Immigration to Israel: Journey towards Identity Building
Jewish Youth in the Post-socialist Czech Republic
Anna Pokorná
How many Jews are there in the Czech Republic? And how many of them left for Israel in the last
couple of decades? Are there any at all?
“Nobody really knows.” This does not sound as much of an informed social scientist’s answer one
would expect from a so-called expert in the given problematic, a PhD student conducting research on
“Immigration to Israel from the Czech Republic after 1989”. However, this anecdote pertains to the
core of the problem.
Officially, Czech Jewish communities count up to at about 7000 members. At the last census
approximately 600 people claimed themselves Jewish. For the country of almost 10 and half million
inhabitants it is not a lot even if we are speaking in terms of minorities. None of my respondents,
however, is included in this number.
Jewish life seems to be almost invisible. This situation emerged not only in consequence of two
totalitarian regimes that had been systematically destroying Jewish life; German Nazi occupation
exterminating Jewish population physically, and communist regime suppressing any kind of difference,
but it is also part of wider moves in the Jewish world struggling with identity crisis.
The question “Who is a Jew?” has been on the table since emancipation in the middle of 19 th century
that led many to abandon traditional Jewish identity. Apart from the traditional identity, a whole
composed of culture, religion, ethnicity, all firmly glued together and reinforced by animosity of the
majority society, new identities that missed one or more parts of this complex started to establish. The
tragedy of Shoa only crystalized this developments. In the Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia,
and other countries of the Eastern Bloc alike, the process was due to the totalitarian communist regime
halted. Even if the Jewish community in Prague was in operation over the whole period of communist
rule, potential danger that could being openly Jewish bring, put a lot of members off and did not
definitely attract new ones. In order to be able to go on with their normal lives, already assimilated
Jewish population turned their backs to the community, buried memories of Holocaust horrors and tried
to wipe off whatever was left from the Jewish tradition in their families. The vacuum in Jewish
tradition transmission created over the years let itself feel after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 bringing
new opportunities to Jewish life and opening it to the outside influences.
Having in mind this statistical problem of figures not being able convey the social reality I used
qualitative methods that do not allow me to give an extensive overview of immigration figures. This,
however, is not a goal of my research. Interviews I conducted with almost thirty young adults who
immigrated to Israel and more than forty of those who participated in Jewish Agency Israeli Experience
programmes should provide a picture of internal logics drawing them to Israel. Even if the reality of
post-socialist Jewish life in the Czech Republic is much richer the issues they have to deal with as a
new generation responsible for the future of Jewish community are typical for the period. Faithful to
anthropology methods, such as participant observation, I not only interviewed my respondents but I
tried to embark on the journey with them and first as a participant, later as an organizer, participated in
the Israel programmes offered by the Jewish Agency to Jewish diaspora youth.
Aliyah
“Aliyah” is a Hebrew term for immigration to the state of Israel and means “ascent”. It is considered to
be a qualitatively positive step. In order to facilitate diaspora Jews´ ascent to the promised land the
Jewish Agency, established in 1948 by Israeli government, having been since then responsible for
bringing more than 3 million Jews to Israel, offers range of programmes, from short-term ones such as
Taglit, 10 days free educational trip to Israel for Jewish youth aged 18-26, longer-term study
programmes such as MASA, to absorption programmes for new immigrants. The principal aim of
shorter term programmes now is not to make young diaspora Jews make Aliyah, although it is
welcomed, but to create in them connection to Israel, strengthen their Jewish identity and secure Israel
its place within it.
Who is Jewish here?
Do you consider yourself Jewish? This is one of the questions on the list of questions in questionnaires
applicants for the Taglit programme have to fill out. The answer was very often negative, or “not yet”.
Given the communication channels that spread the word about the programmes are solely Jewish and
eligibility criteria of being aged 18 to 26 and to be applicable for the “Law of Return” 1 are clearly
stated, the answer comes as a bit of surprise.
It is obvious that Jewish identity of Jewish youth is based on very shaky grounds. Living in a
democratic state they can, unlike their grandparents, choose whether they want to be Jewish or not,
they have a freedom of choice how they “will consider themselves”. Identity, however, is not only
constructed by how one feels about it, but by how the society labels us on the basis of our appearance,
habits, and behaviours. Assimilation, high rate of intermarriage made Jewish families in the Czech
Republic completely blend into the majority society; Jewish ritual year with all its traditions was
abandoned, Jewish schooling was for years inexistent, and communal life rejected. Even if there were
some remnants of the past such as Chanukah chandelier on the shelf, bookshelf full of books by Jewish
authors, grandparents buying Matzah bread on Passover, a few expressions in Yiddish used only in the
family circle, 2nd and 3rd generation after the Holocaust usually had only a vague idea what these
fragments meant and their awareness of being Jewish was limited to the family history so dramatically
marked by the tragedy of Shoah, or to silence surrounding it. The Jewish identity acquired in the family
circle was mainly based on the Holocaust memory.
