One of the largest contingents of Jews migrating back to Israel before the 90s gathered from the Soviet Union. Today, Russians immigrating to the Holy Land even without a Jewish origin are arriving willingly to their new home.
The Bar Putin is one of the main meeting places in a Russian diaspora that now dwells on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The main concerns that certainly arise even among the enthusiastic newcomers are homesickness and assimilation. The usually atheist and pork-consumer Russian minority will surely need to reconsider its integrity in the new surroundings. Today, the frequent waves of Russian immigration to Israel are merely representing the first slopes on certain graph-statistics that in the near future could easily become hectically alternating.
As many immigrants confess, the main lure attracting them to their new home is the greater opportunity for employment. However, in a country where the security staff scans, interrogates, or even humiliates each and every tourist as a potential terrorist while entering the country, such Russian mass-pursuit of a new life might as well end up in government officials over-reacting the whole business.
The atmosphere of Bar Putin can easily demonstrate the sour aftertaste dealt with by the Russian immigrants after having joyously settled in a still amid-war country: Israeli dance music, Russian pork, Putin’s portraits tiling the walls awkwardly. It’s only a matter of time until the semi-kosher Russian market stands in Tel-Aviv become the hotbed of a major cultural clash between natives and immigrants.
