The New Jewish Diaspora: Russian-Speaking Immigrants in the United States, Israel, and Germany

by Zvi Gitelman (Editor), Zvi Gitelman (Contribution by), Mark Tolts (Contribution by), Uzi Rebhun (Contribution by), Marina Sapritsky (Contribution by)

Overview

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.  
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813576282
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	07/27/2016
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

ZVI GITELMAN is a professor of political science and the Preston Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of sixteen books, including Jewish Identities in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine. 

Table of Contents

     List of Figures
           List of Tables
           Acknowledgments
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
Notes on Contributors
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

"An important contribution to the growing body of literature on contemporary Russian Jews around the world."

From the Publisher

"A most intriguing read."

Haaretz

"The New Jewish Diaspora provides an invaluable resource for students and scholars in Jewish Studies, Russian Studies, and Diaspora and Transnationalism. The thematic breadth and the complex questions this volume poses make it particularly well-suited to serve as a textbook for courses on diasporic Russian-Jewish culture and society....The New Jewish Diaspora is a major contribution to the study of diasporic Russian-Jewish culture and society."

Journal of Jewish Identities

"Between 1971 and 2009, some two million Jews left the Soviet Union, settling mainly in Israel, the U.S. and later, Germany. The focus of this study is on these immigrants and how they succeeded (or failed) to adapt to their new homes ... The essays, most by Israeli scholars, approach the subject from different perspectives, to determine what the creation of this new Jewish diaspora has meant to the three countries where most have settled, and to the immigrants themselves."

Chicago Jewish Star

"An important contribution to the growing body of literature on contemporary Russian Jews around the world."

University of Colorado - David Shneer