Jews from the Former Soviet Union in Australia: Assimilating or Maintaining Jewish Identities?

Emerging Russian Jewish Identities in Australia

Australian Jewry is one of the few diaspora communities growing in size. This growth, however, is due entirely to immigration rather than natural increase. Since the 1960s, there have been three main Jewish ethnic groups immigrating to Australia: South Africans, Russians, and Israelis. It is very difficult to estimate the exact number of Jews from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who have migrated to Australia during this period. The 2001 census shows 6,404 Jews from the FSU, which constitutes 7.6% of the total Jewish population in Australia. However, the number sponsored by the Australian Jewish community is much greater. This article will outline the history of their migration, the challenges they faced settling into life in Australia, and the way they perceive their Jewish and Russian identity. It is based on a study commissioned in 2003 by the Jewish Agency in Israel.¹

Migration Patterns of Jews from the FSU

There have been two distinct waves of immigration among Russian-speaking Jews. The first occurred between 1971 and 1980, when the Soviet government responded to the demands of world Jewry and protests from Soviet Jews themselves to permit family reunion in Israel. During this period, Soviet Jews received permission to migrate to Israel only, but once they left the country, many opted to go to other Western countries and were called noshrim. Migration reached its peak in 1979. During this period, Jews from the FSU coming to Australia were classified under the government's humanitarian migration program.

Emigration from the Soviet Union plummeted after 1980, when, despite ongoing campaigns by world Jewry, almost no Jews were granted permission to leave. One interesting case study is that of Dr. Arkady Lipkin, a physicist who was forced to work as a common laborer after he applied to emigrate. In the 1980s, young Jewish students in Melbourne were encouraged to write to refusenik Jews in the USSR. The Harp, a weekly newsletter of the Leo Baeck Centre Reform congregation in Kew, Melbourne, encouraged congregants to take up the case of Dr. Lipkin, who had family in Melbourne and had applied to immigrate there. One congregation member describes her involvement:

We all started writing letters. I would write one a week, introducing myself, but I had no idea if he was receiving my letters. I came home one night from Kol Nidrei and decided that I had to register my letter. I went the next day and sent a registered letter that he would have to actually sign for. A month went past and there was no return of the slip so I went to the post office to complain. We did not know what to do but we sent an official letter through Australia Post and eventually got a formal letter back. The Russian authorities informed us that he had received the letters. We continued to write to him, but did not receive any replies. One day I saw a photo of him on the front page of the [Melbourne] Age. He had been allowed to come and he arrived with his family [in 1987]. He was a physicist and had been employed by the University of Melbourne. I found out where he was, called and asked if I could meet him. I had the official letter with me and showed it to him, but he told me he had never received any of the letters.²

In addition to members of the Jewish community writing to and on behalf of Dr. Lipkin, Australian academics led by Professor Geoffrey I. Opat of the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne also campaigned on his behalf. Following the introduction of glasnost in 1987, emigration resumed, transforming into mass emigration following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The majority of these migrants left for Israel, which received close to one million Jews from the FSU, but Australia also welcomed some émigrés.

The number of Russian-speaking Jewish migrants to Australia has declined significantly, nearly ceasing due to the fact that, since 1997, most...