Dr. Igor Branovan: "As a community, we are trying to grow up and become full members of world Jewry."

American Forum Candidates
to the elections to the World Zionist Congress
Dr. Igor Branovan:
“We as a community are trying to grow up and become full members of world Jewry”

Igor Branovan - doctor, researcher, public figure. One of the founders of the American Forum of the Russian-speaking Jews (RAJI), member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the World Zionist Organization (WSO), Vice-President of the World Forum of the Russian-speaking Jews, President of the American Forum of the Russian-speaking Jews, President of the Chernobyl Project and Humanitarian Organization.
“We, the Zionist organization, have set ourselves the task of holding as many of our representatives as possible to the World Zionist Congress.”

- How do you want to dispose of these voices?
- In many ways, the answer is contained in the name of our organization, Russian American Jews for Israel (RAJI), created by 8 – 9 years ago. Then the most active representatives of Russian-speaking Jews in America realized that - although we constitute a significant share of the American Jewish community (about a quarter of the country's Jews) - our political influence is negligible. In part, this is due to objective reasons: we simply did not grow sociologically, and time must pass before the newcomer can enter the established community structures. In addition, it is connected with the material qualification: membership in the Board of Directors of a solid organization involves substantial financial contributions.

“But many Russian-speaking Jews are very well worth it ...”
- It's true. The difference is that we have good salaries, and they have good incomes. And when we make a donation, we allocate a certain amount from our family budget, in a sense we are separating money from our own children. Another thing - rich Americans who have family funds, partly intended for such deductions.
Plus, for us, people from the Soviet Union, the culture of donations is alien. There is one more thing. The American Jewish community has a treasury. It is distributed among the old players. A novice who claims to be his piece of cake, they take hostility.
I am talking specifically about VSO. Our task is to pursue our policy in the WZD: we are not ready to split Israel into pieces - we do not agree to the transfer of land to the Arab population, we do not agree to the slightest withdrawal of Israel from the Jewish character of the state. In this we seriously disagree with the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish establishment, which considers us far-right.
In fact, we have our own position. In foreign policy, we are very right, but in domestic, social policy, we are completely left: we stand for the rights of women, for allowing abortions, for social assistance. But when it comes to protecting society from criminals, we are very right, and in relation to the death penalty we are right.
Our ambiguity causes the alertness of the American Jewish community. We are for religion, but we don’t go to the synagogue ...
In these difficult conditions, as a community, we are trying to grow up - to gain more rights in the structure of American, world Jewry and specifically in the GUS.

- And how do you make this growing up?
- Mastering good manners. Imagine a forum of half a thousand Jews from around the world, including leading Israeli politicians. Very clever company, I tell you. And getting into this forum is not easy. After all, we are on the budget and interfere with many. So it took us a long time to figure out who our true associates are. Now we know: this is the party “Our Home Israel” (“Israel Betain”). Like-minded people - because this party protects the values ​​that are dear to us, and because its leader Avigdor Lieberman is not ready to sacrifice them for temporary success, as many populist politicians do.
Eight years ago, two of our candidates, Dmitry Schiglik and I, passed in VSO. By all accounts, we were supposed to sit quietly and stay out of the way. But Lieberman and his colleagues provided us with participation in the work of the commission, which is usually given to a representative of a dozen delegates, and not a couple sharing a single place.
It was an advance. Now we have to demonstrate real power.
Unfortunately, in Israel it is always restless, he needs America's help all the time, and here we also have to play our part - already as American Jews.
On the one hand, by gaining seats in the GUS, we will be able to influence the policy of the organization itself, and on the other hand, success in the elections to the GUS will significantly increase our actions in the American Jewish establishment and lead us to the local political arena. Victory in the GUS will give us additional leverage.

- Are you trying to get influence on American Jewish street by entering it through Israel? Why not move straight into American politics?
- There is even more hustle, and the muscles in it are built up for decades. But working with our Israeli partners, movement through Israel gives us the opportunity to skip a few steps. This is what we should explain to our countrymen.

- So explain.
- I will touch on only one aspect. We want our children to study in Jewish schools and rest in Jewish camps, whose programs are specifically designed for them. However, so far we do not have access to the appropriate funds and cannot ensure that special programs are created for our children, that Russian-speaking counselors from Israel work with them in the camps, and that there are seminars on educating leaders for Russian-speaking youth.
It's not about the language. Children who grew up in Russian-speaking families are radically different from American Jewish children. They have more in common with a Russian-speaking Jewish child from Sydney or from Kiev than with a child from Brooklyn.
My old idea: do not save the Russian-speaking community - it is necessary to save the community of Russian Jews. But we still have no funds for this.
If we achieve influence in the WZO, then we will secure a foundation for planned community building.

- How did you, the doctor, become a community builder?
- I turned 13 when my parents and I flew over the ocean and settled in Philadelphia. My parents were not ready to put up with me at home for a long time and immediately sent me to school. But that fall in the schools of Philadelphia there was a strike of teachers, and my parents decided to send me to the Lyubavich yeshiva.

- It is clear that you inherited from Lubavitch not a pile, but morale?
- Tsitsis I carry in my heart and piously believe that those who can simply have to do something. I am convinced that the story is being decided by the individual. It happens that a particular person or group of people has a chance to drastically change the course of history. Today is our day!

Interviewed by Naomi Zubkova