LOOKING FOR PONTIUS PILATE’S FOOTPRINTS NEAR THE WESTERN WALL: RUSSIAN JEWISH TOURISTS IN JERUSALEM

This study examined trips to Jerusalem by Russian Jewish tourists who visited Israel during late 1998. The research examines the expectations prior to travel, their actual experiences, and how they related to prior expectations. A content analysis was undertaken of tourist memories and reflective diaries. This analysis was supplemented by personal interviews and by participant observations un-dertaken during the course of Russian-language guided tours of Jerusalem. The research set out to examine tourist expectations and the differences between expectations and reality. Russian Jewish tourists arrive in Israel having left a country in transition. In the present study it is proposed that what has been called the “master narrative ” for Russia has been lost and that this combined with the changed status of religion may have led to an intensified search for roots. The self-identification of today’s post-Soviet Jewish intelligentsia is made up of a unique combination of Jewish legacy and the heri-tage of the Grand Russian Culture, which has been created by Jewish writers and artists as well, although its main narrative is a Christian one. They regard Jewish writers and artists as having made a significant contribution to the development of Russian identity. In the present research it is sug-gested that any tour by a member of the Post-Soviet Jewish intelligentsia to Jerusalem may be viewed as a “double pilgrimage. ” The first component is as a pilgrimage to King David’s capital, the capita