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THE DIASPORA
1991
5752
Israeli-Americans:
Identity Crisis
BERTRAM KORN JR.
Special to The Jewish News
B
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84
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
illionaire businessman
Ted Arison is a typical
American success
story — a man of ambition
and imagination thriving in
the American climate of free
enterprise.
But he is also a typical
Israeli "failure" — a sabra
who left Israel to spend his
most productive years in
galut, the Diaspora, far from
the front lines of defending
and rebuilding the Jewish
homeland.
Mr. Arison and his wife Lin
are unusual among yordim
(Israeli expatriates). They
recently moved back to Tel
Aviv. Most other Israelis who
have come to America have
stayed. According to unofficial
estimates, there are more
than half a million yordim
living in America today.
Until recently, no one had
mounted an official challenge
to the identity crisis facing
these Israeli-Americans. But
America's first Israeli Sym-
posium, conducted entirely in
Hebrew and organized by a
high-powered group of South
Florida Israelis, including the
repatriated Arisons, may
have changed all that. The
gathering had the feel of a
turning point in the history of
the Israeli community in
America.
Some 600 Israelis packed
the Lincoln Theater on
Miami Beach for a half-day
procession of speakers
highlighted by Israel's Depu-
ty Foreign Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, and an extraor-
dinary, highly personal
speech by Mr. Arison himself.
Other speakers included
Miami Beach's Mayor Alex
Daoud, who presented a pro-
clamation to the symposium
on behalf of the city; Dr.
Raphael Danziger, director of
research and information for
the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee; Dr. Moshe
Liba, Israel's consul general
for Florida and Puerto Rico;
and Dr. Haim Shaked, direc-
tor of the Middle East Studies
Institute of the Graduate
School of International
Studies, University of Miami,
which officially sponsored the
event.
Each speaker was highly
charged, and clearly reveling
in the opportunity to address
an audience in Hebrew. But it
Bertram Korn Jr. is executive
editor of the Miami Jewish
Tribune.
was not until the successive
speeches of Mr. Arison and
Mr. Netanyahu, who had the
afternoon session to them-
selves, that sparks really
began to fly. The two men's
messages flatly contradicted
one another — in appropriate-
ly Israeli style — although
without bitterness or rancor.
Mr. Arison, whose grand-
father moved to Palestine in
1892 and helped found one of
Israel's pioneer communities,
Zichron Ya'akov, had an ex-
emplary Zionist education
and army service, but "was
unable to make my business
succeed, no matter how hard
I worked." He blamed Israel's
socialist bureaucracy, and left
for America after World War
II.
Today, he is one of the
world's wealthiest men, with
an estimated worth of over $2
billion. Among many other
The government
has made Israel
into a place that's
too small for many
Israelis.
accomplishments, Mr. Arison
is the founder of Carnival
Cruise Lines, and a co-owner
of the Miami Heat basketball
team. He and Lin are also the
prime movers behind the New
World Symphony and the Na-
tional Foundation for the Ad-
vancement of the Arts. Mr.
Arison said he "was often
asked whether I felt shame
for leaving Israel and living
in America, but I thought
Israel should be ashamed for
making it impossible for
young, talented people to
succeed.
"The government has made
Israel into a place that's too
small for many Israelis. A lot
of us come here because we
need room to grow.
`When we moved back to
Israel recently, many people
approached me to invest
money in their projects. And
the government is offering
very, very generous terms for
foreign investors. So people
asked me why foreigners
aren't rushing to invest in
Israel. And I told them
because foreigners want to in-
vest in a country where the
whole population has the
same good terms of business
as the foreigners."
Mr. Arison closed by saying,
"I imagine that I talked
about what's bothering you,
and what's going on in your
souls. This symposium is very