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Who went where? Jewish immigration from the Former Soviet Union to Israel, the USA and Germany, 1990–2000
Author(s): Cohen, Yinon; Haberfeld, Yitchak; Kogan, Irena
Date: 2011
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Immigration
Abstract: Drawing on Israeli, German and US census data, we compare the educational levels of Jewish immigrants (and their non-Jewish family members) from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) arriving in Israel, Germany, and the US during 1990–2000. The comparison of educational levels among immigrants arriving in the three countries can be viewed as a ‘natural experiment’ in immigrants' destination options, whereby immigrants could choose two countries with practically no visa restriction (Israel and Germany) and one country (USA) with visa requirements. Drawing on Borjas' theory of self-selection, the paper discusses the relative attractiveness of the three countries to various types of immigrants, expecting highly educated immigrants to prefer destinations where returns on skills are higher. The findings support theoretical expectations: highly educated migrants were more likely to move to the US, where the labour market is more flexible and returns on skills are higher than in Israel or Germany.
“It took me a few years until I understood that I am, as a matter of fact, Jewish”: The third generation (writ small) going large as a generaction
Author(s): Kranz, Dani
Editor(s): Rebentisch, Jost; Dymczyk, Adina; Fehlberg, Thorsten
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Trauma, Memory, Age and Generational Issues
Trauma, Resilience, and Empowerment: Descendants of Survivors of Nazi Persecution
Editor(s): Rebentisch, Jost; Dymczyk, Adina; Fehlberg, Thorsten
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Trauma, Memory, Restitution and Reparations, Age and Generational Issues
Abstract: As is well known, traumata can be passed from one generation to the next; and hardly any other group is so affected by this phenomenon as the descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis. Yet, how exactly does this transfer take place? What role do family traditions and continued social practices play? Might genetics play a role? Furthermore, can this cycle at all be broken?

The descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis can draw on unique resources and skills. They make significant contributions to political and social confrontations with the Nazi era, and they work for the welfare of the survivors. Many are active in political education and advocate for an appropriate culture of remembrance. In a time of increasing right-wing populism, their views are indispensable.
A Half Century of Jewish Emigration from the Former Soviet Union
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Demography, Emigration, Aliyah, Russian-Speaking Jews
Haredi Women, Haredi Men, Stress and Distress / Commentary: Haredi Women, Haredi Men: From London to Jerusalem?
Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; Goldblatt, Vivienne; Lubitsch, Guy
Date: 1998
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Mental Health, Psychology/Psychiatry, Interviews, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Comparative Studies
Abstract: This report examines data from interviews with 179 strictly-orthodox Jews living in London. The impetus was a debate in this journal on the question whether men or women in the strictly-orthodox (haredi) community are more stressed. Many of the observations made in this journal on the quality of life among haredi men and women in Israel were borne out among the strictly-orthodox London Jews interviewed. Quantitatively, severe stress and clinical levels of depression and anxiety were similar among the men and women studied, but women had overall more eventful lives than men, and were more likely to suffer from borderline depression and anxiety - though these differences were only marginally significant. It is suggested that the London sample studied were probably similar to haredim in Israel, and that the findings might therefore be applicable.
The Israeli Diaspora in Berlin: Back to Being Jewish?
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Israeli Expatriates, Diaspora, Ethnography, Emigration, Immigration
Abstract: In this ethnographic essay, I reflect on the origins and present condition of the new (post-2010) Israeli diaspora in Berlin. Based on 10 months of participant observation, I map out the main sub-streams of this emigration; elicit the economic, professional, and political reasons for leaving Israel; and explore these émigrés’ initial encounter with German society. My observations suggest that many Israeli residents of Berlin (mostly secular) rediscover their Jewishness along diasporic lines and forge ties with the local religious and community organizations. Being a small minority in the German-speaking milieu, Israelis invest in building their own Hebrew-based community networks, including media outlets and cultural and educational institutions. Lastly, I explore these émigrés’ ties with Israel and conclude that many Israelis in Berlin are sojourners rather than immigrants and that Berlin is but one phase in their life journey.
Les jours du Messie
Translated Title: The days of the Messiah
Author(s): Podselver, Laurence
Editor(s): Aubin-Boltanski, Emma; Gautier, Claude
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Aliyah, Baal Teshuvah, Chabad-Lubavitch
Circumcising the body: negotiating difference and belonging in Germany
Author(s): Dekel, Irit; Forchtner, Bernhard; Efe, Ibrahim
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Circumcision / Brit Milah, Newspapers, Magazines and Periodicals, Media, National Identity, Islam, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Body
Abstract: The circumcision debate in Germany in 2012 is an exemplary case for symbolic struggles over national boundaries. The debate became a site for the negotiation of traditions practiced by religious minorities. We ask, first, how the clinical gaze constitutes Muslim and Jewish others. Second, we investigate how ‘writing around’ the debate’s center, bodily integrity, became meaningful through analogies to other practices said to harm it. We compare newspaper coverage in Germany, Israel and Turkey, and reveal transnational discursive dynamics that transgress national boundaries. We show how ‘otherness’ of Muslims and Jews remains present in a self-perceived secular, liberal imaginary.
From Testimony to Story. Video Interviews about Nazi Crimes. Perspectives and Experiences in four Countries
Editor(s): Knellessen, Dagi; Bachmann, Ralf
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Interviews, Holocaust Survivors, Oral History and Biography, Methodology, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Education
Abstract: The stories of Holocaust survivors and others who were persecuted by the Nazis are an invaluable resource for understanding what effect persecution had on victims and how they dealt with this experience over time. In recent
decades, researchers in many countries began videotaping contemporary witnesses as they told their stories, allowing their voices to be heard, when personal encounters are no longer possible. In the interviews, biographical
narratives and personal memories are used to document the mass crimes committed by the Nazis and also to illuminate how survivors processed these memories in their lifetime.

