenced by the high politicization of the construction sector in Israel, which stems from its enormous social significance and the multibillion-dollar budgetary and private funds that circulate in it. Accordingly, construction is an arena for a clash of various institutionalized interest groups - such as associations of building contractors, the National Land Office, settlement movements, etc.

Among other public organizations of social orientation, we note the Movement of Pensioners-Repatriates, the Association of Chernobyl victims; organizations of single-parent families "IMHA" and "Kav Yashir", associations of social mutual assistance - "Etgar", "Yadid", "SELA" and others.

The same group is joined by social structures that are trying to address the social and everyday issues of their members in the context of the search for new social, ideological and identification guidelines for Israeli society. The leaders in this group are veteran unions - the Union of World War II Veterans, the Union of War Invalids, the Association "Children of Concentration Camps" and many others.

The most impressive success seems to have been achieved by the relatively small Chernobyl Union. Its head A. Kolontyrsky, with the support of the Russian-speaking community and "Russian" Knesset deputies, managed to achieve the acceptance of state support for the former liquidators and victims of the Chernobyl accident.

Veterans' associations also played an important role in the adoption in 2000 of the Law on World War II Veterans, granting this category of the population (mostly repatriates of the last waves) various rights and social benefits.

An even larger group of "Russian" community structures is made up of cultural, educational and information organizations. Among several hundred such structures, several categories stand out.

The first is made up of cultural associations proper, various "Russian-Jewish", "Russian-Israeli" and simply "Russian" cultural centerssuch as the Jerusalem Community House, the Russian Library in Jerusalem, the Center for the Culture of Repatriates in Ashkelon and circles founded by them, ongoing projects and creative unions.

Educational and educational societies, both secular and religious, adjoin this group. Among the most notable are the aforementioned "Machanaim" and "Mofet", the Jerusalem Literary Club, the Hebrew ulpan association, as well as numerous educational societies - as "Russian-Jewish" (the association for the study of the heritage of Russian Jewry "MIR", "Jewish culture in the Russian diaspora "," Tikvat Aliya ", the association of synagogues for Jews from the CIS" SHAMASH ", etc.) and general orientation (Association of Jewish Self-Education," Gesher ha-Tshuva "," Thelet ", etc.).

In addition, the community has clubs and seminars operating at Russian publishing houses (Gishrey Tarbut / Bridges of Culture, Shamir Publishing Society, Association for the Publishing of Dictionaries; Israeli-Russian Encyclopedic Center, etc.) and Russian books.

Further, these are "Russian" theater groups: both professional (theaters "Gesher", "Kovcheg", "People and Dolls", etc.) and amateur; associations of intellectual games, as well as "thick" Russian literary and artistic and socio-political publications.

Of the latter, the leading ones are Jerusalem Journal, Solar Plexus, 22 Journal, the Solnechny Ostrov online literary publication and others, collectives of authors, readers and the Russian "near-literary get-together" that enrich the life of the "Russian" intellectual elites and affect the political climate in the country.

The next block is Russian-language newspapers, "Thin" (thematic) magazines and electronic press. As already noted, at least 70 different information materials are published in Israel. periodic editions in Russian.

The central place among them is occupied by daily newspapers - Vesti and Novosti Nedeli with their thematic supplements and regional versions, weekly Vremya, MIG-News, Echo, Panorama, Russian Israeli and others, as well as numerous local publications and online newspapers (the leading ones are Israel News (www.lenta.co.il), Novosti (novosti.co.il) and Jerusalem Chronicles (news / gazeta.net)

Community electronic media include the Russian-language TV channel Israel Plus (part of the News Company of the 2nd Commercial Directorate of Television and Radio), the editorial staff of the Russian-language programs of the First State and 10th (commercial) TV channels, the newsroom from Israel international RTVI, as well as a number of Russian-language radio stations. These are the state radio station REKA ("Voice of Israel" in Russian) in Tel Aviv, radio station "7th channel" (part of the "informal" public broadcasting association "Aruts Sheva", sponsored by the YESHA Council of Settlements and the movements of the right camp) and commercial radio stations First Radio, Severny Mayak, etc.

In addition, hundreds of Israeli Russian-language Internet sites (among the leading ones are Internet portals MIGnews, Soyuz, Isralend, Rjews.net and many others) bear a considerable information and political load.

A significant part of the community infrastructure is made up of youth and sports associations (such as the KESEM Athletes Association, Elsie Sports Association, Damka Chess Association; Beit Galil, etc.).

Finally, the “Russian” business sector, which has already been said a lot in a different context, is also represented by a number of public associations, the leading role among which is played by the Association of Israeli Repatriate Entrepreneurs and the Association of Small and Medium Businesses, which carry out numerous educational and marketing projects.

Summarizing what has been said, we note that despite the fact that many organizations exist only in the imagination of their founders, there are many who are considered by the new immigrants as an important link in the “Russian” community.

Thus, in the course of one of the polls, which aimed to find out which structures are seen by the new repatriates as the main representatives of their interests, an approximately equal number of respondents singled out public organizations of repatriates (13.8%) and political parties of repatriates (14.9%). At the same time, about half believed that "the issues and problems of the Russian-speaking community of Israel are being dealt with by both of them together" *.

Accordingly, it is still too early to draw unambiguous conclusions about the future fate of these organizations. All possibilities are open and in many respects coincide with the variants of communal identity.

One of the real prospects is the disappearance of these organizations and institutions as they perform the functions of integrating olim into local structures.

The second option is to preserve organizations in their more or less current form in order to serve the interests of newly arrived olim and those who locked in an immigrant culture, does not want or cannot integrate and take root in the local society.

The third, apparently the most preferable option is the "acculturation" of the structures and institutions themselves, i.e. while preserving their "Russian-Jewish" content, the acquisition of an Israeli expression, including through a gradual transition to Hebrew, and their filling free niches in Israeli culture, society, economy and politics. It is this tendency that can become a guarantee of the preservation of the "Russian" community in the future.

From the book of Vladimir (Zeev) Khanin. "Russians" and power in modern Israel