Still Moving

Recent Jewish Migration in Comparative Perspective

Morton Weinfeld

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351289467
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Jewish Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The aftermath of World War II was a period of massive Jewish migration. More than a million Jews came to settle in the new state of Israel; hundreds of thousands moved to North America, Australia, and France, while tens of thousands resettled themselves elsewhere in Europe and the world. Emigration was, in turn, paralled by large-scale movement among second-generation Jews from the great urban centers to the suburbs. Until recently it has seemed as though the Jewish people had, in the words of the Bible, reached a situation of rest and landed inheritance. However, there is considerable evidence that Jews are still moving: from the former Soviet Union, to and from Israel, and within nations where they have been long resident. Still Moving examines the causes and character of contemporary migration in Israel and throughout the Diaspora.The contributors to this volume adopt a cross-cultural comparative approach. Part 1 establishes the context of the new migration globally with specific concentration on its effects on the institutions of Israeli democracy. Part 2 surveys immigration to Israel in the 1990s with particular emphasis on the wave of Russian emigres since the fall of the Soviet Union. Internal migration from rural to urban centers is also explored. Migration to the Diaspora is covered in part 3. The Jewish identity of Soviet Jews is compared to their American and Canadian counterparts. Economic performance and problems of multigenerational families among emigres are also treated, as are the controversies surrounding politically motivated emigration from Israel. Part 4 focuses on the changing nature of the Diaspora and its relations with Israel. Beyond its grounding in Jewish culture and history, Still Moving frames questions that are central to understanding contemporary migration in general: Does immigration accelerate or retard the abilities of host countries to restructure economically? How does greater ethnic diversity affect the social and cultural life of cities? What factors help immigrants integrate into the wider community? Does immigration contribute to the creation of a marginalized underclass? Still Moving will be essential reading for historians, sociologists, Jewish studies specialists, and policy analysts.

I
Setting the Context

1

Israel, the Jewish People, and the New World of Migration

Daniel J. Elazar and Morton Weinfeld

The Unique Experience of Israel and the Jewish People

The Jewish people have great experience with migration, perhaps more than any other people, and certainly more than any other that has positioned itself in the mainstream or center of many civilizations. Jews have always been on the move. Jewish communities have been found on every continent, and often in the most exotic locales. Jewish mass migrations have also shaped Jewish and world history. One thinks of the movement of Jews throughout the Roman Empire, the consequences of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, the movements of Jews from Western and Central to Eastern Europe, the migrations to the New World of Sephardic, German, and later Eastern European Jews, the post-war movement of Holocaust survivors and North African Jews to Israel, France, the Americas, Australia, and South Africa.

Because of the diasporic experience, Jewish communities worldwide have developed networks of institutions designed to meet communal needs. This has certainly been the case regarding the integration of Jewish immigrants. On the one hand, diaspora organizations and institutions like the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) or Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS), as well as the early lansdsmanschaften and communal social welfare agencies have helped ease the integration of Jewish immigrants, and of course this is supremely true for Israel, where immigrant absorption has been a founding ethos of the state. Aliya (immigration) is the major responsibility of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the government has a cabinet Ministry of Absorption.

On the other hand, each wave of immigration has been met by certain feelings of resentment or condescension by the preceding waves, even as help was being extended by other communal institutions. These cases include attitudes of German Jews towards Russian Jews, Ashkenazi Jews towards recent Sephardic immigrants, old timers towards post-Holocaust "greeners,” and even more recently veteran Israelis towards Russians, Georgians, or Ethiopians. Despite these initial and in some cases persisting antipathies, the integration processes proceeded.

Modern Israel has a particularly important experience in reestablishing the Jewish national home by absorbing millions of Jews within its borders. Conversely, the Jewish state has significant experience with out-migration. The first experiences were forced departures following the destructions of the First and Second Temples — the foundation of the galut (diaspora). In our day, modern Israel has been wrestling with yerida — voluntary emigration from Israel.

