Forward - 07.12.2002

 

Russian Jews Launch Int'l Body Amid Skepticism

By S.A. GREENE
FORWARD CORRESPONDENT

MOSCOW — Organizers of the World Congress of Russian Jewry say their effort to create a global voice for Jews from the former Soviet Union is on track despite widespread skepticism among the body's own members.

More than 360 delegates from 21 countries met for four days last week — first in Moscow, then in Jerusalem — to flesh out plans for the new body, which will represent Russian Jewish interests in the former Soviet Union and abroad. Initiated last December by a much smaller group of Russian Jews from around the world, mostly former refuseniks, the congress is envisioned as an educational resource for Russian Jews wherever they live, as well as a lobbying group for Jewish interests in Russia itself.

Critics, however, say the educational plans run counter to the Russian emigres' efforts to assimilate in their new countries. Some are also wary of the new body's ties to the Lubavitch-led Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, based in Moscow. In turn, such critics point to what they describe as overly cozy relations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the federation, several of whose leaders sit on the coordinating committee, including Valery Engel. A Moscow Jewish leader, Engel was elected head of the coordinating committee in December.

Engel and other leaders remain optimistic about the new body, despite these criticisms — which together with logistical disputes mean that the congress is not likely to take its final form for another three years, when the next general assembly is scheduled.

"We accomplished our most important goals," Engel told the Forward. "We unified communities from around the world and agreed on priorities, in the support of Israel in its fight against terrorism and the integration of Russian-speaking Jewish communities everywhere."

The Moscow leg of the assembly brought together a somewhat uneasy combination of refusenik-era emigres, Moscow academics and black-hatted rabbis, with each group more or less ignoring the other in favor of renewing old acquaintances. Together with the kosher cold-cuts tray at the breakfast buffet, it made for an unusual scene at the city's World Trade Center, a somewhat bizarre, late-Soviet attempt at a western-style hotel and expo complex more accustomed to hosting Chinese trade delegations.

Despite Engel's optimism, the organization's charter, as well as a more concrete list of activities, was left unapproved at the end of the assembly, leaving Engel's coordinating committee to work out what he called "nuances" in the interim.

While everyone easily agrees on rhetorical support for Israel, ideas on how — and indeed whether — to integrate Russian-speaking Jews around the world vary widely.

Most seem to agree on initiatives to publish and distribute Russian-language educational materials for adult emigres who may have difficulty studying in the native language of their new homes, be it English, Hebrew or German.

"We want to help those who left the former Soviet Union keep their Jewishness and their roots, or to find them in the first place," Engel said.

Promotion of Russian-Jewish culture is also popular. But many are irked by suggestions for supporting Russian-language Hebrew and Sunday schools for children, arguing that it will be an impediment to integration into the broader Jewish societies in the immigrants' new homes. In an editorial in last week's Russian Forward, editor Leonid Shkolnik said supporters of the congress would serve to create a Russian-Jewish "'fifth column,' instead of slowly and successfully integrating into the mainstream American Jewish community."

Engel rejects that argument.

"We're not trying to put up a wall between Russian Jews and non-Russian Jews," he said. "We believe that by helping Russian Jews return to Judaism, we can facilitate integration with Jews in general. And all you have to do is take a walk through [the] Brighton Beach [neighborhood of Brooklyn] to understand that integration isn't happening at the moment."

Another split — this time around lobbying efforts — may follow geographical lines. Delegates living in former Soviet countries tend to support the idea of using the new congress as a political lobbying group, although their exact goals remain unclear. But representatives of emigre communities, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel and the United States, many of whom fled the Soviet Union because of antisemitism and remain wary of the Kremlin, fear that the congress could become a tool in the hands of Putin to lobby his political interests. These include efforts to paint the ongoing war in Chechnya as akin to Israel's struggle against Palestinian terrorism or Washington's war in Afghanistan.

In addition, most of the Moscow-based members of the coordinating committee hail from the ranks of the Federation of Jewish Communities. In a gesture toward openness, though, representatives of almost all of Russia's major Jewish organizations, including the Federation's rival, the Congress of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Russia, and the Va'ad, were invited to attend — although not all did, including two of the Congress of Jewish Organizations' most prominent rabbis. And plans call for Russia's often quarreling chief rabbis, Adolf Shayevich, from the Congress of Jewish Organizations, and Berel Lazar, from the federation, to sit on the new body's council of rabbis.

"The fact that Shayevich and Lazar will sit on the same council is a good sign," said the chairman of the Congress of Jewish Organizations, Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, who did attend the assembly. "But in general, it's too early to tell what is going to come of all of this. When a Jewish baby is born, of course you rejoice and say mazel tov. But you still don't know what he's going to grow up to be."

The congress's problems extend beyond its mission. After the end of the second day of meetings in Moscow, when it had become clear that the charter setting out the institutional framework of the congress would not be approved, it was nevertheless announced that various proposed commissions had elected their leaders.

The announcement was seen by some as heavy-handed. "If people feel that this is all being managed from above and that the leadership isn't interested in what they have to say, then no one will want to participate," said one U.S.-based delegate who asked to remain anonymous.