Why did Russians move to Israel?
Society
After the partition of Poland in 1772, the bulk of Jews began to live under the control of the Russian Empire. As the dominant Russian religious community—the Russian Orthodox Church—had a strong anti-Judaism sentiment, the hostility towards Russian Jews persisted under the Tsarist control. Catherine II created the Pale of Settlement, annexed from Turkey on the Black Sea shore, where Jews were permitted to settle.
A series of actions related to the integration and Russification of Jewish communities, such as the open encouragement of converts in the Russian army and establishment of state-sponsored schools with great focus on the Russian language instruction, existed, but the effect was nonetheless meager. The skepticism towards the “real transformation of Jews” and Judeophobia was prevalent within the nation. The waves of pogroms since 1881 marked a “turning point” for Russian Jewish life. Because of the long-lasting economic suppression and persecution, many Russian Jews sought emigration overseas for shelter.
The process of massive emigration ceased after the Russian revolution. Because of the collapse of the Pale of Settlement in 1915, Jews were allowed to migrate from shtetls into larger Russian cities. The 1917 Revolution promised to grant all Russian citizens full rights and opportunities. Most discriminatory policies faced by Jews in the 1920s were related to Jewish religion and Zionism, but the dissolution of the Evsektsiya in 1930 brought an end to the Jewish cultural life in the Soviet Union. The anti-Zionist propaganda promoted by the Soviet government led to mistrust towards both Zionist Jews and non-Zionist Jews, preventing Jews from being entirely accepted by Soviet society. The suppression of Jewish life and discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union contributed to the later emigration movement from the 1960s and led to massive Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and 1990s.
II. Jewish Emigration from Russia
i. Social-Political Factor
Jews were forbidden to settle outside of the Pale of Settlement since the late-18th century. The initial major pogrom happened in 1871 in Odessa, which changed from a local event to a national event. Because of the religious antipathy and economic exploitation, the Christians often criticized Jews as a group of people who offended Christ and grew rich by sucking the blood of Christians (Klier, 21).
The Tsarist administration was indifferent to the suppression of the pogroms as they broke out, as the authorities were inclined to see disorder accompanied by the destruction of Jewish properties. Jews, from Russian merchants’ perspective, stole businesses from working-class people. They operated taverns, took leases from estate holders, bought peasant’s crops before the harvest (Mishkinsky, 74). The violence could appease the anger of people from the working class in Russia.
The extensive anti-Jewish violence broke out in 1881, followed by the assassination of Alexander the Second. Jews were turned into a scapegoat of murdering Alexander. The pogrom broke out in the city of Elisavetgrad and further spread to the rural areas. The new Tsar, Alexander III, publicly blamed Jews for triggering the disorder and riot. He responded by passing the “Temporary Rules of 3 May 1881,” which was also called the May Laws. The law banned Jews from settling outside the towns, making sales or taking leases of the real estate, and trading on Sundays and Christian holidays (Gur, 42).
The second wave of pogrom erupted in 1903 in the capital of Kishinev during Passover. The pogrom did not only destroy thousands of Jewish shops and houses, but it led to savage murders with hundreds of people wounded. With the 1905 Russian Revolution, the anti
Jewish violence intensified. With the Russian government’s support, the pogrom occurred widespread in Jewish communities and caused hundreds of deaths among Jews.
ii. Economic Factor
The cause of the emigration based on political factors was only in the short run. The anti-Jewish violence frequently occurred within the Jewish communities, and the phenomenon of the pogrom was a part of life for Russian Jews (Klier, 33). International emigration usually happens because of economic factors. Though Jewish migration, on the one hand, was to evade further violence from the Russian government, the primary reason was to seek higher income and a better life in the new place.
The Jewish emigration from Russia began in the 1870s, and most of the emigrants were young, working-aged people who tried to seek a better life in America. Russia, from the Western perspective, was a poor and agrarian country. The industrial revolution took place in Russia in the late 19th century; thus, Russia still suffered from low productivity and less modernization across most of the time in the 19th century.
The heavy industries were mostly located outside of the Pale of Settlement, leading to the underdevelopment of the Jewish economy. Because of the non-mechanized manufacturing in the Pale, the Jewish firms usually employed only a small number of workers and produced much fewer products compared to the other Russian firms. Almost all the Russian Jews were in the working class, and only a few Jewish craftsmen could find jobs in the luxury goods market.
