Converting to Belong: Immigration, Education and Nationalization among Young 'Russian' Immigrant Women
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| Title: | Converting to Belong: Immigration, Education and Nationalization among Young 'Russian' Immigrant Women |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Neiterman, Elena, Rapoport, Tamar |
| Source: | Gender and Education. Mar 2009 21(2):173-189. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 17 |
| Publication Date: | 2009 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Jews, Females, Boarding Schools, Foreign Countries, Personal Narratives, Immigrants, Judaism, Religious Education, Citizenship |
| Geographic Terms: | Israel, Russia |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09540250802213198 |
| ISSN: | 0954-0253 |
| Abstract: | The paper examines religious conversion to Judaism among young "Russian" immigrant girls in Israel. Looking into the process of conversion in religious boarding schools for girls only ("Ulpana") and in the broader context of the Israeli nation-state, we examine the strategies the educators contrive in inculcating religiosity among the girls, how they legitimise and facilitate their self-transformation, and mobilise them to desire a religious subjectivity. At the same time, we study the experiences of the Russian girls in the "Ulpana", and the meanings they assign to their conversion as depicted in the personal stories they narrated to us. The paper reveals how the "Ulpana" operates as a major nationalisation agent that cultivates a path for the girls to belong to the national religious camp, thus assuring their affiliation to Israeli-Jewish society at large. (Contains 13 notes.) |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 56 |
| Entry Date: | 2009 |
| Accession Number: | EJ830451 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwH5OTGlM2KxxsxGa5TSntrMAAAA4jCB3wYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHRMIHOAgEAMIHIBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDBIDEzHkrKkJgSB-fQIBEICBmsiK2Z59yNcKFUJItSnjeksFggCw3dyHTQzJ4vtGGnDgIjM67Wh4moZT8se8VZ9ykl-VPBeqlqoLgsJiEFFg0bWAivjFyk7wXPy0EULeVNKZEQwFb2I-HE3ZoVwF57wFneivi81aJyueLg86BGYTcw__GGCs2pXWxox5mzgT6u3xefPsdNRebXX90DzK1vod8j1jAYZvwwUjaMg= Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0036677739;gae01mar.09;2019Feb21.13:15;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0036677739-1">Converting to belong: immigration, education and nationalisation among young 'Russian' immigrant women. </title> <p>The paper examines religious conversion to Judaism among young 'Russian' immigrant girls in Israel. Looking into the process of conversion in religious boarding schools for girls only (Ulpana) and in the broader context of the Israeli nation‐state, we examine the strategies the educators contrive in inculcating religiosity among the girls, how they legitimise and facilitate their self‐transformation, and mobilise them to desire a religious subjectivity. At the same time, we study the experiences of the Russian girls in the Ulpana, and the meanings they assign to their conversion as depicted in the personal stories they narrated to us. The paper reveals how the Ulpana operates as a major nationalisation agent that cultivates a path for the girls to belong to the national religious camp, thus assuring their affiliation to Israeli‐Jewish society at large.</p> <p>Keywords: religious conversion; gender and religious education; immigration; Israeli society; girlhood</p> <p>I don't think I would be who I am today without my education in this school ... I am sure that those who studied in secular schools do not have the same knowledge and respect for Israel, for our history and tradition as we do. (Tanja)</p> <p>In the mid 1990s, a well‐established educational project called <emph>Na'ale</emph>[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>] (acronym for 'Immigration of adolescents before their parents') brought a group of 'Russian'[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">2</reflink>] teenage girls to Israel to study for three years in Israeli boarding schools. After their graduation, these young women could choose to stay in Israel and obtain Israeli citizenship, or return to their native land.</p> <p>This paper is about a group of young female immigrants who came to Israel through this project to study in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>[<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref3">3</reflink>] – a national religious boarding school for girls only. During their studies these girls who were defined as Jewish according to Jewish religious law became religious. The non‐Jewish girls[<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref4">4</reflink>] experienced the process of religious, orthodox conversion called <emph>Giyur</emph>[<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref5">5</reflink>] – a state‐run rabbinical process that grants the convert simultaneously a religious faith (Judaism) and an ethnic status (that of a Jew), and subsequently full membership in the Jewish ethno‐national collective. When joining the school, the girls little about Judaism and Israel; they were motivated primarily by a desire (sometimes under parental pressure) to obtain a good education and facilitate immigration to Israel. The religiosity of a school was of little importance both to the girls and their parents. The decision to enter a religious school for girls only was often motivated by the parents' will to situate a girl in an environment where her sexuality would be supervised (by the educators) and where she would be safe (from sexual promiscuity). At the time of the study, shortly after their graduation, all the young women decided to stay in Israel; the majority defined themselves as orthodox, observant Jews, and they all viewed themselves as belonging to the national religious camp, expressing their support of its prevailing nationalist religious politics and world‐view.</p> <p>In this paper, we examine the pedagogical strategies the <emph>Ulpana</emph> contrived in inculcating religiosity among the immigrant girls; how it facilitated their conversion process and mobilised them to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>. It shows how, in operating as the arm of the state in managing the belonging of the immigrant girls, the state grants legitimation to the educators to amend the girls' spirit and body by generating self‐transformation via moral construction. At the same time, we study how the young women came to desire a religious subjectivity, by looking at their experiences in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> and the meanings they assigned to their conversion as emerging from their personal stories. More generally, the paper explores how the <emph>Ulpana</emph> operates as a major nationalisation agent, guiding the girls to join the national religious camp and thereby assuring their affiliation to extended Israeli‐Jewish society.</p> <p>The young immigrants coming through the <emph>Na'ale</emph> program are recruited by emissaries of the Jewish Agency[<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref6">6</reflink>] after a careful selection process that inspects, among other things, their ethnic heritage. Based on this inspection, it is decided whether the girl has the proper Jewish heritage and is thus eligible, according the Israeli 'law of return', to immigrate to Israel and obtain full citizenship. Those immigrants whose Jewish heritage is derived only from their father's side are not Jewish, according to Jewish religious law[<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref7">7</reflink>]: although these immigrants are eligible for Israeli citizenship and enjoy the same rights and obligations as Israeli‐Jewish citizens, they are denied services related to Jewish 'personal law', concerning particularly marriage, divorce, burial and circumcision. Due to the lack of separation in Israel between religion and state, these services are under the monopoly of the orthodox religious authorities, which also regulate <emph>Giyur.