LOOKING AROUND: Save Tatiana from deportation

By Barbara Sofer
Sep. 26, 2002

It is no secret that the resources invested in bringing Jews out of the former Soviet Union, once the worthiest of causes, are now bringing many non-Jews to live here.

Another non-secret is that as a result of the aggressive recruitment of immigrants, numerous undesirable citizens have come here. Just ask MK Yuli Edelstein (Yisrael Ba'aliya), deputy minister of immigrant absorption, to expand on this.

So, let's say you actually get a new immigrant, someone of sterling character, with some Jewish background, but not halachicly Jewish, and she undergoes an Orthodox conversion course, despite the reputation for difficulty and the pitfalls of such a process. We should be ebullient, reaching out a hand. Right?

Let's take the case of Tatiana Sidorov, 48. She's a real person. Would that this were only an apocryphal tale.

Tatiana studied aquaculture engineering as an undergraduate and earned a graduate degree in Ukraine. Divorced early in her marriage, she brought up her daughter alone, seeing her through university and happily married. The couple moved in with Tatiana, and grandson Alex was born.

Tatiana's son-in-law was Jewish, both his mother and father being of our ancient faith. The local Jewish Agency emissary in Ukraine encouraged the couple to move to Israel. They had a hard time making ends meet, renting a small apartment in an inexpensive neighborhood, working and studying Hebrew. They wrote to Grandma Tatiana. Could she come and help them, particularly with her beloved Alex?

At the time, Tatiana had a job as a manager of a large supermarket/department store. Her own elderly mother was still alive.

The security situation in Israel was deteriorating. But in Israel, she was desperately needed. And there was something else. She remembered as a child, the epithet "yid" was often hurled at her father anytime family disputes broke out. Old photos she'd found showed her grandfather in skullcap. Her father was long gone, and documentation would be hard to find. In the meantime, she would come as a tourist to visit her family.

She moved into Alex's room, took care of him and did the cooking. When Alex was in nursery school, she took care of other people's babies to help make the rent.

Then, one day, something extraordinary happened. A widower, Jewish, traditional, a doctor, began to court her. Staying in Israel became an option, but she only wanted to stay here as a Jew.

She signed up for the official conversion course and became a star student. At our home, my daughters, concerned for her success, often quizzed her on blessings, afraid she'd fall on more subtle points like pineapples and pizza slices. Neither the average Israeli or Diaspora Jew would have passed their grilling, but they never fooled Tatiana.

More than the formal knowledge, she displayed a love and enthusiasm for Judaism, joining in with holiday preparation, and most important, being a model of modest and kind behavior.

EFFICIENCY AND time-management skills that have thankfully arrived at so many aspects of Israeli life are yet to reach the religious world. The date for the conversion test wasn't firm, and when it was, the test was continually postponed. Tatiana never complained.

At last she had a date. She brought along letters of recommendation from all the observant families who knew her during the conversion process and from the rabbi of the synagogue she attended.

As the big day approached, she studied relentlessly.

She arrived, ready, excited, hoping to become a Jew.

Oh, we're so sorry, she was told. She couldn't possibly take the conversion test if she didn't have an Israeli identity card. Her passport would simply not do.

Never deterred, she went immediately to the Interior Ministry and applied. A Russian-speaking clerk listened to her story, so there was no chance of misunderstanding.

Six long weeks later, a letter from the ministry finally arrived.

Her heart beating hard, she opened it. A single line. Git. She was to leave the country immediately. One thing I haven't mentioned about Tatiana. She's very beautiful and very blonde.

She could, of course, marry her friend in Cyprus, like a growing number of fully Jewish Israelis who are turned off by their contact with the religious system, and live here in Israel as a mixed marriage. The idea outrages her. "I want to stand under a huppa," she told me, "and marry in sanctity. Besides, what kind of example will this be for my friend's children? And for Alex?"
Her greatest wish is that her daughter and Alex will convert so that they can have a united Jewish family life.

Another option is going back to Ukraine, in the hope she can find her father's pre-gulag papers, or of finding a rabbi who will begin the conversion process over for her. Here's something else about Tatiana: "I'm not angry," she tells me. "I understand that a lot of bad people would like to live in Israel and that the country is trying to protect itself."

She's not angry but I am. I'm sick of the ostrich approach to running our country. Who is wise? He who foresees the outcome. Minister of Trade and Industry Natan Sharansky (Yisrael Ba'aliya) listened sadly when he heard Tatiana's story. He said there were hundreds of hopeless cases like Tatiana's. There was nothing he could do, he said. He was no longer interior minister.

How many of us would have the fortitude to leap hurdle after hurdle to live as Jews in this land where most Jews, even those interested in Israel, won't even dare come as tourists?
Eli Yishai of Shas is the interior minister. Minister Yishai: Save Tatiana from deportation. Save our country from myopic planning.

There are hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish immigrants living in this country. In a generation, you won't be able to pick them out by their accents and their hair color. Grant Tatiana a temporary-resident card today. Let her complete her conversion here. Let her be married in sanctity. Let her - and her former countrymen - become wonderful, energetic, devoted Jews pouring their creativity and diligence into the Jewish people, examples for others and examples for us.

They can be a force rejuvenating Jewish life, or another vast non-Jewish minority threatening this tiny state.
Choose