In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union finally buckled to international pressure and allowed Russian Jews to emigrate out of the country. At a 7 May 2009 Kennan Institute lecture, Sam Kliger, Director of Russian Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, discussed the results of surveys he conducted on Russian-Jewish immigrants living in the United States. These immigrants number 750,000 in the United States; 350,000 of them live in New York.

"Russian immigration to the U.S. is a success story," said Kliger as he presented some statistics garnered from his research: 65 percent of adults have college degrees; 10 percent of adults have advanced degrees; and economically, Russian Jews do as well as American Jews. However, one of the challenges for Russian-Jewish immigrants is identity, which Kliger says is "not just a philosophical question, but a practical one."

The community of Russian-Jewish immigrants is by no means homogeneous; there are Ashkenazi Jews from the western states of the former Soviet Union, Bukharian Jews from Central Asia, Israeli Jews, and others. Moreover, Jewish identity does not correlate with religious identification. Kliger explained that only 55 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as "strongly Jewish" and 15 percent of those even said that the Russian Orthodox Church is the most attractive religion to them.

Kliger also noted that American Jews generally are more engaged than their Russian counterparts; they are more inclined to be active in their communities and to volunteer with local government and charities. Conversely, Russian Jews from the Soviet Union harbor a "detached affiliation" from both their political and religious communities because of the inherently Soviet mistrust of government.

Hopeful about the future, Kliger concluded by talking about the children of Russian-American immigrants. While most people might expect them to grow up thoroughly American, Kliger pointed out that unlike in the 1970s and 1980s, young people today think it is "cool" to identify themselves as Russian and to embrace that part of their identity. It is only a matter of time, Kliger said, before some of these Russian youth are later elected to Congress by their Russian-Jewish immigrant constituencies.


By Larissa Eltsefon
Blair Ruble, Director, Kennan Institute