| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Approximately 1,300,000 Russian-speakers [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Bat Yam and many other places | |
| Languages | |
| Russian, Hebrew, Russian Sign Language, [2] Shassi | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism, also Russian Orthodox Church, non-religious, Secular Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Russians, Russian Jews, Ashkenazi Jews |
Russians in Israel or Russian Israelis are post-Soviet Russian citizens who immigrated to Israel and their descendants. As of 2022, Russian-speakers number around 1,300,000 people, or 15% of the Israeli population. [3] [4] This number, however, also includes immigrants from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states other than Russia proper. [1] [5]
Some of the immigrants are not considered Jewish according to the Halacha, which defines a Jew if their mother is Jewish or they formally converted to Judaism. This makes it difficult for many of those Russian Israelis who are not recognised as Jewish by the chief rabbinate to get married or buried in Israel [6] . According to the Law of Return, anybody with at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible to become an Israeli citizen. Because of the Soviet Union's policy of state atheism and Russia's historically large Jewish population, there were some mixed marriages between Russian Jews and ethnic Russians during the Communist period. Some Russian Israelis have Israeli citizenship by marriage, as the Law of Return also allows the non-Jewish spouses of Jews to claim Israeli citizenship. A few Russian Israelis are instead descended from Russian Subbotnik families, who have migrated to Israel over the past century. [7]
Most Russians in Israel have full Israeli citizenship. Israeli Russians are involved in the country's economy on all levels and have made invaluable contributions to Israeli society, particularly in the cultural, scientific, high-tech, medical, and education fields. One in four staff members at Israel’s universities now are native Russian speakers. [6] Many Russian Israelis choose to preserve their language and culture, There are Russian language newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in Israel such as Channel 9, Pervoe radio, Vesty and others. Many Russian Israelis also celebrate Russian holidays like Novy God and Victory Day.
The 1922 census of Palestine lists 877 Russian language speakers in Mandatory Palestine (10 in the Southern District, 772 in Jerusalem-Jaffa, 4 in Samaria, and 91 in the Northern District), including 571 in municipal areas (407 in Jerusalem, 63 in Jaffa, 74 in Haifa, 2 in Gaza, 1 in Nablus, 2 in Nazareth, 4 in Tiberias, 2 in Bethlehem, 2 in Tulkarem, 8 in Beit Jala, 5 in Beersheba, and 1 in Baisan). [8]
In the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel and began a vicious anti-Zionist campaign. This campaign made many Soviet Jews feel that there was no place for them in the USSR. [9] As a result, many of them applied for emigration visas to leave the Soviet Union. However, in most cases, the government denied their visa requests. In many cases, those "Refuseniks" were fired from their jobs by the government shortly after being refused exit visas from the Soviet Union. They had to accept any job offered to them, even if it was well below their expertise level, to avoid being arrested on charges of social parasitism. [10]
In 1970, a group of Refuseniks attempted to hijack a plane and fly it to Israel in what became known as the Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair. Their attempt failed, and they were subsequently charged with high treason, with some of them receiving death sentences. After the affair, international pressure caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota, thus starting the 1970s Soviet Union aliyah, in which more than 150,000 Soviet Jews immigrated to Israel.
In 1989, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev decided to lift restrictions on emigration. As a result of this decision, almost a million post-Soviet Jews immigrated from across the former Soviet Union to Israel between the years of 1989 and 2006 in what is known as the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah.
Russian Subbotnik families settled in Ottoman Syria in the 1880s as part of the First Aliyah in order to escape oppression in the Russian Empire and later mostly intermarried with local Jews. Their descendants included Israeli Jews such as Alexander Zaïd, Rafael Eitan, Ariel Sharon and Major-General Alik Ron. [11] [12]
In 2004, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar ruled the Subbotniks were not defined as Jewish and would have to undergo an Orthodox conversion. The Interior Ministry classified the Subbotniks as a Christian sect and ineligible for aliyah to Israel, because no one knew if their ancestors had formally converted to Judaism (and there is much historic evidence that they did not). [13] However, this ruling was abolished in 2014, with Subbotniks allowed to retain their Jewish status in Israel, with an attempt by the Interior Ministry to allow remaining Subbotnik families to immigrate to Israel. [14]
The Russian people within Israel have citizen status and are involved in the country's economy and society on all levels. Among the notable members of the community are social media star Anna Zak; actress and former MK Anastassia Michaeli; Footballer Alexander Uvarov who was naturalized in 2004; Actor Kirill Safonov; poet and composer Yuliy Kim, and many others.
Most Russian Israelis are atheists or otherwise non-religious, [15] although anywhere from 56,000 to 100,000 belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. [16] [17] It is estimated that another 10,000 are practitioners of Messianic Judaism, a loose term referring to those who combine elements of Christianity with elements of Judaism and Jewish tradition. [18] About 100,000 Russian Israelis have also undergone conversion to Orthodox Judaism, most of them through the Nativ program. However, there are approximately 400,000 Russian Israelis with full citizenship who have not converted. [19]
In Judaism, a ba'al teshuvah is a Jew who adopts some form of traditional religious observance after having previously followed a secular lifestyle or a less frum form of Judaism.
