This JTA article made for interesting reading, and supports my (as yet undocumented) assertion that Israeli expatriates will need their own parallel infrastructure in places where they are concentrated in any number. (I dislike the term Yordim; it’s so judgemental and 20th century "negation of the Diaspora".)
I’ve been making a few notes over the last year or so, and will develop the idea more fully in a later piece. I also see this infrastructure as being mainly virtual in nature, relying on existing Jewish infrastructure for physical “plant”, but networking in other ways, in parallel to the local Jewish community. I see it relying extensively on the Internet (in forms yet to be determined) to establish and keep contact, arrange events, etc. It will probably prove to be both insular and inward-looking, while also connected (to Israel, to other Israeli colonies and to the local Jewish and non-Jewish communities).
Make no mistake, this secondary Israeli Diaspora is here to stay (albeit the membership is likely to be more transient). We ignore it or disparage it to our own peril as a people.
A whole new Diaspora model for the 21st century!
Clinging to their native identity, British Israelis stick to their own
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