Invented Ritual in Migration: New Year among Generation 1.5 of Russian Israelis

• In Event: 4323 - Culture and Identity

Abstract

The article represents the emerging signs of the ethnic awakening among the so-called Generation 1.5 of Russian-speakers, who immigrated as older children or adolescents and came of age in Israel. It examines the New Year (Novy God) celebrations in Israel in 2015 and 2016 through the theoretical lenses of symbolic ethnicity and ritual criticism. The article explores the process of reinvention of the homeland rituals in the context of migration by the children of immigrants. We describe the emerging forms of New Year celebration in the Israeli context and elicit its new symbolic and expressive components that combine Russian-Soviet traditions with the local repertoires of Mizrahi (Eastern) Jews, along with other cultural practices of the Orthodox and secular Judaism.

Authors

• Anna Prashizky, Western Galilee Academic College

• Larissa Remmenick, Sociology Department of Bar Ilan University