From Russian Jewry, with love

Just as Avigdor Lieberman has made a splash in the new the Israeli government, even landing a spot on the 2009 Top 100 Influential Individuals, I have ascended to Jewlicious. However, I am not on the 2009 Top 100 Anything, except probably Chronic Worriers and most militant Sabra humus buyers on the East Coast.

What is the deal with all these Russian Jews lately? Why are they everywhere, and why do you need more of them?  The answer is that, like Nutella, you can never have too much of us.   We are one of the craziest Jewish subgroups out there.  We staunchly identify with being Jewish without being religious (some of us don’t know a shteitel from a dreidel); we LOVE Israel (as evidenced by the video below, which features Russian singer Alexander Rosenbaum shilling for Israel Beiteinu by using appeals that include singing Yom V’Laila repeatedly for added effect); and, we love combining vodka with political incorrectness.

Russian-speaking Jews are Googlers, political dissidents and even jewlers.  We are from Russia, Ukraine, and all the usual shtetl hotspots, but also from Uzbekistan and Armenia.  We have been marked by 70+ years of communism, which completely reformulated the way we looked at ourselves as Jews.  But, now the control is in our hands, and we are making our own way.  We are becoming prominent actors in the Jewish community (For example, I’ve organized more Israel events than Weizmann and Herzl combined in my time as a Hillel intern.)

Thanks to Jewlicious for graciously hosting me.  I’m excited to explore Russian Jewish/Israeli/Nutella issues.