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Thursday August 30, 2007

Russian émigrés enjoy an all-American picnic

by angela privin
correspondent

At first glance, the L’Chaim picnic put on by Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay was a classic American scene, complete with a bouncy castle, grilling hot dogs and the crinkle of potato-chip bags. But some telltale signs distinguished this crowd of 150 from surrounding picnickers.

First, there was the gypsy-inspired Eastern European music blasting from the speakers. The typical attire of baseball caps, tennis shoes and Bermuda shorts were replaced by Italian leather loafers, leopard-spotted tank tops and rhinestone-studded designer sunglasses. But the dead giveaway was the sound of fast-paced Russian banter.

Targeted to the East Bay’s Russian Jewish émigré community, the Aug. 26 picnic in Walnut Creek’s lush Larkey Park was the kickoff for the JFCS’ expansion of their Russian Jewish heritage program.

The program, said JFCS program manager and caseworker Lila Katz, aims to reconnect the established émigré community to the agency. After resettling the émigrés that came in migrations between the 1970s and ’90s, JFCS often lost touch with the families after their survival needs were met.

The agency also wants the thriving East Bay émigré community to strengthen ties with each other. That’s where events like the picnic — which attracted everyone from children to the elderly, recent arrivals to 15-year veterans of the U.S. — come in.

Sofiya Treyger moved to Walnut Creek from Odessa, Ukraine, in 1991. Since then her husband’s career has taken their family to the East Coast and back. Treyger came to the picnic with her parents and young children so all of them could “meet more Russian people.”

Vladimir and Vera Sobolev and their adult son Aleksandr had the same goal. After emigrating from Belarus this June to reunite with family in the U.S., the new arrivals were comforted by the familiar language and culture.

At three years in America, Masha Xenolzova fell somewhere in between the neophyte and assimilated crowds. On that day, she was celebrating the third anniversary of her family’s immigration to the U.S. from Moscow.

Since her arrival, Xenolzova has been involved with JFCS’ Russian-language newspaper and agency fundraising efforts. For her, Russian-speaking community events are nostalgic respites from the foreignness and diversity of American life.

“Everyone here has American friends, but this [picnic] is a good opportunity to just be around and experience Russian culture,” she said.

Though Xenolzova misses little about life in Moscow, she does miss her friends. Being involved in the Bay Area’s Russian Jewish community has eased her loneliness and helped her find her place in a new country.

Another aim of the program is to foster a deeper connection for émigrés to Judaism. The picnic’s emcee and children’s game coordinator was Jewish studies teacher Elena Zusmanovich, who works with émigré families at Temple Beth Am in Los Altos Hills. Rabbi Joey Felsen, from the Jewish Studies Network, was also at hand to give a presentation about the upcoming High Holy Days, and even the children’s crafts projects revolved around Jewish themes, such as Hebrew calligraphy instruction, high-holiday greeting cards, hand-painted tzedakah boxes, and clay mezuzahs.

The JFCS currently offers religious programming for the émigré community in the form of monthly Shabbats for seniors, and their services will be expanding to include ongoing Jewish education and holiday celebrations.

“This is a new direction for JFCS, now that our Russian-Jewish community has gotten beyond survival, they are missing involvement in the community. JFCS is here to help them build that,” said Barbara Nelson, director of the East Bay JFCS émigré department.

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