</emph></p> <p>Being categorised as a 'kosher' or a 'non‐kosher' Jew was not the primary concern for the young girls who were motivated to come to Israel, nor for their families who stayed behind. Nor was this difference of importance to the Israeli emissaries: what mattered to them was that the immigrants were young, had been brought up in well‐educated, so‐called 'European' families, and would most likely serve in the army and stay in Israel. Thus, the exact ethnic descent of the Russian students played a relatively minor role in the selection process. Eventually, however, as our analysis will show, the issue of proper ethnic Jewish heritage and nationality became a highly significant issue for the young immigrants, as well as for their Israeli hosts, in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>.</p> <p>The paper demonstrates how the educators in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> inculcated the Russian girls with the notion of a 'belonging hierarchy' that depicts membership in the national religious collective as the most esteemed manner of belonging to Israeli‐Jewish society. Such belonging, the girls learned, would shed their status as 'others', purify their bodies and souls, and grant them legitimation and respect. Thus, the paper discusses how by becoming normative, national‐religious women, the Russian girls sought to transcend their manifold marginal status as immigrants, females and 'not really Jewish'. In other words, by converting to Judaism and embracing a religious way of life, they strived to shed the stigmatisation of Russian women immigrants as strangers, non‐religious, and non‐Jewish.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-2">Immigration, religion, and gender</hd> <p>Religious identity plays a significant role in immigrants' relocation process (Warner and Wittner [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref8">53</reflink>]). Reviewing current trends in literature on immigration and religion, Cadge and Ecklund ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref9">12</reflink>], 364) suggest that 'immigrants may use religion as part of identity construction in multiple ways'. They also propose that by serving as a socialisation agency, religion often assists immigrants to adapt to the new society, and mitigates their cultural shock, either when their religious identity and affiliation corresponds with the dominant religion of the hosting society, or when they choose to convert and take on the dominant religion (Ng [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref10">37</reflink>]; Yang and Ebaugh [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref11">55</reflink>]).</p> <p>In studies exploring the interface between immigration and religion, religious organisations are the main unit of analysis (Cadge and Ecklund [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref12">12</reflink>]). These studies show how immigrants use such organisations to develop social networks, to be granted refugee status, or to become more internationally mobile (Akcapar [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref13">1</reflink>]; Bankston and Zhou [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref14">8</reflink>]; Hurh and Kim [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref15">26</reflink>]; Kemp and Raijman [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref16">28</reflink>]). Often, religious institutions form a community for the newcomers that not only provides them with collective identity, support, financial assistance and housing, but also assists them to obtain citizenship and legal status in the host country. However, this literature does not discuss the role played by state‐run, religious educational organisations and frameworks in immigrants' relocation process, which is the focus of this paper.</p> <p>Studies on women's participation in religious organisations, movements, and communities show how they serve as a bridge to the new society (see George [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref17">21</reflink>]; Ebaugh and Chafetz [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref18">17</reflink>]), empower women and strengthen their status, on the one hand, yet on the other hand reinforce patriarchy by regulating and controlling women, thereby preserving women's traditional identity and positions by domesticating them (Alumkal [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref19">2</reflink>]; Caglar [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref20">13</reflink>]; Chong [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref21">14</reflink>]; Ebaugh and Chafetz [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref22">17</reflink>]; Espiritu [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref23">18</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-3">Women and conversion</hd> <p>The term 'conversion' refers to various processes associated with the decision to adopt a new faith, among them developing religious awareness and returning to one's religious roots, as well as switching to another religion (Taylor [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref24">52</reflink>]). Research on conversion has traditionally discussed it in terms of a significant transformation in one's identity motivated by the quest for meaning and the psychological changes one experiences due to religious transition (Lohmann [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref25">32</reflink>]; Sachs‐Norris [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref26">49</reflink>]). Conversion has been portrayed mainly as a spiritual process that bestows new meanings and beginnings upon an individual's life. Recently the notion of conversion as transformation of identity has been problematised by discussing, among other things, the multiple meanings, different contexts and types of experiences entailed in entering and embracing a new faith, as well as the related intended and unintended consequences of such endeavor (Brown [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref27">9</reflink>]; Rambo [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref28">40</reflink>]; Robins [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref29">48</reflink>]). An increasing number of studies analyse conversion as a process and transition (Austin‐Broos [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref30">5</reflink>]; Bryant and Lamb [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref31">10</reflink>]; Finn [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref32">19</reflink>]; Stromberg [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref33">50</reflink>]), emphasising the need to contextualise it within social, cultural, political and national processes (Buckser and Glazier [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref34">11</reflink>]; Coleman [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref35">15</reflink>]; Luria [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref36">35</reflink>]; Yang [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref37">54</reflink>]).</p> <p>Our study examines women's conversion in the Israeli context. It assumes that the motivation of immigrant women to convert and the process of conversion should be understood against the ethno‐national character of the Israeli nation state, and the convergence therein between state, religion and education.</p> <p>Women's transition to religiosity has recently attracted researchers' attention. Puzzled by the phenomenon of Jewish 'modern women' who willingly choose to subordinate themselves to the religious patriarchal regime, scholars have tried to decipher their motivation. A primary explanation offered by feminist scholarship to this phenomenon put forward women's quest for, and attraction to, a structured way of life that clearly delineates their roles and responsibilities (Davidman [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref38">16</reflink>]). It is suggested that these women replace the confusion and uncertainty entailed in modernity with the predictability and security granted by the gendered religious regime, and that the converting women are attracted by the social status they gain as mothers and wives in religious community (Kaufman [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref39">27</reflink>]).