# Talk:Russian language in Israel

This article deals with Russian only as a language of migrants. But Russian is also spoken by many Palestinians, as many people got university education in Soviet Union. Considering that Nazareth is a communist stronghold, there must be Russian speakers there. Any reference or article on this around? --Soman (talk) 15:56, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

My impression (though I admit that I have no source for this other than personal acquaintance) is that actually more Palestinians studied in Bulgaria or Romania than in the USSR. RolandR (talk) 20:22, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

I just noticed this article today (apparently I already edited it before but forgot :/) and was pleasantly surprised about how it was well-written and properly researched. I have noticed a couple problems however. For one, there is undue weight/WP:COATRACK in the history section. Even though it's a nice read, it doesn't actually describe history of the Russian language in Israel, but of supposed immigration of Russian-speakers. I think it would be more appropriate to relate to the language and also include much more information about early Zionists (pre-1948) most of whom were Russian-speakers. Also rename the section to Background which is more appropriate for the content line that it presents now.
Secondly, I checked Haim Gordon's book on Google Books, and wonder whether it's a reliable source. It doesn't seem to be an academic work, and many parts of it (those that can be viewed at least) are just opinions in favor or against certain population groups, with little hard data and nothing to back it up with. Can anyone elaborate on this book?
Thanks, Ynhockey (Talk) 11:38, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

more information about early Zionists (pre-1948) most of whom were Russian-speakers did any of them actually live in the state of Israel? If yes, I don't see any problem adding a section on them. In the 19th century, I would say the majority Jews in the world knew Russian, because most of the Jewish populations lived in Eastern Europe (Poland, what is now Ukraine, Belarus) and obviously Russian was the administrative language in these areas. However, the Russian language in the state of Israel didn't really have history before the 1990s wave. Note that most Jews that moved into Palestine in the late 1940s were from Arabic countries. --Երևանցի talk  02:41, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Russian language in Israel/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Tea with toast (talk · contribs) 01:18, 8 July 2013 (UTC)


### Issues needing to be addressed
I have finished my preliminary review of the article and am pleased to find that most things are in order in terms of the formatting and references and such. However, I have a few concerns and questions about the topic that I would like to see addressed before I pass this article:

I find the introductory sentence of the "History" section to be misleading. As another editor had commented on the talk page, I too was of the understanding that there were a number of Russian Jews who immigrated to Israel during the times before the state was founded and in the years following (although I admit I don't have a source to back that up). Thus, it seems a mistake to claim that the first Russian Jews did not arrive until the 1970s.
The tone of the "Today" section seems too negative and biased, and the bulk of the text relies on only one source. This section will need to be rewritten in a more neutral tone before I can pass this article. While it may be a fact that many Russian Jews do not to learn Hebrew for one reason or another, I'm sure there are also a great number who do learn the language, and this is not mentioned in the article. There may also be concern among such Russian-speakers about wanting to maintain their language heritage such that they may wish to ensure that their children and grandchildren learn to speak Russian. I doubt all of the Russian-only speakers don't speak Hebrew because they simply refuse to (which is what the tone of the section suggests), there may be certain barriers to learning Hebrew that may make it more difficult for some, such as lack of education or access to resources. I would like to see some of this discussed in the article.
If there is information and resources available, I would like to see some mention about the second generation speakers in terms of how many of them are bilingual.
The article mentions Russian-speaking neighborhoods. Is it known where these neighborhoods are? I think it would be helpful to include a sentence or two that lists some of the cities or areas with high concentrations of Russian speakers. It would be especially important to include those areas where the Russian language is semi-official.
I'll return in about a week to check on the progress of the article and the changes being made. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I will place the article review "on hold" until then. Happy editing! --Tea with toast (話) 02:18, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

I hope you don't mind, but I went ahead and tried to address the issues raised (correcting the 1970s statement, making the "Today" section less negative, adding information on the Russian neighborhoods and second generation Russian Jews, etc). --1ST7 (talk) 19:54, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
Excellent job! I'm very pleased with the results! I can now give this article a pass! --Tea with toast (話) 00:24, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

We have Russian Jews in Israel, but what about more than a 100,000 Russian Christians in Israel? And what about probably something like 10,000 Messianic Jews of Russian heritage (who are Jews by self-definition, but not according to most Jews in the country)? I think we should rename this "Russians in Israel" or something like that, so that non-linguistic information can be added.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.206.137.105 (talk) 16:17, 13 October 2016 (UTC) 

"The Russian language is spoken natively by a large proportion of the population of Israel, reaching about 20 percent of the total population by 1989"
I GREATLY doubt this. Only a trickle of Russian-speaking Jews moved to Israel in the 70s. Before that, the last significant influx were the Zionist pioneers prior to Israel's independence, and by 1989 I doubt many of their descendants still spoke Russian – if it was their native language the first place! The large majority of Russian-speaking immigrants arrived after mid-1989, because the US stopped giving automatic asylum to Soviet Jews. And yet despite the 1+ million Russian speakers who moved to Israel since 1989, only 17% of the population spoke Russian in 2017. I therefore think this statistic is wrong or that there was a misunderstanding at some point. Synotia (talk) 16:52, 3 December 2022 (UTC)