Immigration
As an oppressed minority and rootless for centuries, Jews went from place to place seeking temporary refuge until living conditions became intolerable. Intolerance and indifference catalyzed Zionism into a national movement. In the 19th and 20thcenturies anti-Semitism reached historic levels in Europe and in Middle Eastern Muslim lands, further propelling the Jewish quest for a state. Jews repeatedly asked the question, “Do we go or do we stay?” It became as common a refrain as observing the Jewish calendar. For Zionism to succeed, it required an educated population capable of building and sustaining a state. Most Jews did not choose Zionism, so the state evolved slowly during the first half of the 20th century. Waves of immigrants came in burst from eastern and western Europe, Middle Eastern countries, Russia, and Ethiopia. Absorbing immigrants to shape a national center was always a national chore as the state became a haven for Jews in need and in crisis. In 1882, there were barely 24,000 Jews in Palestine. By 1948 when the state was established, there were 650,000 Jews. In 2014, more than seven million Jews live in Israel, more than half of the world’s Jewish population.
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Cohen, Yehoshua S. The Experience of Immigration: A Literary Perspective on Immigration to Israel. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1998.
Deshen, Shlomo A. Immigrant Voters in Israel: Parties and Congregations in a Local Election Campaign. Manchester: Manchester U.P., 1970.
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Israel State Archives, “Immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, 1948 -1985,” and Documents from MFA, 2022.
Jones, Clive. Soviet Jewish Aliyah, 1989-1992: Impact and Implications for Israel and the Middle East. London: Frank Cass, 1996.
Kalir, Barak. Latino Migrants in the Jewish State: Undocumented Lives in Israel. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2010.
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Schindler, Ruben, and David S. Ribner. The Trauma of Transition: The Psycho-social Cost of Ethiopian Immigration to Israel. Aldershot, England: Avebury, 1997.
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Andersen, H. Dewey, “The Situation of Jews in Moslem Countries, 1951, in The Arab Refugee Problem How It Can Be Solved, Chapter 14, — Proposals, Submitted to the United Nations, December 1951. This is an excellent summary of the demography and harrowing conditions that Jews sustained in respective Arab countries from 1946 to 1951. https://israeled.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Anderson-UN-study-Jews-from-Arab-Lands-1951.pdf
Beenstock, Michael. “Failure to Absorb: Remigration by Immigrants into Israel.” International Migration Review, 30:4 (1996): 950-78.
Beenstock, Michael and Jeffrey Fisher. “The Macroeconomic Effects of Immigration: Israel in the 1990s.” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 133:2 (1997): 330-58.
Bettin, Cristina. “The Role of the Holy Place in Memory and Nostalgia: The Immigration of Italian Jews to Israel Before and After WWII.” Forum Italicum, 45:2 (2011): 357-372.
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Chiswick, Barry R. “Hebrew Language Usage: Determinants and Effects on Earnings among Immigrants in Israel.” Journal of Population Economics, 11:2 (1998): 253-71.
Cohen, Uri and Nissim Leon. “The New Mizrahi Middle Class: Ethnic Mobility and Class Integration in Israel.” Journal of Israeli History, 27 (2008): 1, 51-64.
Efrat, Elisha. “Geographical Distribution of the Soviet-Jewish New Immigrants in Israel.” GeoJournal, 24:4 (1991): 355-63.
Eisenstadt, S.N. “Change and Continuity in Israeli Society II. Dynamic Conservatism vs. Innovation.” The Jerusalem Quarterly, 2 (Winter 1977): 3-11.
Eisenstadt, S.N. “Israeli Society – Major Features and Problems.” The Jerusalem Quarterly, 1 (Fall 1976): 28-35.
Emmons, Shelese. “Russian Jewish Immigration and Its Effect on the State of Israel.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 5:1 (1997): 341-55.
Flum, Hanoch, and Rachel Gali Cinamon. “Immigration and the Interplay Among Citizenship, Identity and Career: The Case of Ethiopian Immigration to Israel.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78:3 (2011): 372-380.
Friedberg, Rachel M. “The Impact of Mass Migration on the Israeli Labor Market.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116:4 (2001): 1373-408.
Friedlander, Dov and Calvin Goldscheider. “Immigration, Social Change and Cohort Fertility in Israel.” Population Studies, 32:2 (July 1978): 299-317.
Friedlander, Dov. “Mass Immigration and Population Dynamics in Israel.” Demography 12:4 (November 1975): 581-99.