</p> <p>Valuable thought it may be, this explanation, which views seeking refuge from modernity as women's main drive to convert, is not necessarily pertinent to the case of immigrant teenage girls who, rather than escaping from modernity, move to a new society to obtain advanced education. Thus, the theory neglects to consider conversion as a means, or strategy, that women may employ in seeking a respectable position within the belonging hierarchy of the new society, which may need convincing of their morality and authenticity as 'proper females'.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-4">National homecoming and Na'ale</hd> <p>As a Zionist immigrant state, Israel encourages all Jews to return to their homeland (the 'promised land'). Jewish immigrants are never formally considered foreigners; rather, they are perceived as 'family relatives', or 'homecomers', who return to their 'natural home'. In turn, the 'homecomers' who are granted citizenship upon their arrival are expected, at the same time, to be committed to Israeli national ethos and to fully participate in the Zionist‐Jewish state building (Golden [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref40">22</reflink>]; Lomsky‐Feder and Rapoport [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref41">33</reflink>]).</p> <p>Combined with the effort of the emissaries to convince Diaspora Jews to immigrate, a network of social institutions, both formal and informal, is working in Israel to educate 'the returned sons and daughters' in how to become proper Israelis (Golden [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref42">22</reflink>]; Rapoport and Lomsky‐Feder [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref43">43</reflink>]; Remennick et al. [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref44">46</reflink>]). The <emph>Na'ale</emph> program established by the Israeli government is one such national, socialising project. As part of demographically strengthening the Jewish national collective, it takes upon itself the role of integrating and nationalising the homecomers (Kimmerling [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref45">29</reflink>]) when they are still young and live far away from their families.</p> <p>The possibility of sending their child to study in Israel is appealing to many Russian‐Jewish families, who regard good education as pivotal in achieving high social status and facilitating a professional career in the future (Lerner [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref46">31</reflink>]; Rapoport and Lomsky‐Feder [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref47">44</reflink>]). Lacking the conditions and means to provide this for their children in the post‐Soviet reality, parents find this opportunity particularly appealing as it provides their child with a good education, covering at the same time all living and educational expenses and yearly travel to the native home, or alternatively the parents' visit of their child in Israel.</p> <p>In its initial stages, the <emph>Na'ale</emph> program was conducted in non‐religious boarding schools. After a number of years, religious schools started to offer their services to potential immigrants, despite their long‐standing reluctance to accept non‐religious students (Taub [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref48">51</reflink>]; Yehieli [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref49">56</reflink>]). This shift in the politics of the national religious collective and its educators is tightly linked to the demographical, political and socio‐cultural struggle that has been taking place in Israel, between this collective, the Ultra‐orthodox collective, and particularly the non‐religious (so‐called secular) collective. Considering the large number of Russian immigrants who have entered Israel since the 1990s, the sociopolitical, cultural and demographic struggle over enlisting them is almost inevitable.</p> <p>Russian young candidates are considered the 'cream' of potential immigrants by the Israeli immigration agencies because they learn Hebrew quickly, succeed in their studies, serve in the Israeli Army, and the majority of them choose to stay (Apel and Shalom [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref50">3</reflink>]; Bandes‐Jacob and Freedman [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref51">7</reflink>]). It is assumed that education has a significant impact on their nationalisation. Thus, the eagerness of the national religious collective to recruit them to its ranks has led schools to offer their services to the non‐religious and even non‐Jewish Russians (Yehieli [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref52">56</reflink>]). A major challenge for these schools is to convert the girls, inducing the non‐Jewish girls among them to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-5">The case in study</hd> <p>Witnessing the conversion of Rachel (younger sister of Elena, one of the authors), a Russian immigrant who converted during her studies in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, sparked our research curiosity. Rachel became our enthusiastic informant who introduced us to the other young women in the research: recent Ulpana graduates. Besides the valuable information she gave us, we gathered information by conducting seventeen in‐depth interviews, in 2000–2002, with the women who came to Israel through the <emph>Na'ale</emph> program in 1995–1997 and studied in three different boarding schools.</p> <p>Of seventeen interviewees, ten were defined as non‐Jews, of whom nine performed orthodox <emph>Giyur</emph> while studying at the <emph>Ulpana</emph>. Conducted as open conversations, each interview lasted between one‐and‐a‐half to two hours, and was recorded, translated and transcribed verbatim. The interviewee could choose whether to speak in Russian or Hebrew; the majority opted for Russian. The girls were asked to narrate their personal story and encouraged to talk during the interview about their motivation to come to Israel, their experiences there and in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> in particular, as well as about their conversion and perception of Israeli society.</p> <p>The timing of the interview, between a year and two years after graduation, enabled the young women to reflect on and re‐evaluate their experiences in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> in light of their experiences in Israeli society outside its confines. Assuming that identities 'arise from the narrativisation of the self' (Hall [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref53">25</reflink>], 4), the girls' personal stories allowed us to explore the manner in which they constructed their conversion and belonging. While telling their stories, they explicated for themselves and communicated to their imagined audiences – the educators in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, their families, fellow homecomers and former compatriots – the rationale, meaning, and nature of their conversion. During the interview they resignified and re‐enacted the meaning of conversion and national belonging as they reshaped their own Israeli‐Jewish, religious, gendered identity.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-6">The pedagogical process of conversion</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0036677739-7">Anticipatory socialisation</hd> <p> <emph>Sara</emph>:[<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref54">8</reflink>] I knew I have to go to religious school because I had to do the <emph>Giyur</emph>.</p> <p> <emph>Interviewer</emph>: And how did you know that?</p> <p> <emph>Sara</emph>: That was clear. The Jewish Agency said that. But we knew about that even before, from our friends and relatives ... So, my parents knew it is important.</p> <p> <emph>Interviewer</emph>: And did your parents know something about religious school?</p> <p> <emph>Sara</emph>: Nope. I mean, we did know that I would have to wear a skirt.[<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref55">9</reflink>] I think that if they would've known that I would become religious, they would not have sent me there [laughing].