Religion and identity of Soviet Jewish immigrants in the United States

This thesis explores Soviet Jews' acculturation into American society with the focus on religion and identity. The study concentrates on the immigrant experience of twenty-four Soviet Jews who came to the United States from the 1970s up to 2008. The analysis of the interviewees' family background, professional, economic, religious, and cultural experiences in the Soviet Union and the United States shows that Soviet Jews whose age of emigration is fifty and over have failed to adjust their pre-migration cultural patterns in America where they maintain their Russian identity. Soviet Jews who immigrated in their twenties, thirties, and forties combine both Russian and American heritage in the United States. Those who were brought to America in their childhood and in their teens are fully acculturated into American society. While the majority of the older immigrants base their Jewish identity on feelings, the younger generation defines it in cultural terms.Thesis (M.A.)--Lehigh University, 2009.School code: 0105