Israel warms up to New Year's, Soviet-style

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/israel-warms-years-soviet-style-072426662.html

By DANIEL ESTRIN | AP – 59 mins ago

RISHON LEZION, Israel (AP) — For years, many Israelis got a little jittery as New Year's Eve approached.

Their neighbors, some of the nearly 1 million Soviet citizens who flocked to the Jewish state as the Communist regime collapsed, would decorate fir trees and wear Santa Claus-like hats, celebrating New Year's Soviet-style.

But after 20 years, Israel has come to terms with the Christmas-like custom, even if most of the country lights Hanukkah candles this time of year.

Soviet-born immigrants will ring in this New Year with more oomph than ever before — a testament to the comfortable and influential niche they've carved for themselves in Israeli society. One hotel is throwing a Russian winterland bash and charging up to $660 a plate.

"How can we not celebrate? There's no holiday in Israel like this one," said Violetta Galbert, a nurse from Moscow, as her toddler son dived into a large box of tinsel at a supermarket catering to the Soviet-born immigrant community.

New Year's is not an official holiday in Israel because it is not a Jewish commemoration, but many young secular Israelis flock to bars and discos on Dec. 31.

It is the Soviet-style celebrations, though, that have raised eyebrows.

Irene Yavchunovsky's experience in the early 90s was commonplace: Her first year in the country, she decorated a fake miniature tree she brought from her native Ukraine — shocking her religious Jewish landlord.

"He said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'It's not religious,'" Yavchunovsky, a writer and translator, recalled. "He was not happy we were doing those things in his apartment."

She tried, in vain, to explain: Her family was not celebrating Christmas. Soviet citizens didn't even know what Christmas was — the Communist regime replaced all religious holidays with party-imposed commemorations. "Novy God," Russian for New Year's, was the only nonpolitical holiday the Soviets allowed. Christmas icons were stripped of their religious symbolism and attached to New Year's Eve.

"It was the best, cleanest, most joyful holiday. It was completely clean of ideology," said Masha Buman, who arrived in Israel from what was then Leningrad. In the early 90s, she ran workshops for Israeli social workers to teach them the symbolic significance of Novy God. They were relieved to learn that it wasn't a Christian tradition, she said.

By most accounts, the Soviet immigration is considered an Israeli success story. The tiny country took in nearly a third of one million people in a two-year period and eventually absorbed more than a million newcomers, boosting its population by some 20 percent.

Two decades later, Soviet emigres occupy virtually every corner of Israeli society. Soviet immigrants or their children hold senior Cabinet posts and important military commands, and freely marry veteran Israelis. Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, himself came from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s.

Israeli rabbis, however, are less accepting of the immigrants' New Year merrymaking. Since 1998, they have banned most of the country's hotels and banquet halls — which are under their kosher supervision — to display trees, ornaments and other reminders of the holiday.

Novy God decorations have still made it out in the open. No longer are statues of Santa — called Grandpa Frost in Russian — sold only in small Russian-language bookstores. Today they're displayed nationwide in some of Israel's biggest supermarket chains — ones that don't seek rabbinic certification, like the Tiv Taam megastore in Rishon Lezion, a city south of Tel Aviv.

At the entrance to the store, a smiling mustachioed snowman statue wearing a Grandpa Frost hat towers over a tall pyramid of canned peas, mushrooms and mayonnaise — essential ingredients for traditional Novy God fare.

The store is also well stocked with vodka bearing labels like Kremlin and Russian Standard, hundreds of pounds of red caviar, a Russian delicacy, and — to the chagrin of many Israelis — pork, which is not kosher.

Store manager Alexey Spitsin, who is from Uzbekistan, says many Israeli customers objected to the Novy God decorations when he began working there 13 years ago, but this year only a few complained.

While many immigrants celebrate at home, Israel's most successful Soviet emigres will be throwing the most expensive Novy God party in the country's history — an opulent display of the oligarch-style wealth some quickly attained here and in the Old Country.

The Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel on the Mediterranean seashore will be transformed into a Russian winter wonderland, with a wet bar carved of ice and faux snow fluttering from the ceiling. Partygoers will bid on works of art flown in from around the world. Some are expected to fetch millions.

The 300 Russian-speaking invitees include local politicians and businesspeople, and Jewish VIPs from Russia and Georgia flying in for the party on private jets.

One man is on the blacklist: Grandpa Frost. The hotel won't allow him in since he'd threaten its kosher certification.

Party organizer Yulia Mohrik said she reached a tasteful compromise: Grandpa Frost will ride around the hotel's perimeter in a horse-drawn carriage — shipped in from Buckingham Palace, no less — and will wave to the guests through the windows.

While the country's rabbis are reluctant to embrace the holiday, Israeli politicians have begun to endorse it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his first official Novy God greetings last year. He did it again this year, over the objections of some in his office who are still uncomfortable with the holiday.

Adding to some Israelis' skepticism is the fact that though nearly all Soviet immigrants are related to Jews, about 300,000 of them are not Jewish according to religious law — meaning their mothers are not Jewish.

But Soviet-born immigrants insist they belong.

"The attitude is, 'I'm already here. I've planted roots, I have a job, I have kids,'" said Russian-born Buman. "Twenty years ago, it was an issue. Today it's not."

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

In our house we celebrate New Year's this way and exchange our gifts on New Years eve at midnight. We do not celebrate Catholic Christmas. If there were a Christmas celebration here it would be January 7.