This multi-faceted historical source poses special challenges to educational work. This volume reflects international developments, trends and debates about the videotaped contemporary witness interviews and their digital
archives. Different interview collections and educational approaches from Israel, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany are presented. These essays document the exchange that took place between education experts from
these four countries as part of the series Entdecken und Verstehen. Bildungsarbeit mit Zeugnissen von Opfern des Nationalsozialismus (“Discovering and Understanding: Educational Work with Testimonials from Victims of
National Socialism”) that was initiated and organized by the Foundation EVZ in 2010 and 2011.
Interactions: Explorations of good practice in educational work with video testimonies of victims of National Socialism
Editor(s): Dreier, Werner; Laumer, Angelika; Wein, Moritz
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Interviews, Holocaust Survivors, Oral History and Biography, Methodology, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials
Abstract: According to estimates, there are over 100,000 video testimonies with victims of National Socialism. Many of the interview archives are easily accessed, including some that are available in the Internet for free. While teachers are hesitant in making use of this treasure of source materials, learners are familiar with the figure of the eyewitness as communicated via film and television. But what can be taught with the help of what in cinematographic terms is often criticised as “talking heads”? What constitutes a good learning setting? And how do users interact with the – usually digitised – video testimonies and the collections that are often available online? In January 2017 experienced educators and researchers attended an international workshop on “Localisation of video testimonies with victims
of National Socialism in educational programmes” and discussed the question of what is good practice in this specific form of educational work. This volume is the result of that process. It provides an insight into the conceptual and practical ideas on which the various programmes are based. The book also has a focus on video testimonies presented at historical exhibitions and includes contributions from many countries, such as Belarus,
Canada, Israel, Macedonia, the Netherlands and South Africa.
The Struggle for Justice: A Survey of Child Holocaust Survivors’ Experiences with Restitution
Author(s): Moskovitz, Sarah; Krell, Robert; Moskovitz, Itzik; Askren, Arietta
Editor(s): Roth, John K.; Maxwell, Elizabeth; Levy, Margot; Whitworth, Wendy
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust, Restitution and Reparations, Trauma, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Surveys, Holocaust Survivors
Abstract: One and a half million children and adolescents were murdered during the Holocaust. Throughout Europe, thousands of children were hidden. They had the best chance of surviving. Very few children survived concentration camps. From 1938 to 1945, children fled (as in the Kindertransport from Germany and Austria), others hid in cellars, forests, orphanages, convents and with Christian families. By the war’s end, the majority of child survivors under age 16 had been orphaned. Many were entirely alone.
Jewishness and psychoanalysis - the relationship to identity, trauma and exile. An interview study
Author(s): Johansson, Per Magnus; Punzi, Elisabeth
Date: 2019
Topics: Diaspora, Emigration, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Refugees, Interviews, Ageing and the Elderly
Abstract: The relationship between psychoanalysis and Jewishness has been debated for over one hundred years and the derogatory term ”Jewish science” has been used to describe psychoanalysis. Because of the Nazi regime both Jewish and non-Jewish psychoanalysts left their homelands. In this study, aging Jewish individuals born in Central Europe and forced into exile were interviewed concerning their perceptions of psychoanalysis and Jewishness, of Jewish identity and exile. Anti-Semitism had influenced their perceptions of their work in the psychoanalytic field. The findings are discussed in relation to the current position of psychoanalysis as well as to questions of trauma and exile.
Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk
Author(s): Jaspal, Rusi
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Discourse, Interviews, Anti-Zionism, Media, Psychology
Abstract: Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are complex, delineable, yet inter-related social-psychological phenomena. While antisemitism has been described as an irrational, age-old prejudice, anti-Zionism is often represented as a legitimate response to a ’rogue state’. Drawing upon media and visual sources and rich interview data from Iran, Britain and Israel, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism: Representation, Cognition and Everyday Talk examines the concepts of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, tracing their evolution and inter-relations, and considering the distinct ways in which they are manifested, and responded to, by Muslim and Jewish communities in Iran, Britain and Israel. Providing insights from social psychology, sociology and history, this interdisciplinary analysis sheds light on the pivotal role of the media, social representations and identity processes in shaping antisemitism and anti-Zionism. As such, this provocative book will be of interest to social scientists working on antisemitism, race and ethnicity, political sociology and political science, media studies and Middle Eastern politics.
Europe, Israel, the Jewish Communities, and Growing Antisemitism
Author(s): Glöckner, Olaf
Editor(s): Ben-Rafael, Eliezer; Schoeps, Julius H.; Sternberg, Yitzhak; Glöckner, Olaf
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Antisemitism, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Attitudes to Israel, Israel Criticism, Anti-Zionism
Choosing One or Being Both: The Identity Dilemmas of Russian-Jewish Mixed Ethnics Living in Russia and in Israel
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Intermarriage, Migration, Aliyah, Integration, Interviews
Abstract: A large share of Russian/Soviet Jews, especially among younger cohorts, are descendants of intermarriage. In this essay, I reflect on the implications of the built-in ambivalence of these mixed ethnics, comparing their identity qualms and social strategies in their native Russia and after migration to Israel. My analysis draws upon participant observation and interviews conducted in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and across Israel over the last 20 years. My theoretical anchors are recent discussions on the evolving nature of Jewish identity, formed at the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and culture, in the context of ongoing intermarriage and assimilation. The comparison between the (ex-)Soviet and Israeli context underscores the role of local social constructions of ethno-religious belonging, nationalism, and citizenship as synergistic forces in shaping social locations of mixed ethnics. It also sheds light on the tactics of adjustment and “passing” among individuals with ambivalent ethnic identities who experience rapid social transformation or migration.
Perpetual Diaspora, Changing Homelands: The Construction of Russian-Speaking Jews as a Diaspora of Both Israel and Russia
Author(s): Ben-Porat, Illa
Date: 2011
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Diaspora, Nationalism, National Identity
Abstract: This article considers the interrelationship between a homeland and its diasporic communities from the point of view of the homeland. In particular, it examines the policies adopted by Russia and Israel toward the same group; that is, the Russian-speaking Jews who have immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union. The article demonstrates how the construction of this migrant population as diasporic community of the “homeland” gives rise to unexpected challenges to the symbolic definition of the “nation.” These challenges add a new perspective in this regard, rendering tenuous the claim of the nation to primordiality, constancy, and coherence.
Conversions au judaïsme et institutionnalité juive : une sociologie comparée du pluralisme religieux dans le judaïsme contemporain (Israël, France, Argentine, Etats-Unis)
Translated Title: Conversions to judaism and jewish institutionality: A compared sociology of religious pluralism in contemporary judaism (Israel, France, Argentina and United States)
Author(s): Tank-Storper, Sébastien
Date: 2003
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Organisations, Conversion, Intermarriage, Pluralism
Abstract: Environ 90% des demandes de conversion adressées aujourd'hui aux institutions juives émanent de conjoints non juifs de "couples mixtes" désirant homogénéiser religieusement leur famille. Cela pose un double problème aux institutions: tout d'abord, selon la Halakha, ne peut être accepté qu'un candidat qui ne désire pas se convertir pour obtenir un bénéfice de sa conversion. Ensuite, cela pose la question de la réponse institutionnelle à la transgression: l'exogamie étant interdite par le judaïsme, faut-il repousser les déviants en refusant de régulariser a posteriori leur situation en convertissant le conjoint ou au contraire opter pour plus de tolérance et les intégrer? Ce dossier permet ainsi d'interroger les modalités de construction de l'autorité rabbinique et des institutions dans un contexte où ces derniers peinent de plus en plus à imposer leurs normes à des fidèles revendiquant leur autonomie.
Jewish Hungarian in Hungary and Israel
Author(s): Rosenhouse, Judith
Editor(s): Hary, Benjamin; Benor`, Sarah Bunin
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Language, Linguistics
National Perspectives on Jews at Work: Contrasting Australia, France, Israel, and the UK
Author(s): Klarsfeld, Alain; Bebbington, Diana; Kay, Avi; Taksa, Lucy; Guo, Fei; Mendes, Philip
Editor(s): Syed, Jawad; Klarsfeld, Alain; Wambura Ngunjiri, Faith; Härtel, Charmine E. J.
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Work, Diversity
Former Soviet Jews in Israel and in the West: Integration, Exclusion and Transnationalism
Translated Title: Бывшие советские иммигранты в Израиле и на Западе: интеграция, изоляция и транснационализм / יהודי ברה''מ לשעבר בישראל ובמערב: השתלבות, דחייה וטרנס-לאומיות
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2007
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Immigration, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Diaspora, Globalisation, Integration
Abstract: Theoretical focus of the paper is the relationship between transnationalism and immigrant incorporation in the host country’s labor market and social system. It is shown that due to its timing and composition, Russian immigration of the 1990s was readily transnational at the outset, but the expression of diasporic interests and activities depends both on geographic location and modes of integration in the new homelands. Russian Jews in Israel and Germany display stronger diasporic tendencies than those who resettled in the USA and Canada. Across the New Diaspora, transnational activities among Russian Jews grow ‘from below’ (i.e. from individual initiative rather than institutional action) and are largely limited to the socio-cultural domain. The reliance on co-ethnic networks within and outside of the host country may be a mixed blessing, both empowering the weaker segments of the immigrants and thwarting their integration by creating an alternative social space.
Deutschland, die Juden und der Staat Israel: Eine politische Bestandsaufnahme
Translated Title: Germany, the Jews and the State of Israel: A political inventory.
Editor(s): Glöckner, Olaf; Schoeps, Julius H.
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Antisemitism, Israel-Diaspora Relations, Israel Advocacy, Zionism, Post-War Reconstruction, Restitution and Reparations
Abstract: Deutschland und Israel, wie geht das zusammen? Immer wieder ist dies seit 1965, seit der Aufnahme diplomatischer Beziehungen zwischen dem "Land der Dichter und Henker" und dem kleinen, selbstbewussten jüdischen Staat im Nahen Osten, gefragt worden. Es geht erstaunlich gut, bei aller Last der Vergangenheit.
16 deutsche und israelische Autoren geben Auskunft, wie aus zähen Annäherungsprozessen, mutigen Versöhnungsprojekten, pragmatischen Wirtschaftsvereinbarungen und spektakulären Geheimdienstkooperationen gegenseitiges Vertrauen erwuchs.

