Spotlight

Reverse Aliyah?

Israeli population in U.S. surges,
but exact figures hard to know.

Sue Fishkoff

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

San Francisco

T

he number of Israelis living in
the United States grew by about
30 percent over the past decade,
according to newly released U.S. Census
Bureau figures.
Some 140,323 people living in the
United States today were born in Israel, up
from 109,720 in 2000. Of the Israelis liv-
ing here, 90,179 have U.S. citizenship and
50,144 do not.
But Israeli expatriates and Israeli govern-
ment sources say the true figure is actually
much higher. An Israeli Foreign Ministry
study in 2003 reported that 500,000 Israelis
were living in the United States, according
to the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot.
"Estimates of Israeli emigrants in the
U.S. are difficult to make and often subject
to controversy," said Professor Steven Gold
of Michigan State University, author of the
2002 book The Israeli Diaspora.
The numbers suggest that migration to
America from Israel exceeds American
immigration to Israel, or aliyah. From 2000
through 2009, 23,640 U.S. citizens made
aliyah, according to the Jewish Agency for
Israel.
The U.S. data on the Israeli popula-
tion comes from the 2009 American
Community Survey, an annual report
produced by the U.S. Census Bureau that
was released earlir in 2010 and updated in
recent weeks. The decennial census stopped
collecting detailed information, such as
country of origin, after 2000; that informa-
tion is now collected and included in the
bureau's annual community surveys.
The survey also reported that 27 percent
of Israelis in the United States arrived
since 2000. Three-quarters are between
the ages of 25 and 65. Forty-five percent
of the adults have at least an undergradu-
ate degree; and more than 80 percent hold
white-collar jobs. And just to dispel a popu-
lar stereotype, only 4.6 percent work in the
"production, transportation and material
moving occupations."
The Israeli Leadership Council in Los
Angeles, an organization that promotes
communal identity among local Israeli
Jews, says that about 250,000 Israelis live in
the greater L.A. region. The council's figures

A Boca Raton Chanukah party in December attracted 200 Israelis and

their families.

are based on information from the Israeli
Consulate in Los Angeles, said a spokesper-
son for the group. The consulate would not
confirm the figures to JTA.
A UJA-Federation of New York study
published in February 2009 reported about
80,000 people living in households with at
least one Israeli adult in New York City and
three suburban counties. Dave Matkowsky,
director of the resource center for Jewish
diversity at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan,
says his department uses that figure "with
caveats',' suggesting that the real number
may be higher.
Aside from New York and Los Angeles,
the metropolitan areas of Boston, San
Francisco and Miami also have significant
Israeli populations.
So which numbers are more accurate,
the census figures or the Jewish estimates?
Leonard Saxe, director of the Cohen
Center for Modern Jewish Studies at
Brandeis University, notes that many
Israelis in the United States are here
temporarily and might not be counted as
"residents:"
He also says that many people holding
Israeli passports may not have been born
in Israel, but in the former Soviet Union
or even the United States. They would not

show up in the Census Bureau statistics
but would be counted as Israeli citizens by
most other estimates, including those of
the Israeli government.
Another discrepancy could be in how
Israelis are counted. Israel considers as
Israelis children born to Israelis, even if
they've never been to Israel, Gold noted.
Those children would not show up as
Israelis in the U.S. Census figures.
Then there are political sensitivities.
"Official estimates of Israelis abroad,
especially those released by the Jewish
Agency or Ministry of Absorption [versus
the more conservative Central Bureau of
Statistics] are regarded as often exagger-
ated and inconsistent with data collected
via systematic methods, perhaps because
of an effort to draw attention to the issue
of Israeli emigration',' Gold said.
Columbia University sociologist Yinon
Cohen has come up with what Gold calls
"the most careful estimates," drawing
upon the U.S. Census, the Israeli Central
Bureau of Statistics and American Jewish
population surveys.
Cohen estimates that between 150,000
and 175,000 Jewish Israeli expats were liv-
ing in the United States as of 2000. I 1

Design Firm
Teams With
Labor Union

H

ollywood has come knock-
ing for Scenic Prop and
Design, a Michigan com-

pany.
The International Alliance of
Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
has formed a manufacturing rela-
tionship with Scenic Prop and Design
that will make the Madison Heights-
based company the only manufac-
turer in Michigan producing custom
prop and scenery applications for set
production and application.
IATSE is a labor union represent-
ing technicians, artisans and crafts-
person's in the entertainment indus-
try, including live theater, motion
picture and television production,
and trade shows.
Jonathan Krueger, president and
founder of Scenic Prop and Design,
said Scenic has developed specific
formulas that IATSE members will
help produce from lightweight brick,
stone, and tree bark applications to
custom effects for film, television
and stage.
The alliance was developed between
officers at IATSE and Scenic Prop
and Design managing partners Jack
Grushko and Mort Meisner, who also
own the Center for Film Studies based
in Madison Heights.
It's a win-win because the agree-
ment will create new manufacturing
jobs and because Hollywood will
be more motivated to hire trained
Michigan workers with the Michigan
film tax credit incentive, Meisner
said. IJ

'Kosher' Ham Radio
B'nai B'rith Great Lakes Region
is looking for anyone who is
interested in being on ground
floor of the creation of a Ham
Radio Operators Unit of B'nai
B'rith, "the Kosher Hams." It
takes a minimum of 40 "Hams"
to charter a unit of B'nai B'rith.
Members of B'nai B'rith can
still be an "associate" member of
this new unit-in-formation.
For information, contact the
B'nai B'rith office, (248) 636-
3100 or Ron Steinberg, (248)
539-7408 or ronald.steinberg@
michiganelaw.com

February 10 2011

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