</p> <p>The emissaries presented to the potential young immigrants and their families three types of Israeli national schools to choose from: non‐religious; national‐religious mixed‐gender; and religious schools for girls only. The girls said it was easier to get accepted to the latter. Although the choice of school is formally in the families' hands, they were not aware of the complexity of the Israeli educational system. However, as we see in Sara's answers above, the choice of which school the girl would attend was rather critical.</p> <p>In registering their daughters to the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, most parents were not aware of the radical change in their daughters' appearance, lifestyle and worldview it would entail. As we discuss elsewhere, the parents' decision to send a girl to a religious educational environment where her sexuality would be supervised and regulated was meant to 'protect' her from going astray (Rapoport and Neiterman [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref56">45</reflink>]). Another, even more important, reason to choose a religious school, particularly by non‐Jewish families, was to guarantee that following her completion of the <emph>Giyur</emph> process their daughter would be recognised and registered as a proper Jew in official Israeli documents, and thus would not have to face the problems non‐Jews have to endure.</p> <p>Before the girls actually entered the <emph>Ulpana,</emph> studying there was portrayed to them as non‐demanding, and as an act that would prevent problems in the future. In this context, <emph>Giyur</emph> was presented as a purely instrumental procedure. The young women had only a vague understanding, if at all, that their bodies and self would be regarded as impure and contaminated, their nationality improper, and their Russian, non‐Jewish mothers condemned (Rapoport and Neiterman [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref57">45</reflink>]).</p> <p>What did they experience once they entered the <emph>Ulpana</emph>?</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-8">Inculcating religiosity</hd> <p>Away from their parents, and finding themselves in a foreign culture, the Russian girls' dependency on the <emph>Ulpana</emph> discourse and daily provision was virtually total. They had very few opportunities to encounter people and ways of life outside the school, and were strongly discouraged from it. Thus the girls had little experience of any differences between the world inside and outside the symbolic walls of the <emph>Ulpana</emph>. The credo and religious way of life at the Ulpana, and being an Israeli, became one and the same.</p> <p>From their first days at the Ulpana, the inculcation of religious practices became an integral part of the 'Russian' everyday routine. As daily repetition of religious practices was established in day‐to‐day routine, they were performed almost automatically. Neta:</p> <p>[The religious education] started with wearing a skirt, and then we observed how to celebrate <emph>Shabbat</emph> and they also showed us how to pray. So, I think by the end of the first year we already knew pretty much all the prayers and holidays... 'Cause, you know, you pray every day, and before you know the meaning [of the prayer] you already know the prayer itself ... I think it was during the second year when they actually started to teach us about the meaning of the stuff we were doing.</p> <p>The continuous repetition of religious practices, rather than the thoughts or beliefs of an individual, distinguishes the religious from the non‐religious person. The educators inculcated the religious practices before explaining their meaning and rationale. By the end of their first year, the girls knew how to pray and celebrate Jewish holidays; the difference between 'appropriate' and 'inappropriate' womanly behavior; kosher and non‐kosher food; proper and improper appearance. Thus, only after the religious practices were embodied did the girls learn about their religious rationale and significance.</p> <p>The body plays an essential role in forming one's religious performance; more than do religious symbols and beliefs (Asad [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref58">4</reflink>]). From the beginning, the girls' bodies were intentionally targeted by the educators as a site of constant surveillance and discipline. As part of inculcating the new bodily habitus, the teachers and the educational stuff constantly reminded them about their bodily and spiritual 'defects':</p> <p>I remember one day, I think it was one of the first days, I was going to our physical education class and I put on my pants and I was walking like this. And then one of my teachers stopped me in the school's backyard. She said that I could not walk like this, that I had to wear a skirt and change in the changing room. And other girls, they laughed at me and I felt so embarrassed. I didn't know that it was forbidden to walk like this, but it felt really unpleasant to be mocked like this. (Ruth)</p> <p>The 'purification' of the girls' bodies was formed via repetition of gendered bodily practices of modesty and of other religious rituals (washing hands before meals, praying before and after eating, and so on). The non‐Jewish girls were not allowed to touch the wine or grape juice that was poured at <emph>Shabbat</emph> (Saturday sabbath) dinners – a ritual, they were told, that can only be performed by a Jew. Thus, as we already showed, performing religious practices had become a habitus encoded in the girls' bodies via routine repetition (Rapoport and Neiterman [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref59">45</reflink>]). Performing bodily practices trains the body to behave in the expected way: it directs desires and emotions to conform to certain norms of behavior and appearance, and it also forms memories of one's body in accordance with everyday routines (Mahmood [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref60">36</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-9">Imparting the belonging hierarchy – constructing dichotomies</hd> <p>In opening its doors to the Russian girls, the <emph>Ulpna</emph> invites, in some sense, the 'enemy' over. Aiming to nurture and fortify the girls' religious subjectivity, it works hard to protect them from what is portrayed as 'the danger' or 'illness' of the non‐religious Israeli and Western modern worlds. In contrast to the pure, superior way of living of national religious women, other women, particularly young women and also young men, are portrayed as immodest, corrupted and corrupting, and a concrete threat to Jewish identity and to the Israeli‐Jewish collective as a whole (Rapoport [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref61">41</reflink>]).</p> <p>Already in the first days of their life in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> the girls were confronted with a suggestive dichotomy that drew a clear distinction between 'us' – the national‐religious Israelis, and 'them' – the Russian newcomers, Miriam:</p> <p>... And I remember during one of the first days in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, there was this man that we were told was the principal's husband. And he started to talk to us and said that Russian girls are not Jewish, and he also said that Russian women are prostitutes. And he said that in the big conference room, when all Israeli [native] girls were present, too. So, he said that all of us were <emph>Goyot</emph> [non‐Jews in Hebrew] ... and I remember I was really embarrassed. A lot of girls were crying after that.</p> <p>According to Miriam, labelling all Russian women as non‐Jewish whores was performed in a collective gathering in front of the native, national religious girls. It was obviously meant to depreciate and even to offend them by drawing clear boundaries between the indigenous girls who are pure, modest, and sexually appropriate, and the Russian, defective, impure girls who are sexually promiscuous. This way, the girls learned yet again about their 'inappropriate' stigmatised appearance (by identifying the immigrant girls with hyper‐sexualised femininity), while simultaneously reinforcing the image and meaning of the modest, religious girl. Miriam also tells us that in the 'initiation ritual', defective femininity was linked to improper nationality, that is, to being a '<emph>Goya</emph>' – non‐Jewish. We also learn from her that the ritual induced feelings of embarrassment and tears amongst the newcomers.