Community

Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption (FRUA) Picnic

On June 16, 1999, FRUA conducted a picnic in Shawnee Mission Park for its members. A majority of the members were present. In the Kansas City area there are about 100 families who adopted children from the former Soviet Union and this number is increasing.

Community Life: Guests of the Celebration

Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the New Jewish Community Campus
Jewish organizations located in the building of the Jewish Community Campus celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Campus on December 6, 1998.

Would organized immigrant communities enhance or hurt the interests of American society?

Russian Community's Life

Life in the United States is hard for all immigrants, either for successful families, who buy quarter-million dollar houses that irritate some native Americans, or for families with minimum wages, who live in apartments.

Russian Community Life: The Jewish Community of Baltimore, MD

Letter from Freda Goldman

Dear Sabina and Peter:

I have inclosed an article published in the Baltimore Sun, the major paper in Baltimore. I want to tell you something about Baltimore Soviet Jews.

Russian school

By Mariya Voldman

By the initiative of Larisa Yakhnis, in February 1998, a group of children began to learn the Russian language. All of them are from Russian-speaking families.

Editor's Note: Community Life of Immigrants in Kansas City

The first immigrants from the former Soviet Union came to Kansas City in 1974. In the former Soviet Union Jewish people, like all other people, practically did not have any community life. There were not any synagogue congregations or clubs like the Jewish Community Center. Their life was limited to a circle of family members and friends.

Russian Community's Life: Jewish Community of Omaha, NE

Executive Director of the Jewish Federation Bob Gast consider that he do the most for immigrants and do it better than any other Jewish Federation in the United States.

Our Sponsors

List of Donations:

Total for December-January: -$170

Dear Friends!

Voice of Russians is a newspaper of the Russian community in Kansas City. The newspaper is published by the non-for-profit organization RUS Publishing, Inc.

We publish and distribute our newspaper FREE for our readers. However, publishing of a newspaper costs money, and your donations will be essential.

Please, make checks payable to:

RUS Publishing, Inc.

and send to

P.O.Box 860136

Shawnee

KS 66286

We will appreciate any donation

Russia

St. Basil's Cathedral in the Red Square, Moscow

For decades, only the United States and Russia had the power to determine world affairs. Russia is one of the greatest world powers not only because its territory is the world's largest and its huge population, but because of the contribution it has made to world history as well as a remarkable culture-literature, poetry, music, painting, theater and cinema-that is known and admired throughout the world.

The geography of Russia quite varied. Russia lies in both Asia and Europe, with the Ural Mountains and the Volga River dividing European Russia and Asian Russia. Russia's longest coastline is on Arctic seas, whose ice makes navigation impossible during most of the year. Only the port of Murmansk is open year-round because of the Gulf Stream. Russia is the largest country in the world, having an area of 6,592,850 square miles, almost twice that of Canada, the second largest country. Along the Pacific coast, the most important Russian port is Vladivostok. St. Petersburg is the port closest to the centers of population and trade. It is open from May to October.

Russia's history is very rich. The first Russian state was Kiev, in what is today Ukraine. It was ruled by a Viking grand prince, Prince Oleg. The name of the state was Rus and it remained separate from the rest of Europe until the tenth century. In 988 AD, Grand Prince Vladimir I became a Christian and made Christianity the official religion. Ivan the Terrible was the first to use the title of tsar. A long line of rulers gradually expanded the kingdom. During the reign of Peter the Great from 1696 to 1725, Muscovy became the Empire of all Russias, or simply Russia. Unfortunately, weak rulers and poverty took over Russia after Peter's death.

Russian community

Many of our readers repeatedly told us that they are curious about what we publish in our Russian section. Even those who can read Russian tell us that it would be easier for them to read material that we print in Russian and originally were addressed to Russian community only in English.

In response to these requests, we are reprinting material from previous editions of the Russian section in English.

The first family that arrived in Kansas City in 1974 directly from the former Soviet Union was a Jewish family, and the Jewish Federation provided help in their resettlement. From about 1500 immigrants resettled through the Jewish Federation, about 30-40% are not Jew: they are either members of mixed families or relatives of non-Jewish spouses. The mentioned estimate is based on the assumption that mixed families make up about 60-80% of all arrived families. Almost all of the non-Jews have Christian roots. The so-called “Russian” community in Kansas City has about 1000 Jews.

About 700 Armenian refugees were resettled in Kansas City with the help of the Don Bosco Center. Armenians have Christian roots. The “Russian” community has a couple hundred immigrants with Muslim roots.

Dear Friends!

We publish and distribute our newspaper FREE for our readers. However, publishing of a newspaper costs money, and your donations will be essential.

Please, make checks payable to:

RUS Publishing, Inc.

and send to

P.O.Box 860136

Shawnee

KS 66286

We will appreciate any donation.