Minister recalls swallowing a diamond when she made Aliyah
Marking Israel’s 70th birthday, Immigration Minister Sofa Landver opens up before a 2,000-strong crowd in Moscow about her difficult Aliyah experience, father’s WWII decorations.
Minister of Immigration and Absorption Sofa Landver (Yisrael Beytenu) shared with an audience in Moscow last week that she concealed a diamond by swallowing it when she immigrated to Israel.
spoke at a conference in Moscow
"When I moved to Israel, I came with nothing and started from rock bottom. I even swallowed a diamond and never found it," said Landver during a conference in the Russian capital as she revealed some surprising anecdotes about Aliyah experience.
Landver was in Russia representing the government at events marking Israel's 70th anniversary including a historic visit by the Habima Theatre troupe in Moscow and an event organized by the Israeli Embassy in Moscow.
She also revealed that her father was a Russian war hero who killed 26 Nazis in WWII, she told her audience.
Participating in the Limmud FSU (a Jewish education organization in the former Soviet Union) festival in Moscow, Landver addressed a crowd of some 2,000 people about the travails that accompanied her Aliyah to Israel in 1978, comparing past and current day immigration conditions.
"When I came I lived in a 15 square meter apartment. Today, immigrants have a lot of assistance. Immigrants have many options and we help them with employment, studies and housing. I came to this office to ensure that today's immigrants do not have to endure what I endured," Landver said.
"Each wave of immigration harms the previous wave of immigrants, who are not always enthusiastic towards the newcomers," she continued. "Only our country can absorb so many people so successfully. The last wave of immigrants had many more options than I had."
Many Jews come to Israel, she added, out of national yearning similarly felt by the lone soldiers who come to serve in the IDF.
Landver pointed out that many immigrants attain senior government positions like Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelsein, a fact which she said demonstrated their successful integration and that the sky is the limit.
Her father, Hirsh Kuchin, was a Red Army war hero. According to documents from the Russian Defense Ministry, he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was decorated for the killing of 26 Nazi soldiers and capturing another seven during WWII. Landver said that her father, who died in 1978, avoided talking about his experiences with her.