</p> <p>The girls also became quickly aware of other stratifying criteria of proper belonging, particularly those distinguishing between Jews and non‐Jews, religious and non‐religious Jews. They learned that Jews are 'the chosen people', and that being a religious Jew is more valuable and genuinely Jewish than being non‐religious. Simultaneously they realised that being a <emph>Goya</emph> is non‐desirable, and that Russian women in Israel are often labeled as promiscuous (Golden [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref62">22</reflink>]; Lemish [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref63">30</reflink>]).</p> <p>Furthermore, making a clear distinction between 'biological and non‐biological Jews', the educators persistently differentiated between kosher and non‐kosher Jews:</p> <p>We understood that we were non‐biological Jews and they [the halachically Jewish] were biological Jews. Our teacher always used to say how we are not really Jewish and it felt very, very unpleasant. (Dina)</p> <p>Initially [in Ukraine] I knew that it is important that I am not Jewish according to Halacha... Back in Ukraine, nobody divided between Jewish–Not Jewish; but here, in Israel, I heard that there is this thing with being not Jewish... But until today I do not get it, I don't understand it... my father is a Jew. I mean, I do understand it as a religious person, but I do not understand it as a human being. As a human being, I do not think this is right. (Lena)</p> <p>Lena resisted adopting the clear dichotomisation that the Jewish law draws between a Jew and non‐Jew. Taking a humanist viewpoint, she reached the conclusion that the criterion of determining 'who is a Jew' based only on the mother's decent is highly problematic. Other girls also resisted this authoritative definition by narrating instances of anti‐Semitism that they and their Jewish fathers experienced in Russia, as well as stories they heard from their families about the Holocaust. Being a Jew, they suggested, is a common destiny, and a subjective definition. Thus they propose that the definition of who is a Jew should be more flexible and inclusive.</p> <p>Nevertheless, Lena and the other girls chose to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>. Dina connects it to a need to her wish to be accepted and valued:</p> <p>Like, I mean [following the educators' depiction as non‐biological Jews], you feel you are like nothing, and you really want to do something to raise yourself from this very low place. (Dina)</p> <p>The offensive message that they were biologically defective drove the non‐Jewish girls 'to do something about it', to prove that they were 'somebody' and not 'nobody'. Performing <emph>Giyur</emph> meant proving to everyone, including themselves, that they are proper Jewish women formally, morally, and biologically. Thus, the othering of the girls by the educators proved to be an effective strategy to motivate them to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>, to transform their initial mechanical, practical perception of <emph>Giyur</emph> to its understanding as a means of amending their biological/personal deficiency, and extricating themselves from marginalisation by being – in Lena's words – 'a Jew in a Jewish country'.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-10">Performing Giyur in the homeland</hd> <p>The definition of 'who is a Jew' is a fundamental principle of the Israeli Jewish state, where national belonging and ethnic origin converge. Once non‐Jews come to Israel, immigrants cannot avoid this reality and have to decide how to act upon it. Such alertness is even more critical for a non‐Jewish immigrant, young women, and potential mothers, who are perceived as a threat to the Jewish nation because they will bear non‐Jewish children. Thus, all non‐Jewish immigrants, especially the young women, realise that conversion and performing <emph>Giyur</emph> is the ultimate solution to their exclusion, as it guarantees them automatic belonging to the Jewish people and nation and thus allows them to elevate from their marginal status to a secure, respectable position in the Israeli belonging hierarchy.</p> <p> <emph>Giyur</emph> was a dominant theme in the Ulpana and in the girls' lives; all of them spoke about it extensively in their interviews. As part of the effort to prepare the girls for <emph>Giyur,</emph> the non‐Jewish girls had to attend special classes. The religious foster family[<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref64">11</reflink>] was also supposed to assess, and later confirm, whether the girl they hosted was 'ready' to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>. In order to measure this readiness, the educators conducted regular evaluations of their performance of religious rituals. Being Jewish, Tanja, who did not have to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>, observed this surveillance as an insider‐outsider:</p> <p>I did not have to do a <emph>Giyur..</emph>. they [the non‐religious girls] had more classes, and they were watched more closely, they were checked more often, whether they came for a prayer or not, or if they did something [improper] or not. I mean, I would get yelled at as well as a non‐Jewish girl if I would've not come to pray. But if I was late, I did not feel it would have consequences, and maybe non‐Jewish girls did think it would have consequences... (Tanja)</p> <p>Each of the non‐Jewish girls felt she was watched and judged by the <emph>Ulpana</emph> staff more than other immigrants and local girls. She also knew it was up to educators to decide on and provide evidence for her readiness to convert.</p> <p>Usually, the conversion was scheduled in the third year at the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, yet the girls who were defined as 'ready' could be rewarded for their good behavior by being permitted to convert earlier:</p> <p> <emph>Elisheva</emph>: I started to ask to get converted during the second year. I already was very religious and I did everything I should. And I was pushing them to allow me to do <emph>Giyur</emph>.</p> <p> <emph>Interviewer</emph>: So, why did you want so much to have [an early] <emph>Giyur</emph>?</p> <p> <emph>Elisheva</emph>: Because I felt that I did not want to be <emph>Goya</emph>; I really wanted to feel myself that I am a Jew. I really wanted it.</p> <p>The <emph>Giyur</emph> ritual itself was conducted by bureaucrats at the local government office, under the supervision of the Chief Rabbinate. This office manages the process of <emph>Giyur</emph> by opening a new file from the very first moment an individual has expressed an interest in religious conversion. Throughout the process, the readiness of a future convert to go through the ritual is tested. The last step of the process, i.e., the ritual itself, involves confirming the documents of one's legitimate status as a Jew.</p> <p>The girl would travel to the local office with her teacher; she would have to answer questions posed by the three male Orthodox judges, who were to decide whether her knowledge of Jewish religious rituals and practices was satisfactory enough to grant her the permission to perform it. On a few occasions, a girl would have to come back to the judges to reassess her readiness. After the Rabbinical judges agree to convert the girl, the ritual of immersion that symbolises the purification of her body was performed. The girl would go to a local pool where the ritual of immersion was performed, accompanied by her teacher to perform the ceremony. Immersion in the water, she, like any convert, is believed to be reborn as a new (Jewish) body. After immersion, the three male rabbis come in to acknowledge the <emph>Giyur</emph> and ask the proselyte woman to repeat a prayer after them. In so doing, she expresses her commitment to perform religious practices.</p> <p>Once the traditional conversion ritual was performed, the girl would come back to her school where she would be congratulated by her classmates throwing a 'reborn' birthday party for her, greeting her with chocolate and balloons:</p> <p>And then we came to school after the procedure. And I did not know the girls organised a party for me. So, we came to the classroom, and they started to yell 'Surprise!' And they made a party for me, and our teacher gave us chocolates and we celebrated... That was really nice. (Miriam)</p> <p>While the ritual of <emph>Giyur</emph> symbolises the rebirth of the body and soul, the ritual in school grants further public recognition of the girl's acceptance into the Jewish community.