In addition to the waves of immigration which helped establish the Jewish state during its first 40 years of existence, since 1989 Israel has absorbed some 800,000 immigrants, the two most dominant groups being from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Despite the experience gained from previous waves of immigration, Israel is still grappling with the subsequent social, economic, and political consequences. Even though more than 500,000 of these immigrants originate from the Commonwealth of Independent States, they represent a vast mix of ethnic, cultural, and academic backgrounds. Due to their strikingly different background, the approximate 20,000 Ethiopians who have arrived since May 1991 present the most formidable absorption challenge. (Interestingly, both of these immigrant groups raised once again the persistent problem of “Who is a Jew?”) The Jerusalem Center is interested in bringing Israel’s experience into the world’s mainstream, but is also interested in the larger question of migration due to the fact that Israel is also caught in the world tide.

These recent tides of immigration can be viewed as a continuation of a trend which began more than 40 years ago. In addition, the State of Israel is grappling with a new set of problems, almost all of which are commonly found in the Western world. Some of these new challenges are directly related to the most recent wave of immigration while others are not. Moreover, migration to Israel from the former Soviet Union in particular has also changed. Migrating to Israel no longer means that one has to cut all ties with one’s native country, and thus there are naturally new types of relations and opportunities tied to the migrants’ native land. Also for the first time, a segment of the migrants from the former USSR and elsewhere are migrating to Israel to enjoy aspects of the Jewish state that are not Jewish per se.

In terms of developments not related to immigration, for example, extended closures on the entrance of workers from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza have resulted in Israel importing foreign workers to meet agricultural and construction needs. Not unlike other countries with guest workers, Israel now has to effectively and efficiently face the challenges that this growing sector brings with it. Israel has no experience in this area and can surely learn from more experienced countries. The response which will emerge will likely blend self-interest with a compassion nurtured by the biblical injunction to be kind to the strangers in your midst, and the memory of the mistreatment of Jewish refugees in the pre-Holocaust and immediate post-Holocaust periods.

The peace process may present another sensitive and formidable problem — an unknown number of returning Palestinians. A significant wave of Palestinians coming into Israel and/or the administered territories will present highly sensitive problems. Israel can also learn from the experience of other countries which have faced comparable challenges.

In terms of diasporas, Israel and the Jewish people have also attained unique experience and perspective. For more than 2,000 years, the Jewish people have been dispersed throughout the world, experiencing migration and absorption under a long list of countries and conditions. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, either parts or all of these diaspora communities have resettled in Israel, yet the vast majority of world Jewry lives in the diaspora. Today the existence of diasporas is no longer unique to the Jewish people. Indeed, due to this growing worldwide phenomenon there is new interest in diasporas in general, as other peoples are organizing communally and politically. Automatically, these groups are turning to the Jewish people and Israel because they have the greatest experience. New diasporas include traditional groups like the Chinese, some among gastarbeiter groups like the Turkish and the North African Arabs, some among retirees as Americans in Latin America and the Caribbean, and some for purposes of commerce such as the large communities of expatriates that the British have established all over the world because of their business interests.

The entire paradigm of migration has indeed shifted dramatically in the second half, and even faster in the second quarter, of the twentieth century. The mass migrations at the turn of the century were essentially one way. To be sure, return migration was not uncommon, though less so among Jews. But these return migrations often represented a failure of adjustment, or a return (with earnings) that had been planned in advance.

In most cases, once the immigrant arrived, contact with the old country and the old culture began an inexorable process of attenuation and dilution. There were usually no return visits or few visits from old country relatives. Immigrants were generally ready to give up their Old World loyalties and become citizens of their new country.

Today much of this has changed. Immigrants can remain in constant touch with all aspects of their country of origin through regular return visits to and from the old country, frequent telephone and e-mail contacts, and up-to-date radio and television shows dealing with the homeland. The ease of movement within the European Community has also lessened the salience of specific national boundaries. In short, there is greater fluidity in the movement of peoples, and less certainty that processes like integration can mean what they once did. Thus diaspora communities can be created and sustained with greater efficacy than ever.

Indeed, diasporas, along with sub-national and supra-national regions, weaken the centrality of nation-states. There is a growing recognition of the commonalities among mega-cities throughout the globe. The fact that these cities are also the magnets attracting large migrant flows means that Toronto or Los Angeles or London or Tel Aviv may have more in common with each other in part because of the strains of immigrant integration, than they do with smaller cities and regions within their respective countries.

The direction of population flows is also reversible. The number of Canadians migrating from Canada to Italy is greater than the number from Italy to Canada. Changing flows also affect Israel, long understood only as an immigrant receiving country.

