Yerida

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Yerida (Hebrew: ירידה Translit.: yerida Translated: descent) is the somewhat derogatory^[1] term, widely used to mean emigration by Jews and Israelis from the State of Israel. In rare cases, it may refer to pre-independence emigration from the Land of Israel. The opposite action, immigration by Jews to Israel, is called Aliyah ("ascent").

Contents 1 Etymology 2 According to the Halakha 3 The extent of emigration from Israel according to periods 3.1 Emigration since start of Zionism and until the establishment of state of Israel 3.2 Emigration from Israel since the founding of the state of Israel 3.2.1 Israeli ministerial and political sources of emigration estimates 3.2.2 Demographic emigration estimates 4 The emigration phenomenon 4.1 Emigration and Zionist ideology 4.2 The reaction of the Israeli society 4.2.1 Emigration and Israeli Culture 4.2.2 Emigration and Israeli Politics 4.3 The Reaction of Jewish Diaspora Communities 4.4 Israeli emigrant organizations and emigrant media outside of Israel 5 References 6 See also

[edit] Etymology

Emigrants from Israel are known as yordim ("those who go down [from Israel]"). Immigrants to Israel are known as olim ("those who go up [to Israel]").

The use in the Hebrew word "Yored" (which means "descends") is a modern renewal which is based on verses from the Torah: "אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה ואנכי אעלך גם עלו", and from the Mishnah: "הכל מעלין לארץ ישראל ואין הכל מוציאין", and from the Talmud "ארץ ישראל גבוה מכל הארצות"

[edit] According to the Halakha

The Halakha determines certain restrictions on emigration from Israel. According to Rabbi Moses Maimonides it is only allowable to emigrate and resettle abroad in cases of severe Hunger. Rabbi Joseph Trani determined that it is allowable to emigrate from Israel also if it is a need of marriage, to study Torah or to support oneself, also if there is not a case of severe starvation. In any case, the emigration from Israel and even the departure from it is not thought of in Judaism as worthy act for a man of stature.^[2]

[edit] The extent of emigration from Israel according to periods

[edit] Emigration since start of Zionism and until the establishment of state of Israel

It is difficult to estimate the number of people who emigrated from Israel since the start of establishment of the Zionist movement and until the establishment of the state of Israel, or their portion in relation to the number of immigrants into the country. The estimations which relate to the dimensions of emigration during the period of the first and the second immigration wave move between circa 40% (an estimation made by Joshua Kaniel) of all immigrants and up to 80% - 90%. In the later half of the days of the fourth immigration wave, during the years 1926-1928, observed was a big emigration wave out of the country and a population of about 14,000 migrants left compared with 19,000 immigrants in the those years. However in relation to the total of migrants of the fourth immigration wave, about 67,000 people, the amount of emigration wasn't irregular in its extent.

[edit] Emigration from Israel since the founding of the state of Israel

The state of Israel is an immigration absorbing state, and the number of people migrating to Israel far exceeds the number of those leaving Israel. There are a variety of estimates of Israelis who emigrated from Israel and live abroad:

[edit] Israeli ministerial and political sources of emigration estimates

• In 1980 the Israeli government charged the deputy Prime Minister Simha Erlich and the Director of the Jewish Agency Shmuel Lahis to inquire into Israeli emigration to the United States. The Lahis Report estimated that there were 300,000 to 500,000 Israelis living in the United States, mainly in New York and Los Angeles.^[3]
• The Ministry of Immigration and Absorption released in November 2003 its estimate that 750,000 Israelis were living abroad, primarily in the United States and Canada - about 12.5 percent of the general Jewish population of Israel. ^[4]
• The Ministry of Immigration and Absorption released in April 2008 its estimate that 700,000 Israelis were living abroad, of those, 450,000 were estimated to be living in the US and Canada. ^[5]

[edit] Demographic emigration estimates

• Israel's net international migration balance and the total size of immigration between 1948 and 1994 was 80 percent, pointing to a missing share, i.e., a ratio of immigrants to emigrants, of 20 percent. Historically Israel's long term migration retention ratio, 80 percent, is much higher than other countries receiving large masses of immigration such as the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Sergio DellaPergola attributes Israel's comparatively high migration retention to two related factors. First is the family transfer character of aliya, that is the relocation of entire households, including women, children and elderly which implied abandonment of the place of origin. The second factor was the impossibility of return to countries where perceived discrimination or actual persecutions were among the main motivating factors for leaving. ^[6]

• All evidence points the U.S. being the primary destination of Israeli emigrants. In 1982 demographer Pini Herman estimated that the there were 100,000 Israeli emigrants who were residing in the U.S. half of who lived in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area with another 10-12 thousand living in the Los Angeles area.^[7]

• Cohen and Haberfield estimated that in 1990 there were 110,000 to 130,000 Israeli immigrants residing in the U.S.^[8]

