Israeli Americans

Israeli Americans
אמריקאים ישראלים

Total population
(106,839[1][2] - 150,000[3][4][5])
Regions with significant populations
New York City Metropolitan Area,[6][7][8][9] Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, Miami Metropolitan Area, and other large metropolitan areas
Languages
American English, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, French, Yiddish
Religion
Judaism minority Druze, Christianity and Islam

Israeli Americans (Hebrew: אָמֵרִיקאים יִשׂרָאֵלים‎‎ lit. Ameriqaim Yisra'elim) are Americans who have Israeli citizenship either by descent or naturalization.

History

Israelis began migrating to the United States shortly after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Thus, during the 1950s 21,376 Israeli immigrants came to the US and the 1960s saw 30,911 Israeli immigrants, often seen as the first wave of Israeli immigration to the United States when 52,278 Israelis emigrated to the US according to US Immigration data.^[10] A second wave of modest immigration continued with a total of 36,306 Israelis during 1970 to 1979, 43,669 in 1980 to 1989, 41,340 in 1990 to 1999 and 54,801 in 2000 to 2009. Since 2010 Israeli migration to the U.S. and has continued at around four thousand a year since. The number of immigrants in the United States born in Israel is estimated by demographers to be close to one hundred forty thousand, while the number of Israeli immigrants in the US is an issue that has been debated by laymen to be much larger, a phenomenon of overestimation of co-ethnic population common to many ethnic communities.

Israeli immigration to the United States developed during the 1980s and 1990s due to a number of reasons, including the war between Israelis and Palestinians and high taxes and lack of housing available in their homeland. Also, the acquisition of aspects of American culture (especially fashion and entertainment) in Israel caused many Israelis to want to have the economic and educational opportunities of the United States.

Demographics

Since the declaration of the state of Israel, and until today many Israelis emigrated to the United States. According to the 2000 United States Census estimated that as many as 106,839 Israelis live in the United States nowadays,^[11] while other unsourced estimates say the number is much higher, around 500,000.^[3][4][5] A considerable numbers of Israelis, estimated broadly from 200,000 to three times that figure, have moved abroad in the recent decades.^[12] In 2012, a Global Religion and Migration Database constructed by the Pew Research Center showed that there were a total of 330,000 native-born Israelis, including 230,000 Jews, living around the world, approximately 4% of Israel's native-born Jewish population.^[13][14] Based on current estimates of Israel-born Jewish migrants to the U.S. of 140,000, two thirds of Jewish Israeli native emigrants have settled in the U.S. and the remaining third in Canada, Europe, South America, South Africa and the remainder of the world. Reasons for emigration vary, but generally relate to a combination of economic and political concerns.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development calculated an 'expatriate rate' of 2.9 persons per thousand, putting Israel in the mid-range of expatriate rates among the 175 OECD countries examined in 2005.^[15]

The New York City metropolitan area has now become by far the leading metropolitan gateway for Israeli immigrants legally admitted into the United States, with the Los Angeles metropolitan area now in a distant second place.^[8] Within the United States, as of April 2013, Israeli airline El Al operated from John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, both in the New York City metropolitan area, as well as from Los Angeles International Airport. The New York City metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, and the city proper contains the largest Jewish community in the world.^[16]

In 2009, Steven M. Cohen and Judith Veinstein found that in New York, Jewish Israeli emigrants are highly affiliated with the Jewish community even though community affiliation is low in Israel. Israelis were found to be more connected to Judaism than their American counterparts in terms of synagogue membership and attendance, kashrut observance, participation in Jewish charity events and membership in Jewish community centers, among other indicators used by the study.^[17]

In 1982, Pini Herman and David LaFontaine, in a study of Israeli emigrants in Los Angeles, found high levels of Jewish affiliation, Jewish organizational participation and concentration in Jewish neighborhoods by Israeli emigrants. Israeli emigrants who behaved in a comparatively secular manner in Israel tended to behave in a more devoutly Jewish manner in Los Angeles and Israeli emigrants who reported greater Jewish behaviors in Israel tended to engage in Jewish behaviors to a lesser degree in Los Angeles, thus both becoming more 'Americanized' in their Jewish behaviors.^[18]

Israelis tend to be disproportionately Jewishly active in their diaspora communities, creating and participating formal and informal organizations, participating in diaspora Jewish religious institutions and sending their children to Jewish education providers at a greater rate than local diaspora Jews.^[19]

By generations

Based on the 2013 Pew American Jewry Survey ^[20] estimate base on Jews by religion/no religion/Jewish background who were born in Israel/Palestine is 140,0000 nationally. American Jews born in Israel had 40 thousand children under age 18 in their US households. Another estimated 170 thousand Jewish adults not born in Israel have at least one parent born in Israel/Palestine, and these adults have an estimated 200 thousand children under the age of 18 who have at least one Israel-born grandparent. An An additional 60 thousand American Jews reported that they had once "lived in Israel."^[21]

By state

The U.S states by Israeli Americans as per the 2000 census:^[22]

The New York City Metropolitan Area is home to by far the largest Israeli immigrant population in the United States.^[7][8][9]

