A Collective Cry of Pain

RAMAT GAN---

Yesterday's session of the conference here at Bar-Ilan University was extraordinary. The spectacle was some of the most accomplished, articulate and successful members of the Russian community in Israel; sociologists, politicians, scientists, writers, film critics, people of the right, center and left, emitting a collective cry of pain about the perceived failure of the Russian community to integrate in Israel after 16 yearts--the blame for which they place fully on the Israeli establishment. Political opinion ranged all the way from Yuri Shtern, the number 2 person of Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu, to Alla Shainskaya, a scientist at the Weizmann Institute and a Meretz person, but while these two and others disagree dramatically on where to move politically, especially obviously, on the Palestinian issue, they shared in the collective cry of pain. Not for themselves, personally, mind you; all of the people at the conference have done very well, thank you, in terms of having fulfilling, well paid careers. But they all affirm that Israel--left, right and center--has refused to accept and integrate the Russian community; that even the most successful Russians feel 'outside' , and not accepted socially, that many or even most other Russians feel their careers are being stunted by a 'glass ceiling' and that more and more young Russians--people in their 20's and 30's who came to Israel as children or were even born there--are despairing of the situation and considering moving back to Moscow, where they will also be outsiders but at least can make better money. This trend has increased since the recent Lebanon war--a deeply disheartening and painful experience for all concerned--but it has much deeper roots and causes than the war.

Two brilliant sociologists, Dr. Eliezer Feldman and Dr. Alex Epstein, shared a lot of statistics to flesh out what I have written here and to express a tranchant observation; that virtually no Russian--whether in politics, academia, business the arts etc and no matter how successful and well known he/she is--.have "made it" as full members of Israeli society. They have not been accepted as 'Israeli' artists, politicians, scientists, the way sabras are, or even Anglo-Saxon olim are. Rather, they made it as representatives of the Russian power block which the Israelis have had to swallow because there are over one million of them, a "critical mass." Thus, NONE of these highly successful people, whether Shtern, Shainskaya, Gaildemak, Leviev, Sharansky, film directors, musicians artists, and so many more, have been accepted, or felt accepted, as full Israelis.

All day, these brilliant, highly accomplished people, spoke of slights that they personally have had to endure or that the Russian collective has had to endure--for example of a highly successful young Russian female juornalist who speaks better Hebrew than Russian being hired as an anchorperson at Channel 2 television and soon being let go, presumably because the sabra audience couldnt tolerate her slight Russian accent. I was told by Dr. Zeev Khanin, the brilliant young political scientist at Bar Ilan who organized that he and one another professor at Bar-Ilan, Larissa Remennick, are the only full time Russian-speaking professors in the sciences at ANY Israeli university and that so many others who richly deserve full professorships are forced to take lesser positions. Then there was the situation this spring when Olmert didnt give a cabinet posiiton to Marina Solodkin, even though she was Number 7 in Kadima and much higher than others who got positions and then made matters worse by saying he chose caninet members based on talent and desire rather than for ethinic considerations. A number of speakers spoke about that comment as the ultimate slap in the face; a statement by the Israeli establishment that not even one out of over 1 million Russians was sufficiently talented or determined to be given a cabinet post.

The message coming out of the conference is that this community feels slapped in the face and spurned, and the negative consequences of this, both in terms of Russian yerida and in terms of Russians tuning out politically and/or turning out of frustration to extreme right, possibly anti-democratic political solutions, could be enormous.