THE IDENTITY QUEST OF THE RUSSIAN JEWISH ETHNIC GROUP IN MODERN AMERICAN SOCIETY: STUDY OF THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE IN THE WORKS OF B. MALAMUD AND S. BELLOW

Abstract

The United States of America has long been and is still considered as a nation of Nations. Among the great numbers of immigrants who came to the U.S. at the turn of the century, Jewish people figure very prominently. However, today most American Jews are Ashkenazi, from German or Eastern European Jewry. German Jews began to arrive to the United States within 1830 and 1880. They formed a homogenous group which quickly assimilated to the American situation. A second migration wave between 1880 and 1924 brought Eastern European Jews to America who were forced to flee their homes because of economic needs or fear of persecution in the pogroms. The Russian Jews were among this second wave of immigration stream. As a group they were well prepared to find a job in the technical and professional fields. However, despite their economic success, Russian Jews often felt alienated from the rest of the American society as a result of the differences in values and culture between immigrants and their host country. The present dissertation “The identity quest of the Russian Jewish ethnic group in Modern American society: study of the Jewish experience in the works of B. Malamud and S. Bellow” is divided into four main chapters: The first chapter “Ashkenazi experience in the United States” is a brief survey of the Ashkenazi immigration waves and experience in the United States of both German Jews and Eastern European Jews mainly Romanians, Austro-Hungarians and Russians.

The second chapter “Russian Jews: from Russia to the U.S” focuses on the relationship of the Jews with the Russian government, the socio-political context surrounding immigration from Russia to the United States as well as American immigration policy.

The third chapter “Racial Jewishness and Ethnic identity in Acculturation process” provides a study of the categorization of Russian Jews and the impact of the Jewish ethnic identity on their integration into mainstream America.

The last chapter “Jewish strife for identity in contemporary Jewish American writings: Bellow and Malamud” provides a literary study of the Jewish experience in the works of two American Jewish writers Saul Bellow and Bernard Malamud who exhibit a set of characters struggling for identity recognition and integration.