ABSTRACT
The last chapter argued that the promise of work and its rewards abroad entice Israelis to leave their homeland. This chapter describes how family and gender issues shape Israeli emigrants’ patterns of adjustment to host societies and often provide the impetus for their return. As noted in Chapter 1, most Israelis migrate as parts of nuclear families, many of which include small children (Ritterband 1986; Gold and Phillips 1996a; Cohen 1999). The fact that so many Israeli emigrants are part of married couples – frequently with small children at home – means that issues of family adaptation are an immediate concern to them. Further, because the vast majority of Israeli émigrés are part of nuclear families, gender issues are commonly experienced and understood within nuclear family settings, thus warranting the combined discussion of gender and family.