</p> <p>What had sustained the young women's religiosity after they left the <emph>Ulpana</emph> and were free of the immediate surveillance and pressures it placed upon them?</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-11">Performing religious commandments under the gaze of God</hd> <p>According to the young women, it was the internalised fear of punishment by God that often drove them to perform the commandments, both while they studied in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> and after leaving. Ruth portrayed her <emph>Giyur</emph> in terms of a contract she signed with God to become an orthodox religious observant. According to her, because she converted (and was not born a Jew), she is more obliged to keep this contract.</p> <p> <emph>Interviewer</emph>: You know that there are a lot of Jews who do not keep kosher...</p> <p> <emph>Ruth</emph>: Yes, but they were born Jews and I did <emph>Giyur</emph>.</p> <p> <emph>Interviewer</emph>: Is it different?</p> <p> <emph>Ruth</emph>: Yes, it is. Because when I did <emph>Giyur</emph>, I took upon myself this duty [to observe the religious commandments] and I even said that [during the <emph>Giyur</emph> ceremony]. I do remember how I said that.</p> <p>The message that they are obliged to keep the contract and that their deeds and thoughts are watched and assessed by Him was an integral part of the girls' religious indoctrination. They were told that the invisible eye of God is watching their behavior. Once a girl turns into a believer, the gaze of God is incorporated into her subjectivity; the control over her behavior becomes the domain of God's eye (Foucault [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref65">20</reflink>]).</p> <p>Paradoxically, it is the fear to fail God that drove Keren to decide not to perform conversion while she was already 'in the process, closer to the end'. Interpreting literally the belief that God punishes those who breach the contract, she was afraid of dying and chose not to convert. Bothered by her decision, the educators negotiated with her regarding what is required from a convert and their willingness to make concessions in the hope that she would change her mind. Keren, as we see, did not like this:</p> <p>First of all, I decided I don't want to convert... And I realised that I won't be able to do all this... 'Cause we were told: 'If you don't keep [performing religious practices] it's really, really bad, 'cause this is not good to lie to God. And I just thought that only if I would dare [to do] something not good, not kosher, I would die. And I realised that I wouldn't be able to stand this, and it would be better for me not to convert at all. 'Cause... I was not sure that I would be able to do everything as needed and I really didn't wanna die because of this! And so I decided to cancel [<emph>Giyur</emph>]. And when I told this to my teachers, all of a sudden they said to me: 'What are you worrying about? All you need is to keep kosher and to observe Shabbat, and that's it, this is not so very complicated'. And then I understood that they were lying to me during all these three years. They told me one thing and now they're telling me something else. They said if I'm not doing everything as needed, God knows what's gonna happen to me. And then a person [like me] who really believes it becomes afraid...'Cause it's hard, 'cause you really are scared that God will punish you.</p> <p>On a number of occasions during her interview, Keren said that she was scared to die for not observing the religious commands as required. Interestingly, Keren was one of the best students at her <emph>Ulpana</emph>; she was often praised for her good behavior and readiness to become a religious Jewish woman.</p> <p>As we can see, Keren was dissatisfied by her educators' compromise and flexible attitude, expressing their willingness to bend the religious laws. Regarding herself as 'a person who really believes' in what the educators taught her and trusting them completely, Keren could not accept their transformed discourse, interpreting it as a hypocritical act and judging them to be dishonest and manipulative.</p> <p>Willing to moderate the strict performance of religious commands, the educators were less worried about Keren's religious devotion than concerned about the possibility of losing a potential member of the Israeli national collective who would bear kosher Jewish children. In this sense, the proper 'Jewishness' of the new members, particularly women, of the Israeli national collective seems to take priority over minding strict religious observance.</p> <p>During the interviews, we listened to many other stories indicating the girls' sense of being observed by God and the possibility of being punished for breaching the contract with Him. For example, Haya, who considered ceasing religious observance after graduation, interpreted her falling down the stairs on Saturday as a punishment by God because she watched TV – an activity that is forbidden on Saturdays.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-12">Decoupling conversion and education</hd> <p>Reflecting on their decision to convert and especially to perform <emph>Giyur</emph>, more than half of the young women resisted the idea that they were indoctrinated by disassociating their religious identity from the education they received in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>. They claimed to have become religious either before or after studying there. Lea: 'I always believed in God. I mean, even when I was young I knew that there is something up there... I did not become religious in school, I don't think so'. Ruth said that she had always been religious and that the <emph>Ulpana</emph> only assisted her in choosing Judaism over Christianity – the religion of her mother. Galit and Jenia said that they became religious only after finishing the school, because they did not want to define themselves as such while still being under the control of the staff members there. Arguing that it was not because of the <emph>Ulpana</emph> that they started to believe in God, but despite it, the girls neutralised its authority. Ruth: 'These people there were mean. They did not teach me how to believe in God. I am religious not because I was studying in a religious school; I became religious despite of studying in this school'. Some girls said that when they came to the <emph>Ulpana</emph> they were promising each other to stay together and resist its indoctrination. Keren, for example:</p> <p>I remember how in the first year we were asking those girls who were in their second or third year what to do in order not to become brainwashed, like how to protect ourselves from religious brainwashing. And we also promised to each other to watch each other to stop brainwashing [laughing].</p> <p>As we can see, many of the young women insisted that they chose where and when to convert, that they are choosing individuals who have become religious of their own volition. They emphasised that they managed to escape the religious indoctrination of the <emph>Ulpana</emph> and preserve their autonomy. Upholding their own will, they claimed ownership of their biography in their native home and conversion in the new society, declining to give credit for their faith to the education they got in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>. In this way, the young women did not 'buy into' the widespread notion in Israeli society and the national‐Zionist collective in particular, regarding the potent and persuasive socialisation power of the <emph>Ulpana,</emph> and devalued it.