The idea for this project came from my personal interest in assimilation and immigration. Both of my parents are immigrants from the former USSR, and they were able to immigrate to the United States by being sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. When they first arrived to what was a very new country to them, they were hired to work jobs such as dishwashing and waitressing, they took English classes at community college, and tried to adjust to a brand new environment. They also worked to be granted citizenship. It would have been impossible to be successful in the United States without assimilating, even though there was a large Russian community in Cleveland. Having children forced my parents to become more involved in the American society. I attended the preschool at the local Jewish Community Center, which forced our family to be more involved in the Jewish community. As time passed, my parents got more advanced jobs and were completely adjusted to the new American society.
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While I would consider our family to be somewhat americanized, there are still many Russian traditions we have not abandoned. Russian foods can be found at any holiday celebrations, including Thanksgiving, which is completely an American tradition. We still believe in all the Russian superstitions that were an important part of Russian culture for centuries, and we even speak Russian to each other. I feel that I am fully assimilated, but I hope to keep some bits of the Russian culture alive for the next generation. Although assimilation is sometimes difficult to avoid, the most important thing is to keep the original history alive for others and to pass cultural traditions on from generation to generation. |
Header photo citation: Photo courtesy of flickr user Mike Boening Photography