Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politics, and Culture: Books on Israel, Volume II

6. Between the Promised Land and the Land of Promise: Israeli Emigration and Israeli Identity

Tamar Katriel Between the Promised Land and the Land of Promise: Israeli Emigration and Israeli Identity Gershon Shaked. No Other Place: On Literature and Society. Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad. 1988 [1983 in Hebrew[. Zvi Sobel. Migrantsfrom the Promised Land. New Brunswick: Transaction Books. 1986. Moshe Shokeid. Children of Circumstances: Israeli Emigrants in New York. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1988. Although the phenomenon of emigration from the land ofIsrael has been a feature ofthe Zionist enterprise in Israel since its very lnception, it has become a topic of serioussocialscience research onlyin recentyears. Whether or not emigration from Israel. or yerida., is actually on the increase, and whether or not it has reached inordinate proportions, it is clearly perceived as a danger to the very fabric of society by many Israelis. In the Israeli context. emigration is the toplc ofan intense, morally loaded public debate and societal soul searching. As Sobel puts it: Whatever the actual dimension of emigration, Israelis and Israeli society view the phenomenon as problematic and threatening. Questions about reward and punishment, sin and the cleansing of sin, characterological failings, salvaging of the young, legitimation or condemnation are indications of a deep substratum of unease concerning the phenomenon of yerida. No matter how many articles orresearch reports are published attempt- 94 Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politlcs, and Culture ingto demonstrate thatin statisticalandcomparative tenns thereisno problem, itwouldappearthat somethingofa consensushas emerged to the effect that a serious problem exists (Sobel 1986:15). Since the problem of yerida touches upon core issues related to Israeli cultural identity and communal affiliation, it is not surprising that the study of yerida becomes an exploration of the problematics of Israeli identity, as is indicated in Sobel's and Shokeid's books, and that. conversely , the exploration ofIsraeli cultural identity naturally leads to consideration of emigration, as is suggested in Shaked's book. Taken together, these three books offer a broad-ranging view of questions related to emigration on the one hand, and to the problematics ofIsraeli identity on the other. Rather than attempting to cover all their varied contributions to our understanding of these issues, I will focus here on the ways in which they address the question of Israeli emigration to highlight core issues related to the problematics of Israeli identity. Whereas Shaked's book is a literary critic's attempt to articulate a sociocultural rationale for staying in Israel. the Sobel and Shokeid books, both by social scientists, are empirical investigations designed to explore what makes Israelis leave. Whatever their discipline, scholars addressing these issues must wrestle with the uneasy relationship between Israeli and Diaspora life as contemporary Jewish alternatives, both as actualities and as 'geographies of the mind'. In fact. the phenomenon of emigration dramatizes a much broader culturalpredicament.The discourse of yerida actually raises much more fundamental questions than public debates or personal discussions of 'the problem of yerida' suggest. The sense that Israeli life for Israelis is a more or less favored alternative, not a historical given, is widespread. It is obViously the feeling of those who have decided to leave, as in Sobel's study, or those who have found themselves 'stuck' in New York, as in Shokeid's study. More crUcially, perhaps, it is also the feeling of the Between the Promised Land and the Land ofPromise 95 many Israelis who vaguely 'threaten' to leave when this or that does not suit them. or who insist on presenting their stay in the country as a sacrifice-filled choice. fantasizing about unactualized possibilities abroad. All three books emphasize the instrumental attitude of Israeli emigrants toward their former home. The authors themselves. on the other hand. take Israeli existence as a point ofdeparture. instead of treating Israel as if it were or should be a Zionist Utopia. They seek a critical understanding ofcontemporary Israeli culture. In so doing. they speak in an Israeli accent. complementing each other's perspectives in personal and distinctive ways. Thus. Sobel. the long-time American immigrant who made the decision to move to Israel. focuses his study on the decision-making that leads to yerida by listening to the accounts of Israelis who have obtained emigration visas to the U.S.A. Sobers interviewees' decision to leave is inevitably- if implicitlyweighed against his own decision to come to Israel. Shokeid. the native-born Israeli for whom 'Israeliness' is a taken-forgranted aspect of his being. focuses on the experiential aspects ofIsraelis' life...