Rethinking Israel’s relationship with its citizens abroad

From the afternoon of Oct. 7, 2023, as news of the atrocities along the Gaza border spread and it became clear that Israel was at war, Israelis abroad mobilized to help. Many rushed back to their reserve units. Many more set up emergency operations centers, raised money and organized every form of support they could. Yet throughout the following long years of war and more generally, many have also continued to choose life outside Israel.

When we speak of Diaspora Jewry, Israelis living abroad are usually not counted as part of it. But their numbers and attachment to Israel demand serious thought and a coherent policy toward this regrettably growing community.

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The controversy over Israelis living abroad begins with the numbers. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics puts their number at roughly 600,000, while the Israeli-American Council estimates some 800,000 Israelis live in the United States alone. Beyond the United States, the largest Israeli communities are in Britain, Canada, Germany and France. Some have temporarily relocated, studying abroad or spending a limited period overseas. But most have chosen to make their lives elsewhere.

Whether Israelis abroad should participate in Israeli elections is one aspect of this issue. Many Israelis see the coming election as potentially decisive for the country’s future. That is why a major effort is underway to fly Israelis home to vote; to “airlift mandates,” as the phrase goes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he will reserve a place on the Likud slate for Oren Dobronsky, an Israeli who has lived abroad for years. Election fever has again put Israelis overseas at the center of public debate.

But the issue deserves attention well beyond this election season.

Israeli attitudes toward those who leave have changed dramatically. Since Yitzhak Rabin’s infamous 1976 description of emigrants as a “fallout of weaklings,” Israelis have become far less judgmental of those who choose to live abroad. Even the once-common label yordim—literally, those who “go down” from Israel—has fallen out of fashion. Globalization and the growing ease of combining study and work abroad in many professions have made spending part of one’s life overseas commonplace.

Israeli attitudes have changed even toward those who leave for good; not only among Israelis who remain, but among emigrants themselves. Many still see themselves as Israeli and are prepared to do whatever they can from afar to help the country. Israelis who leave are a loss for the state, and many in Israel still resent that choice. But at times emigrants are also an asset for Israel.

One problem is how Israelis abroad are classified. For decades, the State of Israel has devoted policy attention, relationship-building and resources to “Diaspora Jewry.” Israelis living abroad, by contrast, have rarely been treated as a distinct group.

In practice, these are highly diverse communities. In many large population centers, especially in the United States, Israelis and local Jews move in separate social circles and often fail to connect because of differences in mentality and culture.

That distinction is crucial to understanding the challenge posed by Israelis abroad. Jews who grow up outside Israel are generally aware that their Jewish identity can erode and must therefore be actively cultivated. Israelis are often less conscious of the danger. Having grown up in a country where Jewish identity is simply “in the air,” many neglect it abroad. The result can be rapid erosion of both Jewish and Israeli identity. In recent years, especially in the United States, efforts have been made to mitigate that trend, but the problem persists.

Israel needs to think seriously about its relationship with Israelis abroad. Numerically, they constitute the second-largest Jewish community outside Israel. Substantively, their connection to Israel is probably stronger than that of Jews born abroad. The Israeli government must confront this reality: It should rightly seek to bring them home, but if they choose not to return, it should continue investing in preserving their identity and strengthening their bond with Israel.

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