American Israelis

Abstract

At the outset of the twenty-first century, the population of Israel numbers nearly seven million inhabitants. This figure represents the number of persons who hold resident status and live in Israel per-manently. Three fourths of them are Jewish, the rest are Muslims, Christians, Druze, and persons not classified by religion—often kin of Jewish immigrants, or others eligible for Israel citizenship under the Law of Return, from the former Soviet Union. Another large Israeli community dwells abroad. Despite the difficulties in defining and iden-tifying this community, conservative estimates number it at about half a million persons, a large majority of whom are in the United States.