Israel und Deutschland sind heute wichtige Partner, auf nahezu allen Gebieten, selbst wenn unbewältigter Antisemitismus und ein verhärteter israelisch-palästinensischer Dauerkonflikt das Miteinander immer wieder verunsichern. Auch diese Probleme spart der Band nicht aus.
The Limmud Impact Study: Exploring volunteers’ Jewish journeys
Author(s): Kahn-Harris, Keith
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Surveys, Focus Groups, Limmud, Jewish Organisations, Evaluation, Volunteering, Jewish Education
Abstract: The Limmud Impact Study looks at how successful Limmud has been in taking people ‘one step further on their Jewish journeys’, what these journeys consist of and their wider impact on Jewish communities.

The study focuses on Limmud volunteers and draws on a survey of ten Limmud volunteer communities in eight countries - UK, USA, South Africa, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Israel and Argentina - together with focus groups conducted with Limmud volunteers from around the world.

The findings provide clear evidence that Limmud advances the majority of its volunteers on their Jewish journeys, and for a significant proportion it takes them ‘further’ towards greater interest in and commitment to Jewish life.

Limmud’s principle impact on its volunteers lies in making new friends and contacts, encountering different kinds of Jews and enhancing a sense of connection to the Jewish people. For many Limmud volunteers, their experience has increased their Jewish
knowledge, their leadership skills and their involvement in the wider Jewish community. Involvement in Limmud therefore enhances both the desire to take further steps on their Jewish journeys, and the tools for doing so.

Limmud impacts equally on Jews regardless of denominationand religious practice. The younger the volunteers and the less committed they are when they begin their Limmud journeys, the further Limmud takes them. Those with more senior levels of involvement in Limmud report higher levels of impact on their Jewish journeys than other volunteers, as do those who had received a subsidy or training from Limmud.

Limmud volunteers often have difficult experiences and risk burnout and
exhaustion. While volunteers generally view the gains as worth the cost, Limmud
needs to pay attention to this issue and provide further support.
Четверть века Большой алии: статистический анализ перемен (второе издание)
Translated Title: A Quarter Century of the Great Aliya: A Statistical Analysis of Changes (second edition)
Author(s): Konstantinov, Viacheslav
Date: 2017
Topics: Demography, Aliyah, Immigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: Настоящая книга представляет собой второе издание (исправленное и дополненное) книги автора "20 лет Большой алии: статистический анализ перемен", вышедшей в 2013 году, которая, в свою очередь, явилась логическим продолжением предыдущей книги автора “Еврейское население бывшего СССР в ХХ веке (социально- демографический анализ)”. Если первая книга автора была посвящена развитию со- ветского еврейства в стране исхода, то нынешняя – тем изменениям, которые претер- пела еврейская русскоязычная община в Израиле, где сейчас проживает ее бóльшая часть. Наш анализ охватывает период с начала 1990-х годов до настоящего времени, и включает динамику общей численности репатриантов по республикам исхода, их расселение по городам и регионам Израиля, демографические аспекты, образование (как взрослого населения, так и детей и молодежи), владение ивритом и английским языком, компьютерную грамотность, армейскую/национальную службу. Особое внима- ние уделяется профессиональному трудоустройству репатриантов, и в частности, специалистов с высшим образованием. Рассматриваются также изменения в эконо- мическом положении репатриантов, их состояние здоровья, а также общая удовлетво- ренность жизнью в Израиле, национальное самосознание, традиции и ценности. По сравнению с предыдущим изданием, данные уточнены в соответствии с новыми ис- точниками и с учетом тенденций последних лет. Данные по репатриантам сопоставляются со всем еврейским населением Израиля, а по возможности – с еврейскими иммигрантами из бывшего СССР в США и Германии. Книга предназначена для демографов, социологов, специалистов, занятых проблема- ми интеграции репатриантов в различных сферах и всех интересующихся данной про- блемой.
The Holocaust is a Foreign Country: Comparing Representations of Place in Lithuanian Jewish Testimony
Author(s): Pollin-Galay, Hannah
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust, Oral History and Biography, Interviews, Geography, Diaspora, Yiddish
Abstract: This article explores discourse on the Holocaust as a ‘placeless’ event. Analyzing survivor testimony delivered in different cultural contexts, I ask whether or not the idea of strange or vanished places is culturally specific or universal to memories of Holocaust victimhood. As a case study, I analyze the testimony of Lithuanian Jewish Holocaust survivors. I compare the more commonly heard testimonies of survivors living in North America and Israel to the lesser known voices of survivors who have remained in Lithuania—witnesses who live and testify ‘on the scene of the crime.’ I demonstrate how important the idea of estranged geography figures in the testimony of émigré witnesses. By contrast, the survivors who have remained in Lithuania draw a different narrative map of the country, one in which past and present interact on the same sites. Their home landscape, however, also has black holes, dark places that they consider untouchable in everyday life. The article thus points to a tension between contextual particularities and universal challenges in depicting Holocaust places.
Naming the Criminal: Lithuanian Jews Remember Perpetrators
Author(s): Pollin-Galay, Hannah
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Oral History and Biography, Yiddish, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust, Interviews
Abstract: Psychoanalyst Dori Laub asserts that for camp inmates the Holocaust extinguished the possibility of “I-thou” interaction. Address and response, the basis of human subjectivity, became impossible for the prisoner to imagine. The author of this article uses victims’ descriptions of perpetrators to investigate this assertion. Do survivors at times conceive of a wartime assailant as “you”—as an addressable human agent? Comparing two clusters of testimony by Lithuanian Jews, the author finds that contemporary language and social context shape the victims’ stance toward Holocaust perpetration—that is, how they weigh human versus structural wrong. She also points out various ethical traps inherent in each of the two methods of remembering wartime aggressor
Generation 1.5 of Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel and in Germany: An overview of recent research and a German pilot study
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Editor(s): Isurin, Ludmilla; Riehl, Claudia Maria
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Aliyah, Russian-Speaking Jews, Integration, Immigration, Age and Generational Issues, Discrimination, Interviews
Abstract: This chapter offers a comparative overview of immigrant trajectories and inte-gration outcomes of Russian-Jewish youths (the so-called 1.5 generation) who immigrated to Israel and Germany with their families over the last 25 years. At the outset, I compare Israeli and German reception contexts and policies and present the generic features of the 1.5 immigrant generation. Next I overview the Israeli research findings on Russian Israeli 1.5ers – their schooling, social mobility, cultural and linguistic practices, parents’ role in their integration, and juxtapose them with (still limited) German data. 󰀀e final section presents two recent German studies of young Russian-Jewish adults and the initial findings from my own study among these immigrants living in four German cities. My interviews with 20 men and women, mostly successful professionals or entrepreneurs, indicate that their upward social mobility was facilitated by the continuous welfare support of their families, school integration programs, and low financial barriers to higher education. Despite common occupation-al and social downgrading of the parental generation in both countries, the 1.5-ers in Israel had to struggle harder to overcome their inherent immigrant disadvantage vs. native peers to access good schools and professional careers. Most young immigrants deem full assimilation in the host country’s main-stream unattainable and opt instead for a bilingual and/or bicultural strategy of integration
Judeo-Spanish In Standard Language Cultures: Minority/Dominated Languages And Language Ideologies In The 21st Century
Translated Title: / Jevrejsko-Španski U Standardnim Jezičkim Kulturama: Manjinski Jezici/Jezici Kojima Se Dominira I Jezičke Ideologije U 21. Veku / El Judeoespañol En Las Culturas De Lenguas Estandarizadas: Lenguas Minoritarias Dominadas E Ideologías Lingüísticas En El Siglo Xxi
Author(s): Filipović, Jelena
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Language, Ladino, Sephardi Jews, Jewish Studies, Jewish Heritage, Jewish Culture
Abstract: The status and sustainability of minority/dominated languages in the 21st century are
very much influenced by general and language ideologies of times gone by. Namely,
Eurocentric modernity-driven language policy and planning, which result in the
formation of standard language culture ideologies, are at the core of the cultural,
political and historical frameworks which, since the 19th century, have influenced the
relationship between majority (standardized) languages and minority/dominated
languages spoken in political entities recognized as nation-states in Europe. It is within
this framework of standard language cultures (Milroy, 2001) that the history, the loss,
and the possible revitalization of Judeo-Spanish can and should be understood.

