1990s post-Soviet aliyah

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In the years leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and for just over a decade thereafter, a particularly large number of Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet countries. The majority of these emigrants made aliyah, while a sizable amount immigrated to various Western countries. This wave of Jewish migration followed the 1970s Soviet aliyah, which began after the Soviet government lifted the ban on the country's refuseniks, most of whom were Jews who had been denied permission to leave the country.

Between 1989 and 2006, about 1.6 million Soviet Jews and their relatives left the country.^[1] About 979,000, or 61%, were received by Israel under the Law of Return, which allows Jews and their non-Jewish spouses to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Another 325,000 and 219,000 immigrated to the United States and Germany, respectively.^[2][3]

Many of the Ashkenazi Jews who lived in all parts of the former Soviet Union were highly secular, and notable Jewish customs went unpracticed, such as a Brit milah (circumcision ceremony). Upon arriving to Israel, tens of thousands of teenage boys and men underwent circumcision.^[4] Among these Jews was also a significant amount of intermarriage; according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 26% of olim and olot from the Soviet Union did not have their Jewishness recognized by the halakhic definition, but were still eligible for Israeli citizenship due to patrilineal Jewish descent or through marriage to a Jew.^[5]

While most of the immigration wave was made up of Ashkenazi Jews, a notable amount of Mizrahi Jews also made aliyah from the Soviet Union's Asian territories during this time, such as the Mountain Jews, the Georgian Jews, and the Bukharian Jews, among others. These Jewish communities were much more traditional and substantially less affected by Soviet secularism, maintaining a strong Jewish identity.^[6] Indeed, the Haskalah movement, various socialist movements, and the desire for communism that appeared among Ashkenazi communities never made its way to the non-Ashkenazi communities.^[7] Furthermore, they maintained a more patriarchal family structure, with lower rates of women’s employment and higher numbers of children. By contrast to the highly educated and assimilated Ashkenazim, these Mizrahi Jews more often than not made their living in commerce, crafts, and business.

The overwhelming majority of the Ashkenazi immigrants have been credited with boosting Israel's economy, helping grow the country's famous high-tech industry in particular.^[8]