Clusters of Soviet Jews outside the community center in the city of Rishon le-Zion mingle and chat during their break from Hebrew class.
They are among the first large group of new immigrants who will not have known the protected feeling of an absorption center.
Those who work with immigrants describe absorption centers as “hothouses” that provide time for new olim to get their bearings.
They can see a bit of the country before they decide where to settle, and they can concentrate fully on their Hebrew studies. The conditions are far from luxurious, but all of their basic needs are provided for without cost.
By contrast, those in direct absorption communities like Rishon le-Zion are immediately plunged into the cold water of Israeli society and expected to swim.
With the grant money given to them by the government and the Jewish Agency, they have already found and rented their apartments and dealt with the hassles of arranging heat, electricity and telephone service.
Hebrew teacher Rachel Weitz, who has taught ulpan courses in both situations, said that those in direct absorption become streetwise faster. “They learn very fast what life is like in Israel. They have to organize their lives and learn quickly.”
PRICES FOR HOUSING CLIMBING
Judging from the ulpan students in Rishon, direct absorption seems to be working. A key to the success of the program has been matching the Soviet families with “adopted” Israeli families, who help them navigate their way into Israeli life.
Josef Bichman sits beside his wife, Ludmilla, in ulpan class. The couple, in their 40s, have gentle blue eyes and an intellectual air.
They have learned Hebrew quickly in their five months in the country. Josef enthusiastically explains a point of Russian history in Hebrew, as his teacher, Chaya, gently corrects his grammar. Josef is very worried about finding a place to live. He has been anxiously watching the prices of apartments rise — 35 percent since September and climbing, he observed. Prices can be expected to skyrocket even higher if more housing is not built soon.
The Bichmans know that they have a bit more time than those in absorption centers to find their housing solution. The direct absorption full subsidy for rent from the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency will run out at the end of their first year in the country.
The Bichmans have already learned that renting long-term in Israel is not a satisfactory situation. Ultimately, everyone in Israel is expected to buy an apartment, and they don’t know how they can afford it.
The families in their Hebrew class would like to continue living in Rishon le-Zion, but apartment prices are high, even with the favorable mortgages offered to immigrants by the government.
Having come to the country with no savings, Soviet immigrants are taking out multiple loans in order to purchase homes.
The prices are climbing because demand is up, and plans for large-scale construction of apartments are creeping along at a snail’s pace.
“The government talks about building houses, but they don’t do anything,” Josef says worriedly.
A group of several hundred of the Soviet immigrants living in Rishon le-Zion has even volunteered to do construction work for a few years if it means securing a place to live. The offer reflects their desire for housing as well as an anxiety not to be seen by the Israelis as spoiled professionals, but people who are willing to do a bit of modern-day pioneering.
However, the group is presently caught in the legal morass of obtaining land and building permits from the government. They are also finding out that the cost of the apartments, even with their donated labor, will still be steep.
Josef says that after ulpan is completed, he will look for work, and if he doesn’t find it, he will enter a job-training program. As long as he continues studying, he will remain eligible for government assistance.
The Bichmans and their classmates clearly spend much of their time worrying about their future in Israel. But they say it is a different brand of fear than they had in their previous home.
“The problems in the Soviet Union were large, overriding issues of ideology and anti-Semitism. Here in Israel, the problems are practical and day-to-day,” says Ludmilla.
Soviet Jewish immigrants arc glad, at least, that the problems of jobs and housing in Israel, unlike the threat of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, appear to be somewhat under their control. “I hope that it will be all right,” Ludmilla says with a smile.
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