Na status i održivost manjinskih jezika/jezika kojima se dominira u 21. veku
umnogome utiču opšte i jezičke ideologije prošlih vremena. Naime, evrocentrična
modernost koju pokreće jezička politika i jezičko planiranje, koja ima za posledicu
oblikovanje standardnih jezičkih kulturnih ideologija, predstavlja srž kulturnih,
političkih i istorijskih okvira koja je od 19. veka uticala na odnos između većinskih
(standardizovanih) jezika i manjinskih jezika/jezika kojima se dominira kao političke
entitete koji su priznati kao nacionalne države u Evropi. Upravo se u ovom okviru
standardnih jezičkih kultura (Milroy, 2001) mogu i treba razumeti istorija i gubitak, kao
i moguća revitalizacija jevrejsko- španskog.

En relación a las lenguas minoritarias dominadas en el siglo xxi, su estado y subsistencia
están muy influidas por las ideologías generales y también lingüísticas del tiempo que
vivimos. Concretamente, la modernidad eurocéntrica de la política y de la planificación
lingüística que conducen a la formación de ideologías culturales lingüísticas estandarizadas,
están en el núcleo de los marcos históricos, políticos y culturales que, desde el siglo xix,
han influido en la relación entre la mayoría de las lenguas (estandarizadas) y las lenguas
minoritarias dominadas habladas en las entidades políticas reconocidas como son los
Estados nación en Europa. Es dentro de este marco de culturas lingüísticas estándar (Milroy,
2001) que puede y debe ser entendida su historia y su pérdida, así como la revitalización
del judeoespañol.
Religious affiliation, ethnicity, and power in admission policies to Jewish religious schools
Author(s): Perry-Hazan, Lotem
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Law, Discrimination
Abstract: This paper analyzes the challenges embedded in the conflict between the right to accessible education, which implies a prohibition on discriminatory practices in school admission, and the right to adaptable education, which accommodates children’s cultural affiliations. It shows that a normative lens, which examines the ways by which legal rules correspond to conflicting rights and interests, cannot fully capture the tension between legal prohibitions on discrimination in education and the sociocultural norms in religious communities. Thus, the paper offers a socio-legal lens, which focuses on the context of admission policies to Jewish religious schools. Based on three test cases of admission policies to Jewish religious schools in Israel, England, and Flanders, Belgium, the paper demonstrates how the legal rules regulating the admission policies are influenced by social forces. In Israel and England, these forces have facilitated a descent down slippery slope, originating with religious criteria, but concluding with discriminatory criteria. They also shaped admission practices reflecting the asymmetric power relations between the institutional school systems and individual families. The paper highlights the benefits of the Belgian policy, which proscribes religious classification of school candidates. This policy circumvents the ambiguous distinction between religion, ethnicity, and social class, and expands educational choices.
Ex-Soviet Jews: Collective Autoethnography
Author(s): Fialkova, Larisa; Yelenevskaya, Maria
Editor(s): Veidlinger, Jeffrey
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Ethnography, Methodology, Anthropology, Emigration, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Soviet Jewry
Der Shop als Spiegel des Museums Ausstellungsobjekte, Souvenirs und Identitätspraktiken im Jüdischen Museum Berlin und im Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Translated Title: The shop as a mirror of the museum, exhibition exhibits, souvenirs and identity practices in the Jewish Museum Berlin and in the Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Author(s): Peleikis, Anja; Feldman, Jackie
Editor(s): Schnepel, Burkhard; Girke, Felix; Knoll, Eva-Maria
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Memorials
Between Three Worlds Host, Homeland, and Global Media in the Lives of Russian Immigrant Families in Israel and Germany
Author(s): Elias, Nelly; Lemish, Dafna
Date: 2011
Topics: Focus Groups, Integration, Interviews, Media, Russian Emigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Family and Household, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This study investigated various roles played by host, homeland, and global media in the lives of immigrant families from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS, former USSR) to Israel and Germany, as well as the place of different media in family conflicts, consolidation, and parenting strategies. The study was based on focus group interviews with 60 families of Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel and Germany and 73 semistructured, in-depth interviews with immigrant youngsters. The findings of this study demonstrate that the mass media fulfill diverse roles for immigrant families, assisting them face two main relocation challenges: integration “inward” (i.e., cultural transmission and family consolidation) and “outward” integration into their new surroundings.
Demography of the Contemporary Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora
Author(s): Tolts, Mark
Date: 2011
Topics: Aliyah, Demography, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Diaspora, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract:

This paper is a study of the demography of the contemporary post-Soviet Jewish Diaspora based on various statistical sources collected from many countries where these Jews live. It examines (post-) Soviet Jewish resettlement, and the demographic transformation of FSU Jews in the wake of the recent mass migration, especially in Israel. Based on this analysis, an update for 2010 of the number of the 'core' Jews (by self-identity) originating from the FSU by country was presented, and the total number of people belonging to the post-Soviet Jewish Diaspora worldwide and their distribution was estimated.
The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-Speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel, and Germany
Editor(s): Gitelman, Zvi
Date: 2016
Topics: Russian-Speaking Jews, Immigration, Aliyah, Diaspora, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: In 1900 over five million Jews lived in the Russian empire; today, there are four times as many Russian-speaking Jews residing outside the former Soviet Union than there are in that region. The New Jewish Diaspora is the first English-language study of the Russian-speaking Jewish diaspora. This migration has made deep marks on the social, cultural, and political terrain of many countries, in particular the United States, Israel, and Germany. The contributors examine the varied ways these immigrants have adapted to new environments, while identifying the common cultural bonds that continue to unite them.

Assembling an international array of experts on the Soviet and post-Soviet Jewish diaspora, the book makes room for a wide range of scholarly approaches, allowing readers to appreciate the significance of this migration from many different angles. Some chapters offer data-driven analyses that seek to quantify the impact Russian-speaking Jewish populations are making in their adoptive countries and their adaptations there. Others take a more ethnographic approach, using interviews and observations to determine how these immigrants integrate their old traditions and affiliations into their new identities. Further chapters examine how, despite the oceans separating them, members of this diaspora form imagined communities within cyberspace and through literature, enabling them to keep their shared culture alive.

Above all, the scholars in The New Jewish Diaspora place the migration of Russian-speaking Jews in its historical and social contexts, showing where it fits within the larger historic saga of the Jewish diaspora, exploring its dynamic engagement with the contemporary world, and pointing to future paths these immigrants and their descendants might follow.

