Matryoshki in two worlds: Enduring oppression, expanding dreams

This interpretive study was based on the question: " What is it like to be a Jewish woman who emigrated from the former Soviet Union?" Hermeneutic phenomenology guided the research as it sought to make meaning by using texts to analyze behaviors, thoughts, and actions. The conversational interview, in an unstructured, open-ended format, was the primary data collection method; participant observation and interaction, an on-going review of literature, audio and video recording, and personal reflections were also used. The study participants---12 female Soviet Jewish emigres---were between 20 and 72 years old, were able to communicate fully in English, and knew the primary researcher; a gatekeeper was liaison to the local Soviet Jewish community. Characterizations of the women drew an analogy from the matryoshka, a nested doll that symbolizes Russian womanhood. Ten themes were represented by two sets of nested dolls to indicate the women's lives in each of their two worlds: the former USSR ["Enduring Oppression"] and the US ["Expanding Dreams"]. Four matryoshki---Yevreyka/Jewess, padrouga /friend, intelligehntnaya zhenshchina/Intelligentsia and professional/professional---were significant in both worlds; three matryoshki---dochenka [daughter], emigrantka [emigre], and grazhdanka [Soviet citizen]---were significant in the first world; and three matryoshki---mother, refugee, and American citizen---were significant in the second world. The matryoshka analogy also evoked three universal themes that integrated the women's lives across both worlds: strangers, sacrificers , and survivors. New understanding based on this study were that the 12 women: (a) regarded motherhood as their most important identity, (b) required a period of intense discussion prior to emigration decision-making, (c) confirmed the results of existing research with their reasons to emigrate, (d) experienced substantial on-going and generally unarticulated stress, (e) were socialized to fit the dominant culture by the American [adult] education system, (f) assumed bicultural rather than monocultural characteristics during resettlement, (g) perceived the Russian language as their greatest loss of emigration, (h) established their own personal relationships with Judaism, (i) chose formal education to succeed and informal education to survive, and (j) were self-directed and experiential but not transformative learners.