The Russian Division of United Jewish Appeal-Federation gathered for its Annual Gala earlier this month to celebrate one of the most successful fundraising campaigns in its 19-year history. But one of the division’s most prominent members said that Russian Jews need to increase their donations to the UJA-Federation campaign in order to alleviate a gathering economic emergency that is proving especially devastating for elderly Russian Jews in New York.
Feliks Frenkel, an arbitrageur who is a founder and past president of the Russian Division and a member of the executive committee of UJA-Federation, said the Russian Division has much to be proud of. He noted that the division has raised its level of giving to the UJA-Federation campaign from $35,000 back in 1989 to nearly $1 million today. But he warned, “We are facing a ticking time bomb in terms of the impact of the economic downturn on the New York Jewish community and on the Russian community in particular. A food package delivered by one of the federation’s agencies to an elderly Russian Jew in Brooklyn who is living below the poverty line that cost $8 a year ago costs $12 today. How do we make up that difference?
“We have to ask all supporters of UJA-Federation – but especially Russian Jews – to give more. Our community receives more services from UJA-Federation agencies, so we need to do more to pay for those services.”
Frenkel’s comments came as leaders of the Russian Division gathered to honor Laura Bialis, producer/director of the documentary film “Refusenik.” The three-hour-long gala included a history of the Soviet Jewry movement, which made it possible for Frenkel and many other community leaders to come to America and prosper.
In addition to paying tribute to Bialis and to Glenn Richter, one of the founders of the activist wing of the Soviet Jewry movement in the United States, the Russian Division honored two of its most prominent members, Anna Kaplan, CEO of an international electronics firm, and Anna Schneur, winner of the Division’s Young Leadership Award, who counsels corporate and private clients on nutrition and fitness.
The guest speaker was Israeli Consul General Asaf Shariv, who said he has learned since coming here that “the Russian Jewish community in New York has become very successful and gives strong support to the State of Israel.”
Yet amid the congratulatory rhetoric and the nostalgic look back at the exodus from the Soviet Union, Frenkel and a number of Russian-speaking Jewish community professionals were raising alarm bells about how the recession is affecting the Russian-Jewish community in New York and in particular its large number of elderly people.
“I think the Jewish community is in a situation of moral triage as it tries to grapple with what to do about the deteriorating situation,” said Frenkel, pointing not only to the sharp rise in food costs in recent months, but ongoing escalation in the costs of rent and utilities for elderly Russians living on Supplemental Security Income payments that are sometimes less than their monthly rents.
“The biggest problem we have is when an elderly couple is living on a subsistence level and one of them dies,” Frenkel said. “Then the rent subsidy [from SSI] is suddenly sliced in half and the surviving person simply cannot afford to pay the rent. So obviously people are falling through the cracks.”
Vladimir Vishnevskiy, immigrant services director at the Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, commented, “While UJA-Federation has been extremely responsive to the emergency situation, and has provided us with extra funding, the crisis continues to get worse, especially for Holocaust survivors and other elderly Russian Jews who are living way below the poverty line.”
Yana Bril, a social worker at JCH [Jewish Community House], said, “People are terrified how they will get through the summer if they are unable to afford to use their air conditioners, because the cost is more than they can afford.”
Brill noted that elderly Russian Jewish couples typically receive SSI payments of $1,096 a month with $296 a month for food stamps, while people living alone receive $724 in SSI and about $160 in food stamps at a time when there are virtually no studio apartments available in South Brooklyn for less than $800.
Richter, who was frequently jailed and sometimes beaten by police while demonstrating on behalf of Soviet Jews in the United States., Europe and the Soviet Union, said at the Russian Division dinner, “It is inspiring to come to an event like this one and see in concrete terms how the sustained efforts of so many participants in the Soviet Jewry movement made it possible for so many people to come here and build successful new lives. To me the circle will be complete if the people who have become successful turn around and use their new wealth to help those who are most vulnerable.”
Frenkel agreed. “I think Russian Jews need to do some soul searching about their responsibilities. It is easy to sit back and complain that not enough is being done. It is harder to step forward and become part of the solution.”