Introduction: Homelands, Diasporas, and the Islands in Between
Zvi Gitelman
Part I Demography: Who Are the Migrants and Where Have They Gone?
Chapter 1 Demography of the Contemporary Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora
Mark Tolts
Chapter 2 The Russian-Speaking Israeli Diaspora in the FSU, Europe, and North America: Jewish Identification and Attachment to Israel
Uzi Rebhun
Chapter 3 Home in the Diaspora? Jewish Returnees and Transmigrants in Ukraine
Marina Sapritsky
Part II Transnationalism and Diasporas
Chapter 4 Rethinking Boundaries in the Jewish Diaspora from the FSU
Jonathan Dekel-Chen
Chapter 5 Diaspora from the Inside Out: Litvaks in Lithuania Today
Hannah Pollin-Galay
Chapter 6 Russian-Speaking Jews and Israeli Emigrants in the United States: A Comparison of Migrant Populations
Steven J. Gold
Part III Political and Economic Change
Chapter 7 Political Newborns: Immigrants in Israel and Germany
Olena Bagno-Moldavski
Chapter 8 The Move from Russia/the Soviet Union to Israel: A Transformation of Jewish Culture and Identity
Yaacov Ro’i
Chapter 9 The Economic Integration of Soviet Jewish Immigrants in Israel
Gur Ofer
Part IV Resocialization and the Malleability of Ethnicity
Chapter 10 Russian-Speaking Jews in Germany
Eliezer Ben-Rafael
Chapter 11 Performing Jewishness and Questioning the Civic Subject among Russian-Jewish Migrants in Germany
Sveta Roberman
Chapter 12 Inventing a “New Jew”: The Transformation of Jewish Identity in Post-Soviet Russia
Elena Nosenko-Shtein
Part V Migration and Religious Change
Chapter 13 Post-Soviet Immigrant Religiosity: Beyond the Israeli National Religion
Nelly Elias and Julia Lerner
Chapter 14 Virtual Village in a Real World: The Russian Jewish Diaspora Online
Anna Shternshis
Part VI Diaspora Russian Literature
Chapter 15 Four Voices from the Last Soviet Generation: Evgeny Steiner, Alexander Goldstein, Oleg Yuryev, and Alexander Ilichevsky
Mikhail Krutikov
Chapter 16 Poets and Poetry in Today’s Diaspora: On Being “Marginally Jewish”
Stephanie Sandler
Chapter 17 Triple Identities: Russian-Speaking Jews as German, American, and Israeli Writers
Adrian Wanner
Afterword: The Future of a Diaspora
Zvi Gitelman
Between Evidence and Symbol: The Auschwitz Album in Yad Vashem, the Imperial War Museum (London) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Author(s): Ashworth, Jaime
Date: 2011
Topics: Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust, Jewish Museums, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
20 лет Большой алии: статистический анализ перемен.
Translated Title: 20 Years of the Great Aliya: A Statistical Analysis of Changes
Author(s): Konstantinov, Viacheslav
Date: 2013
Topics: Demography, Aliyah, Immigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: Настоящая книга представляет собой логическое продолжение предыдущей книги ав-тора “Еврейское население бывшего СССР в ХХ веке (социально-демографический анализ)”. Если предыдущее исследование было посвящено развитию советского ев-рейства в стране исхода, то нынешнее – тем изменениям, которые претерпела еврей-ская русскоязычная община в Израиле, где сейчас проживает ее бóльшая часть. Наш анализ охватывает период с начала 1990-х годов до настоящего времени, и включает динамику общей численности репатриантов по республикам исхода, их расселение по городам и регионам Израиля, демографические аспекты, образование (как взрослого населения, так и детей и молодежи), владение ивритом и английским языком, компь-ютерную грамотность, армейскую/национальную службу. Особое внимание уделяется профессиональному трудоустройству репатриантов, и в частности, специалистов с высшим образованием. Рассматриваются также изменения в экономическом положе-нии репатриантов, их состояние здоровья, а также общая удовлетворенность жизнью в Израиле, национальное самосознание, традиции и ценности. Данные по репатриантам сопоставляются со всем еврейским населением Израиля, а по возможности – с еврей-скими иммигрантами из бывшего СССР в США и Германии.
Книга предназначена для демографов, социологов, специалистов, занятых проблема-ми интеграции репатриантов в различных сферах и всех интересующихся данной про-блемой. Многие статистические материалы, представленные в книге, публикуются впервые.
Jødisk Identitet og Oppdragelse. En komparativ analyse av jøder i Norge og Israel
Translated Title: Jewish Identity and Education. A Comparative Analysis of Jews in Norway and Israel
Author(s): Rambekk, Elin
Date: 2001
Topics: Jewish Identity, Jewish Education, Main Topic: Education
Is there an ‘Israeli Diaspora’? Jewish Israelis negotiating national identity between Zionist ideology and diasporic reality
Author(s): Moshkovitz, Yuval
Date: 2013
Topics: Israeli Expatriates, Israel-Diaspora Relations, National Identity, Zionism, Interviews, Psychology, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Diaspora, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Given the centrality of the ‘Negation of Exile’ in the construction of political Zionist ideology and the continued dominance of this world-view within the Jewish-Israeli imagined community and Israeli public space, the essay discusses the viability of an ‘Israeli–British diaspora’ – an intermediate space which is neither Israeli not British – that potentially troubles Zionist notions on nationality, belonging and Jewishness. The paper draws on interview material of Jewish Israelis who live in Britain, and examines the interplay between hegemonic Zionist discourses of nationality and counter-hegemonic discourses of diaspora, as subjects construct their personal narratives of ‘Israeliness abroad’.
What do we talk about when we talk about 'national identity'? : Jewish-Israelis in Britain negotiating 'national identity' between Zionist ideology and diasporic reality
Author(s): Moshkovitz, Yuval
Date: 2014
Topics: Israeli Expatriates, Israel-Diaspora Relations, National Identity, Zionism, Interviews, Psychology, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Diaspora, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This is a psychosocial research project investigating ‘national identity’ amongst middle class Jewish-Israelis in Britain. Its aim is to map key contents and highlight social categories that subjects draw on in their construction of ‘national identity’ and to study how they negotiate these categories and contents when narrating a story of ‘who they are’ as Israelis in Britain. The first part of the thesis provides historical and theoretical background to the study of national identities, with a focus on Jewish-Israeli identity in the context of Zionism. An empirical study is then presented, in which twelve Israelis living in London were interviewed in depth about their views on Israeli national identity, what it meant personally to them to be ‘an Israeli’, and what it meant to be ‘an Israeli in London’. Interviews were transcribed and a critical narrative approach was used to analyze the resulting texts, taking account of reflexive interview processes as well as exploring links with the broader cultural and political context. The findings reveal the elasticity and fluidity of ‘Israeli identity’. Subjects drew on a shared cultural reservoir - Zionist images, preconceptions and signifiers - to describe their personalized experience of belonging to or alienation from an acceptable notion of ‘Israeliness’ while living abroad. ‘Israeli identity’ was constructed against stereotypical images of ‘the others’ which, at times, applied racist discourse. Subjects constructed ‘Israeliness’ differently depending on the context they referred to (e.g. Israeli or British society). Each context had its distinct ‘others’. Within the British context Israeliness was constructed against the images of ‘the local Jews’, the ‘English’ and the ‘local Arabs and Muslims’. Constructing an Israeli identity was also influenced by the social position that subjects were implicated in, in relation to their class, ethnicity, gender, or occupation. This also shaped their experience of dislocation in Britain. Most of the participants conformed with a mainstream perspective on Israeli nationalism and refrained from criticizing it. This was interpreted as a discourse reflecting their privileged socio-cultural position in Israel and their commitment to a Zionist ethos which condemns emigration. Such a portrayal of Israeliness both initiated and contributed to a sense of unsettledness characteristic of this middle-class group. Subjects moved back and forth between two identificatory positions (‘Ha’aretz’ and ‘Israel’) as their points of identification constantly changed. The research contributes to the analysis of nationalism phenomena and associated concepts such as diaspora and belonging among a middle class group of migrants. It outlines cultural, material and political forces that sustain nationalism yet also demonstrates ways through which subjects negotiate or resist the discourses and social categories offered to them for the construction of a ‘national identity’.
Reconciliation through the Righteous: The Narratives of Heroic Helpers as a Fulfillment of Emotional Needs in Polish−Jewish Intergroup Contact
Author(s): Bilewicz, Michal; Jaworska, Manana
Date: 2013
Topics: Psychology, Conflict Resolution, Memory, Holocaust Education, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Abstract: Postwar Polish−Jewish relations are heavily affected by divergent narratives about the Holocaust. Debates about the role of Poles as passive bystanders or perpetrators during the Holocaust have deeply influenced mutual perceptions of Poles and Jews. Previous research has shown that historical issues raised during Polish−Jewish encounters inhibit positive consequences of intergroup contact, mostly due to frustrated emotional needs related to past genocide. The aim of the present intervention was to reconcile young Poles and Israelis by presenting narratives that could change stereotypical thinking about the past. Our results indicate that the narratives of historical rescuers of Jews during WWII allowed overcoming the negative impact of the past on intergroup contact by fulfilling frustrated needs for acceptance among Polish participants. The article discusses the potential role of the heroic helpers’ narrative for reconciliation after mass violence, as it may prevent entitative categorizations of groups as victims, perpetrators, and bystanders.
Retrospective and Afterological Considerations of the Contemporary Russian-Speaking Jewish Diaspora: Whence and Whither?
Author(s): Markowitz, Fran
Date: 2009
Topics: Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Diaspora, Globalisation, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This article reviews the transformations undergone by Russian speaking Jews over the past half century, and how these have been portrayed in key scholarly texts. It analyzes the representation of Soviet Jews first as a people of silence, then as new immigrants in Israel and North America, and, most recently, as a globalized community or worldwide diaspora. But rather than accepting these identity transformations as a fait accompli, the article problematizes their present meanings and ponders future trends.
Ритуалы в состоянии перемен: сватовство и брак у бухарских евреев
Translated Title: Rituals in Flux: Courtship and Marriage among Bukharan Jews
Author(s): Купер, Аланна Э.
Date: 2015
Topics: Bukharian Jews, Ethnography, Ritual, Marriage, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Свадебные ритуалы бухарских евреев описываются в статье по материалам полевых исследований автора, проведенных в Узбекистане, Израиле и СȀА в период с 1991 года. Автор предлагает не столько законченный и самодостаточный монтаж, сколько многоплановые кадры из частной жизни, указывая на пересечения между социальной структурой и человеческой деятельностью, между унаследованными традициями и новаторскими изменениями. Рассматриваются шесть празд- неств из серии бухарско-еврейских свадебных практик: ши-ринхори - поедание сладостей, олицетворяющее помолвку; утвержденная советской властью гражданская свадебная цере-мония в ЗАГСе; кош-чинон - празднество, когда родственники невесты принимают участие в отдалении, пока происходит приведение в порядок волосков на ее лице; праздники кудо- бини и домот-дророн, которые проводятся во внутреннем дворе родительского дома невесты и означают приветствие жениха и его семьи в доме невесты; кидуш - религиозная свадебная церемония. Автор приходит к выводу, что не существует статичной базовой формы бухарско-еврейской культуры, отклонения от которой или изменения внутри которой могут быть опознаны.
Rituals in Flux: Courtship and Marriage among Bukharan Jews
Author(s): Cooper, Alanna E.
Editor(s): Baldauf, Ingeborg; Gammer, Moshe; Loy, Thomas
Date: 2008
Topics: Bukharian Jews, Ritual, Marriage, Diaspora, Ethnography, Main Topic: Other
The Bukharan Jewish Diaspora at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Author(s): Kaganovitch, Albert
Editor(s): Baldauf, Ingeborg; Gammer, Moshe; Loy, Thomas
Date: 2008
Topics: Diaspora, Bukharian Jews, Main Topic: Other
Jewry between tradition and secularism: Europe and Israel compared
Editor(s): Ben-Rafael , Eliezer; Gergely, Thomas; Gorny, Yosef
Date: 2006
Topics: Jewish Peoplehood, Comparative Studies, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Are Jews today still the carriers of a single and identical collective identity and do they still constitute a single people? This two-fold question arises when one compares a Hassidi Habad from Brooklyn, a Jewish professor at a secular university in Brussels, a traditional Yemeni Jew still living in Sana’a, a Galilee kibbutznik, or a Russian Jew in Novossibirsk. Is there still today a significant relationship between these individuals who all subscribe to Judaism? The analysis shows that the Jewish identity is multiple and can be explained by considering all variants as “surface structures” of the three universal “deep structures” central to the notion of collective identity, namely, collective commitment, perceptions of the collective’s singularity, and positioning vis-à-vis “others.”

