Assimilation of Israeli immigrants in the United States: Social work policy implications

The purpose of this research is to examine patterns of assimilation into urban American society of first-generation Israeli immigrants into the non-Jewish and Jewish American society. This study tests the hypothesis that among Israeli immigrants, those with high socioeconomic status achieve a higher degree of cultural assimilation than those with low socioeconomic status. The hypothesis tests also that social assimilation is not related to socioeconomic status among Israeli immigrants. These hypotheses are based on Gordon\u27s distinction between cultural and structural-social assimilation. Gordon (1964) states that structural-social assimilation is the key variable for final assimilation. The finding of this study is that first-generation Israeli immigrants in the United States do not ordinarily achieve a significant level of assimilation into the non-Jewish and Jewish population as well. This finding has implications for policy recommendations for Israeli immigrants within Jewish communal services and the child welfare field