Although most Jewish laborers worked full time, their incomes were hard to support the entire family. The Jewish master tailors could earn nearly 300 rubles in Poland, but they could only earn as low as a little more than 100 rubles in Russia (Lederhendler). The typical Jewish tailors, who worked sixteen hours per day in a dirty condition, could find it hard to support their family due to chronic unemployment. Women who worked more than fifteen hours a day in the knitting-loom operators could only earn less than a ruble a week (Lederhendler).
Though the Russian government implemented reforms related to labor, such as reducing working hours and improving the working environment, the reforms did not apply to Jews in many factories. The discrimination towards Jews still forced them to work longer hours a day with minimum wages. Accompanied by low wages, a massive increase in the Russian Jewish population occurred in the 19th century. The number rose from “1.6 to 5 million” from the 1820s to the end of the century (Lederhendler). However, the employed Jewish workers only accounted for 30 percent of the total (Lederhendler). The breadwinner faced tremendous pressure to support the entire family. The impossible economic predicament for artisans and petty tradespeople led to the last resort—the migration to America.
Russian Jewish tended to seek out freedom and refuge. From the Jewish perspective, America could provide them with much more economical and social opportunities. There were no persecutions or restrictive laws on the economic affairs specifically to Jews. Jews could start their business and continue their religious practices once they settled. The emigration to America was challenging and complex. Because of the economic hardship and inability to afford the cost of the entire family’s journey, the head of the family usually first moved to the US. After a few months, he would reunite with the rest of his family. A ticket to America was 70 rubles for an adult, 5 rubles for a child under the age of five, and half-price for a child up to twelve years old (Gur, 51).
A Jewish family usually consisted of six people—father, mother, and four children. The cost of sailing for an entire family would reach at least 220 rubles. There were also other expenses, such as documents for emigration and food. Thus, it would be difficult for a family to finance the cost of the journey for all family members at the same time. When the family decided to emigrate, considerable pressure came to the side of the wife. Not only did she need to look after the children, but she had to find work to support the family without her husband. Based on the memoir of Rachel Kositza, she experienced “difficult years filled with despair and anxiety” (Gur, 52).
Though she lived with her brother, her brother did not have the financial ability to support her family. Rachel’s economic situation became worse, living in a much harsher condition. She did not even have enough money to purchase wood for heating (Gur, 52). In the husband’s absence, the wife became the sole provider to the family and had the full responsibility to take care of the children. When the wife received the tickets from her husband, she had to sell all the family assets in Russia and sail with her children.
The emigration process could be much harder for women. Under Russian law, a woman could only obtain a passport with the consent of her husband. Many husbands left without leaving passports for their wives. Though the most straightforward method was to let her husband declare in front of a notary in America that he wished to reunite with her family members.
However, bureaucracy procedures were usually complex in front of women (Gur, 54). They usually paid to Russian agents, who would lead the illegal immigrants crossing the frontier at night or directly bribe the sailors on the ship to America. However, the risk was high by bribing since some sailors would not comply with the promise. Unmarried women faced even more dangers.
Since they emigrated alone and may not be familiar with the emigration process, some white-slave traders deceived and kidnapped them to the brothels overseas (Gur, 58). The desertion of wives frequently happened as well. The longer the time husbands stayed in America without their family, the less emotional connection they had with them.
As many marriages among Jews were arranged and not based on true love, the illusion of “second chance in their life” was created for men emigrating to the new world (Gur, 65). On the other hand, the deserted wives not only had to continue living in the underprivileged circumstance with economic hardship, but their fears of becoming agunah came true. In some situations, husbands did not intentionally abandon their families. As they arrived in an entirely new place, they did not understand how to read and write the local language. Some husbands lost contact with their wives during the long journey to America.
