Food for Thought: Transnational Contested Identities and Food Practices of Russian-Speaking Jewish Migrants in Israel and Germany

In recent decades, many Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union have settled in Germany and Israel. In Food for Thought, Julia Bernstein conducts a widely interdisciplinary investigation into the ways in which such immigrants manage their multiple, overlapping identities—as Jews, Russians, and citizens of their newly adopted nations. Focusing in particular on the packaging, sale, and consumption of food, which offers surprising insights into the self-definitions of these immigrants, the book delivers one of our most detailed looks yet at complicated and important aspects of immigration and national identities.

Julia Bernstein is a cultural anthropologist, sociologist and artist. She is a lecturer at Cologne University, the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt-on-Main, and Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz.