ISSN 1350-1674 print/1743-971X online/05/020167-21 © 2005 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13501670500370181 East European Jewish Affairs, Vol. 35, No. 2, December 2005 LIVING IN GERMANY, LONGING FOR ISRAEL The elderly Jewish Immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany 1 Nelly Elias Taylor and Francis Ltd FEEJ_A_137001.sgm 10.1080/13501670500370181 East European Jewish Affairs 1350-1674 (print)/1743-971X (online) Original Article 2005 Taylor & Francis 35 2 000000 2005 Nelly Elias enelly@bgumail.bgu.ac.il When I entered for the first time through the doors of the city synagogue, where the Russian cultural club Nash Dom was located, I saw a group of five people, all of them immi- grants from the former Soviet Union, aged about 60 and above. Their discussion was very loud and I asked myself what the subject was that touched these people so much. “They cannot stop it; they must finish the wall”—this was the first sentence I heard. “Europeans can say whatever they want, but Sharon will not stop. He promised! He said that even if this wall can save one person’s life, it must be built!” “And what about Sderot?” asked another man. “You can’t build a wall against the Kassams. Israelis must think about stronger measures.” For the next 15 minutes I was introduced to a brief summary of the current security crisis that Israel has been going through for the last four years. Moreover, the people who took part in the discussion seemed deeply excited about the subject and showed an impres- sive orientation of Israeli geography, its foreign policy and the strategy of the Israeli army. Being Israeli myself, I was used to these kinds of political discussions, but I did not expect to hear it here in Germany, especially not with such emotional involvement. What is going on here? Why is it so important to these people? I asked myself. These questions accompanied me during my research while in Germany and this article represents an initial effort in finding the answers. Introduction At the beginning of 1990s, Germany’s historical obligation towards the Jews and its attempt to revive Jewish life in the land of the Holocaust encouraged the German govern- ment to establish a special immigration quota and to provide generous absorption condi- tions for Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU). 2 Within a framework of this quota, during the last decade Germany admitted about 185,000 Russian immigrants of Jewish origin and bestowed full refugee status upon them. The expectations of the German government as well as the leaders of Jewish communal organizations were that these newcomers would infuse “fresh blood” into the Jewish community in Germany and, in parallel, they would fully integrate into the host society. 3