Adam Farkas, “Oral Histories of the Soviet Jewish Diaspora in the US, 1973 – 1980”

Between 1973 and 1980, over 65,000 Soviet Jews, often referred to as “dropouts,” immigrated to the United States. While they are often treated as a single demographic group, these Soviet Jews represented surprising diversity profiles across distinct waves of migration. Studying this population without considering their day-to-day experiences in the Soviet Union and the US misses important divergences in identity transformation, cultural adaptation, and assimilation practices. Through detailed oral history analysis, the presentation examines the cultural adaptations and disparities encountered during their journey, including education, cultural dynamics, political perspectives, and community building. It investigates how these challenges influenced the immigration experience for Soviet Jewish immigrants in the United States versus their experiences in the Soviet Union. The study also looks at how adaptation to American culture contributed to evolving identities and how the preservation or rejection of Russian and Jewish heritage shaped self-perception.

Adam Farkas holds a PhD in History from Budapest, Hungary. After defending his dissertation, he was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, where his research focuses on the oral histories and everyday life of Soviet Jewish émigrés in the 1970s.

Lunch will be served.