Contents:

Preface
Judaism and the culture of memory /Thomas Gergely
Introduction
European Jewry and Klal Yisrael /Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Thomas Gergely, and Yosef Gorny
Is the French model in decline? /Pierre Birnbaum
Case of Belgium /Jean-Philippe Schreiber
Identity of Dutch Jews /Ludo Abicht
Russian-Jewish immigration to Germany /Julius H. Schoeps, Willi Jasper, and Olaf Glöckner
Religiosity, praxis, and tradition in contemporary Hungarian Jewry /András Kovács
Being Jewish in Romania after the second world war /Carol Iangu
Jewish identity, memory, and anti-Semitism /Maurice Konopnicki
Siamese twins: religion and secularism in Jewish national thought /Yosef Gorny
Israeli identity and mission in Buber's thought /Shalom Ratzabi
Sovereignty, voluntarism, and Jewish identity: Nathan Rotenstreich /Avi Bareli
On religious-secular tensions /Avi Sagi
Religious-secular cleavage in contemprary Israel /Yochanan Peres
On European Jewish Orthodoxy, Sephardic tradition, and the Shas movement /Zvi Zohar
Ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, and secular women in college /Lior Ben-Chaim Rafael
Challenge of secularism to Jewish survival in Abba Hillel Silver's thinking /Ofer Shiff
Identities of Jewish American women /Suzanne Vromen
Jews and secularization: a challenge or a prospect? /Guy Haarscher
Submission and subversion before the law /Rivon Krygier
Tradition of diaspora and political reality of the state of Israel /David Meyer
Diaspora museum and Israeli-Jewish identity /Dina Porat
Jewish transnational community and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem /Uri Cohen
Contemporary dilemmas of identity: Israel and the diaspora /Eliezer Ben-Rafael
Was the Shoah the "sanctification of God"? /Thomas Gergely.
Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration, and Conflict
Author(s): Remennick, Larissa
Date: 2012
Topics: Diaspora, Russian Emigration, Aliyah, Immigration, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: In 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.
Hummus und Chuchichäschtli – Empirische Sozialforschung zur Auswanderung von Schweizer Jüdinnen und Juden nach Israel
Translated Title: Hummus and Chuchichäschtli - Empirical Research on the emigration of Swiss Jews to Israel
Author(s): Bossert, Sabina
Date: 2010
Topics: Aliyah, Emigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: Einleitung
Die Arbeit befasst sich mit Schweizer Jüdinnen und Juden, die zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt in Israel leben und zwischen 1964 und 2008 nach Israel ausgewandert sind. Sie beruht hauptsächlich auf von der Verfasserin in Israel geführten Leitfadeninterviews. Neben theoretischen Hintergründen über Migrationsforschung und Alija gibt die Arbeit einen Überblick über die statistische Situation der Auslandsschweizer im Allgemeinen und die Schweizer Gemeinde in Israel im Speziellen. Zudem wird das wissenschaftliche Vorgehen begründet sowie der Ablauf der Suche nach Interviewpartnern vorgestellt und die Interviewpartner charakterisiert.
Die Resultate der Forschung umfassen die Schwerpunkte Alija (mit den Unterthemen Gründe für die Auswanderung, Zeitpunkt, Landeskenntnisse, Vorgehen), Leben in Israel (Integration, Bildung, Militärdienst, Politik), religiöses Leben (Veränderungen im religiösen Leben sowie jüdische Identität) und Verbindung zur Schweiz (Auslandschweizerorganisation, Schweizer Freunde, Schweizer Politik). Diese Ergebnisse werden durch Einbezug verschiedener Publikationen wie statistischen Informationen aus Israel und der Schweiz, Zeitungsartikeln, staatlichen Publikationen aus Israel sowie wissenschaftlichen Publikationen gestützt.
Übersicht Schweizerinnen und Schweizer in Israel
Gemäss den neuesten Angaben von Anfang 2010 des Bundesamtes für Statistik wurden in Israel im Jahr 2009 14’251 Schweizerinnen und Schweizer gezählt, was im Vergleich zum Vorjahr ein Plus von 585 Personen bedeutet. Diese Zahl von ungefähr 500 Einwanderern jährlich aus der Schweiz nach Israel ist in den letzten Jahren relativ stabil geblieben.
Über die Religionszugehörigkeit werden keine Statistiken geführt, es muss jedoch davon ausgegangen werden, dass nicht alle dieser Personen jüdisch sind und nicht alle durch eine Alija nach Israel gekommen sind: In den Statistiken des Eidgenössischen Departements für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten werden alle Personen mit Schweizer Pass registriert, die ihren Lebensmittelpunkt permanent oder vorübergehend in Israel haben, einschliesslich beispielsweise nicht-jüdische Schweizer, die mit einem Israeli (jedwelcher Religionszugehörigkeit) verheiratet sind bzw. Personen, die in den palästinensischen Autonomiegebieten leben sowie Kinder und Enkelkinder von nach Israel ausgewanderten Schweizern.
Aus diesen Gründen ist die Zahl, die in den Auslandschweizerstatistiken genannt wird, wesentlich höher als die Zahl der Schweizerinnen und Schweizer, die tatsächlich durch eine Alija nach Israel gelangt sind: Offizielle Angaben von der Jewish Agency aus dem Jahr 2009 zeigen, dass seit der Staatsgründung Israels im Jahr 1948 insgesamt 5'078 Schweizer Jüdinnen und Juden Alija gemacht haben. Im Vergleich zum Anteil der Juden an der Schweizer Bevölkerung ist diese Zahl relativ hoch.

