Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and ConflictIn the early 1990s, more than 1.6 million Jews from the former Soviet Union emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada, Germany, and other Western countries. Larissa Remennick relates the saga of their encounter with the economic marketplaces, lifestyles, and everyday cultures of their new homelands, drawing on comparative sociological research among Russian-Jewish immigrants.Although citizens of Jewish origin ostensibly left the former Soviet Union to flee persecution and join their co-religionists, Israeli, North American, and German Jews were universally disappointed by the new arrivals' tenuous Jewish identity. In turn, Russian Jews, whose identity had been shaped by seventy years of secular education and assimilation into the Soviet mainstream, hoped to be accepted as ambitious and hard working individuals seeking better lives. These divergent expectations shaped lines of conflict between Russian-speaking Jews and the Jewish communities of the receiving countries.Since her own immigration to Israel from Moscow in 1991, Remennick has been both a participant and an observer of this saga. This is the first attempt to compare resettlement and integration experiences of a single ethnic community (former Soviet Jews) in various global destinations. It also analyzes their emerging transnational lifestyles. Written from an interdisciplinary perspective, this book opens new perspectives for a diverse readership, including sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, historians, Slavic scholars, and Jewish studies specialists. |
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Page xii
... German lands. The economic mobility of the more recent immigrants has improved compared to the late 1990s—which reflects the introduction of applicant screening at entry (language test and verification of occupational fitness). xii ...
... German lands. The economic mobility of the more recent immigrants has improved compared to the late 1990s—which reflects the introduction of applicant screening at entry (language test and verification of occupational fitness). xii ...
Page xiii
... German middle class, at least on the instrumental level. Socially, ex-Soviets still prefer to mingle with their co-ethnics and stay in touch with their homelands. Although most Jewish immigrants are by now eligible for German ...
... German middle class, at least on the instrumental level. Socially, ex-Soviets still prefer to mingle with their co-ethnics and stay in touch with their homelands. Although most Jewish immigrants are by now eligible for German ...
Page 2
... Germans, Brazilian Japanese, or ethnic Russians in former Soviet republics), for hundreds of years (like Pontiac Greeks and Germans who had settled in Russia in the late eighteenth century), or since time immemorial, like Jews spread ...
... Germans, Brazilian Japanese, or ethnic Russians in former Soviet republics), for hundreds of years (like Pontiac Greeks and Germans who had settled in Russia in the late eighteenth century), or since time immemorial, like Jews spread ...
Page 3
... Germans and Armenians [Heitman, 1989]), Soviet Jews became effectively the only ethnic group granted the exceptional privilege of mass emigration from the Soviet empire under the pretext of return to their historic homeland of Israel ...
... Germans and Armenians [Heitman, 1989]), Soviet Jews became effectively the only ethnic group granted the exceptional privilege of mass emigration from the Soviet empire under the pretext of return to their historic homeland of Israel ...
Page 7
... in a way “pure,” case of encounter of former Soviets with Western economies and lifestyles, where they dived into unfamiliar waters with relatively little public support and had to swim on their own. The German case is Introduction 7.
... in a way “pure,” case of encounter of former Soviets with Western economies and lifestyles, where they dived into unfamiliar waters with relatively little public support and had to swim on their own. The German case is Introduction 7.
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
Integration or Separatism? | 53 |
Chasing the American Dream | 169 |
Changing Attitudes towards Femininity Sexuality and Gender Roles among Former Soviet Women Living in Greater Boston | 245 |
5 Former Soviet Jews in Toronto Canada | 279 |
Identity and Social Incorporation among Former Soviet Jews in Germany | 313 |
7 Lost Relatives or Strangers? Jews or Former Soviets? In Search of the Common Denominator | 363 |
Glossary | 381 |
Bibliography | 391 |
Other editions - View all
Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict Larissa Remennick Limited preview - 2011 |
Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict Larissa Remennick Limited preview - 2012 |
Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict Larissa Remennick Limited preview - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
activities adjustment aliyah American anti-Semitism arrived Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews attitudes Aussiedler Bukharan Jews Canada Canadian cities co-ethnics diaspora early economic emigration engineers English especially ethnic experience former Soviet immigrants former Soviet Jews friends gender German groups Hebrew homelands Homo Sovieticus host society immi informants integration interviews Israel Israeli Jewish community Jewish identity Jewish immigrants Jewry Judaism labor market language lifestyle living mainly mainstream majority migrants minority Mizrahi Jews mobility Moscow multiple native newcomers non-Jewish non-Jews occupational olim one’s Orthodox Orthodox Judaism parents participation peers perceived percent political professional reflecting refugees religious Remennick resettlement role Russian cultural Russian immigrants Russian Israelis Russian Jews Russian language Russian speakers Russian-Jewish Russian-speaking secular sexual sian skills social networks teachers tion traditional transnational Ukraine USSR usually vis-à-vis visas welfare York young younger youth Zionist