The Charlotte Jewish News - March 2016 - Page 3
The Many Faces of the Jewish Federation
Inna Manoim and Sharon Fargian recently shared their personal stories at the Jewish Federation’s Lion of Judah and Pome
granate Society Luncheon. Inna was born In the Former Soviet Union and Sharon lived and worked In Israel. Their Journeys
show Federation at Its best - as It was and as It will be. The Federation takes pride In these young women who are the faces of
Federation and Jewish leadership In the 21st Century.
Inna’s Story
Good afternoon, my name is
Inna Manoim. If you didn’t eateh
that, it’s OK. I spend a good bit of
time repeating and spelling my
name. Typieally, after sueh an ex-
ehange eomes the question
“where are you from?” I some
times answer “Columbia, South
Carolina” in hopes of keeping the
eonversation to a minimum. It
never works and usually only
serves to pique euriosity further.
Inevitably, I end up delving into
where I was bom, how old I was
when we immigrated, and why we
left the Soviet Union. Many, who
are not familiar with the Soviet
Jewry movement, are often sur
prised and faseinated by my story.
So, how does a girl named Inna
eome to be from Columbia, SC of
all plaees?
Let’s start at the real beginning:
I was bom in Belams in 1975. At
that time, Belams was part of the
Soviet Union, whieh was under
eommunist mle. For the first few
years of my life, I lived with my
parents and extended family in a
erowded two-bedroom apartment
in the eapital eity of Minsk.
Sometime after I was bom, my
parents began seriously eontem-
plating emigration. As you proba
bly know, life for most people in
the Soviet Union was not easy, but
for Jewish people in partieular it
was made even more diffieult due
to the strong eulture of anti-Semi
tism whieh was and still is perva
sive in that part of the world.
Historieally, Russia and other
Inna with her family.
eastern European eountries had
openly anti-Semitie polieies and
when Communism took hold,
those polieies eontinued to limit
and oppress the Jewish people
that lived within its reaeh.
In 1980, when I was just shy of
five years of age, my parents were
granted permission to emigrate
from the U.S.S.R. By that time,
many of the larger eities in the US
were saturated with Soviet Jewish
immigrants and the resourees of
the Jewish organizations that were
helping neweomers were strained.
Jewish federations in many
smaller eities were willing and
able to aet as hosts for new immi
grants. This is how a girl named
Inna ended up in Columbia, South
Carolina.
For my parents and grandpar
ents, it was a eulture shoek for
sure. At that time, Minsk was a
bustling metropolis of just over a
million people, whereas, the eity
of Columbia boasted a population
of just over 100,000. My family
was able to eseape the
elutehes of an oppressive
regime and a soeiety, whieh
loathed them, based simply
on their aneestry. In Colum
bia, outside of the small Jew
ish eommunity, most people
had never even met a Jew,
and eertainly not an immi
grant from Russia. Columbia
offered my family a new be
ginning and the promise of a
future we never would have
had in the Soviet Union.
None of this would have
been possible without the
leadership and generosity of
a small Jewish Federation in the
South. Our host family, the Baz-
ermans, weleomed us and made
sure we had what we needed to
begin our new life. The Jewish
Federation of Columbia gener
ously provided us with a fur
nished apartment, as well as an
interest-free loan to purehase our
first ear. Caring individuals from
Federation gave my parents valu
able lessons in the life skills nee-
essary to navigate our new world.
The personal and finaneial gen
erosity of the Columbia Jewish
Federation, mueh like the gen
erosity of the Charlotte Jewish
Federation during the Soviet re
settlement in the 1970s and 1990s,
made all the differenee for my
family, and other families like
ours. They helped us get settled
and begin a new life in this amaz
ing eountry.
About three years after we
landed in Columbia, my father
(Continued on page 29)
Sharon’s Story
A friend of mine reeently told
me that I am a unieom, her niek-
name for the rarity of meeting
people who were bom and raised
here in Charlotte. We are uni-
eorns. What, then, do we affee-
tionately eall the Jewish people
my age who were bom and raised
in Charlotte? An even rarer phe
nomenon? There were maybe 50
of us in my presehool graduation.
Have you seen the bustling pre
sehool hallways today? It has
been amazing to move baek to
Charlotte after years away to see
that the small, but mighty, Jewish
eommunity that I grew up in has
flourished into a thriving exuber
ant and impaetful Jewish eommu
nity led by the Federation. Thanks
to all of your time, energy and
generosity, I am thrilled that my
daughter Eleanor will grow up
here, be a part of it, and have a
strong Jewish identity.
I grew up in a family that eares
deeply about the Jewish eommu
nity, both domestie and abroad.
My parents took a leap of faith
moving to the South nearly 40
years ago, and it is no surprise that
the Jewish Federation of Charlotte
played a huge role in my ehild-
hood and who I have beeome.
I was an LJCC rat for starters-
swim team, soeeer, basketball.
Sharon and her family.
pottery and summer eamp (now
Camp Mindy) to name a few of
my favorite aetivities. I loved my
Hebrew High elasses (side note:
for a while I even thought I might
beeome a Rabbi), and really loved
BBYO. I still keep up with some
of my friends from BBYO, and
just a few weeks ago had luneh
with a friend of mine from Vir
ginia who now lives in
Charleston. It was pretty eool to
take pietures of his nine month
old son sitting with my Eleanor
and see the next generation.
After graduating from the Uni
versity of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, I worked for Hillel at
the University of Virginia for one
year beeause I knew that I wanted
to give baek to the eommunity
somehow. That year I staffed two
Birthright trips, whieh was my 3rd
eup of the Birthright “Kool-aid,”
and I knew that I had to spend
more time there. I knew
that I needed to eon-
tribute to our Jewish fam
ily in Israel, and that I
needed to find a Jewish
husband in Israel beeause
I knew I wasn’t finding
him here in Charlotte. I
ean eonfidently say that I
sueeeeded in both.
All of my experienees
in Charlotte led me to
signing up for OTZMA,
a one year volunteer pro
gram in Israel. Jewish Federations
aeross Ameriea universally spon
sor a portion of eaeh partieipant’s
trip, just like the Charlotte Feder
ation sponsored mine. They also
provide the eonneetions and
framework for meaningful volun
teer opportunities in our sister
eities. That year was, as you ean
imagine, eye opening. As a privi
leged Ameriean girl, I lived in ab
sorption eenters with new
immigrants from Russia and
Ethiopia who eame to Israel with
nothing. Although my freshman
dorm room was more glamorous,
I wouldn’t trade that experienee
for anything. To live and volun
teer with people who left every
thing they had to eome to Israel
was inspiring.
While I predominantly went on
OTZMA to volunteer in hospitals
(Continued on page 22)
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