Jewish American history repeats our Soviet Jewish reality

By Marina Berkovich, JRCA participant

It has become very challenging to be an ex-Soviet Jew in the politically divisive United States of America over the past two decades. In addition to being survivors of Stalinism and Marxism-Socialism with all the antisemitic implications those contain, we are Holocaust survivors and survivors’ children or grandchildren. We are all personally impacted to varying degrees, depending on each family’s story, the SSR of our origin and the city in which we were born. For instance, and I am generalizing, a person from Kyiv encounters significantly more everyday antisemitism than a person from Moscow. While we lived in the U.S.S.R., the words “Holocaust” and “Shoah” were never mentioned.

Remember, we were forbidden to be Jews in the U.S.S.R.! Our parents and grandparents were never considered Holocaust survivors there. They were WWII survivors, like everyone else from the Nazi-occupied or war-ravaged territories. It was only in light of the Soviet Jews gaining access to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany after establishing themselves in the U.S., Israel, Australia and Europe from the mid1970s, that the remaining survivors from the U.S.S.R., even the evacuees, formally obtained the designation of survivor at last.

According to Claims Conference history, its major Institutional Allocations Programs from 1981 to 2003 totaled $745,126,078; it allocated $401,984,268 to programs in Israel, $92,404,042 to programs in the United States and $194,499,684 to programs in the former Soviet Union. The remainder was allocated to other countries. The Successor Organization of the Claims Conference continues to derive its funds from the proceeds of the sale of unclaimed Jewish property in the former East Germany. Funds are distributed to institutions and organizations that shelter and provide essential social services for elderly, needy Nazi victims; it also projects for the research, education and documentation of the Shoah that ensure the broad dissemination of its lessons.

Most of our parents received a few thousand dollars over some period of time. In some cases, when a survivor was actually interred in the ghetto or concentration camp, the sum was substantially more. Money did not, however, compensate for the loss of loved ones, destitute hungry formative years, cruelty and constant fear of extermination in gas chambers.

Eighty years from now, heaven forbid, a similar claims conference of redistribution of American Jewish funds may need to transpire. That’s our Jewish-Russian fear.

Many Americans join us at our famous community meals events. We share our stories of both survival in the U.S.S.R. and successes in the USA, and show off photos of our grandkids, just like you do. But we always remember why we came to the USA and how grateful we are to its constitution— all amendments included— its legal immigration and absorption policies, and the “American Dream” we were allowed to live here. That is until recent political chaos and open calls for discrimination against the Jews, i.e. our children and grandchildren, turned our world upside down.

It would be an error tantamount to that made by the German Jews in the 1930s to pretend that everything in the USA is still hunky dory and do nothing. As a group, we are planning special educational programs for our American friends. To be continued ...

JRCA 2024-2025 calendar

• JRCA Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 29, 2024

• JRCA Hanukkah, Dec. 22, 2024

• JRCA Purim, March 16, 2025

• JRCA VE DAY - Israel Independence Day, May 4, 2025

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