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Ukrainian Jewish Repatriates in Israel

 

Ukrainian Jewish Repatriates in Israel:

Jewish Identity in the Context of the Russian-Ukrainian War

 

As a result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine the world has faced an unprecedented number refugees from Ukraine, fleeing from the horrors of war to various countries such as Poland, Germany, France, Canada, and others. A significant number of these people have been arriving to Israel – these are both non-Jews and people who are entitled to Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return.

In Spring of 2022, the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) launched a project “Ukrainian Jewish Repatriates in Israel: Jewish Identity in the Context of the Russian-Ukrainian War,” focusing on Jews, children and grandchildren of Jews, as well as their non-Jewish spouses who came to Israel after the beginning of the war.

According to the data provided by the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, over the period between Jan. 1, 2022 and June 30, 2024, 17,731 Jews repatriated to Israel from Ukraine. (https://www.gov.il/he/pages/aliyah_2022; https://www.gov.il/he/pages/aliyah_2023; https://www.gov.il/he/pages/aliyah-data-2024)

These people’s individual stories of leaving Ukraine differ considerably: some left in the first weeks or even days of the war, others stayed there for months, including on the territories occupied by the Russian forces; some never experienced air raids, others lived through bombardments; some never lost their family members or property, others lost both; many families were split. Some first opted to stay, but then realized that it was becoming too dangerous to do so. Some had old and sick family members and didn’t move lest they should not survive the trip – and then eventually had to hit the road. All had to go through a third country (usually Moldova) to eventually boarded on an Israeli plane, all relied on various Israeli organizations and volunteers to make it here.

In full humanitarian recognition and compassion to these people’s tragedies, we as researchers in Social Sciences and Humanities regard this as a unique anthropological situation, which has to be captured now precisely for the deeper understanding of how people, individually and as groups, reflect upon and interpret the war situation as a whole, which resources they use to cope with multiple afflictions that came their way, and how they are reimagining their lives in the new country.

The principal distinctive feature of this research is that it is taking a broader anthropological perspective at the ongoing war-induced displacement: first and foremost, we are focusing on these people’s Jewish identity and ways in which it was re-shaped by the war and the arrival to Israel.

Among other things,

* we strive to uncover, how their Jewishness impacts their vision of the whole context of Russian-Ukrainian relations and Ukrainian politics, as well as their political allegiances and general humanitarian commitments;

* we ask whether these people’s flight from Ukraine had a Jewish “accent” to it – in other words, how Jewish ties and networks facilitated the very possibility of their relocation as well as their settling in a new place;

* we also attempt, in as much as we can, to describe an anthropological profile of the Ukrainian part of the war-related Jewish Aliyah in light of their integration into the Israeli society.

Within our project we recorded 100 full-length interviews using qualitative anthropology methods and exercising participant observation.

We see our project on the Ukrainian Jewish refugees in Israel both as part of the broader research on Ukrainian refugees that is being undertaken in many countries at the moment (Germany, Poland, France, Canada, and others), and as a distinct scholarly inquiry, in which we will apply “the Jewish lens,” and simultaneously, “anthropological lens” to the ongoing Jewish immigration from Ukraine.

 

Project participants:

Staff, The Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dan Rosenbaum, independent researcher, Haifa.

Evgenii Shmukler, M. Sc. (Embryology), MSU, Director of documentary TV programs, Academy of Mediaindustry, Mosco; Independent filmmaker.

Meir Itkin, MA (Linguistics and Medieval Studies), journalist (CurrentTime.tv and other projects in Russia and Israel); Editor and museum collection manager (Haifa Museums).

Julia Ulianova, MA (Russian Literature and Linguistics).

 

Short Description of the Project Questionnaire

This broad anthropological perspective that we assume in this research reflects itself in our extensive questionnaire, which attempts to embrace issues such as our informants’ pre-war Jewish identity, their attitude to Israel and immigration, their vision of the political developments in the independent Ukraine, their stance to the present-day Israeli political and social landscape. As of now the questionnaire consists of roughly 150 questions, but it’s being modified depending on the changing political situation.

In brief, the project questionnaire consists of 5 thematic sections

“Jewish traditions.” Questions of this section focus on the degree to which the informants upkeep the Jewish religious and cultural traditions and their Jewish self-identification more broadly. In particular, we aim to find out, how our informants’ Jewish identity is inscribed into Ukrainian language and culture over the last three decades, i.e., after Ukrainian Declaration of Independence in 1991.

“Political context.” Questions of this section aim to gauge the degree, to which our informants were participating in the social, cultural and political life of the independent Ukraine, their view of various political developments that took place in the country since 1991, their assessments of Ukrainian political leaders, their views on Russian-Ukrainian relations before the war, their attitudes to the events on Maidan in 2014, Russian annexation of Crimea, formation of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republic.” Specific attention will be paid to how these political changes impacted the Jewish life in Ukraine.

“Jewish immigration from the USSR/ Ukraine before the war with Russia.” Here we plan to look at the informants’ views of Jewish immigration to Israel (or other countries) over a fairly long period of time, at their arguments “pro-” and “contra-” immigration, and at the impact that the earlier knowledge/experience of immigration produced upon their current choice of Israel as the country of exodus.

“The Russian-Ukrainian war.” This section contains questions on whether the war was expected, on the informants’ immediate experience of it, on their evacuation/ flight from Ukraine to Israel, on the changes of their attitude to the Russian and Ukrainian leadership, on the Russian propaganda, on reasons and outcomes of the war and future relations between Russia and Ukraine.

“Life in Israel as a refugee/ repatriate.” Finally, we will look at ways, in which our informants are integrating into Israeli life, as well as at how the Israeli experience is shaping their Jewish identity and national self-consciousness.

 

Full Project Questoinnaire (click here)

 

Project Video Teaser:

by Evgeniy Schmukler

Gallery of Select Interview Excerpts (click here)

Full-text Interviews (click here)

Conferences Where the Project was Presented: 

 

Additional Sources: 

Also, visit the website of the project Exodus-2022, “Testimonies of Jewish Refugees from the Russo-Ukrainian War,” dedicated to chronicling and preserving personal testimonies of Jewish refugees about the days following the Russian invasion of Ukraine: https://exodus-2022.org/

Gold, Mikhail. “Exodus. Three Histories. Documentary witnesses of the Jews from Ukraine, who were able to escape hell created by Russian ‘“Denazificators.’” Novaya Gazeta Evropa, June 5, 2023 (in Russian). (https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/06/05/iskhod-tri-istorii)

“One-way Suitcase: 20 Real Stories from Ukrainian Refugees During the First Days of Russia's Invasion.” Courtesy of Agudat Israel of Moldova. [click here] 

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/02/10/my-vsio-brosili-i-ushli

 

“We left  everything and went away.” Stories of Ukrainian Jews who survived the Holocaust 80 years ago, and in 2022 had to flee from Russian bombs. February 10, 2024. Michael Gold, exclusively for Novaya Gazeta Europe (in Russian)

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/02/28/second-exodus-en

Second exodus. Some Ukrainian Jews who fled the Germans as children were again forced to flee from the Russians 80 years later. 28 February 2024. Michael Gold, exclusively for Novaya Gazeta Europe (in English)

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/03/02/mariupolia-prosto-net

“Mariupol is simply not there any more”. A complete siege of the city started two years ago. We publish memoirs of Mariupol dwellers who survived cold, hunger and constant shelling. March 2, 2024. Michael Gold, exclusively for Novaya Gazeta Europe (in Russian)