ABSTRACT
Mrs. Galili is a well-known journalist who was on the staff of Haaretz and who followed the mixed fortunes of the Russian aliya in Israel. Bronfman, who arrived in Israel in 1980, had been a community activist, and he served as a member of the Knesset but later on left politics for business. The politics of the Russian aliya is the most controversial issue in this context. The first Russian party headed by Natan Sharanski came into being in the early 1990s. Sharanski had been a true hero in his homeland, but he was not a great success in politics after his departure. His party moved from center to the right, and eventually, he was pushed aside by Lieberman who moved even further to the right and became a major player in Israeli politics. The politics of the Russian community is often explained against the background of its Soviet origins, admittedly not the ideal preparatory school for a democratic education.
