Former Israeli minister and political prisoner, Natan Sharansky. Photo: wiki commons.

Limmud FSU, a Jewish learning organization working internationally, has released the results of a survey on the views of Russian-speaking Jews living in North America, showing that 63 percent of respondents believe Benjamin Netanyahu makes the best prime minister for Israel. Additionally, only 22 percent of respondents had expressed a desire for President Barack Obama to win the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

More than 200 Limmud FSU members between the ages of 21 and 35 in the U.S. and Canada took the survey. Sixty percent were females, 40 percent were males, and 20 percent were married. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents said they don’t yet feel they fully belong to the American Jewish community. Thirty-eight percent said they prefer to live in Israel and more than 97 percent have visited the Jewish state. Only 2 percent of the respondents expressed a desire to return to the countries of the Former Soviet Union.

“The survey shows very clearly the deep connection that they young Russian Jewish community members have to the state of Israel and their Russian Jewish identity. However, the majority of them still don’t feel integrated enough into the major American Jewish community,” said Limmud FSU Co-Founder Sandy Cahn.