Walking down the halls of Northwest Yeshiva High School, you can hear students talking in many languages, including Russian. 

“When I speak [Russian] in the halls, I can’t say anything private because people may understand it and may tell their friends,” sophomore Avital Galanzovasky said. 

Twenty percent of the NYHS student body is Russian, according to Director of Admissions Beth Jacoby. The Russian share of the student body has been growing; data from Jacoby shows that last year the Russian student population was only fourteen percent. The year before that was even lower at nine percent.

Russian students have chosen NYHS because “it’s a good Jewish school in Seattle,” said Galanzovasky.

Many Russian families at NYHS left the Soviet Union after it fell. Freshman Rafael Urman explains that his father moved from the USSR, then moved to Israel, then made their way to America.

Sophomore David Liansky, whose family is from Lithuania and Ukraine, moved to Israel and then to America when his father got a job at Microsoft. 

“My parents spoke Russian at home and that’s the first language I know,” he said.

Russian traditions were also brought to America. Some families celebrate the Russian New Year, which is like Christmas, but since religious traditions were seen as a sign of disloyalty in the USSR, Christmas was stripped of religious traditions and moved to the new year. 

“Russian culture has definitely influenced how I grew up,” sophomore Jessica Berenzansky said. She cites traditions, including the new year, as ways being Russian affects her life. For Galanzovasky, Russian culture has made her more “polite” because Russians are “serious and polite,” she said. 

Berenzasky eats many traditional Russian foods. Her favourite dish, pelmeni, which is “a kind of dumpling,” she said. 

Another delicacy that she likes is blini, a crepe with apple filling.

The Russian population is growing making it more and more widely spoken despite this 

 Junior Dinah Noratov says that she “can talk with other people [In Russian]… it’s a secret code.”