ZGram - 7/25/2003 - "German Community Swells with Jewish Refugees from Russia"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

July 25, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

An article that's packed with food for thought:

[START]

Immigrant Policy Eyed as German Community Swells
By NATHANIEL POPPER
FORWARD CORRESPONDENT

BERLIN - Barely two generations after the Holocaust, Germany may be 
edging Israel aside as the world's most sought-after refuge for Jews 
fleeing persecution.

That, at least, is the impression created by figures released this 
month showing that Germany had outpaced Israel last year for the 
first time ever as the main destination of Jewish emigrants from the 
former Soviet Union. Germany took in 19,262 Jewish immigrants from 
the former Soviet republics in 2002, while Israel took in 18,878.

Observers here were careful to note that last year's numbers did not 
represent a sudden surge in Jewish immigration to Germany but rather 
a sharp drop in immigration to Israel, due mainly to the security 
situation in the Middle East.

The numbers speak for themselves, however. As many as 100,000 Jews 
have come here since 1991, when Germany modified its refugee policies 
to welcome Jews fleeing antisemitism and economic chaos in the former 
Soviet Union. In little more than a decade, the newcomers have more 
than tripled Germany's Jewish population, which numbered some 30,000 
before the current wave began.

The numbers have touched off a quiet but tense debate among Israeli 
and American Jewish communal leaders over the emergence of Germany, 
the birthplace of Nazism, as a magnet for Jewish immigrants. Some 
Israeli officials, speaking privately, were sharply critical of a 
German policy that they said is deliberately luring Jews to Germany 
with financial benefits. But few were willing to criticize Germany 
openly, cautioning - in the words of one official - that "nobody here 
wants to be the first to attack Germany for treating Jews well."

German officials say the benefits offered to Jewish refugees under 
the 1991 Contingent Refugee Act - including language courses, 
unemployment benefits, health coverage, pensions and even rent - 
reflect this nation's "historic responsibility" to make amends for 
its Nazi past.

"Germany has a historic responsibility to accept all Jews who could 
make a better life here, and we have a responsibility to ensure they 
are treated well once they arrive," said Isabel Schmitt-Falkenberg, a 
spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible 
for the immigration program.

Israeli and American Jewish leaders also complain that Germany's 
refugee policy is deliberately scattering the Jewish immigrants among 
more than 80 different towns across Germany, rather than allowing 
them to join major Jewish communities in cities such as Berlin, 
Frankfurt and Munich.

The German goal, a senior Israeli official told the Forward, appears 
to be recreating the contours of the pre-World War II German Jewry.

Germany makes no secret of its effort to distribute the refugees 
across the country. The policy results from a little-discussed 
feature in the 1991 refugee act, requiring that newcomers be spread 
among Germany's 12 federal states according to a numerical formula in 
order share the financial burden. Newcomers' financial benefits are 
contingent on their remaining where they are sent.

But observers here dismiss the notion that Germany is trying to 
re-create its pre-war community. "It's absurd to think Germany has 
some hidden intention in spreading the immigrants," said Olaf 
Glöckner, who researches Russian Jewish immigration at the Moses 
Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies in Potsdam. "Before 
World War II, most Jews were actually in the cities, and this is 
reversing that earlier trend."

The distribution policy, he said, "arises from economic necessity."

"If we all went to Berlin, Berlin would go bankrupt," said Valeriy 
Bunimov, Ukrainian-born leader of the Jewish communal organization in 
the small northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of the 
new Jewish communities that raises eyebrows among observers.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in former East Germany, is famous primarily 
as the center of Germany's neo-Nazi movement and for its stagnating 
economy. Bunimov's own congregation, in out-of-the-way Schwerin, has 
gone from zero to 900 Jews in less than 10 years.

Whatever the policy's intentions, its results have been mixed at 
best. In addition to undercutting the community's cohesion, the 
scattering of the immigrants could create security problems, several 
officials with Jewish organizations in America and Germany told the 
Forward.

"There's no one there in these small towns to represent and defend 
these groups of immigrants, and the groups don't have the language 
and experience to defend themselves," said Dalia Moneta, director of 
social work for the Frankfurt Jewish community. She added, however, 
that "over time, that's becoming less of a problem as communities 
start to settle in a bit."

