44 mimissoismilosimmfr" AMMO, -4011011110,1101*- -41" THE DIASPORA 1991 5752 Israeli-Americans: Identity Crisis BERTRAM KORN JR. Special to The Jewish News B Friends, Customers & Relatives A Happy, Healthy & Prosperous NEW YEAR from The Millen Family Cranbrook ASSOC. INC.. REALTORS Best wishes to all our customers for a happy and healthy New Year Bloomfield Hills 950 N. Hunter 540-5500 Franklin 32440 Franklin Rd. 626-8700 West Bloomfield 5839 W. Maple 855-2200 Birmingham 1424 S. Woodward 645-2500 Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today, Call 354-6060 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