Decades later and half a world away, Paul Shkuratov ran into an old high school teacher on a San Francisco bus. And while the two were the only Jews at the school in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine, they may not have even been the only Jews on the city bus.
Shkuratov, 36, doesn’t enjoy reminiscing about his school days. About the only thing that makes him smile are memories of that Jewish teacher, who managed to keep anti-Semitic bullies from tormenting him.
“When she was out of school, I was beaten, to tell you the truth. They called me zhid, which means ‘dirty Jew.’ They would make a swastika on their hands in chalk and say hello to me and pat me on the back. Which was not fun at all,” he said.
“When I saw her on the bus, she at first did not recognize me. But then she said, ‘Is that you, Paul?’ And I said, ‘Thank God we are all here.’ As long as I live I will never forget it.”
Shkuratov’s distinctive name may stick out in j. readers’ memories; he is an inveterate letter-writer who often comments on Israeli affairs. What j. readers probably don’t know is that, after years of writing weekly missives to the paper, he decided to begin volunteering here.
Shkuratov, like his letters, comes in once a week to work in the filing department (theoretically, he can even file his own writings under “S.”).
Along with Judith Dobin and Ellen Alberstat, Shkuratov is one of the new additions to the team of volunteers that keep j. running. The three newcomers, plus Julia Humphreys, who just joined up, work alongside veterans Harry Fink, Jennie Green and John Levin.
Shkuratov sees his work at j. as a way to pitch in for the Jewish community, which he does at every opportunity. He’s outspoken in his support for Israel and happiness at living in America (where he’s been since 1992). Vestiges of his old life in Ukraine have little use for him.
“There are a lot of Russians in my apartment building. They don’t go to synagogue, and think, living in the United States, everything should be Russian, the way it used to be where they lived before. When I visit their apartments, everything is Russian: Russian TV, newspapers, decorated in a Russian style, even Russian food,” he said with a laugh.
“You guys live in America, you should speak English in America. Forget everything that happened in Russia. I will never forgive the Soviet Union for the oppression we felt as Jews.”
Dobin also grew up under an anti-Semitic regime, escaping from Germany via Kindertransport to Great Britain as a young teenager in 1939.
“I didn’t know what they were doing. I was a naïve little girl,” she said.
Her brother managed to escape to Denmark, and her father escaped to Britain. But everyone else was killed.
Dobin grew up in England — “Every time I open my mouth people say ‘you’re English!’ And I say ‘OK.'” She married and moved to Canada. From Canada she immigrated to Oakland in the late 1950s before heading to San Francisco nearly 20 years ago.
“I’m like a gypsy,” she says with a laugh.
Dobin worked in office machinery stores and stationery shops before retiring three years ago, but she’s an extraordinarily energetic woman and needed to do something to keep busy.
Her favorite part of volunteering at “The Big J,” as she calls it, is the freedom of the job.
“Nobody watches me. I can eat when I want,” says Dobin, who also volunteers at elementary schools in the Sunset District, near her home.
J. staffers can also eat when they want, as Dobin is in the habit of bringing in homemade cookies — but not this week.
“You’ll have to wait until after Pesach. I don’t do Pesach cookies,” she says with a smile.
Like Dobin, Ellen Alberstat was looking for a way to fill the hours of the day, and noticed a j. ad seeking volunteers.
Taking buses or trains, she comes in from Redwood City every week toting her pint-sized Yorkshire terrier, Morgan, who travels everywhere with her. While Morgan wanders the office, occasionally using her good looks to elicit a little food, Alberstat rapidly stuffs renewal envelopes.
Envelopes are a major component of her life; when she’s not at j., she runs a service which sends coupons to soldiers stationed at more than 30 military bases around the world. She also runs bingo evenings for elderly or injured veterans groups in the South Bay.
“I like helping people. I like helping the community. And I wish they had more work for me,” she says.