Interviews und Interviewpartner
Im Zentrum der Forschung standen Interviews mit zehn Schweizer Jüdinnen und Juden, die zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt in Israel leben. Die Interviews, die in Form von face-to-face Interviews mithilfe eines teilstrukturierten Leitfadens durchgeführt wurden, fanden zwischen April und Juni 2009 in Israel statt. Bei der Auswahl der Interviewpartner wurde darauf geachtet, ein möglichst breites Spektrum abzudecken, was den Einwanderungszeitpunkt, das Alter, das Geschlecht und die religiöse sowie politische Ausrichtung der untersuchten Personen betrifft. Bedingung war, dass die Personen aus eigenem Entschluss nach Israel ausgewandert sind, also keine, die als Kinder mit ihren Eltern nach Israel gingen, oder Nachkommen von Einwanderern, die noch immer einen Schweizer Pass besitzen. Zudem sollten die befragten Personen in der Schweiz aufgewachsen bzw. sozialisiert sein.
Von diesen 10 Personen wohnen heute fünf im Grossraum Tel Aviv, zwei in Haifa, jeweils eine Person in Beer Scheva, Beit Schemesch und Hadera. Bezüglich ihrer Herkunft aus der Schweiz kommt die Mehrheit der Befragten ursprünglich aus dem Grossraum Zürich, zwei aus Basel. Bis auf zwei Personen, die allerdings in einer festen Beziehung mit Heiratsabsichten lebten, waren zum Zeitpunkt der Interviews alle verheiratet, drei hatten (noch) keine eigene Kinder.
Alle befragten Personen sind in Besitz eines israelischen und eines Schweizer Passes und reisen regelmässig in die Schweiz. Der Zeitpunkt der Alija bewegt sich zwischen 1964 und 2008, zum Zeitpunkt der Interviews waren die Befragten also zwischen über 40 Jahren und knapp einem Jahr in Israel wohnhaft. Die meisten Befragten sind allein ausgewandert, lediglich zwei Personen sind mit ihren Partnern nach Israel gekommen, eine Person mit der ganzen Familie, wobei die Frau in diesem Fall Israelin war, es für sie also nicht eine Auswanderung sondern eine Rückwanderung war.

