ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on non-Jewish Russian immigrants according to the Halakha. It analyses the main trends in the phenomenon over time and discusses its implications on characteristics, identity, and the challenges that this group presents to Israeli society. According to official Israeli statistics, the percentage of non-Jews among the immigrants rose from 6% in 1989 to 39% in 1998, 56.4% in 2001, 58% in 2006, and as high as 80% among Soviet immigrants who came in 2017. The fear from the impact of the increasing number of non-Jewish immigrants on the Jewish character of the state has evoked a wide dispute among secular Israeli politicians and intellectuals. The Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox opposition to the high percentage of non-Jews among the former Soviet Union immigrants are motivated by both religious and pragmatic reasons. Faced by the increasing phenomenon of non-Jewish Soviet immigrants, the Israeli religious establishment made intensive effort to convert left-center group.
