Fifty Years After the Refusenik Movement: How Post-Soviet Jews Have Proven Triumphant

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Korey, The ‘Right to Leave' for Soviet Jews.

2 Smith, “1971 Has Seen Soviet Sharply Ease Curb on Emigration to Israel,” New York Times, December 30, 1971, 2.

3 Alekseeva, Istoriia inakomysliia v SSSR, chapter ten.

4 Tartakovsky, et al., “Between Two Worlds?: Value Preferences of Immigrants Compared to Local-Born Populations in the Receiving Country and in the Country of Origin.” Larissa Remennick presented a paper at the 2018 Association for Jewish Studies conference, “Silent Mothers, Articulate Daughters: The Two Generations of Russian Israeli Women Doing Jewishness and Gender,” which suggested that the Generation 1.5 former Soviet Israeli Jewish women were in fact becoming more liberal in their outlook.

5 Khazan, “Why Soviet Refugees Aren’t Buying Sanders’ Brand of Socialism,” The Atlantic, April 12, 2016, accessed February 18, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/bernie-sanders-trump-russians/477045.

6 Kliger, “Mezhdu amerikoi, izraelem i rossiei: sotsiokul’turnyi I politicheskii portret russkogovoriashchei diaspory v n’iu iourke,” especially 84–7.

7 Maltz, “Immigration to Israel is on the Rise Thanks to These ‘Non-Jews,’” Haaretz, October 26, 2019, accessed February 25, 2020, https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/judaism-israel-and-diaspora-conference/.premium.MAGAZINE-immigration-to-israel-is-on-the-rise-thanks-to-these-non-jews-1.8026824. Demographer Sergio DellaPergola argues that these increases are due to the 1970 Law of Return, which allowed Jews with one grandparent to come to Israel and have citizenship.

8 Fefer, “How Putin’s Man Made His Way to the Top of European Jewry,” Haaretz, February 1, 2016, http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/features/1.699655.

9 Wilkinson, “Putting ‘Traditional Values’ Into Practice: The Rise and Contestation of Anti-Homopropaganda Laws in Russia.”

10 Dimentstein and Kosmin, “Fourth Survey of European Jewish Community Leaders and Professionals,” 7.

11 As early as 2007, Yoav Peled was already talking about Israel’s shift away from what Sammy Smooha calls an “ethnic democracy” toward a non-democratic “ethnocracy.” See Peled, “Citizenship Betrayed: Israel’s Emerging Immigration and Citizenship Regime.”

12 Sapritsky, “Home in the Diaspora?: Jewish Returnees and Transmigrants in Ukraine,” in The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-Speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel.

13 In 2016, Russian consulates barred Russian citizens not living in Russia the chance to update their passports, effectively rendering their Russian citizenship null and void. See Julie Masis, “Russian Quietly Strips Emigres of Dual Citizenship,” June 12, 2016, accessed February 25, 2020, https://forward.com/news/world/342136/russia-quietly-strips-emigres-of-dual-citizenship/.

14 Remmenick, “The 1.5 Generation of Russian Immigrants in Israel: Between Integration and Sociocultural Retention.” Remennick is interested in the Israeli 1.5 generation, while I’m interested in the U.S. 1.5 generation. Her recent research suggests that at least among 1.5 Generation Soviet Israeli Jewish immigrant women, they may be adopting more liberal social and political attitudes.

15 The Anti-Trump Soviet Immigrants’ facebook group can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/362019824152220/. See also Matthew Kupfer, “Fathers and Sons: How Trump Split America’s Russian Immigrant Families,” Moscow Times, December 28, 2016, accessed February 25, 2020, https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/fathers-and-sons-how-trump-split-americas-russian-immigrant-families-56683.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gregg Drinkwater

Gregg Drinkwater, is a lecturer in History and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, and for spring 2021, the Norman and Syril Reitman Visiting Scholar, Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University.

David Shneer

David Shneer, z"l, was the Louis P. Singer Chair of Jewish History, Professor of History, Religious Studies, and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado Boulder.