Journey of self-discovery
Leaflets advertising Jewish Agency programmes read: “Discover yourself, discover Israel.” The slogan
hits the tune of Jewish youth feelings. The curiosity in all “the things Jewish” and what it means to me
is not only sparked by family history told in a fragmental way, very often unknown to parents in its
complexity, with grandparents not willing to talk about it or already dead, but also by the external
influences. After the Fall of Berlin Wall the Jewish life experienced revival. It was, however, a revival
of a specific nature. Rethinking of national identity in terms of democratic and free state brought
heightened attention to the Jewish heritage of the country. Newly opened and reconstructed
synagogues, museums as well as Klezmer bands performances, Kafka´s memorabilia popularized
1
The law grants Israeli citizenship to those being Jewish according to Jewish religious law Halacha
(having a Jewish mother or maternal grandmother), those with Jewish ancestry (having a Jewish
father or grandfather) and converts to Judaism.
Jewish culture and drew flocks of tourist to Prague. Very often it was Jewish life without real
community inhabiting it, Ruth Ellen Gruber in her study of post socialist Jewish life in Eastern Europe
calls “virtual Jewish life”. The popularization of Jewish culture endowed Jewish identity with a tint of
exoticism with a positive accent. At the same time, Jewish organizations organizing daily Jewish life
for Jewish people, such as American reform movement, Chabad, Bnei Akiva, the Jewish Agency, were
trying to insert themselves into the whirl of emerging or reviving Jewish life by appealing to the
narrative of common roots. This coincided with my respondents coming into age of adolescence
defined by more universal struggles for one’s own identity.
Why Israel?
Former Czechoslovakia has never been bastion of Zionism and even the post-war waves of Jewish
immigration turned rather towards Western Europe or the United States than towards Israel. Now,
nevertheless, Israel related programmes are the ones that speak most to the Jewish youth in their search
for Jewish identity.
The answer is again to be found in above mentioned discontinuities. Official Jewish community
operating with the exception of the WWII period without any brakes turned orthodox. As such, it
undermines full membership by religious Halachic law, considering only those born from a Jewish
mother Jewish. The gates of the community are thus closed to those Jewish in father’s line. Moreover,
as a community of observant people in the age of my respondents´ grandparents it does not offer many
opportunities for peer Jewish life. Even those who are trying to work their way towards Jewish identity
through religion do not feel addressed by the community and their attitudes towards it range from the
feelings of alienation to discomfort arising from their lack of Jewish education or appropriate gender of
their Jewish ancestor. The Jewish Agency programmes, on the other hand, welcome everyone fulfilling
basic criteria of the Law of Return previous Jewish education or religious observance notwithstanding.
The reference point between the participants, organizers, and Israel as constructed by the programmes
is Holocaust legacy and obligation it implies. That is first search for one´s own Jewish identity, second
once it is found, responsibility for its survival. All of this is offered in an exotic package of tour to
Israel, attractive not only to those with Jewish ancestry.
The most accessible programme is Taglit. The ten days free of charge round trip takes participants on a
journey through Israeli national narrative. It starts at the places of pre-state history proving the 2000
years historical heritage of Jewish nation, continues to the Holocaust memorials and ends at the places
of memorial struggle for national independence. Jewish tradition is introduced in an easy way, during
the Shabbat meals, by singing Jewish songs, and visiting the sights. Religious part is dosed only
carefully, synagogues are approached in the same way the participants are used from home, as tourist
attractions. Visits to historical sites and excursions into Jewish tradition alternate with fun experiences
such as rafting on the Jordan river, shopping, visiting bars in Tel Aviv, to show how modern and
vibrant country Israel is. This cocktail concocted of carefully chosen ingredients in the right doses
works and in informal atmosphere succeeds in transmitting at least interest in Jewish tradition.
Participants usually describe the trip as a lifetime experience; they often resort to later on. Friendships
and love relationships made during the trip, be it those among participants or those with peer Israeli
soldiers that accompany the trips, common experiences, exotic scenery all wrapped in the framework of
Jewish education, is a form of natural transmission of tradition within the informal frames of family
and community that forty years of communism silenced. Not that these programmes are able to make
up for the gaps in Jewish education but they at least introduce other than only religious facets of Jewish
life and break the barrier that the lack of it places between them and the rest of the Jewish world
acquainted with the tradition. The tradition the trips introduce, however, has a little to do with the
tradition of their assimilated ancestors growing up and living in Europe meanwhile Israeli Jewish
identity was going through its various twist and turns.
Immigration
It would be naïve to suppose that 10 days trip can make someone immigrate. Jewish immigration to
Israel is in the last decade a gradual process that is never completed. Even though the trip fills
participants with determination to learn more about Jewish tradition, learn Hebrew and go deeper into
the family history, soon after the trip they usually quickly come back to the daily routines pursuing
their previous trajectories where only a little space is left for any kind of systematic Jewish education.
