Happy to live in Russia

MOSCOW - When Alona Schweibman was 7 years old, strangers came to her family's Moscow apartment, looking to buy it. That is her first memory connected to Israel. It happened in 1990, at the height of the major wave of Russian immigration to Israel. Many Jewish families living in the area already had left for Israel, but Schweibman's parents were hesitant. In the end, they decided to remain in Russia. Several years later their gamble turned out to be successful, at least financially.

During her youth, Schweibman had an ambivalent connection to Judaism. "Dad took us to the synagogue several times, but I didn't like how crowded it was," she says. "I knew that I was supposed to be connected to it, but I didn't feel it."

Despite her hesitations, she developed a relationship with Israel over the years. She visited family in Israel, and later came here alone, on the "birthright" program. She was also a counselor for several Jewish programs in Moscow.

Now, at age 24, she works as an assistant producer at a large television company in Russia. She has friends and relatives all over Israel, and her boyfriend is Israeli, a Jewish Agency emissary. For her, immigrating to Israel is an option, but no more than that.

"I have a very interesting life in Moscow, and I play a significant part in developing the community here. If in the future I understand that Israel is the place for me and my children, I'll immigrate," she says.

Alona is one of 700 Russian 20-somethings who attended Limmud 2007, a Jewish culture and study event held last weekend at a resort near Moscow. This was the first such cooperative effort between large international Jewish organizations - including the Jewish Agency, the Joint (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), birthright and Hillel - held for young Jews here.

Many members of Schweibman's generation are educated and successful. Thanks to the economic growth in recent years, many of them have climbed from poverty into the middle and upper classes. For many, this is not enough; they are now looking to build upon their Jewish identity. They have visited Israel more than once and like to vacation there, but the center of their lives remains in Moscow or St. Petersburg.

"They are different from Jews of their age from other places, like the United States," says Meir Kraus, operations director of Taglit-birthright Israel, which has brought about 7,500 young people from the former Soviet Union to Israel for 10-day visits. "They're more mature, they're open to culture and they know what they want to do with their lives."

"These young people have an intellectual bent and a love of knowledge, which unfortunately many of the Russian immigrants in Israel already have lost," says Dr. Michael Yadovitzky, director of the Jewish Agency education department in the Commonwealth of Independent States. "Almost all their parents have academic degrees. Those who stayed in Russia are still part of this culture, but the young Russian generation in Israel has already become integrated into the local Israeli culture."

Judaism on the banks of the lake

Limmud was not invented in Russia. The event has been taking place in England for 26 years. Former Jewish Agency treasurer Haim Chesler suggested that it be held in Russia, too. In England, the event is characterized by a very free atmosphere: There is no defined hierarchy between the lecturers and the participants, and it is open to Jews of all denominations - secular, religious, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Chesler asked that these values be maintained and adapted to the Russian character.

In his three decades of work at the Jewish Agency and in Jewish communities around the world, Chesler often has been burned in political struggles, and frequently had to confront the caprices of major donors. He wanted to avoid all that at the Russian conference, so he chose to hold it at a spacious resort some 50 kilometers east of Moscow, with a lake, restaurants and a small zoo. The participants were offered a wide variety of activities including lectures, workshops, dance lessons and films.

"After visiting Israel twice, and seeing how hard it is for immigrants who live there, I concluded that it's harder to be a Russian in Israel than to be a Jew in Russia," says Ana Gorfinkel, a psychology student from St. Petersburg. Like Schweibman, she also did not have a particularly strong connection to her Jewish roots. Her mother is not Jewish, and her father did not make much of an effort to connect her to her Jewish heritage. Her parents did not even consider immigrating to Israel.

Her interest was piqued by the Hillel students' organization and a birthright visit to Israel at age 18. Last year, during the Second Lebanon War, she came to Israel again with a delegation of Russian student volunteers. "In recent years I've seen the world," says Gorfinkel, "and I know that I want to live in Russia. It's better for me to live here and to be a Jew here than in Israel."

Like Gorfinkel, who is 22, many young people who participated in Limmud are not Jews according to Jewish law. This includes Viktoria Barzman, a public relations and translation student at the University of St. Petersburg. Barzman, whose father is Jewish, is an active member of the community. However, she is aware that having a non-Jewish mother "may cause me some problems if I immigrate to Israel."

She says that she is not considering immigration just yet, "but I want to be in contact with Israel. I would like to work in an international company that enables me to be both in Russia and in Israel. When I visit Israel and see how free the children are there, I want my children to live in Israel. I would also like my son to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, it's certainly far better than serving in the Russian army."

Pride is not enough

The young participants in Limmud are not the first to confront the difficulty of Jewish communal life in Russia. During the Czarist period, nationwide communal organization was impossible, in part due to the limitations imposed on the Jewish Pale of Settlement. During the Communist era, the authorities prevented any type of communal organization. With the fall of Communism a community vacuum was created, which was initially filled by bodies like the Joint and Chabad.

Chief Rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt arrived in Russia during that period. "We came to Russia 17 years ago, we offered them Jewish pride and it succeeded," he says. "Now Russia is once again becoming a superpower, the economy is growing, and Jewish pride is no longer enough. The Russian Orthodox Church is becoming much stronger and is becoming the de facto state religion. We have to offer a challenge to the Jews who have remained here. It's impossible to tell them only what they are not. We have to offer them a Russian Jewish identity."

This role is being assumed by the young people who participated in Limmud. "During the past 10 years, there has been a new phenomenon here," says the head of the Jewish Agency office in Moscow, Haim Ben Yaakov. "Parents are learning about Judaism from their children. Most of those who have remained in Russia are not involved in Jewish groups. In the early 1990s the entire veteran leadership immigrated to Israel, and a new generation of leaders was needed. In effect, every time we train a new generation of leaders and teachers, they leave and go to Israel. That's wonderful, but we have to train new ones to replace them. Now we have to build a bridge between those who are planning to continue to live in Russia, and Israel and the Jewish world."