In this seaside city once ruled by the Greeks and Phoenicians but now largely populated by Russians, the talk in the caviar-stocked delis and jewelry stores is of upcoming elections and Israel’s powerful Russian vote.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, more than one million Russian speakers moved to Israel, many of them settling on the Mediterranean coast in cities like Ashkelon and Netanya, where Russian remains in daily use and Cyrillic script is as common on menus as vodka and smoked meats.
Given that Soviet migrants make up 20 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, their conservative, working-class …read more
Source: Newsweek
