[BRIEF NOTE] The Israeli-Canadians
Apr. 5th, 2006 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThe phenomenon of emigration from Israel can be quite controversial for several reasons, not least of which are the centrality of aliyah in Zionism and the question of which individuals and ethnic groups are attached to the land. It's not surprising that many Israelis have emigrated from their homeland, considering that the convergence of the Israeli economy with First World standards of living has been fairly late, that Israel's security situation has rarely been that comforting, and that Israel's population is famously the product of repeated massive migratory waves.
Back in February 2005 at Cabalamat, the indispensable Phil Hunt assembled statistics on Israeli migration in the 1996-2004 period, concluding that Israel was a country of net immigration for most of that period. Now, in Canadian Jewish News, Phil Lungen writes that Israeli immigrants form a quarter of the Greater Toronto Area's Jewish population ("Israelis comprise 25% of Jews in the GTA").
Ironically enough, considering their origins in the Jewish nation-state, the Israeli immigrants apparently don't meld very well into Canada's established Jewish community. Quite simply, traditional markers of Jewish identity--day school, synagogue attendance, and the like--often aren't prominent features in the lives of Jews who come from a country where Judaism is taken as normative. Exactly how can Canada's Jewish community reach out to these immigrants? None of the experts interviewed by Lungen seems to be very sure how this can be achieved, or very confident that this could work.
Back in February 2005 at Cabalamat, the indispensable Phil Hunt assembled statistics on Israeli migration in the 1996-2004 period, concluding that Israel was a country of net immigration for most of that period. Now, in Canadian Jewish News, Phil Lungen writes that Israeli immigrants form a quarter of the Greater Toronto Area's Jewish population ("Israelis comprise 25% of Jews in the GTA").
More than 50,000 immigrants from the State of Israel currently reside in the Greater Toronto Area, comprising some 25 per cent of the GTA’s Jewish population, a new demographic study reveals.
Nearly 2,700 Israelis immigrated to Canada in 2004 and 2,601 arrived the year before – the two highest numbers on record – states the report, titled The Israeli Community in the Greater Toronto Area.
Prepared by David Gidron for the Israeli House, a component of the Israeli Consulate in Toronto, the study found that altogether, 64,859 Israelis immigrated to Canada from 1946 to 2004, with the vast majority settling in the GTA. That figure does not include children born in Canada.
Ironically enough, considering their origins in the Jewish nation-state, the Israeli immigrants apparently don't meld very well into Canada's established Jewish community. Quite simply, traditional markers of Jewish identity--day school, synagogue attendance, and the like--often aren't prominent features in the lives of Jews who come from a country where Judaism is taken as normative. Exactly how can Canada's Jewish community reach out to these immigrants? None of the experts interviewed by Lungen seems to be very sure how this can be achieved, or very confident that this could work.
