Photocopy of newspaper clipping, Jewish Federation: An umbrella for aid, Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 27, 1980

SLUIFNED TAOYD, AAYP RIL 27, 1980 - LAS VEGS REVIEW-JOURNAL JEWISH FEDERATION: AN UMBRELLA FOR AID Stories by Debbie Sorrentino R-J Life Today Editor The Jewish Federa-tion of Las Vegas func-tions as sn umbrella agency for local Jewish ; welfare programs. For about 20 years, the or-ganization was known as the Combined Jewish Appeal, but last Novem-ber in Montreal it be-came affiliated . with about 800 other chapters of the national Council of Jewish Federations, ac-cording to federation President Dorothy Eis-enberg. "The Jewish commu-nity iB growing the same as the Las Vegas commu-nity, percentage-wise, so we felt the need for a na-tional affiliation for bet-i ter guidelines. I think of us> as a United Way of Jewish affairs," Eisen-berg said. Explaining the change ' irifocuB, she said, "What we are doing more of now is local programs. Before, we raised money for pro-grams in Israel. That's still a No. 1 concern, and the money goes to Israel for old age homes, or health caro or specific things like that." Eisen-berg travels to Israel yearly and added, "I've been there to see what it does." There is no member-ship fee to be a part of the Jewish Federation and so Eisenberg talks in terms of the number of families on its mailing list?4,000. She assumes there are about "twice that many that we do not know about." "Everybody gets our services whether they are members or not," she said. "Part of out; prob-lem iB that we cannot id-entify all the Jewish peo-ple in the community. And that has to do with Las Vegas too, because of the transient nature of the community." A monthly newspaper, The Jewish Reporter, is mailed to families on that list and provides infor-mation of special interest to Jewish persons. Programs and agencies with which the federa-tion is involved include the Soviet Jewish Reset-tlement Committee, the Jewish Family Service Agency, the United Cen-ter for Religion and Life, the Young Leadership program, Jewish Big Brothers, the Jewish Community Center, Hol-ocaust education pro-grams in schools and a program to educate per-sons about a devastating genetic disease, Tay Sachs Syndrome, that is prominent in Jewish per- . sons. ' Eisenberg noted, "We also, last summer, worked on the Vietnam-i ese boat people program with Catholic Welfare. We were the only state not receiving federal funds. So we helped with the lobbying to get the Interim Finance Com-mittee to accept the funds.". M i Financing missions to Israel is also a federation function. "Women's mis-sions, men's missions, or couple's missions, we connect them with the New York office," she said. The federation oper-ates through" contribu-tions and last year raised about $1 million in most-ly private donations. Op-erating expenses utilize about 10 percent of that figure, "about the nation-al average," according to Eisenberg. Many volun- . ? teers help with the office work. Its 36-member lay board of directors will prepare a long-range plan later this year to de-termine the community's specific areas of need. "It will start with a survey to ; ? identify people and their . needs. It will give us an idea of what we have in the community and what the potential is?how many people with certain incomes; how many older people; and what kind of services they need, like health care, educational facilities. "We are doing it (the survey) to determine what we need in five years, or 10 years, or 20 years. We're trying to get people in the Young Leadership group to help us." The federation is re-ceiving help from the na-tional council in setting up the survey. "They will come in and show us the kind of survey we need and we will adapt it to our community. We are hoping by the end of this year to at least have raw data" Eisenberg, who is in her second year as presi-dent, said of the federa-tion's work, "It's very re-warding, not only for me, but for most people in-volved in it. You see very tangible results of what you do and I think that's DOROTHY EISENBERG ...federation president Services, ORT (Organi-sation for Rehabilitation through Training), B'nai B'rith, Temple Beth Shalom and Congrega-tion Ner Tamid. Furnishings and household items are among the donations the program receives, and Alan Morger, director of Jewish Family Sendees, noted,"The community has been very good in terms of donations. We now have enough to fur-nish three apartments. We're trying to keep that up?to have everything from toothbrush to beds so they can just come in and live, besides having to worry about learning English and getting themselves acculturat-ed." Eisenberg ackow-ledged that the program is "costly" for a family's first three months. "You have to get them hous-ing, pay rent, pay their "Those (Russian) people really want to work. They really want to make it. They are willing to sacrifice, unlike many Ameri-cans."