It used to be that the enterprise known as Zionism was pretty much a one-way street — Jews from Europe, Asia, America and elsewhere packing up and heading off to Israel to build the Jewish state.
Nearly seven decades after Israel was founded, Zionism is now a two-way thoroughfare.
For a whole range of reasons, Israelis are heading the other way, leaving their country of origin for what they perceive to be greener pastures.
Especially in the US.
According to the Israeli-American Council, a relatively new organization dedicated to building bridges between these expatriate Israelis and their native country — as well as their American Jewish brethren — there may be as many as 500,000-800,000 Israelis and “Israeli-Americans” living in the US today.
When one considers that the American Jewish Yearbook estimates the US Jewish population at five to six-and-a-half million (depending on how “Jewish” is defined), the community’s Israeli component may be an amazing 10%, or even higher.
The IAC fears that this substantial population is largely unconnected to the general American Jewish community, as well as to Israel itself, and its goal is to build and maintain bridges between them.
Sagi Balasha, the IAC’s Chief Executive Officer, told the Intermountain Jewish News in an online interview last week that the organization “works to create a community among the estimated 500,000 and 800,000 Israelis and Israeli-Americans, respectively, living in the United States, many of whom tend to be uninvolved in the organized Jewish American community.
“Connecting our community to Israel is a pillar of our mission, especially given their inherent love for the State of Israel, and the community’s great potential to be a strategic asset to the State of Israel.”
A foundational premise of the IAC, Balasha says, is to be non-judgmental.
This contrasts with the traditional view of ardent Zionists who often referred to Israelis who left Israel as yordim, “those who go down” from Israel, based on the Hebrew word for descent, yerida, the opposite of aliyah, to “rise.”
“We do not encourage Israelis to move away from Israel,” Balasha explains, “and we support a number of opportunities for Israeli-Americans to go to Israel.
“The fact however is that over half a million Israeli expats and their children live in the United States, and today make up a substantial percentage of the Jewish community in America. Engaging our community is an important investment for the future of American Jewry, as well as the State of Israel, and we are delighted to work with any member of our vibrant community nationwide.”
The IAC’s program of educational, cultural, traditional and social initiatives, he says, “helps broaden support for Israel, bolster the Jewish and Israeli identity of our next generations, and engages in outreach to the Jewish American community.”
While Israeli expatriates may have been motivated to leave Israel for such reasons as lack of economic opportunity, or terrorism and conflict, Balasha doesn’t believe that this translates into any sort of anti-Israeli sentiment among expatriates in the US.
“Just the opposite,” he says.
“The Israeli-American community is the most passionate and deeply supportive of the State of Israel.
“According to a survey conducted by the Israeli Midgam Research Center and the IAC in October, 2013, over 90% of Israeli-Americans feel the need to defend Israel and show her positive side, 98% feel that Israel belongs to them, and over 96% feel Israeli.
“According to the survey, most Israeli-Americans believe that they will live in Israel in the future.”
Balasha, whose resume includes professional stints with such organizations as Beit Hatfutsot, the Israeli National Center for Jewish Communities in Israel and Around the World, Israel’s Ministry of Finance and the Jewish Agency, says IAC’s programming aims to welcome Israeli expatriates to Israel and American Jewry with open arms.
“The mission of the Israeli-American Council is to build an active and giving Israeli-American community throughout the US in order to strengthen the State of Israel, our next generation, and to provide a bridge to the Jewish American community.”
Through large-scale community events as well as local and national programs “relevant to Israeli-Americans in every stage of life,” the IAC works hard to bring American Jews and expatriates together.
“Many of our programs, including the BINA young professional program and Celebrate Israel Festival have an attendance of about 50% Israeli-Americans and 50% American Jews,” Balasha says.
“At a time in American Jewish history when assimilation is reaching new peaks, the IAC is strengthening Jewish and Israeli identity throughout the US.”
The IAC currently helps support nearly 40 organizations related to the Israeli-American community in the US.
Among its projects are:
• Celebrate Israel, the largest Jewish festival in North America;
• Sifriyat Pijama B’America (SP-BA) the largest Hebrew outreach program in North America, reaching 10,000 families every month in partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) and the Adam and Gila Milstein Foundation;
• IAC BINA, a program for young professional Israeli-Americans and other young Jews, which works to strengthen connections within the community and to Israel;
• IAC Care, a volunteer community for Israeli and Jewish Americans of all ages in Los Angeles;
• MISHELANU, a young leadership group on American college campuses where Israeli-Americans come together to strengthen their Jewish and Israeli identities and their ties to Israel; and
• TZAV 8, which organizes community activists to participate in demonstrations and pro-Israeli activities.
Balasha says, it’s all about organizing — and empowering — a large and increasingly important component of the American Jewish community.
The Southern California-based IAC — until last year named the Israeli Leadership Council — was founded in 2007, originally dedicated to serving the estimated quarter million Israeli expatriates who live in the Los Angeles area.
It has since seen rapid growth and expanded its scope to a national level. In the last few months, it has opened offices in Boston, Miami, New York and Las Vegas.
“In each of these locations,” Balasha says, “leadership from a sizeable Israeli-American community have approached the IAC and expressed desire to launch similar top-notch, innovative programming within their own communities.”
The organization received a considerable boost in visibility this spring when its newest office, in Las Vegas, opened with the endorsement and support of Dr. Miriam Adelson, wife of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.
“We are honored to have significant supporters from within the Israeli-American community, and that the IAC has become an organization worthy to receive the support of Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, alongside Birthright Israel,” Balasha says.
“We are further honored that Dr. Adelson is choosing to personally invest her time, effort and expertise to cultivate the newest IAC office.
“We believe this level of support reflects the positive impact the Israeli-American Council is having on the community nationwide and responds to the increasing demand for IAC’s Israeli-American community-building activities.”
The expatriate community in Las Vegas — estimated at 10,000 people by the IAC — consists of “major players in the fields of medicine, research, entertainment and business, and national Israeli-American leaders,” he adds.
IAC has no active estimate of the expatriate community in the greater Denver metropolitan area, but some expatriates in Denver, including the founders of Beit Uriel, a new congregation on the East Side that aspires to serve that community, have recently told the IJN that they believe the number to be in the thousands.
Balasha was non-committal about whether Denver’s expatriate community is sufficiently large to justify an IAC office, but didn’t rule out the possibility of other forms of connection between the organization and Colorado Jewry.
“In cities with smaller Israeli-American populations, the IAC supports the community through other avenues, including the IAC community grant program,” he says.
“The IAC leadership has been privileged to work with extraordinary Israeli-Americans to extend its programming nationwide, and we will begin to look towards additional potential IAC offices in the coming months.”
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
