Soviet Jewish immigrants
Soviet Jewish immigrants refer to the Jewish individuals and families who emigrated from the Soviet Union, particularly during periods of political and social change in the 20th century. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Soviet government initially promised to protect Jews from discrimination, but soon enacted policies that suppressed religious practices and targeted Jewish communities. During the 1970s, an increase in Jewish emigration occurred, partly influenced by international pressures such as the Jackson-Vanik amendment in the United States, which linked trade agreements to the allowance of Jewish emigration. Many of these immigrants chose to settle in the United States, although they often had challenges integrating into the established American Jewish community due to cultural differences, language barriers, and differing levels of secularism.
A significant wave of immigration occurred after the liberalization of emigration laws under Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, culminating in a peak of 185,000 Jewish immigrants arriving in 1990 alone. From 1987 to 1997, over 700,000 Soviet Jews immigrated to the U.S. Despite sharing a common ethnic background, the integration of Soviet Jewish immigrants into American society has been complex, with cultural and societal differences often leading to friction and a sense of disconnection from mainstream Jewish life. This phenomenon highlights the intricate dynamics of race and ethnicity in immigrant experiences, which extend beyond mere shared backgrounds.
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Soviet Jewish immigrants
When the Bolsheviks assumed power in Russia in 1917, they promised to end the periodic pogroms (massacres) and frequent discrimination that Russian Jews had experienced under the czars. However, the Soviet government soon engaged in widespread, though perhaps less overt, forms of discrimination and persecution against the country’s Jewish population. In addition, because the Soviet Union’s official communist ideology included a commitment to atheism, Jews, along with other religious groups, were essentially barred from practicing their religion. Houses of worship were closed or destroyed, and religious leaders were imprisoned.
During the era of détente in the 1970s, the Soviet government permitted a significant increase in Jewish emigration. This was partly caused by the passage in the US Congress of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which tied American-Soviet trade to an increase in the Soviet Union’s Jewish emigration permits. Although many Soviet Jews emigrated to Israel, a large portion of these emigrants eventually settled in the United States. Jewish American groups had lobbied the federal government both to pressure the Soviet government to release Jews and to permit more Soviet Jews to settle in the United States.
Although the immigration campaign was highly successful, Soviet Jewish immigrants did not always integrate with the American Jewish community as well as had been hoped. The immigrants were frequently more secular, having grown up in an officially atheistic state. They also tended to be poor and eager to make use of resources made available by American Jewish groups. Politically, many Soviet Jewish immigrants were more conservative than the mainstream American Jewish groups. Also, many of the immigrants did not speak English. A number of American Jewish leaders expressed disappointment about their inability to incorporate and assimilate the new immigrants.
A second wave of Soviet Jewish emigration took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev liberalized his country’s emigration laws. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 in particular created a renewed impetus for Soviet Jews (and others) to leave their country. Many Soviet Jews were attracted to the United States by concerted campaigns by Jewish American groups. The number of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union increased from about 200 in 1986 to a peak of 185,000 in 1990. A total of more than 700,000 Soviet Jews immigrated to the United States between 1987 and 1997.
The fact that many Soviet Jewish immigrants do not look, speak, or behave like mainstream American Jews has underscored an important principle of racial and ethnic relations. Frequently, cultural and societal differences—rather than purely racial, ethnic, or religious differences—have led to friction between groups. Similarly, the mere sharing of ethnic or racial backgrounds does not ensure intergroup harmony.
Bibliography
Hoffman, Betty N. Jewish Hearts: A Study of Dynamic Ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union. Albany: U of New York P, 2001. Print.
Jews in America: Soviet Jewry Movement." Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2015. Web. 15 May. 2015.
Peretz, Pauline. Let My People Go: The Transnational Politics of Soviet Jewish Emigration During the Cold War. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2015. Print.
Polonsky, Antony. The Jews in Poland and Russia. A Short History. Oxford: Littman Lib. of Jewish Civilization, 2014. Print.
Tenenbaum, Shelly. "Contemporary Jewish Migrations to the United States." Jewish Women's Archive. Jewish Women's Archive, 1 Mar. 2009. Web. 15 May. 2015.