Nation of Israel Opens Campaign to Lure Its People Back : They Can Go Home Again, but Many Opt to Live Abroad

Both places have oranges--but after that the similarities quickly dwindle.

And therein lies the challenge facing Israel, getting its former residents who have resettled in Greater Los Angeles to come back home to stay.

Some have heeded the call, many haven’t.

After seven years here, Malka Romano left last week to resume life in the Mideast. On the other hand, people such as Gail Shani, who moved here 17 years ago, have adapted to American life and have no inclination to return to what is sometimes a harsher life.

A National Irony

They are part of a national irony. Twenty years after what was perhaps Israel’s greatest military triumph--the Six-Day War--the small nation is having to deal with one of its most crucial problems.

A silent foe, emigration, has been succeeding where other opponents have failed. For the last two years there has been a negative balance between the number of people leaving the country as residents and those arriving to settle.

“Ours is an immigrant society, and people have always been coming and going,” said Yitzhak Eldan, Israel’s deputy consul general in Los Angeles. “But what is happening now is a new thing with us, and it concerns us.”

Israel’s lower standard of living compared with many Western countries, high taxes, terrorism and a constant state of defense preparedness, lower salaries than in some other places--these are some of the reasons given by those who are part of the outflow.

There are about 50,000 to 75,000 of these former Israeli residents who have moved to Greater Los Angeles, and three months ago the new consul general here, Eytan Bentsur, decided that it was a pool that warranted special attention.

By the thousands, letters have been going out from Bentsur: “Israel beckons you. . . . There is no substitute for a home. No substitute for a homeland. No replacement for a country to which you belong. . . .” Along with the letter come special inducements, such as reduced air fare and the promise of help with housing and employment.

At Jewish gatherings, booklets are being handed out. The cover shows the orange, which is synonymous with the Middle Eastern state, together with a message in Hebrew: “We Expect You Home.”

“I am going back to Israel because I was feeling too alone here, and life here was becoming too boring,” Malka Romano explained a few days ago.

By now the 33-year-old woman is back in the homeland she left in September of 1979, back in the home of her parents, after having tried Los Angeles for more than seven years.

“I suppose I’ll miss it sometimes, and I’m sure I’ll come back to visit,” she said. “But perhaps life will have some meaning now.”

While here, the sabra (native-born Israeli) worked as an assembler in an electronics company, then as a sales clerk in a gift shop. Almost annually, however, she would go back to visit her parents, brothers, sister and other relatives.

“Every time, my mother would ask when I would be coming back to stay. I would say perhaps next year.

“I was hoping to maybe get married, maybe open a clothing store of my own. But it was just a constant battle to pay the bills, and at the end of the month I had nothing left.”

So Romano, having read about the new campaign in the local Hebrew newspaper Israel Shelanou (Our Israel), heeded the call that now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the country.

“I’ll join my father’s clothing store business,” she said before leaving Los Angeles. “Once I had made the decision to return permanently, it wasn’t difficult to actually do it.”

Gail Shani, 37, is a Los Angeles resident and a friend of Romano. She knows about the program but can’t see herself returning permanently right now.

“I moved here because my former husband wanted to, and now after 17 years, I don’t know if I would be comfortable in Israel,” she said. “You need a lot of money over there to be as comfortable as you are here.”

Shani, occasionally a manicurist, said she has visited Israel four times since moving, still owns an apartment there, and is always asked by her family to return permanently.

“But,” she admitted, “I have become used to America.”

Consulate officials hope for a different reaction from the other expatriates.

And so far so good for the fledgling campaign locally. “In terms of inquiries, requests for applications, people visiting the consulate, telephone calls--the reaction has been beyond all anticipations,” Bentsur said.

In the United States, his deputy explained, there are basically two centers of former Israelis (although he feels the word former is incorrect). Greater New York has 75,000 to 100,000, followed by the 50,000 to 75,000 here. In New York, a similar come-home program is being administered through the Ministry of Labor.

A look at some numbers, some of them supplied by Eldan, is in order here:

--The approximate world population is 4.7 billion, of which about 13 million are Jews.

--Roughly half of the world’s total, or 6 million, live in the United States, where they constitute about 2.5% of the population.

--After Israel, the biggest concentration in the Free World is in the New York City area--an estimated 1.8 million--followed by the estimated 500,000 in Greater Los Angeles.

--In Israel, the Jews number about 3.5 million of the estimated population of 4.2 million, the rest being Arabs, Christians, Druze and others.

A Spectacular Victory

In the three years following Israel’s spectacular victory in the Six-Day War, immigrants streamed in at a peak rate of 9,000 a year, and few were leaving.

Understandably then--on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state in 1948--the reverse exodus of late is a phenomenon which has galvanized its officials into seeking a return to the statistics of former years.

“Last year 14,000 people left, but only 12,000 arrived,” Eldan said.

“Our new campaign is not only asking Israelis to return, but Jews who have never lived there to come. After all these years, we have a homeland.”

Aside from the United States, the only large remaining pool of potential settlers is in the Soviet Union, which permits few Jews to depart.

So concerned is Israel about keeping its population growing that certain incentives are being offered. “If you need materialistic help, we’ll give it,” the deputy consul general said.

Specifically, this will include:

--A one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Israel via El Al Airlines at a reduced rate of $525, rather than the normal $809.

--Help in finding an apartment (houses are usually scarce and prohibitively expensive).

--Help in finding employment.

--The waiving of customs duties on such necessary appliances as a refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, oven.

--Home mortgage rates lower than those generally being offered. “This is for certain areas only,” Eldan said. “We don’t want everyone centered around Tel Aviv.”

--Public school tutoring in the Hebrew language for children.

To qualify for these incentives, the deputy consul general added, a former resident must have been gone at least two years.

Emigration Discouraged

Parenthetically, it might be noted that a program is similarly under way within Israel itself--to discourage citizens from emigrating.

“At age 18, three years of army service is required of males and two years of females, and increasingly when they are discharged, they consider leaving the country. Taxes are high, salaries are lower than they might get elsewhere, and some say they want to at least try studying abroad,” Eldan said.

“They say they will come back when they have made some money, but we would rather that they not leave, so we are offering help with employment and housing.”

Indeed, figures from a poll conducted for the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption were released last month, figures that found that 19% of Israelis in the 18-29 age group said they might emigrate.

Since what is apparently more than an acceptable number from various age groups have already done so, the campaign currently under way in Los Angeles takes on added importance.

“We even have a program for those who want to first examine the possibilities of returning permanently,” the deputy consul general said. “For $10 above the cost of a regular air fare ticket aboard El Al, you can stay a week in a four-star hotel, with breakfast included, and have free use of a rental car.”

Inflation Checked

This is a good time to come back, he said. “We have reduced inflation from 40% per month to 1 1/2%.”

Bentsur, the consul general, said the come-home campaign is too new for meaningful statistics. “But within six months to a year, we hope to see results in the thousands from Southern California,” he added.

Eldan mentioned one factor. “Israelis living here sometimes feel lonely. They don’t always feel a part of American life.”

If they heed the call and do depart, he continued, they will be welcomed back with open arms:

“We don’t want them to feel guilty about having left. Israel will be happy to see them back again.

As Bentsur wrote in his letter: “Return home, for your sake, for your families’ sake, and especially for the sake of your children.”