Moscow, Moscow
Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it - moscow, moscow
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - moscow, moscow
I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill - top of the heap
These little town blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it - in old moscow
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you - moscow, moscow
Moscow, moscow
I want to wake up in a city, that never sleeps
And find I’m a number one top of the list, king of the hill
A number one
These little town blues, are melting away
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it - in old moscow
And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere
It up to you - moscow, moscow
Adapted from:
lyricsfreak.com
And you have no pangs of conscience?
"Jews always feel tormented over something. It's the Jewish nature. I don't feel like that because I'm still Israeli and I know that if something happens in Israel, I'll be there within 24 hours and no one will have to send me a call-up notice."
Mikhail Gurevich, 31, who is married and has a 3-year-old daughter, openly explains why former Israelis have it so good in Russia: "We're making at least several times more than we could ever make in Israel." Gurevich emigrated to Israel on his own in 1990, at age 17. His family remained in Russia. He lived in Jerusalem and worked as an editor and presenter on Russian-language programs on Arutz Sheva - not because of his political outlook, which was and still is leftist, but because it was the only opportunity he found to work in journalism, in Russian.
In 1999, he was offered a job at Moscow Echo radio. "I had a million listeners in Israel," says Gurevich, "but that figure kept going down every year. It was clear that there was no way to grow beyond that. I wasn't thinking about leaving Israel, but then I came to Moscow for a visit after not having been here for six years, and I looked around and realized there was something for me to do here. Within a year, I was back."
Today Gurevich is assistant director of RBC, a media consultancy firm. The company has a cable news channel similar to Bloomberg, new agencies and Internet sites and he claims that the station has two million viewers a day. "When I started to work in the company, there were 60 people here. Now there are 1,700."
Two years ago, Gurevich had an attack of nostalgia and he and a friend founded the Darkon club for former Israelis. "Why? Because I feel Israeli. We speak Hebrew among ourselves so the Russians won't understand. We've had seven or eight meetings. We even brought in Aviv Geffen for a performance. We met at Jet Set, a prestigious nightclub here, but it didn't last and the club, as of now, is no longer operating."
He's content in Moscow, he says. He works hard, drives a big, black open-top jeep, hangs out in all the "in" places and talks about nostalgia for Israeliness. "Israelis here help each other. They meet and recall common experiences. We're still hoping to reopen our club."
Is this what you came to Moscow for?
"Moscow's something else. It's not Russia. It's a place without borders. A hole in the world and in time, where it doesn't matter where you came from and who you are and what you've done. Here, if you feel good about yourself, you're accepted. There are 30,000 Israelis here, around 400,000 Americans and 100,000 Brits. It's an international city. You've got everything here, 24 hours a day. The pace and drive are tremendous. It's an exciting place."
The rich are afraid
The chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, who was born in Zurich, says that in Russia there is no Jewish community in the classic sense of the term. He has been serving in his position since 1993. "I am an Orthodox rabbi of a community that is 99 percent non-Orthodox," he says. Around the synagogue he is trying to maintain a new type of Jewish life that is also secular and intellectual and not necessarily religious. For example, a Bible class that deals more with philosophy than with Judaism in the religious sense.
"I'm trying to send every high school graduate to Israel, for at least a year, in order to promote aliyah and halt assimilation," he says. "It's a difficult task, since mixed marriages here have reached the rate of 70 percent or more. Within a generation, I predict, the Jewish community will shrink significantly, if it doesn't disappear altogether."
What future is there here for Jews?
"That depends on the political and economic situation here, and in Israel. If the calm in Israel is maintained and the economy flourishes, one can expect the Jews here to view aliyah as a genuine alternative."
In Rabbi Goldschmidt's view, the odds of the rich Jews being able to survive in Russia are not great. "It's actually the ones who have it good who don't feel secure and who are apprehensive about the future. The period of the oligarchs of the 1990s is ending. They're living here on borrowed time and they're aware of this, apparently. The Yukos-Khodorkovsky affair filled them with fear and many of them are transferring their money to other places. To Israel, too."
haaretz.com |