In the years since the refugee program was adopted, Jewish 
immigration to Germany from the former Soviet Union has hovered 
consistently between 16,000 and 20,000 per year. During those same 
years, immigration to Israel from the former Soviet republics 
averaged about 61,000 per year.

Immigration to Israel plummeted after the onset of the Palestinian 
intifada in September 2000. During the first half of 2003, just 5,500 
former Soviet immigrants arrived in Israel, according to the Jewish 
Agency for Israel.

America, which was the primary destination for Jews leaving the 
Soviet Union during the late 1970s and 1980s, received just 2,486 
former Soviet Jewish refugees in 2002.

Immigrants and observers offer various explanations for Germany's 
lure, including European culture, temperate climate and proximity to 
St. Petersburg and Kiev.

For many, however, a key factor in choosing Germany over Israel is 
Germany's relatively relaxed attitude toward mixed-faith families.

"Russians making the choice believe that it is easier in Germany for 
mixed families and children of these families," said Bunimov, the 
communal leader in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. "In Israel, if a Jew does 
not have a Jewish mother, they will not be treated equally, and in 
Russia there are many mixed families." Bunimov said the newer members 
of his congregation are mostly mixed-faith families.

"In Germany, religion is much less central and so people don't have 
to worry as much about it," said Glöckner, the Mendelssohn Center 
researcher.

Not everyone approves. Last year the Central Council of Jews in 
Germany complained to the government that its rules for accepting 
immigrants were too relaxed. Only 70,000 of the newcomers have 
registered with a religious community in Germany, the council noted.

As in Israel, the German immigration authorities grant rights to 
newcomers based on broad definitions of Jewish ancestry, while those 
who define identity - the Jewish council in Germany, the rabbinate in 
Israel - use narrower definitions.

In Israel, the growing Jewish influx to Germany has helped reignite 
the debate over easing rules for conversion to Judaism. During a 
meeting of the Israeli Cabinet this week the minister of immigrant 
absorption, Tzipi Livni, cited "obstacles" placed by the Chief 
Rabbinate in the path of newcomers seeking to become Jewish as one 
reason Germany had outstripped Israel last year as a destination for 
former Soviet refugees.

Livni's view was endorsed by Prime Minister Sharon, who declared that 
"demands should not be made of the immigrants that none of us could 
meet," according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.

Israelis also cite Germany's financial generosity to immigrants as a 
factor in the shift. The chair of the Knesset immigration absorption 
committee, Colette Avital, declared during a debate in April that 
Germany was providing "three times more benefits to former Soviet 
Union immigrants than Israel." She predicted that Germany's advantage 
over Israel would continue, estimating that 195,000 former Soviet 
Jews were "on the verge" of emigrating to Germany.

German experts counter that the economic lure is limited at best. 
According to a study underway at the Mendelssohn Center, new Jewish 
immigrants to Germany have a harder time finding work in Germany than 
those who go to Israel or the United States. Unemployment among the 
immigrants in Germany runs at a steady 40%, even among those here for 
several years.

In Israel, by contrast, unemployment among newcomers drops within two 
or three years of arrival to a rate roughly reflecting the larger 
population, according to the Mendelssohn Center. Currently 
unemployment among former Soviets in Israel is 12%, compared to 10% 
for the population at large.

"It is not easy for us to find jobs here," said Bunimov, noting that 
nearly 60% of newcomers in his own community are unemployed. "Many of 
us are highly educated and our qualifications are not recognized in 
Germany." Bunimov himself was trained in Ukraine as an engineer but 
now works as a communal administrator.

Several observers cited the unusually high proportion of academic 
degrees among working-age Jewish immigrants - nearly 70% are 
graduates - as one of the main causes of the high unemployment. 
"There is so much brain power that it creates a glut on the labor 
market wherever they go," said the Mendelssohn Center's Glöckner.

The problem is compounded, observers said, by the government's policy 
of settling Jews in small communities where jobs are scarce. 
Employment among newcomers in Berlin is said to be far higher than 
among those in outlying areas.

For most immigrants, however, the promise of Germany is in their 
families' future, not their own present. Bunimov said his two sons, 
both in their 20s, are receiving top-level university educations, and 
right now that is what matters most. In accepting the youngsters into 
its society, it is widely agreed that Germany has so far been 
successful.

"We came for our children. Our hope is in them," said Bunimov.



With reporting by Chemi Shalev in Jerusalem and Ami Eden in New York.

[END]

(Source:  http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.07.25/news6.html)