State	Population rank	Israeli American (2000)	Percent Israeli American (2000)
New York	1	30,164	0.2%
California	2	24,956	0.1%
Florida	3	9,511	0.1%
New Jersey	4	7,939	0.1%
Massachusetts	5	3,713	0.1%
Illinois	6	3,557	0.0%
Pennsylvania	7	3,051	0.0%
Maryland	8	3,044	0.1%
Texas	9	2,974	0.0%
Michigan	10	1,737	0.0%
Ohio	11	1,640	0.0%
Connecticut	12	1,387	0.0%
Georgia (U.S. state)	13	1,149	0.0%
Washington	14	1,021	0.0%
Arizona	15	984	0.0%
Nevada	16	930	0.0%
Virginia	17	898	0.0%
Colorado	18	873	0.0%
North Carolina	19	745	0.0%
Missouri	20	612	0.0%
Wisconsin	21	540	0.0%
Oregon	22	454	0.0%
South Carolina	23	454	0.0%
Minnesota	24	432	0.0%
Indiana	25	363	0.0%
Tennessee	26	324	0.0%
New Mexico	27	309	0.0%
Oklahoma	28	240	0.0%
Louisiana	29	230	0.0%
District of Columbia	-	229	0.0%
Utah	30	226	0.0%
Rhode Island	31	214	0.0%
Hawaii	32	208	0.0%
Kansas	33	197	0.0%
Iowa	34	187	0.0%
Alabama	35	181	0.0%
New Hampshire	36	142	0.0%
Kentucky	37	139	0.0%
Delaware	38	138	0.0%
Vermont	39	131	0.0%
Arkansas	40	103	0.0%
Mississippi	41	100	0.0%
Idaho	42	87	0.0%
Nebraska	43	85	0.0%
Alaska	44	62	0.0%
Puerto Rico	-	55	0.0%
Maine	45	45	0.0%
North Dakota	46	36	0.0%
West Virginia	47	36	0.0%
Montana	48	33	0.0%
South Dakota	49	22	0.0%
Wyoming	50	7	0.0%

Culture and organizations

Various Israeli-American communities have their own newspapers which are printed in Hebrew. Communities arrange cultural, entertainment and art events (including celebrations of the Israeli independence day which usually takes place in Israeli-American demographic centers), and some have the Israeli Network channel, which consists of a selection of live broadcasts as well as reruns of Israeli television news broadcasts, entertainment programs and Israeli sport events. Hundreds of thousands of spectators view the annual Celebrate Israel Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, which touts itself as the world's largest celebration of Israel.^[23][24]

A variety of Hebrew language websites,^[25] newspapers and magazines are published in South Florida, New York,^{[26][27][28][29]} Los Angeles^[30][31] and other U.S. regions.^[32] The Israeli Channel along with two other Hebrew-language channels are available via satellite broadcast nationally in the United States.^[33] Hebrew language Israeli programming on local television was broadcast in New York and Los Angeles during the 1990s, prior to Hebrew language satellite broadcast. Live performances by Israeli artists are a regular occurrence in centers of Israeli emigrants in the U.S. and Canada with audience attendance often in the hundreds.^[34] An Israeli Independence Day Festival has taken place yearly in Los Angeles since 1990 with thousands of Israeli emigrants and American Jews.^[35]

In Los Angeles, a Council of Israeli Community was founded in 2001.^[36] An Israel Leadership Club was also organized in Los Angeles and has been active in support activities for Israel, most recently in 2008, it sponsored with the local Jewish Federation and Israeli consulate a concert in support for the embattled population suffering rocket attacks of Sderot, Israel where the three frontrunners for the U.S. president, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain greeted the attendees by video and expressed their support for the residents of Sderot. An Israeli Business Network of Beverly Hills has existed since 1996.^[37] The Israeli-American Study Initiative (IASI), a start-up project based at the UCLA International Institute, is set out to document the lives and times of Israeli Americans—initially focusing on those in Los Angeles and eventually throughout the United States.^[38]

Economic contributions

According to CNN, Israeli companies are establishing entrepreneurial ventures in New York City at the rate of ten new startups per month.^[39]

Relationship with American Jews

Israeli Americans are generally seen as having less interaction with the non-Israeli Jewish American community and its institutions, often preferring to maintain ties of association with other Israeli Americans.^[40] In return, Jewish Americans, especially religious Jewish Americans, tend to maintain little contact with the Israeli American community besides participation in religious ceremonies.^[41] At one point, religious American Jews viewed "yordim" as being the antithesis of the Jewish people's "eternal hope" of return and permanent settlement in Israel, but now consider them an important sub-group within the broader American Jewish community. 75% of Israeli Americans marry within the Jewish community (as opposed to about 50% of non-Israeli Jewish Americans).^[42]

Notable Israeli Americans

In popular culture

• Comedian-writer Robert Smigel came up with a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990 called the "Sabra Shopping Network". Two years later, Smigel followed it up with "Sabra Price Is Right", starring Tom Hanks as a pushy Israeli game show host, Sandler and Rob Schneider as its presenters and Smigel as a cigarette-smoking announcer, all pushing shoddy electronics on hapless clientele.^[43]
• The concept for the 2008 You Don't Mess with the Zohan movie, which was based on the skits "Sabra Shopping Network" and "Sabra Price Is Right", focused on Zohan Dvir, an IDF commando soldier, who stages his own death to fulfill his deepest dream—moving to New York to become a hairdresser.
• At the end of the 2005 film Munich, the main character Avner (played by Eric Bana), who is an Israeli Mossad agent, decides to move from Israel to Brooklyn, New York, to reunite with his wife and their child.

See also

• Israelis
• Israeli Canadians
• Israeli British
• Yerida

References

Israelis abroad and their descendants
Americas	Canada United States
Asia	China India
Europe	United Kingdom
Oceania	Australia