Moscow Connections: Day 3

Day Three – By Joel

On day three of our trip, we got down to the real mission at hand: meeting locals to better understand what it is like to be a Russian Jew and learning how JAFI was using fun summer camp programming to help teach Jewish traditions to youngsters (and indirectly their parents.) Add in a great meeting with the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy and dining at a local “club” for artists and this completes another 15 hour day of wall to wall events.

The day started early when we split into four smaller groups to visit with local Russian Jews at their various offices: a law firm, an IT firm, a University, and the JDC office.

I visited AMD (Intel’s largest competitor) and we met with the Director of Sales for Russia and Eastern Europe - Alexander. Sasha (as Alex likes to be called) met us at or hotel and drove us to his office. Along the way, we found out he had a wife and four year old son (the baby seat was a dead giveaway.) After checking through building security, Sasha gave us a tour of his offices- pretty much like any office in any typical US company… though since AMD is based out of Austin, Texas, this makes sense. [I wondered if they flew in the Austin decorator, or if AMD has a “New Office Setup Guide” (a) install computer network (b) install office cubicles and conference rooms (don’t forget the Polycom phones) and (c) add friend receptionist. ] One other similarity with US offices is that this office was practically empty…. picture ~50 cubicles for every 3 employees … layoffs due to the economic downturn were quite apparent.

After the brief tour, we talked with Sasha over coffee in one the of the conference rooms. Over the course of the next few hours, we learned of Sasha’s advancement through his PHD in Math, MBA studies, jumping ship from Intel to work for AMD, what it’s like to be Director of Sales for AMD, and what’s it like to be Jewish through all of this. This brief description leaves out a ton of details and nuances that were exchanged and provided a detailed window it Sasha’s life and experiences. I’ll try to share a few:

Anti-Semitism: there really isn’t anti-Semitism with Putan- it’s all about power, politics and money; there isn’t anti-Semitism among Sasha’s peers; though it’s different when you are in a grocery store- if the check-out clerk sees your baby’s “nationality” papers and it says “Jew” and then you get a nasty look. It’s for subtle (or not so subtle) reasons like this Sasha and his wife had a (slight) disagreement over whether to list their son as “Jewish” on his birth records. (In Russia, you can choose your own “nationality” or what Americans may consider “ethnicity”.)

Being Jewish: Sasha considers himself a “secular” Jew (ie. not Orthodox) He goes to Synagogue on the High Holidays, is checking out Jewish nursery school for his son, etc. But upon further discussion, being Jewish for Sasha is about “connections” or networking- it is how he met is how wife at Hillel, it is also about advancing his career by networking with other Jews. (Along these lines, you have to put this into perspective- Moscow didn’t have a middle class until 10-12 years ago… the networking is probably very similar to how our parents/grand-parents grew up in DC or other cites in the USA 35-40 years ago when Jews weren’t allowed in certain country clubs or not “shown” property in certain neighborhoods- While Moscow Jews do not face this discrimination, the middle class is still young enough to be “cliquish”.)

Small world story: We started to talk about how Washington DC is a “small world”… everyone knows everyone and Kevin Bacon’s six-degree theory… I was curious to see how small the world really is, so I asked Sasha to play along with me… how many people would it take to connect him and I? Sound like an absurd question? What are the odds of two strangers half way around the world knowing anyone in common – or even 2-3 people removed in common? ANSWER: 1 person. As it turns out, I take a class (one week a year) with 40 entrepreneurs from around the world and Dmitry (a friend from class) is good friends with Sasha. Who would figure?

Russia on Israel/PLO: Between Israel and Hamas, Russia is for Israel. Between Hamas and Fataha, Russia is for Fataha. Between Israel and Fataha, it not as clear.

Russia on Iran: Russia doesn’t want Iran to have nukes, but wants them as a trading partner. Russia would not tolerate Islamic Extremists- if they started up in Russia, relations with Iran would be closed down- till then, Russia will continue to partner with Iran.

After meeting with Sasha we headed out with Misha for lunch (each group that morning ate amongst themselves) before meeting up at the American embassy. We were fortunate enough (OK- I’m sure the Federation pulled some strings) to get a meeting with the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy – Eric Rubin. In the course of 90 minutes, Mr. Rubin gave us a crash course on past and present US/Russian relations, the Federal government’s involvement with religious issues, Russian life under Yeltsin vs. Putin and other insights. I’ll try to relate some of the points that I remember:

Eric Rubin (the person): From Washington DC, was posted in Moscow during the 1990’s and again now.

Russia and Jews/ Anti-Semitism: “Let’s put it this way, with regards to being Jewish in Russia today, it’s probably the best that it’s been in the past 1,000 years.”

Putin: He did what was necessary to turn the Russian economy around after Yeltsin. Many Russians are grateful for this, even if it means a little less Democracy.

