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Reviewed by:
  • The Great Immigration: Russian Jews In Israel
  • Jacob Climo
The Great Immigration: Russian Jews In Israel, by Dina Siegel. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1998. 214 pp. $45.00.

In her interesting and informative book Dina Siegel claims that in less than a decade, from 1985 to 1994, more than 750,000 Jews arrived in Israel from Russia so that by the mid-1990s they comprised almost 30 percent of Israel’s Jewish population. Siegel contends that the scale and nature of this migration were such that they changed Israel’s official approach to immigration and even the ideology of the country. Her main argu ment is that the Russian Jewish immigrants have maintained their way of life, combining their own cultural values and norms with those learned and adopted in the process of interaction with other Israelis. On one hand, this immigration has changed Israel, while on the other hand Russian Jews changed themselves, shaping a new identity. In the process of transition from one country to another Siegel shows how they have created new institutions, hierarchy, classes, leadership, and bureaucracy.

Following an introduction that reviews sociological theory of identity and change, and definitions of major concepts and ideologies such as Zionism, aliyah (immigration), and klita (absorption), she presents the book in chapters covering a historical perspective on the Russian Jewish immigration, myths and realities about the Russian Jewish community; bureaucratic creation of a public problem, Russian Jewish relationships with other ethnic communities (particularly with Israeli Arabs), and consideration of their political absorption. Zionist ideology, both secular and spiritual, accepts the historical attachment of Jews to Israel, and so the newcomers were expected to become enthusiastic Zionists, accepting that all Jews should return from the diaspora to make Israel their home. Thus, immigrants are formally absorbed and integrated through key government agencies. Yet, as new Zionists, the Russians didn’t want to forget their diaspora traditions, culture, or language. Although Zionism maintains a central place in Israel’s government policies, it is no longer a crime to be non-Zionist, since the role of Zionism increasingly has become symbolic, part of the inheritance of the past. For Siegel, Israel today, “resembles many countries where no dominant ideology prevails.”

Another idea that changed was the policy of klita or absorption of immigrants. The government monopoly on absorption did not address the problems of many new Russian Jewish immigrants, especially those most dependent on formal social assistance, such as single people, one-parent families, and invalids. Nor did it solve their most pressing problems: their employment needs in general, and their professional adaptation in particular. Instead officials presented the professional problems of immigrant engineers, physicians, musicians, and academicians as a public problem often using dramatic stereotypes. The Israeli press and media, for example, called attention to the “Russians” as drunkards, prostitutes, and criminals. At the same time individual examples were made of “good” immigrants, victims of their own problematic situation, e.g., a world-famous organist who, in Israel, silently accepted his job collecting garbage [End Page 136] except for a few weeks each year when he was in demand for a European musical tour. Such examples were used to promote paternalistic attitudes towards the new immigrants. It soon became clear that over a half million immigrants could not be dealt with using these standard dependency relationships with officials. The Russians created new immigrant organizations such as the Zionist Forum and the Israel in Aliyah Movement (founded by Nathan Scharansky) which eventually led to their own representation in Israeli society, the Knesset (seven seats in the 1996 elections), and the development of many other immigrant organizations, services, and cultural events. Siegel claims they still prefer Russian educational books, the services of other Russian Jews, and the celebration of their own holidays and artists. Russian Jews have set up educational institutions, professional associations, medical clinics, trade companies, building coops, and cultural groups. Such organizations do not bring new immigrants and Israelis closer. The Russians have integrated in Israel without giving up their culture, habits, values, and especially their language and language press. Nevertheless, religious rituals have become a part of the self identity of immigrants and their children as Israelis...