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.

Immigrants from the former Soviet Union live in Kansas City for more than a quarter of a century. The first people who came had originally immigrated to Israel and their arrival in Kansas City was their second immigration. 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. In the early 80s, more than 500 immigrants from the former Soviet Union lived in Kansas City. This estimate is confirmed by the fact that Kansas City Mayor welcomed the 500th immigrant in the beginning of 1982. Afterward, immigration significantly reduced until the late 80s when Gorbachev reduced limitations for emigration. About 1,000 immigrants came in 90s and were resettled through the Jewish Federation. During more than 20 years many elderly immigrants died while many children were born to immigrant families. Some immigrants left the city and some moved in from other cities.

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.

A significant number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union came in the last l0-15 years with the help of various churches. Many immigrants came as professionals with work visas.

While it is very hard to estimate the number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union living in Kansas City, there are about 3000 people. About 1000 of them are Jews; about a couple hundred of them have Muslim roots, and rest of them have Christian roots. This is the real community of immigrants from the former Soviet Union living in Kansas City.

Because all religions were brutally persecuted in the former Soviet Union for over 70 years, over 95-98% of immigrants are not religious at all while many of them believe that God exists. Immigrants are rarely seen in churches or synagogues. Usually only the elderly show any interest in religion.

While Jews form only one-third of the local Russian-speaking community, the Jewish Federation controls the life of the community. Social needs are satisfied by the Jewish Family & Children Services (JF&CS), Jewish Vocational Service, and Jewish Community Center (JCC). Spiritual needs are supposed to be satisfied by the Central Agency for Jewish Education (CAJE). For the mentioned purposes, those organizations have received grants of millions and millions of dollars during the last 25 years. While a majority of the grants was received with non-discrimination terms, the Jewish Federation pretends that all of the immigrants resettled by the Federation are Jews. Moreover, the Federation considers newcomers as immigrants only for the first year and provides free membership in local synagogues and the JCC. After that, all immigrants are considered as regular community members and should pay all memberships at an increasing prorated basis up to the 5th year, when all memberships should be paid in full.

The Jewish Federation does not want to recognize that Jews form only one-third of the Russian-speaking community. They even do not want to recognize the special needs of this community like having their own newspaper, club, cultural and religious groups, etc. Only after almost a quarter of a century, did immigrants founded their own newspaper originally named “Voice of Russians” later changed to “Voice of New Americans.”

To be continued