Israel has also been grappling with the issue of yerida, with hundreds of thousands of Israelis having resettled mainly in the United States and Canada. Israel’s attitude toward their out-migrating brethren has transformed over the years from one of disdain to one of neutrality and, in some cases, pride, particularly in the instances of those Israelis who have “made it.” Today, due to the fact that there are first and even second generation Israeli descendants living abroad, Israelis are now realizing that they need to build ties with these populations. Again, Israel can learn from those countries which have long accepted “out-migration” and developed ways in which to benefit from the existence of those populations.

The Jerusalem Center has been among the first to research and publish on the subject of diasporas and the Jewish people as the model of a classic diaspora. Over the past 25 years, the JCPA has published books and/or monographs on practically every known Jewish community throughout the world (see Appendix). Today the subject has become so mainstream in its importance that there is a scholarly journal devoted to the subject and a Penguin Atlas of Diasporas.

We have identified the following eighteen topics as ones that are of particular relevance for Israel to explore:

1. The Jewish experience with migration
2. Israel’s experience with migration
3. Diasporas
4. Refugees
5. Absorption of immigrants
6. Coping with continuing migration
7. Constitutional and institutional arrangements for handling migration — domestic, international, and multinational
8. Migration and multiculturalism
9. Integration and segregation of migrants
10. Stresses between locals and migrants
11. Competition between locals and migrants
12. The political impacts of migration
13. Frontiers and migration
14. Overpopulation and migration
15. The literature of migration
16. Language and migration
17. Religion and migration
18. Cultural transformations caused or shaped by migration

Five specific topics have been identified as particularly appropriate for the Jerusalem Center:

1. The contemporary Israel-Jewish diaspora experience as a model for other state-diaspora relationships.
2. Survey of Israeli literature on immigration and absorption since the beginning of the Zionist enterprise.
3. The role and problematics of guest workers in Israel.
4. Relations between Israelis and Palestinians in light of Palestinians being daily migrants.
5. Relations between yordim and Israelis.

This volume has tried to explore a wide range of migration topics as they relate to Jewish migrants in Israel and throughout the diaspora. These include:

• Issues of ideology, such as the difference between migrants and olim in Israel or equivalent differences in other countries.
• Public policies in various domains toward migrants, migration, and integration.
• Institutions and services.
• Ethnic communities and organizations.
• International law.
• Non-governmental organization (NGOs) and migration.
• Personal experiences.
• The experience of immigration and integration.
• New and old conceptions of diaspora.
• Migrations from the former Soviet Union to Israel, the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.
• Families and migration.
• Identity or identities of migrants.

We have raised the question of migration and frontier societies as more in need of and more open to immigrants. We have raised questions about the differences among Jews where Jewish identity is their first identity and where it is not, and concluded that the difference is not only great but also changes the terms of migrant connection and absorption. The issues of guest workers and partial migrants were touched on minimally; that is to say, those people who maintain homes in more than one country or place and rotate among them during the course of the year.

We have looked at how to combine the unique aspects of Jewish migration in a larger comparative and global perspective and have agreed that the larger perspectives are necessary. At times we have seen how clashes between the historic Jewish political tradition and modern Jewish liberalism affect our attitudes on migration, particularly when it comes to issues of Jewish survival and continuity, both in Israel and the diaspora.

We have used a number of Canadian models and once again have seen how Canada, because of its positioning between the especially different United States and the Old World, or at least its European models, often serves as a bridge between the two. We have noticed this in other areas of Jewish concern, especially in the work of the organizations that comprise the world Jewish polity such as the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization, and the World Jewish Congress.

We have periodically touched on the existence of a Jewish polity that organizes Jews wherever they are and keeps Jewish life going and coherent. We have also raised questions as to whether the postmodern world is not bringing about a new model of the Jewish polity because of its technological advances, particularly in transportation and communication, and because of new patterns of statediaspora relationships.

We have repeatedly made reference to the three critical concerns of migrants as well as real estate: location, location, and location. We would suggest that the three uses of the term “location” can be understood as referring to the three dimensions of location: in space, in time, and in culture, and that as any or all of these change, an individual’s location changes.

Perhaps the major item that has not been discussed in our focusing on migration and the migrants themselves is what are the rights of the host cultures or countries which receive migration and migrants, with regard to the preservation of their own culture even at what is seemingly a disadvantage to the migrants. In frontier societies, especially in th...