A scientific-practical symposium titled “Olim and Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union Between Israel and the Diaspora: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities” was held at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) at Bar-Ilan University.

The conference, featuring leading scholars and public figures, aimed to present an up-to-date picture of trends and issues facing repatriates, emigrants, and diaspora communities, while analyzing new challenges that have emerged in recent years.

The event was jointly organized by the Institute of Euro-Asian Jewish Studies (a project of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, EAJC), the Jerusalem Interdisciplinary College (JIC), and the BESA Program for the Study of Post-Soviet Conflicts. Discussions focused on identity, language, communication, and socio-economic integration of repatriates from the former Soviet Union in Israel, as well as Jewish communities across the post-Soviet space and their diasporas in Western countries.

Special attention was given to the connection between source communities and receiving societies, distinctions between “new” and “veteran” repatriates, and differences across first, 1.5, and second-generation migrants. The role of Russian-language media in shaping political identity, institutional trust, and social mobility was also a central theme.

The symposium featured the presentation of multiple field studies conducted in Israel and the diaspora, including a series of surveys of repatriates from different immigration waves and focus group materials led by Dr. Elina Bardach-Yalova (JIC), in collaboration with Prof. Zeev Khanin, Academic Director of the Institute and Head of the BESA Post-Soviet Conflicts Program.

Preliminary findings from comparative research on Jewish and other émigré communities from the former USSR in Israel and across Central and Eastern Europe were also presented. These studies were conducted as part of the Institute’s new initiative – the Center for the Study of New Post-Soviet Emigration – led by Prof. Yevgeny Smirnov, with Dr. Mikhail Men as academic curator, and under the academic and strategic supervision of Prof. Zeev Khanin and the Institute’s Executive Vice President and EAJC Director General, Dr. Haim Ben Yakov.

The event also included findings from oral history projects documenting the most recent wave of Jewish emigration from Ukraine and other former Soviet countries (led by Dr. Anna Kushkova and Dr. Maria Kaspina), alongside field observations from aliyah and integration project leaders and additional data analyses.