Move over Americans, Russian Jews are doing fine

In October 2007, at the opening ceremony of the first Limmud FSU event of Jewish learning in the former Soviet Union, at a resort near Moscow, a 20-something in jeans went on stage. A representative of the local organizing committee, he greeted the visitors from overseas in heavily accented English, and said: "We have proved here that we can do something like this on our own. We don't need anymore the help of the JDC or the Jewish Agency, we are capable of standing on our two feet."

In the auditorium sat the leaders of most of the major international Jewish organizations, who had flown in especially for the event, most of them American. Some moved uncomfortably in their seats, others smiled indulgently at the young firebrand, but two years later - next week, at the United Jewish Communities (UJC) annual General Assembly in Washington - the international chairman will for the first time be a Russian-born philanthropist, Leonid Nevzlin.

Nevzlin's foundation, the Nadav Fund, is one of the sponsors of the 2009 General Assembly (GA). Nevzlin nowadays likes to be referred to as an "Israeli businessman" and he tries to distance himself from the not very complimentary epithet of "oligarch." Indeed, since making aliyah in 2003, he has been unable to visit his homeland. Due to disputes with Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, he is persona non grata in Russia, but his honorary appointment has still started tongues wagging: The Russians are coming and they are going to shake the cozy arrangement whereby Israel and North America shared the status of the most influential Jewish communities in the world.

"The Jewish American establishment is hugging Nevzlin close," says a former senior Jewish Agency official, with extensive work experience in both America and the former Soviet Union, "because he is the kind of Russian they feel they can do business with. They understand the Jewish world has changed and they have to start treating the Russians as partners and stop acting as patrons. Nevzlin's views are liberal. He believes in democracy, doesn't meddle very much in politics, and he isn't close to the rabbis, like some of the oligarchs. They can get along with him and find some common ground, unlike many of the others."

Since the establishment of Israel, North American Jewish leadership has taken its position as Israel's senior partner in the Diaspora for granted. Its community was the largest in the world, it gave the most money, and it enjoyed a unique position of influence in the corridors of Congress and in the White House. There were occasional challenges to its primacy. When Pierre Besnainou was president of the European Jewish Congress, he tried to chart an independent course from the American-dominated World Jewish Congress and even managed to oppose the opening in France of branches of powerful organizations such as AIPAC and ADL, but French Jewry was never going to have the clout to rival that of the Americans.

On paper, the communities of the former Soviet Union also lack either the numbers or the necessary organization to pose a threat to American dominancy of the Diaspora. But they do have singular advantages. While the number of Jews still living in Russia and its former satellite states is estimated at anywhere between one and two million, many of the two and a half million Jews who emigrated over the last two decades still retain close contacts with their homeland and in many cases identify more with other Russian-speakers than with co-religionists in their new countries. With major presences in Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany, they have become a global community. This has enabled them to a great extent to play the Jewish political game at a different level.

As a senior executive in one of the federations says, "They have different rules." For example, "American Jews tend to be more genteel and polite when it comes to wielding influence in Israeli politics." While some wealthy American Jews have discreetly contributed to Israeli parties and politicians and even visited Arab capitals in the hope of furthering Middle East peace, in general they have dealt with whatever government was elected by Israeli voters and kept their influence to behind the scenes. The same is true of American and Canadian immigrants to Israel. They may be very successful in the fields of business and academia, but none of them have risen to prominence in Israeli politics, with the exception of late prime minister Golda Meir. Though she was born in Kiev, Meir grew up in Milwaukee - nevertheless, she was never viewed by Israelis as an "American politician."

Identity politics

"The Russian-speaking community in Israel has had no problem with identity politics," says one of the few Knesset members with close ties to the American community. "Even though Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu tries to portray itself as a party for all Israelis, two thirds of its voters were born in the Soviet Union and the party makes no bones about serving its constituency and keeping in contact with Russian-speakers outside of Israel."

The MK asked not to be identified (as did most of those interviewed for this article, saying they were afraid of offending donors), because "the last thing you want nowadays is to be branded as a 'racist Russian-hater,'" especially since, as he pointed out, all the key political roles connecting Israel and the Diaspora are now in the hands of Russian-born politicians. Former cabinet minister and Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky is now the chairman of the Jewish Agency. His former political rival Avigdor Lieberman is the controversial foreign minister. Additionally, Yuli Edelstein (Likud) is minister for information and Diaspora affairs, Sofa Landver (Yisrael Beiteinu) is minister of immigrant absorption, and even the tourism minister, Stas Misezhnikov, born in Moscow, is a member of Lieberman's party.

"They are all relatively new in their positions," says the MK, "so it's too early to chart how they may change the nature of Israel's relations with the Diaspora, but it is clear that they are out to achieve a fundamental change."

One development that has mainly escaped notice is the transfer from the Prime Minister's Office of Nativ, the shadowy organization responsible for maintaining contact with Soviet Jewry in the days of the Iron Curtain, to Lieberman's control in the Foreign Ministry. The head of Yisrael Beiteinu has taken the failing agency, which was facing closure, and expanded its role as the main Israeli channel of communication to Jews throughout the former Soviet Union. Despite opposition by the local community and the federal government there, it has expanded its operations to Russian-speaking Jews living in Germany and only spirited opposition by the federations has prevented it from spreading its operations to North America as well. In a period when money for Jewish activity is scarce, due to the global recession and the losses many Jewish organizations suffered from the collapse of Bernard Madoff's scheme, Lieberman has tripled Nativ's budget. And while political influence and power is a major factor, money is key, especially when so many Jewish American foundations have been forced to scale back.