• The 1990 U.S decennial census indicates that 94,718 Israel/Palestine-born persons lived in the United States. The 2000 U.S decennial census indicates that the number of Israel/Palestine-born U.S. persons rose to 125,325.^[9]

• The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey estimate of Israelis in the U.S. is based on the definition of "Israelis" as Jews who were born in Israel and estimates a total of 63,000 Israeli-born adult Jews living in the United States. In addition, a total of 30,000 children live in the households of Israel-born adult Jews. Maximally, then, the Israeli-born Jewish population in the U.S. in 1990 was 93,000. However, only 7,000 of the children were reported born before the Israeli-born adult emigrated to the United States, suggesting the Israeli-born Jewish population residing in the United States is 70,000, with 23,000 children born to Israeli immigrants already living in the U.S. and thus technically first generation Americans. ^[10]

• The number of American Jews who immigrated to Israel, lived there for a certain period of time and returned to United States is more difficult to estimate, and it moves between 30,000 and 60,000 by the year 1990, and between 53,000 to 75,000 by the year 2000. So, in Total during that year the number of Israeli-Jews (these who were born in Israel and these who only lived there for a certain period of time) who lived in United States stood between 153,000 and 175,000. With the assumption that the United States is most significant destination of immigration for Israelis, the sociologist Yinon Cohen estimates that the total number of the Israeli-Jews who live abroad in the year of 2000 moves between 300,000 and 350,000.^[11]

• The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics classifies the "Israelis who left the country" as Israelis who lived outside Israel for more than one year continuously, and that previously to that year they lived in Israel for at least 90 days continuously (this distinction separates between those who left the state and those who left in the past and returned for a short visit). In the 1950s and 1960s, indeed until the early 1970s, the Statistical Abstract published by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics did list emigration figures. Subsequently the practice was suspended, ^[12] this avoided conflict with other Israeli government entities who cited much larger numbers of emigrants than the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics published estimates. Emigration estimates can still be inferred from current population projections by the CBS: Between the years 1990 to 2005 emigration assumptions from Israel by the CBS averaged 14,000 people per year. 1993, 1995 and 2001 - 2002 saw relatively high levels of emigration. The rate of the emigrants from Israel decreased during those years from 3 per thousand to 1 per thousand as a result of an increase in total Israeli population. This total estimate includes both the Israeli-Arab emigrants and Israeli-Jews who may have died while abroad. The CBS analyzed the border control data and computed a "gross balance" of 581,000 Israelis living abroad during the period 1948 - 1992. In other words, there were 581,000 more exits from Israel than re-entries on the part of Israeli residents(i.e., persons living in Israel whether native-born or born elsewhere). About half of the persons leaving Israel named the United States as their destination. Assuming that they stayed in the United States, and that no other Israelis came to the United States via other countries, the "gross balance" of Israelis residing in the United States would be 290,500. Gold and Phillips subtracted from this number 25,000 persons who would have died, leaving 191,000. Since the gross balance subtracts reentrances to Israel from exits out of Israel, the authors subtracted 18,400 more persons who may be assumed to have returned to Israel in 1993 (the number that re-entered Israel in 1992), for an adjusted gross balance of 172,848 Jewish Israelis living in the United States in 1993. ^[13]
• 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. ^[14]

• The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics created their most recent population projection to 2010 with the assumption that 6,600 Jewish Israelis per year will leave the country.^[15] The United States currently accepts about 4 thousand immigrants a year from Israel, of whom 3000 to 3500 are Jewish.^{[citation needed]} Pini Herman estimates that about two-thirds of all Israeli emigrants currently migrate to the U.S. and an additional one-sixth of Israeli emigrants settle in Canada for a total of four-fifths of Israeli emigrants settling in the U.S. and Canada.^{[citation needed]}

• Over a third of persons in the U.S. who define themselves as Israeli may be American born children of Israeli emigrants, many who have never lived in or even visited Israel. The 2000 U.S. decennial Census had 107,000 persons who reported Israeli as their first or second ancestry, of these persons 51 percent reported country of birth as Israel/Palestine 39 percent reported being born in the U.S. 3 percent were born in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the remaining 7 percent in other countries.^[16]

• The number of undocumented Israelis in the U.S. has been demonstrated to be relatively low during the IRCA legalizations in the early 1990s when only 1.62 percent of Israeli foreign born (1,449 persons) applied for legalization as compared to 12.6 percent undocumented (2.5 million persons) of all foreign born in the U.S. applying for IRCA legalization ^{[17] [18]}.

