Boy in traditional Kavkazi dress dances at event in Beersheva. Photo used with permission of JDC; photographer: Edgar Asher, Isranet
Kavkas. The Russian word for the Caucasus Mountains, the eastern region of the former Soviet Union connected most closely with Azerbaijan.
Kavkazim. The Hebrew word for Russian Jews from the Caucasus who left their homes for Israel during the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
For the 80,000 Kavkazim living in Israel today, adaptation to life in a new country has brought unique challenges. To help the community, UJA-Federation of New York has developed a comprehensive range of interventions for teens and their parents, based in Beersheva, the largest Kavkazi community in Israel.
Some traits that enabled this special Jewish community to survive through centuries now constitute obstacles to integration into Israeli society, explains Avner Tavori, planning executive for UJA-Federation’s Commission on the Jewish People.
The desire for tight-knit communities, distinctive language, and the conservative values that sustained the Kavkazim are now a hindrance to adjustment, Tavori notes.
Tavori says key issues facing the Kavkazim include a lack of Hebrew proficiency; a 25 percent high school dropout rate; unemployment, financial distress, and poverty; and a lack of role models.
As the generation born in Israel comes of age, teens long to become more integrated into Israeli society, Tavori explains. Yet the community needs support.
In response to these challenges, and working with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), UJA-Federation introduced in 2007 a wide-ranging initiative in Beersheva, which is home to about 20,000 Kavkazim.
The initiative offers 15 programs run by JDC, the city of Beersheva, and a number of government agencies and local community-based organizations that involve about 700 teens and their families.
Tavori says the initiative addresses critical problems:
- Through parent workshops, parents learn to support teens staying in school.
- Teens entering ninth grade are matched with mentors to help transition to high school.
- Group and individual treatment assists at-risk youngsters.
- Youth centers offer teens a place of their own for sports, music, and martial arts.
“It’s good that they opened the club,” says Arkadi Yakobov, 16, a local teen. “This is a neighborhood that has nothing. Before, there was no place for us to hang out …. Now we come to play and talk. Anybody who needs help gets it.” ♦
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