7 - Jewish Germaniya

Summary

A much smaller group of post-Cold War immigrants from the USSR has, by contrast with the Aussiedler, received a lot of public attention: Jewish “quota refugees.” This is mainly because of history: how could Germany of all places (after the Holocaust!) become a popular destination for Jewish emigration? Using autobiographical accounts (Dmitrij Belkin, Dmitrij Kapitelman) and fiction (Olga Grjasnowa et al.), the chapter reconstructs the history and – largely secular – identities of Jews in the Soviet Union, the push factors (economic hardship, antisemitism) and pull factors (Europe, no military service requirement as in Israel, a strong welfare state) for emigration to Germany, the relationship with the existing Jewish community (composed of the descendants of Polish DPs and down to 30,000 people in 1990), and the often difficult locus in mainstream German society. It explores a Soviet Jewish memory of the Second World War that emphasizes victory and heroism, not victimhood, but also shows how widespread poverty is among retirees – in contradistinction to Gentile German antisemitic stereotypes of Jewish wealth.