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Permit No. 1208
The Charlotte ^JEWISH ^^NEWS
Vol. 13 No. 5
Charlotte, North Carolina
May 1991
More Soviet Jewish Families Arrive in Charlotte
Four Families are Reunited
Afeet the Kursans
By Sally Schrader
Soviet Resettlement Coordinator
Four Charlotte families were
reunited with relatives from the
Soviet Union the last two weeks
in April.
Gregory Levenfeld’s son,
George Levenfeld, arrived from
Leningrad on April 6 with his
wife, Helen, and son, Vladek,
3'/2.
Grigory Bunich’s brother,
Lazar Bunich, arrived from Kiev
with his family on April 17.
Lazar was accompanied by his
wife, Yevgeniya, their sons,
Alexander, 19, and Dmitry, 16,
and his wife’s mother Fanya
Garber.
Alexander Ehrenburg’s uncle,
Lev Glezerman, arrived from
Riga, Latvia on April 28 with
his daughter Irena Ravina and
granddaughter Vita Ravina, 22.
Issac Grossman’s parents,
Roman Grossman and Genya
Lichterman, and Issac’s brother,
Ilya, with his wife, Irena, daugh
ter, Elena, 5, and Irena’s father,
Yuri Otreshko, arrived from
Minsk on April 27.
Alexander Ehrenburg and his
former wife, Ingrid Noreiko,
were among the first families
who emigrated to Charlotte in
the summer of 1974. Grigory
Bunich moved to Charlotte in
1979 from Norfolk, Virginia
with his wife, Raisa, and sons,
Boris and Alex. Issac Grossman
moved to Charlotte in 1982 from
Boston, Mass. with his wife,
Berta, and son, David. Gregory
Levenfeld moved to Charlotte in
1988 from New York with his
wife, Valentina.
More will be written about the
new families and their Charlotte
relatives and the others who are
arriving by May 10 in the June
issue of The Charlotte Jewish
News.
The Charlotte Jewish commu
nity with the very generous
fmancial contributions from the
non-Jewish community as well
as from the Jewish community,
will assist in the resettlement of
as many as 50 or more refugees
during 1991.
We need everyone’s continued
financial support as well as
goods and services. We especial
ly need volunteers for driving to
appointments, interviews, reli
gious services, community activ
ities and general socialization
and for tutoring English.
We need funds for camp
scholarships this summer and
for preschool and day school
next fall (1991-92). We have new
families arriving with young
children and most of the families
who arrived last summer have
limited incomes and will need
scholarships. If you have a
special interest in encouraging
and assisting our Jewish refugee
families to obtain a Jewish
education or to enable their
children to experience Jewish
camp, you can send a contribu
tion to Jewish Family Services
and designate your contribution
for that purpose.
By Sally Schrader
The first of our new Soviet
families arrived in Charlotte on
April 6. They are Arkady Kur
gan, his wife, Helena, their
daughter Irina, 19, and their son,
Boris, 17.
Arkady worked as a design
engineer with the gas depart
ment of Moscow and Helena
worked as a secretary. Irina
graduated from the Medical
Secondary School and worked
as a nurse in a hospital in
Moscow. Boris finished his ninth
year of school with the third
highest grades in his class but
was not permitted to continue
his studies there because he is
Jewish, He was the only Jew in
his class. However, he passed an
exam that enabled him to study
at an institute of economics.
Irina and Boris would like to
continue their education. Irina
hopes to study medicine and
become a doctor or nurse. Boris
has begun classes at West Char
lotte and will attend college as
soon as his English language
skills are proficient. Both intend
to work part-time while they
attend classes.
Arkady enjoys playing chess
and watching boxing and wres
tling. Irina enjoys reading. Boris
has some expertise in Judo. The
whole family enjoys popular and
jazz music, and Boris and Irina
also like rock music.
Arkady’s concern
future of his children
main motivation for
for the
was his
leaving
Temple Beth El V’Shalom Schedules
Symbolic Groundbreaking Ceremony
It has been many years since
bulldozers were active at Shalom
Park, but soon they will be seen
again on top of the hill across
from the main building at Sha
lom Park.
Temple Beth El V’Shalom will
have a symbolic groundbreaking
ceremony Sunday, June 2, 1991
at S p.m. Speeches, entertain
ment and a cook-out supper will
round out the event.