The Mutual Aid Societies also assisted the Jewish Emigration from Russia to the US. Because of the outbreak of the 1881 pogroms, many Jewish refugees fled to the US. The Mutual Aid Societies supported local refugee organizations, eliminated tensions between assimilated Western European Jews with newly arrived Russian Jews, and provided economic and political support (Williams, 90). They resettled home for Russian Jews and tried to place them in available jobs in America. The Mutual Aid Societies also helped arrange emigration and bought
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ship tickets for Jewish refugees. Many Russian Jews settled in poor areas within the major cities, such as New York, and found work in factories. Many Jewish communities were passionate about helping the newly arrived Jews by familiarizing them with local practices and identities.
III. Jewish Emigration from the Soviet Union
i. Stalin’s Regime and WWII
Stalin came to power in the 1930s, and he demanded purges and repressions of Jews. His idea of Soviet nationalism stifled any other expression of nationalism, such as Zionism. The abolition of the Evsektsiya, an important Jewish national section of the Soviet Communist Party, led to the reduction and devastation of Yiddish publication, communal organizations and activities, and Jewish cultural life (Salitan, 18). WWII caused further hardship to Soviet Jewish life.
As Germany launched Operation Barbarossa—invading the Soviet Union with millions of German troops—in 1941, the mass murder of the Jewish population occurred. Soviet Jews who survived during WWII did not tend to return to their previous living areas. Not only was it hard to continue living in the areas where their families were killed, but also hostility towards Jews was still heightened. Some Jews moved to urban areas after the war, but this movement made the Soviet Union further aware that Jews were acting as outsiders within the territory of the Soviet Union (Stalitan, 20). The “Jewish Question” became prevalent in front of the Soviet Union government, while, at the same time, the struggle of Soviet Jewish life led to the continuous demand of emigration to Israel.
Israel was historically the home of Jews, where Soviet Jews could be treated with equal rights in religion and culture without the annoyance of antisemitism. In the initial meeting between the Soviet Union and Israel, Israel saw the Jewish emigration as a significant challenge to the foreign policy. The Soviet Union officials held that the national problems related to the Soviet Jews were solved within the nation, and they were not inclined to take the precedent by allowing Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.
Understanding the Soviet Union’s position, Israeli leaders did not wish to openly discuss the emigration of Soviet Jews in fear of negatively impacting the relationship between the two countries (Sementchenko, 318). The question related to the Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel lasted for a few years. The first appeal to the Soviet Union to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel did not appear until 1950.
In 1951, Israel made the demand in an official note to the Soviet Union for the first time, stating that “the return of the Jews to their historical homeland is a paramount mission of the State of Israel” (Govrin, 327). The Israeli government openly expressed the demand in the United Nations with aggressive condemnation of the Soviet Union’s discriminatory policies against Jews. However, in return, the Soviet Union warned the Israeli government that their action put the diplomatic relations of the two countries in a dangerous position. In the 1950s, though many Soviet Jews demanded emigration from the Soviet Union to Israel, the Soviet government banned it.
ii. Birth of Jewish Emigration Movement and the Struggle of Emigration From the 1950s to the 1960s, only a small amount of emigration took place among Soviet Jews. During the Khrushchev regime, emigration for families’ reunification was a valid reason for Soviet Jews. The limited emigration was a method for the Soviet government to deal with the unassimilated Jews.
Though the number was relatively meager, it hinted at a precedent for increasing further emigration. Rapid industrialization and modernization pervaded the Soviet Union, but changes to Jewish life were often accompanied by discrimination, such as being limited to accessing higher education and excluded from civil services (Salitan, 29). With the Soviet Union firmly supporting the Arabs, The Arab-Israeli War led Zionists to lose faith in the reform and change of Jewish life within the Soviet Union. Instead, they began to seek strategies to emigrate from the Soviet Union. An increasing number of Zionist movements existed, and the voice for greater human rights and religious freedom was heightened within the Soviet Union. Accompanied by calling for equal rights, many Jews publicly appealed for the freedom of emigration by utilizing international human rights principles.
To solve the Zionist problem, the viability of emigration came as a solution to the current situation. The Soviet government began to issue more visas to Jews; but, simultaneously, they set more obstacles to the visas’ application process. To apply for a visa, an individual did not only need to submit an application, but also he had to submit an invitation letter from his relatives living abroad, a declaration of his intention to leave, a summary of his academic and work history, a certificate from his residence to indicate his relationship with his family members, a copy of the certificate of birth and marriage, and diplomats from education institutions (Salitan, 39).
