For Russian Jews,
A Bit Of Odessa
Grows In Brooklyn — Part II
The Old World mentality
shows up in other ways as well.
“They’re cash- people, not
credit people,” reports Peter
Ford, manage of the Brighton
office of the Lincoln Savings
Bank. “No matter how much
we try to explain the safety of
checks, they prefer cash — even
for large transactions involving
thousands of dollars.”
Americanborn bankers and
police are learning Russian to
better deal with the newcomers.
At the Brighton branch of the
Lincoln Savings Bank, 23
employees took a six-month
course in Russian. At the 60th
and 61st police precincts, 40
men studied the language. “1
don’t think that’s right,” one
police officer grumbles private
ly. “If 1 went to Russia, would
anyone learn English for me?”
Given the language barrier
and differences in standards
and requirements, many of
those who were professionals in
the Soviet Union have been
forced to settle for other kinds
of jobs. A woman who taught
music works on a watchmaking
assembly line. One waiter is a
former psychologist who com
plains: “In Israel, where I went
first after leaving Russia, they’ll
recognize your diploma. Here
they won’t”.
But some have achieved their
old status. Anatoli Ginsburg
came here in 1975 from Kiev,
where he headed the dentistry
department of a hospital with
32 dentists under him, but still
his monthly take-home pay was
only 220 rubles — $306, of
which 150 rubles went for food.
Here he stated a dental techni
cian, qualified for a dentist’s
license at New York University,
worked for a year in the office
of another dentist and finally
last November opened his own
practice with the help of a
government loan that he is now
repaying. “If I could do this at
55”, he conludes, “it means it
can be done if one has the head
and the will.”
“There, People Live in a Cage”
What those who have made it
here seem to share with those
who have not is a sense of the
promise of a better tommorrow.
“And that,” says one im
migrant, “is what you don’t
have in the Soviet Union. Over
there, whatever you are, that’s
what you die as.”
Among longtime residents,
the newcomers have a reputa
tion as a hard-working, hard-
playing, hard-drinking lot,
somewhat clannish and given to
boisterous parties. Many are
said to carry knives. “There are
speculators and thieves and
murders among the new im
migrants,” an old-timer con
fides darkly. But an Irish cab-
driver, having criticized the im
migrants as being pushy and in
sufficiently grateful to America,
adds: “One thing you’ve got to
hand to them: They stick up for
the neighborhood. If they see a
woman being mugged, they
don’t run away. They’ll jump
out of a window if they have to
and smack the guy on the head.’
Capt. John Vorburger, com
manding officer of the 60th
Police Precinct, reports: “There
have been very few arrests of
Russians for violent crimes so
far.”
Minor forms of friction
florish, however. Longtime
residents resent being kept
awake late at night by the blar
ing hi-fis of the immigrant’s
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Americanized youngsters. Some
traditional ‘‘lox-and-bagel
delis” have been displaced by
newcomers’ stores serving more
Russian, less traditionally
Jewish foods. Rabbinical
eyebrows went up when an im
migrant opened a food store
and a Star of David in the win
dow and included ham — a
nonkosher food — among the
offerings.
Immigrants complain of not
being invited to the synagogues
for holidays celebrations.
Natives claim that, when in
vited, immigrants don’t come.
Unlike some earlier waves of
immigrants to this country,
these newcomers were impelled
to come here neither by and
Irish potato famine nor by a
Nazi holocaust. What drove
them, they say, was a
totalitarian way of life and a
subtle anti-Semitism which
deprived them — and especially
their children — of freedoms
they craved and career and
schooling opportunities to
which they felt they were entitl
ed.
Typical is an emigre physician
who says: “I wanted to see the
world, yet I could not travel. A
man always wants to broaden
his horizons, to explore the
unknown, to pursue a dream.
When this is shut off, and you
are bound hand and foot, you
feel heavy at heart — even if
you’re not starving.” That
frustration is echoed by 22-year-
old Boris Altman, who reports:
“Although I had high grades in
mathematics, I would have had
difficulty, as, a Jew, getting ad
mitted to the Moscow Institute
of Physics and Technology, and
even if admitted, I would have
wound up as an ordinary
engineer earning 120 to 150
rubles a month” — equal to
$160 to $200.
Here Altman is enrolled at
New York University with a tri
ple major — mathematics, com
puter science and economics
—and also holds a part-time job
as a computer-software analyst.
The refugees generally praise
and enjoy life in America, but
they do not hold back criticism
of what they view as the
negative aspects — such as the
prevalence of crime.
“Crime is the first topic that
comes up every time they meet
with local officials,” reports
Pauline Bilus, executive director
of ARI. The Jewish Union of
Russian Immigrants recently
staged an anticrime demonstra
tion in reaction to a local
murder. “They are very conser
vative on the crime issue, very
critical of the revolving-door
aspect of American justice, very
much in favor of capital punish
ment and gun control,” notes a
local social worker.
Some do regret having left the
Soviet Union. One such is a
cobbler who asks: “How can we
be happy here when we don’t
dare walk the streets at night or
leave our children unattended?
The people here are destroying
this beautiful country, burning
it down. There is no order, no
leadership. Why did we leave?
Because we were idiots, that’s
why.”
Far more typical, however,
are those whose lives show that
the fabled Horatio Alger suc
cess story is thriving in Brighton
Beach.
Take Michael Katz, a former
engineer at an auto plant in
Gorki. Since coming here with
his family in 1975, he has wash-
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Asked to compare life here
and in Russia, Katz says blunt
ly: “No comparison. Over
there, people live in a cage; the
state takes 80 percent of what a
man earns and uses it to
strengthen the regime. Here,
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