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Despite the extensive literature about the "Great Aliyah," the return migration from the former Soviet Union (ES.U.) to Israel, only a few studies have dealt with the babushka (grandmother)?a central icon of Soviet culture?and her dynamic (re)configuration in the Israeli context. This paper analyzes the reshaping of the babushka?as a gendered, dynamic, and class-related institution?in Israel, as seen through the eyes of the grandmothers themselves. For this purpose, fifteen ex-Soviet grandmothers who now live in the urban center of Israel participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in Hebrew in 2012 and 2013. The findings suggest that the Israeli version of the babushka involves a reinterpretation by the grandmothers of the (late) Soviet legacy through the dominant norms of the host culture and the constitution of a new gender contract, thus acknowledging greater individual autonomy. They also suggest that the Israeli babushka may well be a short-lived phenomenon. That is, the impact of the Soviet heritage, detached from the dominant Soviet economic, cultural, and social institutions, may well fade away. The conclusion refers to some theoretical issues that could be relevant to family and (return) migration scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]