Good news? We have done our New Years shopping the last couple of days...at 50-70% OFF! No Black Friday, no holiday shopping crowds! The GPS we bought Pasha was on "last minute sale" last week for $129. This week it was on "after Christmas blowout sale" for $79

I am going to wrap the New Year's gifts this afternoon when Alla is at an interpretation and put them under the New Year's tree

Edited December 30, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

In our house we celebrate New Year's this way and exchange our gifts on New Years eve at midnight. We do not celebrate Catholic Christmas. If there were a Christmas celebration here it would be January 7.

Good news? We have done our New Years shopping the last couple of days...at 50-70% OFF! No Black Friday, no holiday shopping crowds! The GPS we bought Pasha was on "last minute sale" last week for $129. This week it was on "after Christmas blowout sale" for $79

I am going to wrap the New Year's gifts this afternoon when Alla is at an interpretation and put them under the New Year's tree

I like the idea of buying the presents after Christmas. It not only saves a lot of money, no Christmas crowds to deal with. We do two Christmases here...Latin and Orthodox. New Years is just a normal American New Years. No Bolshevik holidays are celebrated under this roof. I made that clear to her before we were married so that she would have a chance to think about it. Same with our wedding. I refused to have our picture taken in front of the Lenin statue which is tradition in her town...that statue and another one from WW2.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Why_Me

[bigdog 377]

Multi cultural celebration is nice more fun, eats and gifts, New Years, Christmas Chinese New Year etc.

[slim 1,533]

I'm ringing in the New Year at an Appleseed in Evansville, Indiana. At midnight we're going to send thousands of rounds downrange. Huzzah!

My wife will be here in Cincinnati getting crazy drunk with all the other Russians. I will not be there with them. I'd rather be safe on the range!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm ringing in the New Year at an Appleseed in Evansville, Indiana. At midnight we're going to send thousands of rounds downrange. Huzzah!

My wife will be here in Cincinnati getting crazy drunk with all the other Russians. I will not be there with them. I'd rather be safe on the range!

We have another Amer/Russian couple coming over for dinner, then we are going dancing and Alla got a new black (smokin' hot!) dress to wear dancing. OMG! Then we will see the fireworks in Burlington and come home.

We went shooting Thursday and Alla seems to have nailed the prone position now, shooting a 91, 93 and 90/100 on three attempts! Now she is looking for her OWN AR15 for CMP shooting. The girl is hooked big time!

Kip, I do not consider New Year's a Bolshevik holiday, why do you?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

We have another Amer/Russian couple coming over for dinner, then we are going dancing and Alla got a new black (smokin' hot!) dress to wear dancing. OMG! Then we will see the fireworks in Burlington and come home.

We went shooting Thursday and Alla seems to have nailed the prone position now, shooting a 91, 93 and 90/100 on three attempts! Now she is looking for her OWN AR15 for CMP shooting. The girl is hooked big time!

Kip, I do not consider New Year's a Bolshevik holiday, why do you?

Because the Bolsheviks including Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky and the rest of the butchering criminals did away with Christmas in the USSR and replaced it with New Years. Before those murdering commies came into power New Years was just that... New Years, it wasn't a replacement for Christmas. Same with that Ded Moroz character. It was the orthodox Saint called "St. Nicholas" aka "St. Nicholai" before the commies had him replaced. We do two Christmas here... Latin and Orthodox and we don't have any type of commie ####### under this roof. Lucky thing about it is that we have a lot of Russian Orthodox here with a church that's over 200 years old and a priest that told the wife what real Orthodox holidays are, and they don't include any Bolshevik replacements. She's learning while getting "de Stalinized" at the same time.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Because the Bolsheviks including Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky and the rest of the butchering criminals did away with Christmas in the USSR and replaced it with New Years. Before those murdering commies came into power New Years was just that... New Years, it wasn't a replacement for Christmas. Same with that Ded Moroz character. It was the orthodox Saint called "St. Nicholas" aka "St. Nicholai" before the commies had him replaced. We do two Christmas here... Latin and Orthodox and we don't have any type of commie ####### under this roof. Lucky thing about it is that we have a lot of Russian Orthodox here with a church that's over 200 years old and a priest that told the wife what real Orthodox holidays are, and they don't include any Bolshevik replacements. She's learning while getting "de Stalinized" at the same time.

I think you are looking at this all the wrong way.

YES, Lenin and Stalin did away with religion and, hence, Christmas, but the resourceful Soviet citizens found a way to continue their tradition on a day the government couldn't restrict. I rather think of it as a protest of sorts, a way they could thumb their nose at the Commie powers that be.

Just my way of thinking of it. At any rate, we had to decide...RUB style or US style. The only children left in the house were raised with RUB style, the older children can do what they choose with their family. We went for RUB style for the cost savings and just because Dec. 25th never meant anything to anyone else in this house.

I am not religious myself so it does not matter to me.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I think you are looking at this all the wrong way.

YES, Lenin and Stalin did away with religion and, hence, Christmas, but the resourceful Soviet citizens found a way to continue their tradition on a day the government couldn't restrict. I rather think of it as a protest of sorts, a way they could thumb their nose at the Commie powers that be.

Just my way of thinking of it. At any rate, we had to decide...RUB style or US style. The only children left in the house were raised with RUB style, the older children can do what they choose with their family. We went for RUB style for the cost savings and just because Dec. 25th never meant anything to anyone else in this house.

I am not religious myself so it does not matter to me.

We do it 100% RUB style here. My wife is a White Russian and her religion is Russian Orthodox, not Bolshevik. But I don't knock anyone for however they celebrate their holidays. I'm not even religious myself, I just like decorating the tree, putting up the lights, and watching people...especially kids open gifts...and some of the xmas movies, music, and cartoons along with the usual Christmas get together with the family/food, etc...