Silent Mothers, Articulate Daughters: Two Generations of Russian Israeli Women Doing Jewishness and Gender

This essay reflects on the generational dynamics and social locations of middle-aged and young Israeli women of former Soviet origin in the Israeli gender system and vis-à-vis local definitions of Jewishness. Based on two decades of my research on Russian Israelis, it highlights the issues of negative sexual stereotyping and exploitation of Russian immigrant women; their struggle for a respectable place in the local middle class, in line with their human capital; and the dilemmas of Jewishness, conversion and personal status in the context of their “othering” by the Orthodox rabbinate. While the mothers’ generation quietly endured systemic injustices by finding private solutions to common problems, their daughters are more confident in their Israeli identity and inclined to organize and collectively resist the stigmas and barriers to their social mobility.