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described as "the act of going up", moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action – emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel – is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida. The Law of Return that was passed by the Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity.
The Law of Return is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Section 1 of the Law of Return declares that "every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh [immigrant]". In the Law of Return, the State of Israel gave effect to the Zionist movement's "credo" which called for the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state. In 1970, the right of entry and settlement was extended to people with at least one Jewish grandparent and a person who is married to a Jew, whether or not they are considered Jewish under Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law.
Yosef Mendelevitch is a refusenik from the former Soviet Union, also known as a "Prisoner of Zion" and now a politically unaffiliated rabbi living in Jerusalem who gained fame for his adherence to Judaism and public attempts to emigrate to Israel at a time when it was against the law in the USSR.
The Bnei Menashe is a community of Indian Jews from various Tibeto-Burmese ethnic groups from the border of India and Burma who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, allegedly based on the Hmar belief in an ancestor named Manmasi. Some of them have adopted Judaism. The community has around 10,000 members.
Shlomo Moshe Amar is the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. He served in the position of Rishon LeZion from 2003 to 2013; his Ashkenazi counterpart during his tenure was Yona Metzger. In 2014 he became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
Nativ, or officially Lishkat Hakesher or The Liaison Bureau, is an Israeli governmental liaison organization that maintained contact with Jews living in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War and encouraged aliyah, immigration to Israel.
Subbotniks is a common name for adherents of Russian religious movements that split from Sabbatarian sects in the late 18th century.
Chinese people in Israel comprise several separate groups, including the groups of Jews from China who have immigrated to Israel making aliyah, as well as foreign students studying in Israeli universities, businessmen, merchants, and guest workers, along with Israeli citizens of Chinese ancestry.
Shavei Israel is an Israel-based Jewish organization that encourages people of Jewish descent to strengthen their connection with Israel and the Jewish people. Founded by Michael Freund in 2002, Shavei Israel locates lost Jews and hidden Jewish communities and assists them with returning to their roots and, sometimes, with aliyah. The organization's team is composed of academics, educators and rabbis.
Yishai Fleisher is an Israeli Orthodox Jewish rabbi, podcast host, international spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron, and member of Efrat municipal council. Fleisher is an advocate of aliyah, the immigration of Jews to Israel.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by law as the supreme rabbinic authority for Judaism in Israel. The Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two Chief Rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious arrangements for Israeli Jews. It also responds to halakhic questions submitted by Jewish public bodies in the Diaspora. The Council sets, guides, and supervises agencies within its authority.
The 1970s Soviet Union aliyah was the mass immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel after the Soviet Union lifted its ban on Jewish refusenik emigration in 1971. More than 150,000 Soviet Jews immigrated during this period, motivated variously by religious or ideological aspirations, economic opportunities, and a desire to escape anti-Semitic discrimination.
In the years leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and for just over a decade thereafter, a particularly large number of Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet countries. The majority of these emigrants made aliyah, while a sizable amount immigrated to various Western countries. This wave of Jewish migration followed the 1970s Soviet aliyah, which began after the Soviet government lifted the ban on the country's refuseniks, most of whom were Jews who had been denied permission to leave the country.
Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis comprise Israel's largest ethnic and religious community. The core of their demographic consists of those with a Jewish identity and their descendants, including ethnic Jews and religious Jews alike. Approximately 99% of the global Israeli Jewish population resides in Israel; yerida is uncommon and is offset exponentially by aliyah, but those who do emigrate from the country typically relocate to the Western world. As such, the Israeli diaspora is closely tied to the broader Jewish diaspora.
In Israel, prisoners of Zion were Jews who were imprisoned or deported for Zionist activity in countries where such activity was prohibited. The former Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, and the former chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency, Nathan Sharansky, were both prisoners of Zion in the Soviet Union. In 1992 an Israeli law made the status of the prisoner of Zion official, however the status was in use long before.
Herman Branover is a Russian Israeli physicist and Jewish educator. He is best known in the Jewish world as an author, translator, publisher, and educator. Branover is known in the scientific community as a pioneer in the field of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In his personal conduct he adheres to the customs and mystical philosophy of Chabad Hasidism.
Nativ – the National Center for Identity and Conversion is a program of the Jewish Agency that helps Israeli Defense Forces soldiers convert to Judaism.
Avigdor "Avi" Maoz is an Israeli civil servant and politician. The leader of the far-right, religious conservative Noam party, he is currently its sole member in the Knesset.
Gerim, specifically gerey tzedek, are converts to Judaism who are considered full members of the Jewish nation. In Jewish mysticism, they are considered to have Jewish souls, prompting their decision to pursue Jewish conversion.
In addition to the languages that emerged and developed in Israel, at least two languages were brought by immigrants and are still used in Israel today: Russian Sign Language (Yoel 2007) brought by immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s...
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