Gal, John. “Immigration and the Categorical Welfare State in Israel.” Social Service Review 82:4 (2008): 639-61.
Gandal, Neil; Hanson, Gordon H.; and Matthew J. Slaughter. “Technology, Trade, and Adjustment to Immigration in Israel.” European Economic Review, 48:2 (2004): 403-428.
Gold, Steven and Rona Hart. “Transnational Ties During a Time Of Crisis: Israeli Emigration, 2000 To 2004.” International Migration (2009).
Gottheil, Fred M. “The Impact of Immigration on Size Distribution of Income in Israel.” The Journal of Developing Areas 6:4 (July 1972): 523-34.
Gshur, Binyamin and Barbara S. Okun. “Generational Effects on Marriage Patterns: Jewish Immigrants and Their Descendants in Israel.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 65:2 (2003): 287-301.
Halamish, Aviva. “Immigration is Israel’s History, so Far.” Israel Studies, 23:3 (2018): 106-13.
Hartman, Moshe and Harriet Hartman. “Long-term Effects of International Migration: Lessons from Israel.” Population Research and Policy Review, 14:1 (1995): 45-69.
Kabha, Mustafa. “The Life of Jewish Immigrants from Muslim Countries in the Transit Camps as Reflected in the Arabic Journalistic Discourse in Israel, 1950–1967.” Israel Studies 23.3 (2018): 123-31.
Kaplan, Yehiel S. “Immigration Policy of Israel: the Unique Perspective of a Jewish State.” Touro Law Review, 31: 4 (2015): 1089-1135.
Khanin, Vladimir. “The Revival of ‘Russian’ Politics in Israel: The Case of the 2006 Election.” Israel Affairs, 13:2 (2007): 346-67.
Khazzoom, Aziza. “A Comparison of Talk about Arabs by Iraqi and Polish Women Who Immigrated to Israel in the 1950s.” Israel Studies, 23:2 (2018): 51-73.
Khazzoom, Aziza’ “The Kibbutz in Immigration Narratives of Bourgeois Iraqi and Polish Jews Who Immigrated to Israel in the 1950s,” Israel Studies, 19:2 (Summer 2014): 70-93.
Klor, Sebastian. “‘Marginal Immigrants’ Jewish-Argentine Immigration to the State of Israel, 1948-1967,” Israel Studies, 21:2 (Summer 2016): 50–76.
Kochavi, Arieh J. “The Struggle Against Jewish Immigration to Palestine.” Middle Eastern Studies, 34:3 (July 1998): 146-67.
Kohn, Stephen J. “A Move to Israel.” The Wall Street Journal, New York Eastern Edition ed. May 20, 2013.
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Meir-Glitzenstein, Esther. “Turning Points in the Historiography of Jewish Immigration from Arab Countries to Israel.” Israel Studies, 23:3 (2018): 114-22.
Milevsky, Avidan. “Challenges and Psychological Adjustment of Religious American Adolescent Immigrants to Israel,” Israel Studies, 21:2 (Summer 2016): 27–49.
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Peres, Yochanan. “Ethnic Relations in Israel.” American Journal of Sociology, 76:6 (1971): 1021.
Picard, Avi. “Building the Country or Rescuing the People: Ben-Gurion’s Attitude towards Mass Jewish Immigration to Israel in the Mid-1950s,” Middle Eastern Studies, 54:3 (May 2018): 382–99.
Powell, Benjamin; Clark, J. R.; and Alex Nowrasteh. “Does Mass Immigration Destroy Institutions? 1990s Israel as a Natural Experiment.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 141 (2017): 83-95.
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Raijman, Rebeca, and Rona Geffen. “Sense of Belonging and Life Satisfaction among Post‐1990 Immigrants in Israel,” International Migration, 56:3 (June 2018): 142–57.
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Shumsky, Abraham. “Motivation to Change: A Study of Western Immigration to Israel.” Journal of Educational Sociology, 36:4 (December 1962): 190-92.
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Walsh, Sophie, and Shmuel Shulman. “Gender-Related Needs, Challenges, and Dangers in the Immigration Experience in Israel of Emerging Adults From the Former Soviet Union.” Sex Roles, 54:7 (2006): 533-546.
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Yaron, Hadas. “’Infiltrators’ or Refugees? An Analysis of Israel’s Policy Towards African Asylum-Seekers.” International Migration, 51:4 (2013): 144-57.