More than 2,000 Russian-speaking Arabs live in Israel, most of them graduates of universities in the former Soviet Union. Some returned to Israel with local Russian women who “followed the love” and came to live in one of the villages or towns of Wadi Ara or in some other mixed Arab-Israeli city in Israel. 

In their homes there are still signs of the life they led “there.” Every so often, melodies accompanying the poems of Vladimir Vysotsky may be heard through the windows of houses in Umm al-Fahm. In some of the homes, a small figurine of Lenin  decorates the living room. 

The children speak Russian, having mastered the language. And just like the Israeli immigrants, the Arabs who returned to Israel after a stay there deeply miss “Mother Russia.”

Imagine this: A Muslim woman wearing a traditional hijab, through which one may glimpse Slavic facial features, their uniqueness highlighted by the veil covering her head. She is talking with another woman, attired similarly, her blond hair peeking through her headscarf. In another corner, a physician from Ramallah is engaged in a lively conversation with an Israeli scientist, reminiscing about Dnepropetrovsk, the large Ukrainian city where she once lived. She is eagerly listening to every word.