Zusammenfassung der Forschungsergebnisse
Die Lizentiatsarbeit kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass sich die Schweizer Gemeinde in Israel nicht einfach einordnen lässt; sie ist in vielerlei Hinsicht heterogen. Einerseits besteht eine Heterogenität bezüglich der Religionszugehörigkeit: Nicht alle nach Israel ausgewanderten Schweizer haben tatsächlich Alija gemacht, nicht alle in Israel lebenden Schweizer sind jüdisch. Aber auch in Bezug auf die religiöse Ausrichtung der ausgewanderten Schweizer Jüdinnen und Juden besteht eine grosse Diversität. So waren bei den Interviewpartnern von atheistischen über nicht praktizierenden aber religiösen bis zu streng orthodoxen Juden alle Ausrichtungen vertreten.
Die Alija ist in den meisten Fällen relativ problemlos vor sich gegangen. Unter den befragten Personen sind verschiedene mögliche Formen der Alija vertreten, von Alija aus dem Ausland und Alija aus Israel bis Alija auf Probe. Besonders spannend und aussergewöhnlich ist die Geschichte einer Interviewpartnerin, die keine persönliche Beziehung zu Israel hatte, aber trotzdem als junge Frau aus Abenteuerlust und Interesse an der sozialistischen Ideologie nach Israel gegangen ist, um in einem Kibbutz zu arbeiten, obwohl Kibbutzvolontariate damals (besonders für Nicht-Juden) noch nicht üblich waren. In der Folge hat sie ihren zukünftigen Mann kennen gelernt, und ist 1964 fast ohne Landes- und Hebräischkenntnisse zu ihm nach Israel gezogen.
Es gibt verschiedene Bereiche, in denen die Interviewpartner überraschend identische Erfahrungen und Aussagen gemacht haben: So haben alle Interviewten, die als Juden nach Israel ausgewandert sind (also ausgenommen diejenigen, die erst in Israel zum Judentum konvertiert sind), ihre Zusage zum Zionismus gemacht und bestätigt, dass dieser – oft in Kombination mit einem Wunsch nach Veränderungen im Leben und einer gewissen Abenteuerlust – ein Hauptgrund für ihre Alija gewesen ist. Keine der befragten Personen hat konkrete Absichten, wieder in die Schweiz zurückzukehren. Szenarien, die eine Rückkehr auslösen könnten, gibt es wenige; wenn schon wären es eher persönliche Szenarien als politische.
Ein weiteres Thema, bei welchem sich die interviewten Personen übereinstimmend geäussert haben, war die Frage nach den Reaktionen, die sie auf ihre Auswanderung erfahren haben. Dabei wurde einerseits festgestellt, dass das Schweizer Umfeld insofern geteilt war, als dass jüdische Freunde den Auswanderungswunsch nachvollziehen und die Bedeutung, die die Alija für eine Jüdin oder für einen Juden hat, verstehen konnten, nicht-jüdische Freunde dies in der Regel aber nicht wirklich ernst nahmen. Andererseits erklärten alle Interviewpartner, dass ihnen im israelischen Umfeld viel Unverständnis entgegengebracht wurde und sie dieses Unverständnis Jahre und Jahrzehnte nach der Alija noch erfahren. Das positive, teilweise verklärte Image der Schweiz trägt diesbezüglich dazu bei, dass die Auswanderung nach Israel als sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Abstieg interpretiert wird, und die möglichen Gründe – trotz der positiven religiösen Bedeutung der Alija – für eine Auswanderung (eben Zionismus) für Israelis nicht offensichtlich sind. Die Aussage einer Interviewpartnerin, dass sie in Israel oft gefragt wurde, ob sie denn spinne, was sie hier mache, ist als pointierte Überspitzung dieses Unverständnisses zu sehen.
Es wurde aufgezeigt, dass die befragten Personen sehr unterschiedliche Erfahrungen gemacht haben hinsichtlich der Veränderungen in ihrem Leben durch die Auswanderung nach Israel. Die Annahme, dass das religiöse Leben – aufgrund der Tatsache, dass der Alltag in Israel weitgehend durch die Religion bestimmt wird, indem jüdische Festtage offizielle Feiertage und die meisten Supermärkte und Restaurants koscher sind – für die Auswanderer einfacher wird, trifft nicht in jedem Fall zu. Zwar gibt es Personen, die heute das Praktizieren des Judentums einfacher finden und es deshalb mehr ausleben, als sie es noch in der Schweiz getan haben; es wurden aber auch gegenteilige Aussagen geäussert, die darauf beruhen, dass durch die Verknüpfung von Religion und Politik das religiöse Leben komplizierter geworden ist. Des Weiteren haben besonders jüngere Interviewpartner in der Schweiz im Rahmen ihrer Familie (also bestimmt durch ihre Eltern) ein jüdisches Familienleben gelebt. Durch den Wegfall des Familienlebens wird das Judentum in Israel denn auch weniger praktiziert, was darauf hindeutet, dass die Prägung des Judentums durch die Familie in gewisser Weise als normativ empfunden wird. Dies wird von zwei jungen Auswandererinnen beschrieben, die heute beide weniger praktizieren, als sie es in der Schweiz noch getan haben und deswegen teilweise ein schlechtes Gewissen zu haben scheinen. Zudem ist bei Auswanderern, die sich selbst als atheistisch bezeichnen, zu beobachten, dass bei ihnen das Bedürfnis nach einem minimalen Zugeständnis an das Judentum, welches ihnen in der Diaspora wichtig war, in Israel durch das Leben in einer jüdischen Mehrheitsgesellschaft weggefallen ist.
In einem anderen Punkt bezüglich des religiösen Lebens waren die Erfahrungen der Interviewpartner jedoch wiederum mehrheitlich identisch: Die soziokulturelle und religiöse jüdische Identität, die in der Schweiz vorhanden war und teilweise als bewusste Abgrenzung vom nicht-jüdischen Umfeld gelebt wurde, ist durch die Alija weggefallen und hat sich durch die (Fremd- und Selbst-) Zuschreibung «Schweizer» ersetzt. Diese in Israel übliche Kategorisierung der Olim nach dem Herkunftsland oder der Herkunftsregion wurde von den Schweizer Auswanderern übernommen, akzeptiert und wird als positiv eingeschätzt, auch wenn sich die Interviewpartner in der Schweiz kaum oder gar nicht mit der Bezeichnung «Schweizer» identifizieren konnten bzw. sich nicht als patriotisch beschrieben hätten.
In Bezug auf die politische Ausrichtung der Interviewpartner wurde aufgezeigt, dass diese zumindest teilweise mit der religiösen Ausrichtung zusammenhängt. Personen, die sich als orthodox bezeichnen, wählen eher konservative Parteien, wie zum Beispiel eine Auswandererin, die als ultra-orthodoxe Frau die aschkenasisch-ultraorthodoxe Partei «Vereinigtes Tora-Judentum» wählt oder eine weitere befragte Person, die sich als konservativ-praktizierend bezeichnet und für den konservativen Likud gestimmt hat. Im Gegensatz dazu stehen diejenigen Personen, die sich selbst als liberal oder atheistisch einschätzen und Linksparteien wählen. So wählt beispielsweise eine Interviewpartnerin, weder praktizierend noch religiös, Meretz und tendiert dazu, weiter nach links zu rutschen. Diese Polarisierung von Religion und Politik zeigt sich auch in den Parteiprogrammen: Rechte Parteien vertreten expliziter religiöse Positionen als linke Parteien.
Bei den Kapiteln zur Beziehung der Auswanderer zu ihrem Herkunftsland Schweiz hat sich gezeigt, dass mehrheitlich eine starke Verbindung dazu besteht, die sich darin äussert, dass die meisten Interviewpartner regelmässig in die Schweiz fliegen, oft mit Freunden und Verwandten in der Schweiz telefonieren und sich über Vorgänge in der Schweiz informieren. Zwar hat kaum jemand eine Schweizer Zeitung oder Zeitschrift abonniert; die Internetausgaben werden aber offensichtlich mit grossem Interesse gelesen. Aktuelle und vergangene politische Ereignisse in der Schweiz sind den Interviewpartnern deswegen mehrheitlich geläufig, und sie haben sich dazu ihre eigene Meinung gebildet (durchaus auf eine kritische Art und Weise), die sie bei Nachfragen aus ihrem israelischen Umfeld diskutieren. Dazu gehören sowohl Vorgänge wie die Debatte der 1990er Jahren über die Rolle der Schweiz im Zweiten Weltkrieg, als auch aktuelle Nachrichten wie das Treffen von Bundespräsident Merz mit dem iranischen Präsidenten.
Cultural Identity, Minority Position and Immigration: Turkey's Jewish Minority vs. Turkish-Jewish Immigrants in Israel
Author(s): Toktaş, Şule
Date: 2008
Topics: Aliyah, Minorities, Sephardi Jews, Nationality, Main Topic: Identity and Community
"We are similar in that we're different": Social Relationships of Young Russian Jewish Immigrants in Israel and Germany
Author(s): Schütze, Yvonne; Rapoport, Tamar
Editor(s): Breckner, Roswitha; Kalekin-Fishman, Devorah; Miethe, Ingrid
Date: 2000
Topics: Interviews, Russian-Speaking Jews, Immigration, Aliyah, Acculturation, Integration, Russian Emigration, Friendship, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: The data used in this study was collected for the project titled 'Russian Jewish Immigration in Jerusalem and Berlin: A Comparison.' The project
focuses on the process of social integration of young Russian Jews who emigrated to Israel and Germany and had resided in the new society for roughly five to six years at the time of the interview (1995/1996). The interview subjects were 38 young Russian Jews in Jerusalem, whose mean age was 24 years, and 46 in Berlin, with a mean age of 22.6 years. The interviews in Israel were conducted exclusively with university students, while the Berlin group consisted of 35 university students and 11 individuals preparing to enter the university or other educational institutions. The central question of this study can be summarized as follows: Do the different approaches to Russian Jewish emigrants taken by Israel and Germany - approaches which are historically, politically, and culturally distinct - have diverging effects on the process of integration, and thus on the immigrants' future perspectives in the new society? In this paper, we have dealt only with a part of this question, namely social relations between emigrants and native residents.
Educational Selectivity and Labour Market Attainment of Jewish Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel and Germany in the 1990s
Author(s): Kogan, Irena; Cohen, Yinon
Editor(s): Kolb, Holger; Egbert, Henrik
Date: 2008
Topics: Aliyah, Immigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Work, Integration, Employment, Russian Emigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Wandering Jews, Wandering Stereotypes: Media Representation of the Russian-speaking Jews in the FSU, Israel and Germany
Author(s): Elias, Nelly; Bernstein, Julia
Editor(s): Liepach, Martin; Melischek, Gabriele; Seethaler, Martin
Date: 2007
Topics: Immigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Russian Emigration, Stereotypes, Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Discourse, Media, Main Topic: Other