Putin vs. USA: After 9-11, Russia offered a lot of support to the US government to combat terrorism, offered assistance in Afghanistan, and Iraq in a quid-pro-quo sort of arrangement to be hands-off about the Democratic reform “roll-back” that Putin was implementing. While the US basically took this support when it served them best, and Putin felt the quid-pro-quo was not fulfilled when President Bush came out with his “Pro Democracy” stance… thus, Russia/US relations before the this year’s US elections were extremely poor. On top of that, US views Russia as a 3rd world country and Putin felt this insulting.

Russia and Oil: When oil was $132/barrel, Russia had a chance to reel back in Ukraine. (Remember, Ukraine was lobbying to be a member of NATO- not a good thing in Russia’s eyes.) Now as oil prices have plummeted, Russia can not (as readily) use oil revenue / threats to bring Ukraine back into the fold.

USAID: Extremely successful in teaching entrepreneurship/capitalism in Russia, though current programs being wound down.

Well, I probably forgot 2/3 of our discussion, but it was extremely enlightening.

After the meeting at the US Embassy, we headed out as a group to a JAFI sponsored summer camp. At the camp, we saw how art, drama, and music (classes) were used to teach Jewish traditions, holidays, and Hebrew. Since many of the children’s parents don’t know all of the Jewish traditions, “teaching up” is very important to rebuild the Jewish identity here in Russia.

That officially ended the day at 8pm or so, but our E-club hosts invited us out to Café Potrovich (sort of a restaurant, bar, social club setup for local Moscow artists.) This dinner lasted another 4 hours. At about midnight, I called it a night, but others continued on to a few other clubs till 2-3AM in the morning.

Some of the morning site visits will be detailed by a few other writes in the following pages:

Law office visit - By Malka

Four of us went with e-club member Anna to her law office in the morning and spent some hours with her and two colleagues. We spent a while in the 10 x 10 computer-less box of an office learning about various aspects of Russian legal practice.

The law office we visited was a cooperative association, comprised of several independent lawyers specializing in different fields of law, but sharing some cases and clients without hierarchy. This model is the closest to that existing in Soviet times, but is now one of three regulated by the bar -- the other two being sole practitioner and American-type firm structures.

Unlike the U.S., which operates on a common law structure (where judges interpret statutes and make case law which can become binding as precedent on future judges), and more like European countries, Russia is a civil law country where the written law (and how a judge interprets that law for each respective case) is all that matters. Also unlike the U.S. is the training required for practice. Whereas in the U.S. after high school we go to college, then a graduate law program, then take an exam, then practice; in Russia there is one [combined] 5-year university program and then an exam, which can be taken immediately if the person has 10 years of prior legal experience (e.g. as a paralegal) or else after a sort of apprenticeship with a practicing attorney.

Many women practice law in Russia. Our host had been practicing since around 1984 and we met a woman who had been an attorney with the association for 50-something years. However, while this association was about half and half, Russian firms do struggle with some of the diversity issues American firms face.

We then visited the Moscow city court where Khadarkovsky was tried. We were able to peek into the clerk's filing system (a room with shelves upon shelves of paper), a criminal courtroom (outfitted with a cage to house the prisoner during trial -- Ilya climbed in), met with a couple judges, and even interrupted a civil trial just about to begin (the attorneys did not appear amused).

We headed back to the law office for some lunch and noticed the best parts of the office: (1) its neighboring location to a karaoke sauna, and (2) the sign posting hours outside the entrance (ok I need a few more minutes to dream about a 9-5 law firm job...).

University Higher School of Economics visit - By Jessica

A member of the E-club (an organization for Jewish young adults), Larissa, brought two members of our group to the Higher School of Economics (HSE), a research university in social and economic sciences, where she is a PhD student. This university was founded in 1992 by Russian economists and leaders in the Russian government, including Alexhander Shokhin (former vice prime minister of the Russian Federation 1991-1994) and Evgeny Yasin (former minister of economy of the Russian Federation 1994-1997).

Although HSE is so young it has quickly become popular among Russian students. The University is ranked in the top 5 for economics studies in Russia. This university is based more on a Western style of education where students are allowed to select their courses in comparison to a Soviet style where all of the courses are pre-selected for students.

In addition to learning the facts about the university we had the opportunity to walk through the small campus. HSE has 2 main clusters of building s that are separated by a 20 minute walk. The main campus is housed in a former military academy that is 4 buildings connected with an inner blacktop courtyard. And the administrative section of campus is another cluster of 4 buildings. This was the first time on the trip that we viewed evidence of the decrepit status of buildings remnant from the Soviet era. The majority of the university is in building space that has been somewhat renovated and updated to modern Russian standards. However, sections of the building are dimly lit, pale blue/green walls, with peeling paint.

While we walked to the University we spoke with Larissa about her educational and religious life in Russia. She informed us that during the Soviet era her only exposure to Judaism was matzah in spring time. Her family bought 1 new box in the spring time for the year. She initially thought all Russians purchased 1 box, until one of her non-Jewish friends commented to her that she hadn’t heard of matzah. Larissa was surprised to learn that this was a custom unique to her family. Following this experience, a friend wished her “shanah tova,” a phrase she had never heard. She decided to begin to look into her Jewish roots. And eventually became involved with the E-Club.