Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Personal names, online nicknames, and migrant identity in Israeli Russian conflict discourse

Mon, December 17, 8:30 to 10:00am, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Harborview 1 Ballroom

Abstract

The study examines conflict discourse involving personal names and online nicknames based on personal names adopted by migrant ex-Soviet Jews on an Israeli online forum for Russian speakers, souz.co.il. Most of the forum participants are ex-Soviet Jews who reside in Israel, but some live in Russia, Ukraine, the US, and elsewhere. The primary language of the forums is Russian with Hebrew code-switching. By examining how Jewish-Russian migrants engage in conflict around the perceived Russian-ness, Jewishness, and/or Israeli-ness of nicknames and personal names, I show how migrants negotiate key aspects of their identity, build alliances, or distance themselves from their interlocutors.

The majority of Russian Jews were pressured to Russify their Yiddish and Hebrew names after the 1917 Revolution. Research on the Russification of Jewish names is scarce (Verschik 2003), but information can be gleaned from genealogical websites where Jewish ex-Soviets ask for help back-translating their Russian-coded names into Yiddish or Hebrew. In Soviet times, Russified Soviet-Jewish names often encoded information that could be used by speakers to glean patterns of assimilation and intermarriage, recognize each other, and express solidarity or disaffiliation. In Israel, most Russified names sounded alien and insufficiently Jewish to Hebrew speakers; migrants were pressured to Hebraize their names, though most declined (Lawson and Glushkovskaya 1994; Gitelman 2016). Personal names thus carry a complex web of meanings for Russian Jews.

In this study, I discuss the historical trends in Jewish-Russian name changes in the context of Jewish identities in Soviet and post-Soviet periods. I then analyze two conflictual exchanges in which Jewish Russian names are discussed in the context of online nicknames. In conflict discourse, participants may attack others by substituting a Hebrew nickname with its Russian equivalent (Zeev > Vladimir, Volodya, Vova), substituting a Russian-Jewish name with a non-Jewish Russian name (Klara > Klavdiya), and more. I discuss such conflictual name substitutions in terms of identity work in which names and nicknames may be considered too Jewish, too Russian, or too Israeli. By discussing and manipulating both online nicknames and proper names, migrants engage with the tensions, transitions, and uncertainties of post-Soviet Jewish identities.

Author