The Jewish Agency's fundraising affiliate, Keren Hayesod, established a permanent Moscow office last year and it has traveling representatives in the other former Soviet republics. "The UJC still contributes to the Jewish Agency three times what Keren Hayesod does," says one of the Agency's money-men, "but in the past, the UJC's contribution was much higher, and all it takes is for a few oligarchs - like Victor Pinchuk from Dniepropetrovsk, who donates $40 million annually - to decide they want to give to Keren Hayesod and they will have taken control of the most important global Jewish organization." The official also notes that although today all the main committees are jointly chaired by Americans and Israelis, "soon that may all start to change."

Says one Keren Hayesod official: "Generally, the Jewish oligarchs are suspicious of giving to the large established organizations. They prefer to do things their own way, to set up their own organizations, but if that begins to change, and with Sharansky at the Agency's helm, that certainly can happen, the American federations and leaders should start worrying."

While the American Jewish establishment has generally tended to be liberal-leaning, with strong participation from the Reform and Conservative streams, and constitutes the principal source of donations to secular movements trying to further democratic ideals in Israeli society, most of the so-called oligarchs are closely aligned with right-wing politicians in Israel and are of course close to their own governments, which are far from democratic. While most of them do not lead a religious life, they tend to support Orthodox rabbis and organizations. Due to them, the Lubavitch movement is particularly strong in Russia.

Leviev's influence

One of the more prominent FSU-born Israeli tycoons, billionaire Lev Leviev, who left Bukhara at age of 15, but makes most of his money from real estate, diamonds and minerals in the former Soviet Union, maintains Or Avner, the largest Jewish educational network there, with hundreds of day schools and kindergartens. Or Avner's staff works closely with Chabad rabbis, many of whom are sponsored by Leviev and his business partner, Roman Abramovich.

Although the Or Avner network is based in Moscow and operates mainly in the FSU, Leviev has also opened a school in New York, catering mainly to Russian-speakers. And he has tried to get secular schools in Israel to adopt a special Orthodox-oriented curriculum of Jewish studies. Oligarchs are also challenging American leaders in the field of Jewish international diplomacy. The boisterous president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, demands to meet heads of states separately from his counterparts on the World Jewish Congress, refusing to keep to a joint agenda in his bombastic statements.

"For many of us, there is a feeling that we are finally emerging from beneath American patronage," says an official in one of the Russian Jewish communities. "I remember as a teenager when there were food shortages as the Soviet Union came apart and the JDC [Joint Distribution Committee] came in with supplies. We were happy for the food but we felt they were treating all of us like children."

Indeed the JDC, for years the most active Jewish organization in the former Soviet Union, feeding and clothing tens of thousands of needy Jews, is now scaling back its operations, not only because of a lack of funds, but also due to the emergence of local community welfare organizations. In some cases, there has been tension between the two sides, as in one city where the local community even demanded the JDC hand over control of buildings bought with Claims Conference funds.

Still, the emergence of Russian communities and philanthropists doesn't always lead to tension. In many cases, it has also brought about cooperation. The Genesis Philanthropy Group, founded by a group of businesspeople lead by Mikhail Fridman, has become one of the major donors to Jewish education projects around the world, and has entered a number of partnerships with federations, aimed specifically at Russian-speakers in America [see box]. Former Israel Defenses Forces major general Elazar Stern, who chairs the organization's advisory board, says: "The Genesis agenda of fostering Jewish identity of Russian-speakers around the world should not be threatening to anyone. These are people who have made money and are now saying that Jews in Russia have nothing to be ashamed of about their past and present. It's a good thing that Russian money has entered the system."

While there are grumblings in some federations about the growing Russian influence, many other leaders welcome the new donors helping them to overcome the shortfall in donations. Ted Sokolsky, president of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, a city to which more than 30 thousand Russian-speakers have arrived in recent years, terms the dialogue with their representatives as "a positive challenge." He admits his community hasn't done "a stellar job in integrating the Russian-speakers," and says that "they seem to have different priorities and different methodologies. They have very specific goals and objectives and benchmarks for achievements and they find the old methods paternalistic, especially when it comes to engaging with Russian-speakers." Overall, says Sokolsky, "it's nice to see these guys walking up to the plate and getting involved in the Jewish identity issue. I don't think anyone should see this as a threat."

In fact, the entrance of the Russians may be less a threat, and more just another symptom of the prolonged decline of the current UJC federation system. "It's not only the oligarchs who are going their own way and advancing their private agendas," says a former head of the Israel office of one of the large federations. "When some of the biggest donors in America, like Michael Steinhardt and Sheldon Adelson are doing their own thing, and opting out of the UJC system has become the fashion, it's every billionaire for himself. The UJC is already losing its influence on the Jewish Agency board, where people like Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who brings in $9 million from the Christian evangelicals, have a say, and soon it will be the oligarchs who set the tune."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126278.html



Kaminski on Jewish control of the American mind