Soviet Jewish immigrants here are closely watching the progression of events in Moscow.
But they seem less concerned about who ends up ruling their former homeland than how the stunning events of the past few days will affect relatives and friends there.
“For all I care, the country can go up in smoke, but I want my cousins out of there first,” said Yevgeny Levy, a taxi driver who came to Israel from Kishinev in 1969.
Almost identical feelings were expressed by a more recent arrival, Marina Seidel.
“I personally don’t care what happens to that country, but my sister is supposed to come here next week, through Budapest, and I am worried,” said Seidel, a 30-year-old civil engineer who immigrated to Israel a year ago.
“All my other relatives and Jewish friends from Leningrad are here already, but my sister, Elena, is still there with her husband and daughter,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A few immigrants questioned waxed nostalgic about good times in Russia, walks in the woods and meeting friends over bottles of vodka. But all agreed their overriding concern was the fate of family and friends left behind.
Levy, the taxi driver, is in his mid-40s and speaks Hebrew with barely a trace of an accent. He defines himself as a “real Israeli” after 22 years in the country.
‘KEPT TELLING THEM TO GET OUT’
Like most immigrants, old and new, he was worried but not surprised by the news from the Soviet Union.
“Although we’ve all discussed the possibility of the army taking over in Russia, of them saying they’ve had enough, we were still stunned this morning,” he said Monday.
“But I believe nothing serious will happen,” he added. “They can’t turn the country on its head, and to make the people go back to the old ways is just impossible.
“People will suffer through some hard times but nothing much will happen,” Levy predicted.
He admitted that he was worried about his relatives in Kishinev. “I kept telling them to get out, to leave while they still could, but they said, ‘There’s nothing to worry about, everything will be fine.’ “
Levy said his wife stayed home from work Monday to try to reach them by telephone.
The Jewish Agency and the Absorption Ministry said Tuesday that immigrants were continuing to depart the country without interference, and that everything appeared to be functioning normally.
But Levy was skeptical. “Whatever happens, it will be bad for the Jews, like everything else in that country,” he said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
