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Soviet Immigrant Jewry in the Chicago Area (1960-1980): Enculturation and Education

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Soviet Immigrant Jewry in the Chicago Area (1960-1980): Enculturation and Education Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1992 Soviet Immigrant Jewry in the Chicago Area (1960-1980): Enculturation and Education Sharon Rae Bender Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Bender, Sharon Rae, "Soviet Immigrant Jewry in the Chicago Area (1960-1980): Enculturation and Education" (1992). Dissertations. 2931. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2931 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1992 Sharon Rae Bender SOVIET IMMIGRANT JEWRY IN THE CHICAGO AREA (1960-1980): ENCULTURATION AND EDUCATION by Sharon Rae Bender A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 1992 @by Sharon Rae Bender, January 1992 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is my pleasure to recognize those individuals who provided assistance and support during the development of this study. Their contributions are forever valued. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Gerald Gutek, director of this dissertation, for his advice and encouragement. I am also appreciative of the wise counsel provided by committee members, Doctors Max Bailey and John Wozniak. A debt of gratitude is owed to the administrators of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Family and Community Service, Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe, and Rabbi Louis Lazovsky, who graciously permitted me to interview them. To those Soviet Jewish immigrants who opened up their homes and hearts to me, I am eternally grateful. Lastly, I am deeply indebted to my dear parents of blessed memory, the late Morris and Rose Bender, for having instilled in me the love of learning and inspiring me to attain my goals. The valuable lessons they taught me will never be forgotten. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION . 1 II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: TZARIST RUSSIAN AND SOVIET PERIODS 5 Tzarist Period Lenin Stalin -Khrushchev BrezhnevjKosygin to Gorbachev Conclusion III. ENCULTURATION AND INFORMAL EDUCATION: ROLE OF AGENCIES . 43 Conclusion IV. ENCULTURATION AND FORMAL EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SCHOOLING . 59 Conclusion v. SELECTED CASE STUDIES 76 Interview with "Carla Weiss" Interview with "Dee and Ian Nathan" Interview with "Mia and Ziv Stine" Interview with "Ann and Uri Fine" Interview with "Sonja and Jacob Leff" Summary and Conclusion VI. _SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY 203 VITA .... 207 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The purpose of this research study is to examine the historical development of Soviet Jews who immigrated to the Chicagoland area during the years 1960-1980, in terms of their immigration, enculturation and education in their adopted country. It enumerates the obstacles Soviet Jewish immigrants have encountered and serves to examine the process through which they have become acclimated and enculturated into American mainstream society through both informal and formal education. Included in Chapter II is an historical commentary which traces the deeply-rooted anti-Semitic treatment of the Jewish minority from its inception during the Tzarist Period through its refinement by Communist regimes within the Soviet Union. This chapter addresses major restrictive governmental policies directed toward the Jewish population in both Tzarist Russia and the Soviet Union and establishes that this minority was physically, educationally, politically and economically severed from mainstream society by tyrannical authoritarian design. Chapter III probed the difficulties encountered by Soviet Jewish immigrants who have resettled in Chicago, Illinois, and the challenges they confronted during their quest to become enculturated and informally educated. Interviews with the administrators of three selected Jewish agencies, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Jewish Family and 1 2 Community Service (JFCS), and Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (F.R.E.E.), were conducted in which the role of each agency and its utility to the newly arrived Soviet Jewish immigrant is explored. Each agency assumes an integral, but different function in the enculturation process. HIAS assists Soviet Jews in the pre-migration phase to gain entry into the United States. Once this has been achieved, HIAS aids the immigrant with the paperwork and documents required by the United States State Department and the Department of Immigration and Naturalization to assure permanent residency. Jewish Family and Community Service works with the Soviet Jew during resettlement. It is this agency which initially enculturates the immigrant into the practices of his adopted land. Counselors encourage the immigrant to enroll in English language classes, offer suggestions in locating an apartment, and most importantly, provide monies to him and his family for payment of rent, food, utilities, and personal care until the immigrant secures employment and becomes self-sufficient. To this end, JFCS refers the immigrant to Jewish Vocational Service, which assists in locating employment commensurate with the immigrant's experience, training and education. Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe, which is administered by Orthodox rabbis, serves a two-fold purpose. Unlike HIAS and JFCS, this agency strives to rekindle and/or introduce the immigrant to the Jewish religious customs and practices which were forbidden in the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, it also attempts to enculturate and educate the emigre into the nuances of the American community. 3 Chapter IV investigates the Chicago public schools and Truman College in terms of the formal education curriculum these institutions provided to the Soviet immigrant population during the years 1960-1980. Prior to a 1980 government bilingual education mandate the Chicago public schools offered English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction on a limited basis to those students who were tested and categorized as limited-English-proficient. Specific information regarding students whose native language is Russian was not available, as prior to 1980, the school system was not required by law to maintain this statistical data. It was ascertained through interviews with two Soviet Jewish immigrants that ESL instruction was provided for native Russian speakers at three public schools located on the northside of the city, however they were unable to provide detailed information. Truman College provided extensive data concerning its academic/ vocational program specific to the needs of Soviet Jewish immigrants. The former director of Truman's Soviet Jewish Program, Rabbi Louis Lazovsky, during an interview, detailed information regarding a federally funded Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (C.E.T.A.) program specifically designed to retrain and secure employment for Soviet Jewish immigrants. The college's Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center provides support services to all Soviet emigres who enroll, regardless of the educational program they select. It is mandatory, however, that all immigrants register in ESL classes. There is no doubt that Truman College provides the formal education necessary to facilitate the emigre's quest for enculturation into mainstream American society. 4 Chapter V contains personal interviews with the members of five Soviet Jewish immigrant families and chronicles their struggles to become self-sufficient citizens of their adopted country. A common thread that runs throughout these interviews is that one of the motivating factors in the decision to leave Russia was the perception by various members of these families of deep-rooted and pervasive anti­ semitism. Coupled with the knowledge that Jews are limited in their opportunities of social and economic advancement in the Soviet Union was the desire for a better life for the members of the younger generation of these families. Although the adjustment was not without struggle and sacrifice on their part, the unanimous conclusion among the interviewees was the knowledge that they had made the right choice in adopting the United States as their new homeland. Incorporated within the body of this text are the definitions of the operative words and phrases which are the focus of this study. In each instance where the use of a foreign language word or sentence was appropriate, transliteration was employed for the purpose of clarity. CHAPTER II HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: TZARIST RUSSIAN AND SOVIET PERIODS Tzarist Period The history of the Jewish people in what is today the Soviet Union spans more than twenty centuries. In 586 B.C., following the Babylonians' destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews were expelled from Palestine. This exile, historically referred to as the Judeo- Hellenic Diaspora, caused a small group of Jews to establish a colony along the Black Sea in what was then Scythia. Prior to the founding of Christianity, Jews resided in the Caucasus and Kiev. They witnessed the establishment of Catholic Poland, to which they fled in 1240, in the wake of Tartar persecution. Those who remained were subjected to discrimination and oppression, as exemplified in Tzar Ivan the
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