</p> <p>By using this interpretative tactic, the young women stressed their differentness from the local Zionist religious girls and women. The tension between their wish to belong to the Israeli Jewish collective, on the one hand, and their desire to preserve an autonomous and distinguished voice, on the other hand, is not unique to the group we study here, but also characterises other Russian immigrant groups in Israel (Lomsky‐Feder and Rapoport [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref66">34</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-13">Conversion as a nationalisation project of the Israeli state</hd> <p>Over the course of three years in the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, young Russian immigrant women come to believe that the ultimate way for them to belong categorically to the Israeli‐Jewish national collective and to move upward in the Israeli belonging hierarchy is by converting and performing <emph>Giyur</emph>. The girls are taught to believe that the other options to belong are less effective, less moral and less valuable, and that in becoming religious they can avoid being labeled as the 'other' impure, promiscuous women. Although the young women tended at times to devalue the impact of the indoctrination in the <emph>Ulpana</emph> on their conversion by portraying themselves as individuals exercising choice, none of them denied the importance of conversion and <emph>Giyur</emph> as a ticket to belong to the Israeli national collective. Thus, their conversion may be seen as an instrumental act, or strategy, to gain belonging that simultaneously grants them proper femininity and proper nationality. Instrumentality, as we see, does not contradict religious faith that is induced by the routine performance of religious practices.</p> <p>The Israeli nation‐state was an active agent in the girls' conversion by delegating to the <emph>Ulpana</emph> authority for nationalisation and naturalisation. The state conveys to different 'secondary contractors' or 'ideological mediatory agents' the mission to establish national belonging and identity among the immigrants. The educational endeavor of <emph>Na'ale</emph>, the <emph>Ulpana,</emph> as well as other formal and informal socialising agencies, is considered worthy and vital in order to achieve successful absorption and establishing a competent Israeli identity among the homecomers.</p> <p>Israel is a unique case in this regard, as it defines all immigrants of Jewish heritage as homecomer citizens who belong automatically to the Israeli state and the Jewish people, and not as part of a minority group of different ethnicity. Due to the lack of separation in Israel between state and religion, religious schools that are part of the state formal educational system are enlisted to inculcate and foster religious and national identity via conversion. However, the conversion of immigrants is not a nationalisation project in other societies; in other words, other nation‐states are not involved in converting immigrants. In these societies, religious revivalist immigrant groups and organisations that are involved in religious education and conversion operate usually in informal, sectorial settings that are often regarded by the state as a threat to social cohesion and nationality. Moreover, global politics, particularly after September 11, grants moral legitimacy to state mechanisms to watch over Muslim religious educational organisations while distrusting their aims and denouncing their pedagogical practices.</p> <p>In contrast, the <emph>Ulpana</emph>, which is funded by the state and supervised and run by national religious educators, functions as an arm of the Israeli state in its eagerness to nationalise and absorb immigrants. Its education reinforces demographically the national religious camp, and at the same time adds new proper citizens to the Israeli Jewish collective. Inviting the young women to study and facilitating their conversion and <emph>Giyur</emph>, the <emph>Ulpana</emph> serves simultaneously the sectorial interests of the national religious camp and those of the Jewish ethno‐national state. Thus, by being intensely involved in the process of absorption by converting the immigrant girls, the <emph>Ulpana</emph> contributes to maintain the Jewishness of the Israel state. Following this line of thinking, we understand the girls' conversion process as part of the modern project related to the nationalisation and naturalisation of immigrants that is performed under the auspices and support of the Israeli nation‐state (Goodman [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref67">23</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref68">24</reflink>]). This process attests to the success of the ideological state apparatus in subjecting the homecomers. The immigrant subjects herself to the logic and governmental regime not out of docility, but rather out of her motivation to belong and be regarded as a proper citizen.</p> <p>Such naturalisation via education is saturated in Israel with social, cultural and political struggles, especially between the religious and non‐religious educational streams that compete over the national authorisation to shape the newcomers' identity. Both streams substantiate their claim to educate the homecomers by a similar ideology, pertaining to their salvation: 'These are children that God brought back to us after the Holocaust, do we have any right to leave them in the gutters?' asked rhetorically a headmaster of one of <emph>N'aale</emph> programs.[<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref69">12</reflink>] Thus, both educational streams solicit their right to manage immigrants' identity, body and the belonging on behalf of a national mission (see Plotkin‐Amarmi [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref70">38</reflink>]). The patronising stance vis‐à‐vis the young immigrants, especially when they live far from their parents, grants the locals a moral privilege to mould and change the newcomers' identity, decide on the content of their transformation and on the pedagogical practices that are supposed to turn them into normative citizens in the ethno‐national state.</p> <p>Seemingly, each stream uses a contradictory discourse – religious or psychological – aimed at salvation, which defines the immigrants in terms of a 'problem' or a 'pathology' of either the body or the soul that needs to be cured.[<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref71">13</reflink>] While the religious educational discourse focuses on the bodily, moral and spiritual defects of the newcomers, the psychological educational one is based on the assumption of mental trauma or crises caused by transcultural transition. In fact, both discourses grant legitimation to educators to generate self‐transformation via moral construction.</p> <p>We contend that despite the differences in educational messages and pedagogical practices between the national religious and non‐religious discourses, both operate as an arm of the state in managing the girls' belonging. Residing side by side in the Israeli 'absorption field' while being engaged in power struggles, both streams constitute and preserve the national interests of the ethno‐national Israeli state and the hegemonic, Zionist definition of the proper citizen. Thus under the appearance of a socio‐political and cultural conflict reside two different educational systems with a shared ideological, national aim intended for the fortification of Jewish nationality and identity.</p> <hd id="AN0036677739-14">Notes</hd> <ref id="AN0036677739-15"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> 1. For more on this successful absorption program, see Apel and Shalom ([3]); Bandes‐Jacob and Freedman ([7]).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref2" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> 2. Since the beginning of the 1990s, about a million immigrants have arrived to Israel from different parts of the former USSR, comprising about one‐fifth of the current Jewish population. As these immigrants are generally categorised as 'Russians', both by indigenous Israelis and (often) by themselves, the terms 'Russian' and 'Russian girls' are used here.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref3" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> 3. The first <emph>Ulpana</emph> was established in 1959. The <emph>Ulpana</emph> is committed to provide modern education, inculcating religious practices, values and national sentiments (Rapoport, Garb, and Penso [42]). The ideology of the school affiliated with the national religious collective combines Zionist‐nationalist ideals with Jewish religiosity.