The Russians are here to stay
Don’t forget: you’re playing people who keep telling each other: ‘Everything will turn out well!'”, Masha says in Russian. “That’s what people usually say when things get iffy.” Amateur actors and actresses are sitting on steel tubed chairs in a semi-circle in a large and modern school room. Hanging on the wall in the corridor is a sign in Cyrillic which says “Ne kurit” – No smoking. The rehearsal is taking place behind an elaborate façade, in the building of the ‘New Synagoge’ in the center of Berlin. It was completed in 1866 and was bombed in 1943, and, starting in 1988, it was reconstructed. Ever since then, the golden dome has been shimmering in the sunlight in Berlin’s skyline. In 1933 Berlin was home to about 170,000 Jews, the ancestors of most of them having come over decades from East Europe. At the end of the war, only 8,000 were left.
Maria Zharkova, aka Masha, is 30: she keeps her hair braided and is wearing a plaid blouse; she speaks softly. As an actress she studied at one of the most famous acting schools in Moscow, the GITIS, the Russian University of Theater Arts. Together with her husband and colleague, Daniel Freiman, she directs the theater studio “Karamasoff Sisters” for members of the Berlin Jewish Community between 18 and 30. The BJC now counts 11,500 members, of which 8,000 are from the CIS-countries, Georgia or the Baltic States.
In 1991, the newly reunited Federal Republic of Germany In full swing: The Russian Disco – a new fi lm based on the novel by Berlin author Wladimir Kaminer The Ongoing Metamorphosis of German Jewry The Russians are here to stay awarded Jews fl eeing from anti- Semitism in Eastern Europe the status of ‘contingency refugees’. Israel opposed, because it was/ is of the opinion that Jews have had a homeland in Israel since 1948. The Federal Republic, however, gave the Jews the chance to remain in Germany – a sign of remorse. The result is that a minimum of 80% of the Jews in Germany have emigrated from the former Soviet Union.
Entitlements
The conflict with the religious communities was foreordained. The so-called ‘Russians’ (of whom really only 1/3 are from Russia) came with a mentality that the state would take care of them – so the German Jews already here – and felt entitled to many benefi ts given by the state. They weren’t interested in their religion or faith, only in cultural programs.
On the phone, Lena Shafranova says she comes from St. Petersburg and was not born Jewish. We meet. She has dark blonde hair, which she keeps short. Opposite us sits her husband Shenja. Both are about 40 and have two sons, Boris (15) and Mark (10). Both sons attended the Jewish kindergarten, and Mark is now in the Jewish elementary school, while Boris goes to the Jewish gymnasium (high school). Because of the children, the parents slowly began to accept Jewish traditions. “In their schools, the Sabbath was observed, and of course we tried to support them”, Shenja says. “Even we don’t watch television and don’t use electronic devices. Then the whole family is together, and that is good for all of us.” “Now or never!” This was the motto for most people who desired to leave the Soviet Union, says Eleonora Shakhnikova (41). She has been the head of the integration office of the Berlin Jewish Community since 2001. She gesticulates with her slender pale hands: “Almost none of the migrants intended to remain here”, she says. “But then they got acclimatized. Sometimes it takes ages to deal with the bureaucratic formalities here. And the re-settlement was traumatic for many of the children. The parents didn’t want to subject their children to that a second time. The youngsters, however, now grown up, have come to understand that life here is much more mobile. If they find a good job, they’ll move, even to another country.”
As a leading German newspaper wrote several years ago, “The greatest challenge for the Jewish communities in Germany is to make Russian Jews into ‘proper’ Jews.” “I am, therefore, an ‘improper’ Jew”, quips Sergey Lagodinsky (37). He was born in Astrakhan and came to Germany at the age of 18. Now he is involved in German politics and describes himself as a ‘secular’ Jew. He fared well in the elections for the Berlin Jewish Community, which is deep in debt. Nevertheless, somebody else won, Gideon Joffe, who many think is a representative of the ‘Russian’ majority. In reality, Joffe was born in Latvia. Soviet education in aesthetics can show results over many generations. But Lagodinsky can describe its positive effects for Jews and their identity. Most especially he can point to the identifi cation with leading Jewish personalities in the arts, with fi lm directors, singers, writers and poets, with courageous comedians. He demands respect and empathy for this kind of Jewish identity. Back to Masha. “When on stage you think of suffering, think of concrete examples, for example of your colleagues here”, she advises while rehearsing her play. She points to a young blonde man whose hair is cut to seem like a page’s – he is battling a cold. “Timur Anatolevich Cutkov” he politely introduces himself. Born in Minsk, Belarus (White Russia), he grew up in Berlin and was trained to be an offi ce manager in the offi ce of the Jewish Community. Now he wants to attend acting school.
Did he have a religious education? “What do you think? My grandmother was a partisan”, he answers. “The synagogue helped me fi nd my belief in God. Now I’m searching for him in my own way. For me, Germany is a good and well-meaning country.” Could he speak of ‘homeland’? Timur Anatolevich says no. “I have no homeland. But in Berlin I feel at home”, he says, “and I can go anywhere else in the world I wish to.”
Win-Win
The immigration boom is now history. One-third of the members of the Berlin Jewish Community is older than 65. Many of the younger members will leave and move on. This reduction, however, does not threaten the existence of the community. Whether or not one calls it ‘integration’, it can be seen as a win-win situation between Germany, the Jewish communities and the immigrants. They have arrived. They don’t feel the need to reassure themselves that “Everything will turn out well!”
Everbody can see that Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union are in the majority. The general impression of German Jews is of Jewish families who have been here for generations. Their names were Rathenau, Liebermann, Feuchtwanger, Einstein, Gerstle. Now there are new names: Abramovich, Lagodinsky, etc. Soon it will not be ‘Russian’, but ‘German Jewish’. If one wishes to have an idea of how this looks, one should visit the seminars of the Gerhard C. Starck Foundation. It sponsors talented Jewish students. Here are gathered the elite of German Jewry. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, rabbis. Their parents emigrated from Russia. They now feel that they are German Jews. The future belongs to them.