Since a reference of an individual’s academic and work was required, Jews could face problems if their employers refused to submit the reference. The invitation letter from abroad could cause trouble since the Soviet Union often prevented postal delivery progress.
As the amount of application was huge in the 1970s, the number of rejected applicants rose dramatically to more than 14,000 from 1975 to 1980, and without replying to the Jewish applicants became a means of deferring emigrants (Khanin, 76). The applicants usually faced harassment by Office of Visas and Registrations officers, their employers, and even their neighbors. The Soviet government was more inclined to grant visas to activists in the Zionist movements to weaken the Zionist movement and reduce future demand.
The first mass migration existed from 1968 to 1973, and the majority of the emigrants were Jews from the areas annexed after the second world war (Salitan, 33). These Jews were most unassimilated to the Soviet government, and granting visas for them was a way to reduce Zionist movements. Though obstacles increased for emigrants, the total number of Jewish emigrants continuously increased from “13022 in 1971” to “34733 in 1973” (Salitan, 34). The expanding size of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union led to a higher demand for future emigration.
In the early 1970s, with approximately thirteen hundred thousand Jews left the Soviet Union, more than eighty percent of them decided to settle in Israel (Salitan, 48). The initial concern related to the settlement in Israel was due to the security factor caused by the 1973 October War in the Middle East. The number of Soviet Jewish emigrants to Israel decreased in the following few years since they still could not find a stable life in their destination.
A change of their destination existed in the late 1970s, so-called drop-outs, as an increasing number of Soviet Jewish immigrants tended to settle in the United States, Canada, or other western countries. These immigrants mostly came from urban areas with better educated and more assimilated. They valued their employment and income prospects more than settlement in a Jewish State. Throughout the 1970s, thought about half of Jews returned to their historic homeland, another half decided to emigrate to the United States and other western countries.
As the 1970 Leningrad hijacking issue led the Soviet treatment of the Jewish community to become an international human rights issue, the international society began to put more attention on Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union (Michael, 55). The promulgation of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Federal Trade Act allowed America to recognize Soviet Jewish emigration as a more critical factor in its foreign policy (Michael, 56). The attitude toward the Soviet Union became aggressive since America joined in the fight for Soviet Jewish emigration. Because of the inverse relationship between the Soviet Union and America and a trend of turning inward of the Soviet Union, the number of Jewish Emigration dropped substantially in the early 1980s. The establishment of the state-sponsored anti-Zionist Committee in 1983 further stimulated the anti-Zionist campaign by directly reducing the size of Jewish emigration.
iii. Mass Emigration in the late 1980s and 1990s
A turning point of the Soviet Jewish Emigration came in the late 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev became the president of the Soviet Union. He recognized the need to modernize the current Soviet Union and embarked on a series of reforms, including Perestroika and Glasnost, which introduced free-market policies and freedom of expression and association. The actions to prevent Jewish emigration became less intensive. The anti-Zionist Committee’s status was lowered, and rules related to the exit from the Soviet Union were not strictly executed. The Vienna Concluding Document further eased the Jewish emigration, as it required the Soviet government to make the decision on applications related to family reunification in three months. It also stated that the rejection of the application due to the reasons for knowing the state’s secrets and without permission from relatives was not valid (Salitan, 66).
1988 saw a massive change to the Jewish life within the Soviet Union. The central government valued the petitions by Soviet Jews. Jewish culture and religion were allowed to practice, and high-level educational institutions were open to Jews again. The changes led some Jews to reobtain confidence in continuing to live in the Soviet Union, but it also escalated the size of emigration. Doubtfulness towards Soviet reforms and fear towards antisemitism still kept a high level of demand for emigration. Though discrimination against Jews was condemned by the Soviet Union, accompanied by Perestroika, the freedom of expression gave opportunities to express an anti-Semitic view. Jews were worried that they would be pointed at as scapegoats for the problems related to Perestroika in the future.
In 1989, president Gorbachev abandoned the emigration restriction, and Soviet Jews were finally granted the freedom of emigration. By the end of 1989, the number of Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union reached 71,000 (Goldman, 349). Though approximately seventy percent of Soviet Jews received Israeli visas, most of them had never gone to Israel. They switched their destination to Vienna and finally came to America. Fear of receiving excessive emigration from the Soviet Union, the American government set a standard for Jewish applicants. Only the people who expressed valid fear toward persecution could apply to be refugees to the United States.
