Review by Choice Review
An anthropological field study of Israeli emigrants living in the New York area, this book examines their sociocultural life-style, interaction with American Jews and the Jewish community, and the relationships forged among themselves. The author, a participant observer in the research, fills his narrative with an abundance of citations from the subjects themselves, and correlates their stories with a few concepts in social anthropology. Shokeid's main finding is that Israelis represent a deviant case of immigrant ethnics in the US. Because they see themselves as only temporary residents and still look to Israel as their homeland, regardless of the number of years lived in the US, they, unlike other immigrants, have not established a coherent ethnic community. They have neither created their own voluntary organizations, nor do they associate with the established American Jewish community. Alienated from and stigmatized by fellow American Jews, Israeli emigrants--despite broad-ranging socioeconomic success--live with great social ambiguity in the US. Although not conceptually profound, the book is engagingly written and provides a useful introduction to the cultural implications of Israeli immigrants to this country. Public and academic libraries, community college level up. B. Kraut University of Cincinnati
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
