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. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... majority. Careers of many talented Jewish professionals were stifled due to the built-in anti-Semitic filters of the omnipotent System. Many Jews hated and despised the communist regime and, after the short-lived Thaw, lost any hope for ...
... majority. Careers of many talented Jewish professionals were stifled due to the built-in anti-Semitic filters of the omnipotent System. Many Jews hated and despised the communist regime and, after the short-lived Thaw, lost any hope for ...
Page 5
... majority of those who left the USSR with Israeli visas between 1987 and 1990 (around 85 percent) arrived in the USA under Jewish refugee status (their total number is estimated at about 127,000 [Dominitz, 1997]). Then at the end of 1989 ...
... majority of those who left the USSR with Israeli visas between 1987 and 1990 (around 85 percent) arrived in the USA under Jewish refugee status (their total number is estimated at about 127,000 [Dominitz, 1997]). Then at the end of 1989 ...
Page 7
... majority of the last-wave immigrants have moved to Israel, reinforcing its role as demographic and social center of the expanding Russian-Jewish diaspora,2 the case of Russian Jewry in Israel of the 1990s and early 2000s occupies a ...
... majority of the last-wave immigrants have moved to Israel, reinforcing its role as demographic and social center of the expanding Russian-Jewish diaspora,2 the case of Russian Jewry in Israel of the 1990s and early 2000s occupies a ...
Page 15
... majority of the remaining Jews (233,600) lived in Russia (vs. 551,000 in 1989), less than 90,000 remained in Ukraine, and all the other former republics counted together about 55,000 of core Jews (Tolts, 2003, 2004). At the same time ...
... majority of the remaining Jews (233,600) lived in Russia (vs. 551,000 in 1989), less than 90,000 remained in Ukraine, and all the other former republics counted together about 55,000 of core Jews (Tolts, 2003, 2004). At the same time ...
Page 16
... majority. During the post-communist years, their fertility rates dropped even lower: from 1.5 children in the late 1980s to 0.8 in 1994, compared to 1.9 and 1.25, respectively, in the general population of Russia. Besides low fertility ...
... majority. During the post-communist years, their fertility rates dropped even lower: from 1.5 children in the late 1980s to 0.8 in 1994, compared to 1.9 and 1.25, respectively, in the general population of Russia. Besides low fertility ...
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