Yet, the returnees from the trips report heightened interest in the Israel news and Jewish life. There are
also those in whose the trip awakens desire to fix and give specific shape to their Jewish identity that
would free them of their doubts about it. Some, as Kateria Vyzvaldova described in her study of young
Czech Jewish women on their way to religious conversion to Judaism, first opt for traditional
framework of main Jewish community in Prague, which means for those who are not Jewish according
to Halacha to convert to Judaism. Having to go through the same procedure as someone who does not
share a holocaust legacy and does not belong to the same historical community respondents describe as
unfair. In addition, as the orthodox rabbinate´s criteria are considerably strict, conversion is often
refused at Beit Din, religious rabbinic court in charge of approving conversions, the whole experience
is felt as humiliating. Even if conservative, reform or reconstructionist communities, such as Beit
Praha, Beit Simcha, that sprang up after the revolution help towards the conversions, usually done
abroad, other than orthodox conversions do not usually bear any weight in the eyes of Prague orthodox
community, the only community with a historical tradition in Prague, that the youth is in search of
authenticity first trying to connect to.
Interestingly enough, even those who do not have any problems with Halachic descend; do not find
orthodox Jewish community appealing. Moreover, even after the conversion is completed, in the
country with almost no infrastructure catering for the needs of Jewish minority, such as kosher food
shops, that keeps to the Christian working week, Jewish life can be maintained only at a cost of
subordinating daily life to it. On the top of it, meanwhile conversion can help to those who are not
Jewish according to Halacha to give certain stable frame and authenticity to their Jewish identity, those
who are Jewish in mother’s line do not have any task of this kind to fulfil, justify, or solidify their
Jewish identity. Aliyah thus is left as a most viable option to give their Jewish identity solid grounds.
Israeli, Jewish, Czech?
Moving to Israel is a decision serious enough to confirm ones Jewish identity. It means leaving behind
ones professional career, family, and friends, learn a new language and start anew in a country that is
not in the end not that geographically as well as culturally close. Even if it is a Jewish state, it is still a
state in the Middle East, which has to deal with the realities of never ending conflict.
Some often choose for some kind of trial version of Aliyah and go on studying programmes offered by
the Jewish Agency. Only fractions of those who took part in the programmes finally took a decision to
really immigrate. Nevertheless, only staying in Israel for longer period of time opens new perspectives
on being Jewish. The spectrum of Jewish identities Israel as a Jewish state where being Jewish is taken
for granted, as being Czech in the Czech Republic, is much varied than what is offered by Czech
Jewish community or the Jewish Agency programmes. It is as colourful, eclectical, as the state of
immigration is, and leaves a lot of space for individual creation and interpretation of what it means
being Jewish and Czech in Israel as a Jewish state without any part of this newly acquired identity
under question.
Furthermore, being Jewish is not only a question of individual identity but a question of transmission of
tradition to the next generations that requires Jewish partner or at least one tolerant to keeping Jewish
tradition. Small diaspora community in the Czech Republic cannot compete in prospects of finding a
Jewish partner with Israel.
Being Jewish, however, is only a part of the complex and multifaceted identity and cannot usually win
over professional career and family relationships. If it is for whatever reason impossible to find a job
adequate to their skills and education or/and Israeli partner they could establish a family with the search
for Jewish identity is not a reason enough to stay in Israel.
What next?
What conclusion can be drawn from this account for Czech Jewish community? The need to come to
terms with holocaust legacy did not disappear with the decline of anti-Semitism. Today Jewish Youth in
the Czech Republic, usually grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, still bear holocaust legacy, and have
to come to terms with it. It leaves them with a feeling of obligation towards the history that should be
preserved in an authentic way, but does not give them any traditional frameworks able to sustain this
historical heritage connecting them to the culture and tradition of their ancestors. Disconnected from
the Jewish community in their country they turn to the global Jewish world, especially to Israel, the
Jewish Agency programmes make so accessible through its programmes. Even if the trips and stays in
Israel make young Jewish youth step out of their individual Jewish identities and affiliate them to
certain common frames for the time of the trip, to sustain that would require established framework
back home that due to the historical break in the Jewish tradition transmission is non-existent. Their
Jewish identity nevertheless undergoes changes and shifts towards Israel. The gap is being filled out by
new contents that is still of more individual nature of sharing experiences with their peers on the Jewish
background rather than firmly connecting to Israel or reconnecting to the home Jewish community, as
both are alien to them. Thus, even if Israel nurtures their diaspora Jewish identity, it is not and
probably will not be able to patch for more than a half of the century gap in tradition transmission. In
those members of the 3rd generation after the Holocaust incapable to affiliate to any institutionalized
frame, in fact the majority, the transmission of Jewish identity may well end with them.