Integration and the Social Dynamic of Ethnic Migration: The Jews from the Former Soviet Union in Israel

Whether strolling along Ben Yehuda or doing some shopping on Dizengoff, the passer-by coming to Israel for a few days’ visit will inevitably be astonished and intrigued. The discussion overheard on the terrace of a café or between a young couple in front of a Supersol store, and the newspaper abandoned on the seat of the 405 bus somewhere between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are all clues revealing a country curiously tinted with sounds and scenes which are far more Slavic than Mediterranean. In terms of migration, Israel is, alongside Germany, one of the first countries in the world to have felt the consequences of one of the greatest geopolitical events of the post-Cold War era-the collapse of the Soviet Union.