The following are excerpts from remarks made at the Fundraising Dinner to Benefit Olim from the Former Soviet Union — Victims of Terror in Israel held on Jan. 31 at Brynwood Country Club. This first Russian Jewish community fundraising event drew 150 people, raised $30,000 and was organized by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s New Americans Division in cooperation with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society’s LOREO (Local Russian Émigré Organizations) Project. It was co-chaired by Tanya Arbit, Satanovsky and Olga Vaynshtok.
Alex Satanovsky
This is the first event of its kind for Milwaukee’s Russian-speaking community, which includes Jews and non-Jews alike from the Former Soviet Union.
I would like to thank you for being here — that you found it necessary to be here. Today we created a new movement in the history of Russian immigration in Milwaukee. Without such a movement, our community has been losing a lot.
Everyone who is here has been united by Israel. Many of our relatives and friends live there. We must and will do everything for the eternal existence of Israel.
Recently, I read in Newsweek magazine the thoughts of a contemporary Israeli poet, who noted that during the 1920s and 1930s, Europe demanded that its Jews not be in Europe but go to Palestine. Now Jews are asked by the Europeans not to be in Palestine. The message to the Jews is simple: Don’t be.
I personally invited a lot of people to this event. I promised everyone one thing: If you help somebody, you will feel a great feeling of pride and satisfaction. Especially if you help people who are close to you. I am positive that we are all experiencing such feelings tonight.
I sincerely hope that this evening’s atmosphere will be carried out from this beautiful hall into other homes of former Soviet citizens in Milwaukee. I hope that we will need to look for a bigger place next time.
Bruce Arbit
All of you being here tonight are more than special. You are truly phenomenal. Why?
All of you came here to get a new nationality, but somehow you got two new nationalities. To become an American citizen, you had to wait five years, but on the day you got off the airplane in the United States, somehow, as if by magic, you became “Russians.”
What most of you couldn’t get written on Line Five of your Soviet Passport was granted here in Milwaukee in barely a second. In Russia you were Jews and in America you became Russians. I would venture a guess, though, that it is better to be called a Russian here in Milwaukee, than it was to be called Zhid in the Former Soviet Union.
But, we all know that you aren’t Russians. You come from as many as 15 different Former Soviet Republics. Soviet Jews were never ethnic Russians who believed in Judaism, but rather ethnic Jews, whose religious and cultural roots were ripped apart by an anti-religious and anti-Semitic empire.
Here in America your challenge is to face and fight the consequences of that forced assimilation, by attempting to revive your national pride and reclaim your Jewish heritage. While you should, of course, be proud of your national roots and enjoy spending time with other Russian-speaking Jews, your goal, when all is said and done, has always been to join a different group. And that group is American Jewry.
Tonight, in many ways, you have joined American Jewry. You are doing what Jews, living free, here in America and elsewhere have always done — taking care of other Jews in need. Wherever they are. In Hebrew we say “Kol Yisrael areveem ze b’ze.” All Jews are responsible, one for the other — in Milwaukee, in Novosibirsk, in Buenos Aires and in Tel Aviv.
Earlier, I told you about the 6,077 Jews who have been injured in the intifada and about the 933 who have died. What I didn’t tell you is that each of those people has left family and loved ones behind. There are now 480 orphans. Countless wives left without sufficient livelihood. And hundreds of families who will never be the same after losing a child.
With your help, more than 1,600 families affected by acts of terror have received financial assistance from the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Fund for Victims of Terror. Almost 6,500 individuals have been helped through these funds to purchase medical equipment, housing, financial assistance and scholarships toward higher education. Since its establishment two years ago, this fund has distributed over $12 million dollars. Its uniqueness is that it is immediately able to assist individuals.
Your funds are being earmarked to help the families of Russian victims. Unfortunately, there are too many families who fit that description. Terrorism doesn’t discriminate.
We cannot allow terrorists any type of victory by becoming desensitized to the evil carnage they cause. Each and every victim of terror is an individual with particular needs who must endure a difficult process of trying to rebuild a life shattered both physically and mentally. We can help fill those needs. And these victims of terror deserve to know that they can take strength from the support of those like us who have been fortunate enough not to be directly affected by terrorism.
On behalf of all those whose lives will be touched by your generosity tonight — the orphan, the widow, the grieving parents — I say bolshoye spaceeba. Thank you. Together as a community you have done the right thing.
Bruce Arbit is a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, one of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s main overseas partners, and treasurer of the federation.
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