Introduction
Although exhibiting universal characteristics of diasporic communities, the Israeli diaspora presents a special case. The reason d’être of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was to bring an end to the centuries-long oppressed Jewish diaspora and regroup most Jews in their historical homeland. Indeed, since its foundation Israel, whose current population totals 6.6 million, 20% Arabs and 80% Jews, has absorbed more than three million Jews, both refugees and immigrants (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2003). However, during the same period of time, a small fraction of its population emigrated to North America, Western Europe, and Australia, forming a substantial Israeli diaspora (Cohen, 1989). Today, about 9% of the Israeli population lives outside of Israel.
The literature on Israeli diasporic communities is divided into two main perspectives, the Zionist perspective and the global immigration perspective. From a Zionist perspective, the very existence of an...
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Cohen, R. (2005). Israeli Diaspora. In: Ember, M., Ember, C.R., Skoggard, I. (eds) Encyclopedia of Diasporas. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_14
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