• The 2006 Canadian quinquennial census counted 26,215 persons who reported Israeli citizenship, of whom two-thirds (67 percent) lived in the Ontario region.^[19]

[edit] The emigration phenomenon

The main motives for leaving Israel are usually connected with the emigrants’ desire for living standard improvement, or for search of work opportunities and professional advancement, for higher education, and due to the wishes of the spouse. Polls amongst the emigrants point out that the political situation and the security threats in Israel are not among the main factors from emigration. Emigration is mostly common amongst new immigrants who did not absorb into the Israeli society successfully or who already made one change in their lives and therefore one additional change was less difficult for them to make. Part of the immigrants immigrate to a third state, almost always in the west, and part of them return to the country of their origin, a phenomenon which expands when the conditions in the country of origin improve, as it happened in Russia in the first decade of the 21st century.

During all years of the state of Israel, the people who leave Israel were more literate, in average, from the ones who remained in Israel. The phenomenon is even more extreme amongst the immigrants who leave Israel than the Israeli born who leave Israel. Therefore, at times, the emigration from Israel is referred to as Brain drain. An OECD estimate put the highly educated emigrant rate at 5.3 per thousand highly educated Israelis, actually placing Israel in the lower third of 103 compared OECD countries where the overall average was 14 per thousand emigration from country of birth by highly educated persons. Israel with its well developed technical and educational infrastructure and larger base of highly educated citizens is retaining a greater percentage of its highly educated persons than countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia. ^[20]

In 2007 a special program of the Immigrant Absorption Minister of Israel was announced which is intended to encourage the Israeli emigrants abroad to return to Israel and in addition to that it was decided that by the year 2008 the office would invest 19 million shekels in establishing exclusive absorption plans for the returning emigrants.

[edit] Emigration and Zionist ideology

The rejection of emigration from Israel is a central assumption in all forms of Zionism as a corollary of the The "Negation of the Diaspora" in Zionism which according to Eliezer Schweid was a central tenet of Israeli Zionist education until the 1970s when there was a need for the State of Israel to reconcile itself with the Jewish diaspora and its massive support of Israel following the Six-Day War. ^[21]

[edit] The reaction of the Israeli society

• During the times of the first immigration waves the emigration from Israel was a great cause for pessimism in regarding to the success of the Zionistic enterprise.
• In an interview from 1976, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin identified the Israeli emigrants as "fall-outs of weaklings" (נפולת של נמושות). Nowadays there is much less antagonism among the Israelis regarding emigrants. The main thing that back then disturbed the Zionist leadership of the State of Israel was the idea that people born into Israeli society could choose to leave it, though not even facing the same challenges as emigrants whom were originally born abroad whom choose to leave after failing to integrate.
• In an interview in 2008 Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister and former prime minister said that "Jews know that they can land on their feet in any corner of the world. The real test for us is to make Israel such an attractive place--cutting edge in science, education, culture, quality of life--that even American Jewish young people want to come here. If we cannot do this, even those who were born here will consciously decide to go to other places. This is a real problem."^[22]

[edit] Emigration and Israeli Culture

• Territorial Therapy^[23] - the ideation of migration or yerida is often a psychological outlet or mechanism utilized by many Israelis to counter the dissonance and stress of living in dangerous situations and dangerous geography of Israel. A variety of polls over the years have demonstrated it is common for Israelis to actively and seriously weigh that they or their children leave Israel to live in other parts of the world, primarily the United States and Canada. The number of Israelis with serious migratory ideation and intent far outweighs the actual number of Israelis who successfully carry out their emigration from Israel.
• Another avenue that ideation of migration is carried is the relatively high numbers of Israelis who seek out non-Israeli citizenship in European Union countries^[24], (where in 2007 an estimated 42 percent of Israelis are eligible for citizenship based on their parents' and grandparents' nationalities)^[25] and North American countries, possibly to use as a safe haven, but actually continue living in Israel.^[25] The seeking, attainment and possession of multiple nationalities by a Jewish individual is allowed by Israeli law whereas other nations such as the United States and Germany require a renouncement of foreign citizenship and the voluntary attainment of a foreign citizenship can result in the loss of citizenship in that country. For example 220 Israeli diplomats to the U.S. have received 'Green card' or Permanent Resident Alien status between 1966 and 1979 ^[26] but the likelihood is low that these career Israeli government officials actually emigrated from Israel, but rather they gained a passport of convenience to travel to countries that may be less welcoming of Israeli passports.
• Some polls, such as the Gallup World Poll in 2007 revealed that significant numbers of Israelis, 20 percent, would ideally, if they had the opportunity would like to move permanently to another country. This was in the mid-range of desire to migrate and less than, for example, the residents of Denmark, Belgium, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Poland and Hungary, South Korea and Chile.^[27] The 'push factor' bringing about migration is often reflected in quality of life perceptions. In terms of self ranked quality of life Israelis rate their own lives on a scale numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top, Israelis' average rating in 2007 was 6.84, ^[28] which is far higher the 4 average for the world and compares with Denmark's 8, ^[29] among the world's top.

