Middle East Come One, Come All

By Jill Smolowe

No, it is not true that every Soviet Jew who has emigrated to Israel this year has been met at the airport by the entire Knesset. But the welcome mat has been impressive enough. Israel State Television briefly added Cyrillic subtitles to its evening newscasts, and the daily newspaper Ma'ariv plans to start a Russian-language edition this summer. Banks place Russian-language ads in their front windows and offer special inducements to newcomers. Ryzshinka, a yogurt-like Russian drink, is now available, packaged in a bottle sporting (yes) red and gold, the colors of the Soviet flag.

So far this year, 41,578 Soviet Jews have arrived in Israel; by year's end, the total may reach 150,000. As acting Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir seeks Knesset approval of his new right-wing government this week, he faces the growing dilemma of how to house and employ the largest flood of immigrants to Israel since the early 1950s. Meanwhile, Moscow's decision to lift the gates on Jewish emigration has so infuriated Arab leaders that their outcry no doubt prompted President Mikhail Gorbachev to utter a veiled threat at his final press conference in Washington last week. If Israel did not halt Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, he warned, new thought would be given to "what we can do with issuing permits for exit." Israel and Washington balked, and three days later, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze assured the U.S. that emigration would continue apace.

More than Arab pressure, however, may be riling Gorbachev. Seventy percent of the work force of the departing Jews are professionals and technicians. "The brain-drain issue is really worrying the Soviet legislature," says a U.S. diplomat based in Moscow. Perhaps for that reason, the Soviet parliament last week postponed until September adoption of a new emigration law that would permit almost all Jews to leave the country. But even with the remaining restrictions, Israel is enjoying a windfall from Moscow's brain drain. The newcomers offer expertise in fields ranging from medicine and engineering to computer technology and nuclear physics.

These new assets may also produce great headaches for Israeli society. Although construction has begun on 70,000 apartments, Israel's government economists predict a shortage of 29,000 housing units by the end of the year. Moreover, with unemployment already running at 9.3%, Israel is ill-prepared to find work for all the immigrants. In the sciences alone, some 60,000 Soviets are expected to arrive within the next three years. Israeli universities can make room for perhaps 120 of them. Even the country's high-tech firms cannot absorb so many. "We've got 2,000 resumes in desk drawers from top-notch Soviet scientists," says a spokesman for a Jerusalem research-and-development firm. "But we can hire only a few."

For now, most seem intent on integrating themselves into society, no matter what the cost to their self-esteem or their wallets. At Jerusalem's Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental group responsible for immigration, a Siberian doctor pushes a tea trolley through the corridors while she awaits certification to work as a physician. Dr. Anton Nossik decided not to wait out the six-month approval process; instead, he has begun a new career in journalism. For others the choices are more painful. An astrophysicist who has been unable to find work has offered to clean the lab of a veteran Soviet immigrant scientist.

Unlike the majority of the almost 145,000 Soviet Jews who settled in Israel in the 1970s, most of the latest immigrants do not have strong convictions in either religion or ideology. Their political leanings also are unclear. Of 519 immigrants recently polled by the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot, 217 sided with the conservative Likud bloc, while 86 supported the left-leaning Labor Party. Yet, when asked whether they were prepared to give back any or all of the occupied territories, a position vehemently opposed by Likud, 334 were prepared to cede part or all of the disputed lands.

Most chose Israel because it was the easiest destination; some have made it clear that they would like to go to the U.S., South Africa or New Zealand. But even if many of the immigrants move on, the flood is likely to continue: in Moscow the new Israeli Consulate issues 200 visas an hour to Soviet Jews.

With reporting by Ann Blackman/Moscow and Robert Slater/Jerusalem