? Alan Morger, director, Jewish Fam-ily Services important. I've worked in so many community ac-tivities and I still do, be-cause I'm a part of Las Vegas a*n*d* n*o*t* ju?s*t* this." An invaluable federa-tion program, the Soviet Jewish Resettlement Committee, was started last April by Jewish Family Services, where it is coordinated by Jerry Katst. This community is one of 360 nationally affi-liated with the interna-tional Hebrew Immigra-tion Aid Society, headquartered in New York. One reason for HIAS' continued existence is that of the estimated 14 million Jews in the world, about 3 million are thought to be in the U.S.S.R. Eisenberg ex-plained, "A lot have been assimilated, not allowed to practice their religion. And if they do not get out in the next 20 years they will be lost. The more they assimilate, the less the will be Jewish." Recalling the pro-gram's roots, Eisenberg said, "They (HIAS) called us and asked, 'Could you take some Russian families?' So we talked to our board and Jewish Family Services and they said it would be in the realm of the kinds of things they do to reset-tle people." The program's govern-ing committee is a 15- member board, com-prised of persons repre-senting the Jewish Fed-eration, Jewish Family food and doctor bills, English lessons and so forth." About the chain of communication in reset-tlement, she said, "The whole process is extreme-ly complicated, because Russia has made it com-plicated. But what we do is they (HIAS) call us up and say, 'Will you take 10 people? And they send us biographies. "We take people with Bkills we think they can , use here. A doctor or dentist might be terrific, but they would have to be retrained in the lan-guage (and relicensed) and we couldn't handle that. A big city could. "So we have someone who is an auto mechanic, and someone who is a barber and his wife is a beautician, things like that. It takes two or three months before they get a job here, and we hope they are self-sup-porting at that point. "We give them loans to buy cars and they are responsible people. They are very pleasant people to deal with." Life.in America, and especially Las Vegas, can produce culture shock j but the families manage to adjust well. "The ad-justment is tremendous, especially for the child-ren," Eisenberg said. "And the first time they go to a supermarket, my God! The range and the different foods. They are not used to the kinds of food we eat. It's a whole different way of life." So far, 13 persons it) four families have been brought to Las Vegas, and two more families will be.brought here this 'year, including a seven-member multi-genera-tion family. Most travel lightly by If necessity. As to whether ' any given family ever re- ! ceives personal belong- | ings they left in the j U.S.S.R., Morger said, i "Maybe three to six ; months later they ,will get Bome personal items that the Soviets let out, and that's a happy time for them because all they initially bring is their clothes. What the Sovi-ets do is they package the things in big crates to create big shipping charges. "Now they are cutting down on immigration. But who knows what the Soviet Union is going to do? You can never be logical and think about the Soviet Union be-cause they don't neces-sarily think the way you and I think." As to how long it takes the "average" family to; be able to depart the U.S.S.R., he said, "Some it takes a year, some five, i or six years. But they lose their jobs. They have no support. Theyi, depend on the worldwide' Jewish community to support them. And when they lose their jobs they are accused of being par-asites. "And then other times they'll push them out." Emigrating families must not necessarily have relatives in the Un-ited States, as HIAS con-tacts the Las Vegas office basically if it is felt the family will adjust well to a city of this size. Of the families' prog-' ress to date, Morger said, "We are at least six months down the road with everyone. They are all eating, working. We resettled them in a six-block area so they are able to see one another. They are totally self-sup-, porting. It's really tre-mendous. "Of course they re-ceive aid in terms of 'How do you figure out this insurance?' or with banking problems." Most speak little or no English when they arrive and take advantage of the classes JFS offers. Morger said, "They do try to have English class-es in Rome while they are waiting (one to six months). But it's hard. "Can you imagine being let out of a commu-' nist country where you don't have any freedom at all and going to Rome? And this is the first chance any of them have had to travel. So they try to see as much of Italy as 5 they can, and the classes don't do well. "But Misha and Maia i learned pretty darn well. And lucky for us, because they were the first ones [, who got employed. And ' he went right out after a couple of weeks of Eng-lish classes," he said, adding all the resettled persons' English im- - proves once they are working. "Those people really want to work. They real-ly want to make it. They are willing to sacrifice unlike many Americans. They are willing to putj out to get ahead."