 Its popularity has spread throughout Eastern Europe and the former Russian Empire , and – by way of migration – to other continents . In North America , borscht is often linked with either Jews or Mennonites , the groups who first brought it there from Europe . Today , several ethnic groups claim borscht , in its variegated local guises , as their own national dish and consume it as part of ritual meals within Eastern Orthodox , Greek Catholic , Roman Catholic , and Jewish religious traditions . 
