Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Among each of these groups, there was a great deal of variety. For example, Iraqi and Syr-
ian immigrants were largely urban and modern in Middle Eastern terms, with relatively more
formal education. Jews from Yemen and Morocco usually came from more rural backgrounds
and were traditionally religious; some of the Yemeni Jews still practiced polygamy. The average
educational and economic status of North African Jews arriving in Israel was lower since much
of those countries' Jewish elite immigrated to France.
Variation among European Jews was equally extensive — including degree of education,
religiosity, and assimilation to non-Jewish society — depending on country of origin and, es-
pecially for those from Eastern Europe, whether they had lived in cities or in small towns or
villages. Managing the integration of these different groups during the wave of immigration
extending from 1948 until the mid-1960s presented numerous social challenges.
A much smaller wave of immigration occurred after the Six-Day War, when the seemingly
miraculous victory brought a number of North American Jews and other English-speakers;
a high proportion were Modern Orthodox Jews who had dreamed of living in Jerusalem. In
some Jerusalem neighborhoods, the English language continues to be widely used.
Far more numerically signifi cant was the infl ux of what would eventually be over a million
Soviet Jews, who started arriving with the partial opening of emigration from the Soviet Union
in the mid-1970s and who emigrated freely after that country's collapse in 1991.
Finally, starting in the 1980s and continuing for the next two decades, came the Ethiopian
Jews, the poorest group of all. They had been largely cut off from the rest of the Jewish world
for centuries. War and political turmoil in Ethiopia had worsened their position, so Israel un-
dertook their rescue in a covert operation. A steady fl ow of immigrants also came later from
a displaced persons' camp near Addis Ababa. Given the unique background of the Ethiopian
Jews and some debate over whether Ethiopian Jews were really Jews and how their religion
varied from mainstream Judaism, they were remarkably well accepted. Within a generation,
education had brought some of those born in Israel or who had arrived as children to the point
where they were able to move into skilled and professional jobs.
By the year 2000, Jewish immigration slowed considerably, with most of those from the
former Soviet Union who wished to emigrate to Israel already having done so. With the col-
lapse of some economies and a growth in antisemitic incidents, there were small increases of
immigration from Argentina, Turkey, and France. But since about half of the world's Jews were
already Israeli citizens, it was not clear whether Israel would ever again see a large immigration
wave like the ones in the past.
Israel devoted extensive resources to supporting new immigrants as each wave arrived,
since providing a home for Jews was its most basic reason for being. The term “Jew” was not
defi ned in the original 1950 law, but the omission did not have practical implications, for all
those who wished to immigrate to the national homeland of Jews were allowed to do so. In
1970 the Knesset amended the 1950 law to defi ne a Jew, in accordance with Jewish law, as any-
one “born of a Jewish mother or [who] has become converted to Judaism and who is not a
member of another religion.” An additional article granted eligibility to a “child and a grand-
child of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild
of a Jew, except for a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion.”
