“They have undoubtedly contributed to the gradual shifting of the political weight to the center-right,” notes Professor Larissa Remennick from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University. “First of all, coming from the Soviet Union, they have a natural dislike for any political agenda that is socialist or social democratic. Beyond that, it’s important to remember that these Russian-speaking Jews came from a geopolitical superpower with a huge amount of territory, so for many of them, handing over land for peace seems like a madness, especially because Israel is a tiny country as it is. They construe the right-wing narrative in Israel as patriotic, whereas the left wing is seen as defeatist.”

According to the journalist and author Galili, many Russian immigrants' gravitation toward right-wing parties has a more complex explanation. “They brought with them in their personal and collective baggage traumas acquired in the Soviet system – suspicion, mistrust, fear, anxieties – and they planted them in the Israeli soil full of local traumas. Russian imperial attitudes combined immediately with basic Israeli nationalism and they thrived together, so that had a profound impact on Israeli politics,” she says.

Having come from a society where for many years religious practice was banned, these Russian-speaking immigrants, as opposed to their counterparts from the West, came to Israel with very little knowledge of their Jewish roots. So as they pushed Israel more to the right, they also made it a more secular society. Among their most popular contributions to Israeli life – at least from the perspective of non-believing Jews – have been an array of butcher shops around the country that sell pork and other non-kosher meat as well as their own network of supermarkets that stay open on the Sabbath.

They have also legitimized Christmas, at least in a secular sense. As Galili notes: “If you go out this time of year, you see a lot of Christmas trees. These Christmas trees have nothing to do with Jesus or Christianity. They are part of the Russian culture of celebrating the New Year. When they first came, they were forced to hide these trees because of how Israelis reacted. Over time, Israelis learned it has nothing to do with Christianity. It’s part of a very happy tradition that the Russians brought with them.”