ABSTRACT
Israeli immigrants, although tending to concentrate in a few residential areas in New York, have nevertheless proved reluctant to either initiate their own ethnic organizations or join American Jewish national and communal institutions. The Israeli case seems to expand the observational and conceptual scope of immigrant and ethnic research. It also reveals the methodological and theoretical affinity between the research of ethnic groups and the study of other minorities whose members share the problem of identity management. This chapter examines the absence of communal organizations and ethnic corporate action among Israeli emigrants in New York. Although their numbers in Queens and Brooklyn have increased considerably within a short period, and although some shops even have Israeli names, they have not created a 'Little Tel-Aviv' or an Israel-Town. Israelis attach the epithet yordim to their compatriots who leave Israel, a rather degrading national designation which is also associated with presumed base motives of greed and cowardice.
