Impact of the Israeli-Arab conflict on the Jews of Russia in Israel in the Contemporary Hebrew Novel

Abstract

From the first attempts to establish Israel until the present time, this entity has witnessed
a history full of wars and uprisings with the Arabs, produced by its usurper presence itself
on Arab lands in general, and Palestinian lands in particular. This ongoing conflict cast a
dark shadow on all sectors of Israeli society, including the Jews of Russia, which has had
a direct impact on Modern Hebrew literature in general, and the contemporary Hebrew
novel in particular. The importance of the study is due to the fact that it is the first study -
as far as I know - to deal with the impact of the Israeli-Arab conflict on the community of
Russian Jews in Israel as this issue is discussed through two models of the contemporary
Hebrew novel by two Israeli female literary figures from Russian origin. The two novels
are “Victor and Masha” (2012) by the writer “Alona Kimhi”, which addressed the problem
of the political integration of Jews who emigrated from Russia to Israel during the wave
of the seventies of the twentieth century, and the novel “The Lost Community” (2014), by
the writer “Ola Groisman”, which She dealt with the political situation of Jewish
immigrants – especially young immigrants – from Russia to Israel in the seventies and
nineties of the same century .The study aims to reveal the position of Russian Jews on the
personality of the Arab in light of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs, in addition to
revealing the extent to which the Israeli-Arab conflict affects the Russian Jews' sense of
security and stability within Israel. This study adopts on the critical analytical approach,
which includes analysis and interpretation of the two novels to highlight and address the
issue of the impact of the Israeli-Arab conflict on Russian Jews in Israel. The study yields
several results, including that the problems surrounding the process of integration into the
Israeli society, in addition to the state of war, insecurity and instability in this society, have
caused severe psychological damages to many Russian Jews. This eventually led to a
reverse immigration of a large sector of them.