Being an Israeli: Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel, fifteen years later

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study conducted in 2006 among a representative sample of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, aged 18 and over, who arrived in Israel between 1990 and 2005. It examines the changes over time in their collective identity, focusing on the relative weight and meaning of the local, Israeli component of their identity, as compared to the Jewish and Russian components. Unlike studies conducted in other concentrations of Russian Jewish emigrés (in the United States, Canada, and Germany), which found that an increase in the intensity of the local component of their identity was held in check by the enduring strength of the Russian component, this study revealed that in Israel the local identity component grew much stronger while, correspondingly, the Russian component declined. In addition, significant similarities between the immigrants and the veteran population were found with regard to how they conceive of the Israeli narrative. These changes over time in the immigrants' identity, which were not observed in the first years of their integration into Israeli culture and society, require a reexamination of the generalizations that dominate the research literature and the professional relationship with this group, concerning its supposed social and cultural self-segregation and low potential for cultural change.

Keywords:

• migration
• Former Soviet Union
• identity
• Israel

Notes

 1. DellaPergola and Tolts, Demographic Trends.

 2. Tajfel, “Social Categorization.”

 3. Ashmore, Deaux, and McLaughlin Volpe, “An Organizing Framework.”

 4. Lissak, “Diyun.”

 5. Horowitz, “Yeladim ve-no'ar oleh be-ma'arekhet ha-hinukh.”

 6. Lissitsa, Peres, and Ben-Rafael. “Emdot vatikim klapei olei Hever ha-Medinot.”

 7. Horenczyk, “Ha-yitronot shel ribui zehuyot.” Cf. Gordon, Assimilation in American Life; Bar-Yosef–Weiss, “Desotzializatziyah ve-re-sotzializatziyah”; idem, “Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation”; Sayegh and Lasry, “Immigrants' Adaptation in Canada”; Berry, “Psychology of Acculturation.”

 8. Leshem, “Yisrael ke-medinah rav-tarbutit.”

 9. Ben-Rafael et al., Building a Diaspora.

10. Garza-Guerrero, “Culture Shock”; Grinberg and Grinberg, Psychoanalytic Perspectives; Furnham, “Expatriate Stress”; Mirsky, “Kvar lo sham.”

11. Mirsky, “Kvar lo sham.”

12. Mirsky, “Psychological Distress”; idem, “Kvar lo sham.”

13. Lissak, “Diyun,” 254.

14. Remennick, Russian Jews on Three Continents.

15. Ben-Rafael et al., Building a Diaspora.

16. Leshem, “Olei Brit ha-Mo'atzot leshe'avar.”

17. The research was initiated and funded by Massad Klita, a partnership of JDC-Israel, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Construction and Housing (Urban Renewal) established in 2002 to plan and develop services for the integration of new immigrants into Israeli society.

18. Al-Haj and Leshem, Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel.

19. Figures in parentheses designate that there were fewer than 10 occurrences in that cell of the sample.

20. Leshem, Horowitz, and Zemach, Emdot ha-vatikim.

21. Leshem, Horowitz, and Zemach, Emdot ha-vatikim

22. Ben-Rafael, Olstein, and Geist, Hebetim shel zehut ve-safah.

23. Rosenbaum-Tamari and Damian, Olei Brit ha-Mo'atzot leshe'avar 2001.

24. Al-Haj and Leshem, Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel.

25. Ben-Rafael et al., Building a Diaspora.

26. Leshem, “Ha-aliyah mi-Brit ha-Mo'atzot leshe'avar.”

27. Ben-Rafael et al., Building a Diaspora; Remennick, Russian Jews on Three Continents.

28. Bar-Yosef–Weiss “Desotzializatziyah ve-re-sotzializatziyah”; Gordon, Assimilation in American Life; Sayegh and Lasry, “Immigrants' Adaptation in Canada.”

29. Leshem, “Olei Brit ha-Mo'atzot leshe'avar.”

30. Tajfel, “Social Categorization”; Ashmore, Deaux, and McLaughlin Volpe, “An Organizing Framework.”