A time capsule will be filled
with artwork and photographs
from the Sunday School. Tem
ple memorabilia and current
events that will be of future
interest will also be included.
The actual construction is due
to commence mid to late
summer but for the convenience
of the membership the earlier
JPM"
%
Artictli rendering of the new Temple.
date for the ceremony was se
lected.
The committee members plan
ning this event are Ethel Gor
don, chairperson; Sara Benfield,
Shirley Fytelson, Paula Gentile,
Vera Mendel, Jill Newman, Eva
Nove, Paul and Debbie Paskoff,
Diggie Pesakoff, Elise Ray,
Anna Resnik, Faye Seigel and
Joy Weinstein.
The Temple’s Annual Meeting
will follow at 7 p.m.
The Kurgan family: (L to R) Helena, Irina, Boris, Arkady.
photo/Darren Mond
Moscow. They were already
experiencing discrimination for
being Jewish. Arkady expressed
that his worst experience as a
parent was the day when his
daughter (she was 16 at the time)
asked if he could have the
government officials stamp in
her passport “Russian” as her
nationality instead of “Jew.”
Internal passports are issued to
all people in the USSR at age
16 and are used as identification
for education, employment,
housing, travel, etc. Having
“Jew” written on your passport
will guarantee discrimination
and persecution in every aspect
of your life. The only positive
effect it can have is that for now
(this could change any day) Jews
are allowed to emigrate in great
er numbers than other groups.
The family is looking forward
to becoming part of the Jewish
community. The first week they
arrived, they asked if we had
books in Russian on Jewish
customs and history. Irina and
Boris asked how they could meet
other Jewish young people.
Israeli Teens Visit “Queen City”
By Jillian Goldberg
Our family and the Cooper
family recently had the pleasure
of hosting two Israeli high
school students. Dana Roche
and Elad Toister were part of
an Israeli teen mission sent
abroad by the Department of
Foreign Affairs as “youth am
bassadors ” Sixteen boys and
girls toured different regions of
the U.S. in teams, talking to
student groups in public and
private schools and Jewish or
ganizations. Their job was to
describe life in Israel today and,
in particular, during the recent
Gulf War.
Both Dana and Elad are
confident and personable young
people, passionately patriotic
and confident of their country’s
strength and stability. They had
questions and answers at their
fingertips and were skillful in
getting discussion rolling even in
shy, unresponsive audiences.
Their command of English put
most of us to shame, a reminder
of our lack of multilingualism in
this country.
The Jewish Federation, their
sponsors here, organized a busy
schedule of speaking engage
ments for the three days of their
visit, which left little time free
for “hanging out” and getting to
Calendar 27
Classifieds 27
Dining Out/Ent 20-23
Ed-Op 2-3
Eng./Marriages 19
Family Services 7
Federation 6
JCC 11-13
Kids’ Page 14
Library 8
Lubavitch 16-18
Organizatk)ns 23
Recipes 27
Teens 15
Temples 24-25
This n That 9
WoridSeat 4-5
know their contemporaries in
Charlotte. They did find time to
share the international language
of popular music with their
hosts, Rafi Goldberg and Elana
Cooper, and visited a couple of
record stores. The highlight of
their trip was seeing the Hornets
play the Knicks at the Charlotte
Coliseum. They had expressed
strong interest in the Hornets
when they arrived, and Roz
Cooper and I scurried to find
them tickets for the game the
next night. Peggy and A1 Rov-
man came up with great seats
for our guests and thanks are due
to them for their kindness.
A heart-warming “small
world” story emerged during the
visit, which reinforced the sense
of community and brotherhood
we feel with our fellow Jews in
the state of Israel. It turned out
that Dana’s home is the small
town of Kochav Yair, where her
father, the mayor, works closely
with my younger brother, who
serves on the town council there.
In addition, Elad’s father, an
English teacher who went on
aliyah from Australia, knows
many mutual friends in Israel,
including the person who was
my elder brother's best man at
his wedding in Cape Town,
South Africa, over 25 years ago.
So, from two apparent
strangers, we were able to get up-
to-date news on many family
members and old friends.
Although the visit was brief
and busy, it was nevertheless a
little window into a world far
away in miles, outlook, styles,
and daily realities, but close to
us in deeply held Jewish values
and identity.
In
The
News