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A FOURTH OF JULY SALUTE TO LADY LIBERTYLarisa Medvedev (Phoenix/Kirk Photo)would read the newspaper with a dictionary and speak to people and communicate with people. I would watch television,%u201d he says.It was three years later that the couple bought a restaurant in Manhattan with the money they had put away. %u201cIt was not easy, but I was not a dog on a chain. In Russia, they think if they feed the dog on the chain, that is enough,%u201d he explains. %u201cWe lived very economically, no cigarettes, no alcohol and all the money we saved was kosher. All earned in the factory,%u201d he adds.CHANGE FROM DISCRIMINATIONMedvedev viewed the opportunities that were available to him, even with long hours of work, as a dramatic change from the discrimination he felt in his homeland. Being Jewish in the Soviet Union meant very clear things to him, and the opportunities he found here were even brighter when he looked back on rules, what he calls %u201csilent rules,%u201d that limited employment prospects in a society where employment was already tightly controlled.%u201cThe Russian Jews are an educated people but the government does not want them,%u201d he says, leaning back on his chair. At the building company Medvedev worked at, he says, Jews were passed over for jobs many times. %u201cThe boss would say, %u2018I%u2019m sorry, I already have three Jews already. I can%u2019t have four,%u201d he recalls.%u201cIf they fire you because you are Jewish, you cannot go to a judge and complain,%u201d he says. His religion, too, was something he did not want to flaunt. %u201cThere is only one synagogue in Leningrad and sometimes I would go there, but I knew if I went too often, they would lay me off,%u201d he says. %u201cI could not be religious and keep the job.%u201dAfter running a restaurant in Manhattan for two years, the couple purchased anotherand sold the first. El Greco on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan was the next stepping stone for them, which also passed through their nanus quickly, and they finally landed in Brooklyn, a sort of culmination of efforts of the past 12 years.The Aiello%u2019s store which Medvedev purchased was one of Brooklyn%u2019s largest Italian specialty food stores. Under his two years of ownership, it has expanded its range to include foods from all nationalities. A Russian Jew operating an Italian food store, to Medvedev represents a capsule view of how the system in the United States can work. The couple has recently added a touch of their old country to the enterprise, opening a cafe next door at the comer of Court and Union Streets, Cafe Elana, named after one of their two grandchildren, both bom in America.MAKES MOZARELLA%u201cI%u2019ve never worked in Italian specialities before,%u201d says Dima. %u201cHere we serve food from all different nationalities, for all different religions and we make sausage and mozarella, too,%u201d he points out. %u201cNow, we%u2019ve opened a Russian cafe. Next we will look to expand maybe here in the backyard,%u201d he says, pointing out the back door. He has plans.Medvedev acknowledges that there are problems in the United States, but says they do not outweigh the good. %u201cYou cannot find a perfect system. There is a lot of crime in America and drugs and prostitutes. It was not always easy for us here. We had to work very hard,%u201d he says thoughtfully.%u201cBut here you at least have the opportunity to try to be what you want, and in Russia they tell you what you have to be. Here you can travel and learn, you can cross borders. In Russia, if they opened the borders today, 50 percent of the people would be gone by tomorrow,%u201d he observes bitterly.%u201cWe all start the same when we come here. People don%u2019t promise you anything, they just give you a chance to use your talent and try,%u201d Medvedev says, adding that he feels the American public is naive. %u201cAmericans are bom here. They have vegetables, they have clothes, they don%u2019t know how people fight for a piece of bread in other countries.%u201dAlthough both of his grandchildren speak Russian, Dima explains that he does not try to maintain the Russian traditions. %u201cThey speak Russian at home because we speak Russian, but we don%u2019t try to do anything special. Sometimes now when I speak now,I speak in English,%u201d he says, laughing, realizing the significance of what he is saying.As a number of his other employees bustle about the store throughout the interview, speaking Russian with one another, going in and out of the kitchen, Medvedev points to them and says: %u201cThey are Russians, too, and work hard. We prepare good food here and are always learning to do new things,%u201d explains. %u201cThere are many bad things here, but you%u2019ll never find a better country. I say every day, God Bless America.%u201dThe Spirit o f Liberty Still Shines:Family Realizes AmericanDream With Haitian LoveBY TRACY GARRITY Inside the house on Troy Avenue in Midwood there is laughter. As they stand for their family portrait they are teasing %u201cGrumma%u201d for being barefoot. %u201cJust leave the feet out of the picture,%u201d advises lft-yearold Carine, as the 12-year-old twins Sabine and Regineld nudge and giggle with each other. As they stand in their living room, modestly decorated with statues and fine wood furniture, they could be any American family. But each piece of furniture, each gentle jibe, each hope for the future has been nurtured by oppression in another land, and tempered by the continuing gift of freedom.Marie and Christian Barometre each left Haiti more than 15 years ago, but did not meet and marry until they came to Brooklyn. Christian came to this country on the advice of his aunt, who had lived in New York for several years, on a permanent visa; Marie spent several years illegally in this country going to school and working as a nurse%u2019s aide until she met her husband and secured her %u201cGreen Card%u201d and eventually status as an American.Education and liberty go hand in hand for Marie, who was unable to study to be a nurse in her native land. %u201cI wanted to be a nurse in Haiti,%u201d she says. %u201cBut I took the entrance test two times, and failed bothChristian and Marie Barometre with M arie%u2019s mother, Grumma. (Top) Reggie, Carine andSabine Barometre. (Phoenix/Kirk Photo)/ wanted to be a nurse in Haiti, but I took the entranceexam two times and failed both times. Not because /was incompetent, but because / didn V have a godfather.In Haiti if you don V have that you can V do anything.H an d and torch of th a S ta tu * of U b a rty at th * P hlladalphia C antanniaiE xposition, 1(76. (F ree Library of Philadelphia)%u2014 ...... i ii ............... - iiHAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE STATUE OF LIBERTYfrom TW O-W AYSFAST FO O D DEL!sandwiches %u2022 hot foods %u2022 salad bar233 S cherm erhorn 797-4188 FREE DELIVERY %u2022 O p e n M -F 6am -6pmCongratulating everyone w ho hascom e to this country, past & future.W oodward Park School a j i50 Prospect Park West B r o o k l y n , New Y o rk 1 1215C le m title G o ld s t e in , D ir e c t o rC a t s & D o g sour specialty (718) 875-PETST h e T a ilo r e d P e lUcxirding-Grooming-At cessoricsBf> p i n e a p p l e : w a l kB R O O K L Y N , N Y . 1120!\BACK T O BROOKLYNWE NEVER LEFT\H appy 4th o f JulyL E O N P A 1 E Y E T D .FINE W I N E & SPIRITS ' A T j f f \\88 SEVENTH AVE 3 S t A \\ mB R (X )K IY N . NY 11217 M U $ i718-857-7008R & A Discount StoresArab-American Parade Committee, inc.&The Cabbad FamilySalute the Statue o f Liberty106 5th Ave. BrooklynFULL SERVICE SALONS189 Henry Street 43 Clark Street624-4740 596-8505Page 22, THE PH OENIX, July 3,1986