• Younger Israeli age groups, such as teens, express a much higher propensity to live abroad than the general Israeli population. Almost half of Israel teens age 14-18 years old expressed a desire to live outside of Israel in 2007, this was associated with two-thirds, 68 percent, of teens believing that Israel's general situation is "not good."^[30]

[edit] Emigration and Israeli Politics

• The topic of yerida is often brought up during political campaigns in Israel with various political parties and candidates arguing that one or another's policies will increase or lessen emigration from Israel. Occasionally a political party will have a 'yerida' plank in its election manifesto and winning sides have on occasion appointed persons holding the Yerida portfolio at the ministerial or vice ministerial rank. Various bills in the Israeli Knesset are often argued on the grounds that they will prevent or engender emigration.^[31]

• Popular protest movements, particularly after wars and around economic and ethnic equity issues have often been accompanied by their activists' threats of voting with their feet by emigrating from Israel, and at times the burning of Israeli identity cards by Israeli protesters threatening that their next move would be emigration if their demands weren't met has been featured in the Israeli media. On one occasion in the 1970s an Israeli Black Panther ethnic equity protester with a great fanfare and media coverage did emigrate to Morrocco and remigrated to Israel after a period.^{[citation needed][32]}

• In 1998 Janet Aviad, a leader of the Israeli group Peace Now, noted, "As soon as our people hear Bibi (former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), they turn off the radio. They have gone on 'inner yerida'." ^[33]

• Avraham Burg, former Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and former Speaker of the Knesset, questioned in 2007 the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and states his view that it is legitimate to live outside of Israel: "We were raised on the Zionism of Ben-Gurion, that there is only one place for Jews and that’s Israel. I say no, there have always been multiple centers of Jewish life."^[34]

• In 2008 in the context of an ideological crisis Israel caused by record-low and shrinking - aliya figures Israel's Immigration Absorption Ministry embarked on a new mission targeting Israeli emigrants, the 'Israeli' Diaspora in addition Jewish diaspora under the title of "Returning Home on Israel's 60th."^[35] The question of whether the focus on bringing Israelis back to Israel is off target for a ministry that is meant to be working with immigrants once they arrive Israel has been raised. The [[Immigrant Absorption Minister of Israel | Immigration Absorption Ministry]spokesperson explained that no other government body is responsible for Israel's former residents and it is about time that someone tapped into these resources to help them. ^[36]

[edit] The Reaction of Jewish Diaspora Communities

• Rabbi Joseph Telushkin notes the American Jewish community's ambivalent response to yordim continues to write: "generally secular yordim shun involvement in Jewish communal life, and maintain social ties only with each other."^[37]

• Rob Eshman notes that Israeli emigrants have been treated by local Jews "as something less than full members of the Tribe" and that it happened with the full blessing of the government of the State of Israel itself.^[38]

• • Welcome of emigrant by diaspora Jewish community is seen as a possible betrayal of the Zionist ideal immigration to Israel and endangerment of Israel's success in retaining and growing its Jewish population. Israel encouraged organized Jewish Diaspora communities not to offer Israeli emigrant services as this might be perceived as a welcome or help and that would encourage the Israeli emigrants to stay.^[38]
  • Israeli emigrants buttress the local Jewish diaspora community^[39][38]

• Perception of Israeli emigrants by diaspora community organizations
  • Low rates of Israeli emigrant particiaption in Jewish organizations^[37]
  • Low rates of financial support of local Jewish organizations and synagogues
  • Israeli emigrants working in low status immigrant occupations that the diaspora Jewish population tends not to engage it or has long-ago abandoned such as taxi driving, auto repair, security guards, mall cart sales etc. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir told of a waiter who once came over to her at a New York luncheon ad whispered in Hebrew that there was ham in the dish she had been served. When she asked him how he knew Hebrew, he told her he was an Israeli. And what work had he done in Israel, she asked. He had been a waiter, he responded.^[37]

[edit] Israeli emigrant organizations and emigrant media outside of Israel

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.^[39]

In Los Angeles a Council of Israeli Community was founded in 2001.^[40] In Los Angeles an Israel Leadership Club was organized 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.^[41] 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.^[42]

A variety of Hebrew language websites, newspapers and magazines are published in New York,^{[43][44][45][46]} Los Angeles^[47][48] and other U.S. regions.^[49] The Israeli Channel along with two other Hebrew language channels are available via satellite broadcast nationally in the United States.^[50] 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.^[51] An Israeli Independence Day Festival has taken place yearly in Los Angeles since 1990 with thousands of Israeli emigrants and American Jews.^[52]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Israel
• American Jews
• Brain drain
• Galut
• Zionism
• The "Negation of the Diaspora" in Zionism
• Demographics of Israel
• Jewish ethnic divisions
• Population groups in Israel
• Aliyah
• Immigration to the United States
• Immigration
• Emigration
• Migration