Most applicants who did not meet this standard could not emigrate to Israel to escape life in the Soviet Union. The phenomenon of drop-outs ended, and most Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union settled in Israel after the 1990s.
IV. Conclusion
Millions of Russian Jews emigrated to America between the 1850s and 1920s to evade poverty, revolution, and suppression. The main reason stimulating them to emigrate was the economic factor. They wished to find a “second chance” in the new world to improve their economic condition and provide their children with a better education. Though discrimination towards Jews still happened in employment, academia, and the law system, America offered Jews a much broader spectrum of choices, and Russian Jews enjoyed unprecedented freedom, security, and prosperity in their destination.
Under Stalin’s Regime, the suppression and prevalent antisemitism led to the massive demand from Soviet Jewish emigration in the Soviet Union. Family reunification was a valid reason for emigration, but the number of emigrants was minimal. Because of the increasing demand for emigration and the historical relationship between Israel and Jews, the Israeli government openly demanded the Soviet Union grant free emigration of Jews to Israel.
However, as the Soviet government had never been granted free emigration to any ethnic groups, it refused the demand. The Arab-Israeli War caused the Zionist to lose faith in domestic reforms and led to the emigration movement. As the Zionist movement became popular within the Soviet Union, the Soviet government tended to issue more visas by removing Zionist leaders and reducing Zionist movements. Though there was an increasing number of Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and 1970s, the number of refuseniks increased largely. As the relationship between the Soviet Union and America became worse, the Soviet Union turned inward in the early 1980s, with the number of granted Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union dropping abruptly.
The light to Soviet Jews came in the late-1980s, as President Gorbachev promoted political reformation and granted more equal rights and freedom to Jews. The freedom of emigration became granted to Jews in 1989. And a large number of Soviet Jews headed to the United States. Fear of receiving excessive refugees, the American government only allowed Jews with a well founded fear of persecution to emigrate. Most Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union were redirected to Israel in the 1990s.
Works Cited
Goldman, Minton. “United States Policy and Soviet Jewish Emigration from Nixon to Bush.” Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union, edited by Yaacov Ro’i, Routledge, 1995, pp 338-361.
Govrin, Josef. “The Beginnings of the Struggle for Soviet Jewish Emigration and Its Impact on Israel-Soviet Relations.” Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union, edited by Yaacov Ro’i, Routledge, 1995, pp 327-337.
Gur Alroey. “‘And I Remained Alone in a Vast Land’: Women in the Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe.” Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society, vol. 12, no. 3, 2006, pp. 39–72.
Khanin, Vladimir. “The refusenik community in Moscow: Social Networks and Models of Identification.” East European Jewish Affairs, vol. 41, no.1-2, 2011, pp. 75-88, doi: 10.1080/13501674.2011.591661.
Klier, John. “The Pogrom Paradigm in Russian History.” Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 13-34.
Michael, Davies. “The Fault Lines of Freedom.” Helvidius Group of Columbia University, 2015, pp. 49-68, doi: 10.7916/D8V124SV.
Lederhendler, Eli. “Classless: On the Social Status of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 50, no. 2, 2008, pp. 509-534, doi: 10.1017/S0010417508000224.
Mishkinsky, Moshe. “‘Black Repartition’ and the Pogrom of 1881-1882.” Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp 62-83.
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Ruppin, Arthur. “The Jews in the Modern World.” London: MacMillan and Co, 1934. Salitan, Laurie. Politics and Nationality in Contemporary Soviet-Jewish Emigration, 1968–89. London, Palgrave Macmillan, 1992, doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-09756-2_1 Sementchenko, Nina, and Sergei Mirokhin. “Soviet Diplomacy and the Issue of Jewish Immigration to Israel.” Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union, edited by Yaacov Ro’i, Routledge, 1995, pp 316-326. Williams, John. “Exodus from Europe: Jewish Diaspora Immigration from Central and Eastern Europe to the United States.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, vol. 16, pp. 85-102, doi: 10.1163/15691497-12341422.
Why did Russians move to Israel?