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref4" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> 4. It is estimated that more than 240,000 non‐Jews currently live in Israel, comprising 26% of the entire 'big Russian immigration wave'.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref5" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> 5. In Hebrew, a convert to Judaism is referred to as a 'righteous proselyte', 'proselyte [of] righteousness'. Converts have to demonstrate that they are willing to practice Judaism and would continue to do so after performing the <emph>Giyur</emph> (conversion) ritual.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref6" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> 6. A socio‐political agency dealing with promoting immigration to Israel that trains emissaries to pursue this mission.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref7" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> 7. These people are often labeled as 'non‐kosher' Jews, i.e., not proper or legitimate Jews according to Jewish orthodox law.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref14" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> 8. Pseudonyms are used with a special attempt to preserve the 'Russianness' or 'Hebrewness' of the girls' name in Israel; some girls changed their names to Hebrew after immigration.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref27" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> 9. A long skirt that covers the knees and legs is the major symbolic representation of modesty. For elaboration of this issue, see Rapoport and Neiterman ([45]).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> 10. Conversion of non‐Jewish immigrants (most coming from mixed marriages of Russian Jews) is a 'hot' topic in current Israeli discourse. One strong voice emphasises the importance of <emph>Giyur</emph> as ethnic transformation that serves national necessity (Avnais [6]; Polonsky [39]; Rivkin [47]). Claiming that <emph>Giyur</emph> has to be performed symbolically to legitimate the Jewishness of immigrants, it suggests that religious demands have to be lessened.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> 11. The foster family is supposed to host the girl during holidays and Saturday in order to introduce her to a model of the ideal religious family. During her mandatory visits to the family, the girl is expected to observe this model and adopt it.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> 12. <emph>H'aaretz</emph> newspaper, 24 April 2000 (holiday supplementary).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> 13. 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[Hebrew] Amudim, 17–19</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Elena Neiterman and Tamar Rapoport</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib53" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib55" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib52" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref32"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib50" firstref="ref33"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref36"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib54" firstref="ref37"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref39"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref40"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref41"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref45"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref47"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib51" firstref="ref48"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib56" firstref="ref49"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref53"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref56"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref60"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref61"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref63"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref65"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref66"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref67"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref68"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl44" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref70"></nolink> |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Converting to Belong: Immigration, Education and Nationalization among Young 'Russian' Immigrant Women – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Neiterman%2C+Elena%22">Neiterman, Elena</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Rapoport%2C+Tamar%22">Rapoport, Tamar</searchLink> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Gender+and+Education%22"><i>Gender and Education</i></searchLink>. Mar 2009 21(2):173-189. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 17 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2009 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Jews%22">Jews</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Females%22">Females</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Boarding+Schools%22">Boarding Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Personal+Narratives%22">Personal Narratives</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Immigrants%22">Immigrants</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Judaism%22">Judaism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Religious+Education%22">Religious Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Citizenship%22">Citizenship</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Israel%22">Israel</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Russia%22">Russia</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1080/09540250802213198 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0954-0253 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: The paper examines religious conversion to Judaism among young "Russian" immigrant girls in Israel. Looking into the process of conversion in religious boarding schools for girls only ("Ulpana") and in the broader context of the Israeli nation-state, we examine the strategies the educators contrive in inculcating religiosity among the girls, how they legitimise and facilitate their self-transformation, and mobilise them to desire a religious subjectivity. At the same time, we study the experiences of the Russian girls in the "Ulpana", and the meanings they assign to their conversion as depicted in the personal stories they narrated to us. The paper reveals how the "Ulpana" operates as a major nationalisation agent that cultivates a path for the girls to belong to the national religious camp, thus assuring their affiliation to Israeli-Jewish society at large. (Contains 13 notes.) – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: Ref Label: Number of References Group: RefInfo Data: 56 – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2009 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ830451 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1080/09540250802213198 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 17 StartPage: 173 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Jews Type: general – SubjectFull: Females Type: general – SubjectFull: Boarding Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries Type: general – SubjectFull: Personal Narratives Type: general – SubjectFull: Immigrants Type: general – SubjectFull: Judaism Type: general – SubjectFull: Religious Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Citizenship Type: general – SubjectFull: Israel Type: general – SubjectFull: Russia Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Converting to Belong: Immigration, Education and Nationalization among Young 'Russian' Immigrant Women Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Neiterman, Elena – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Rapoport, Tamar IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 03 Type: published Y: 2009 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0954-0253 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 21 – Type: issue Value: 2 Titles: – TitleFull: Gender and Education Type: main |
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