A California proposal aimed at curtailing illegal immigration from Mexico could convince thousands of Los Angeles's expatriate Israelis to head for home, according to Uri Oren, Israel's consul general in Los Angeles.
Proposition 187 will be adopted by a 2-1 margin in statewide balloting on November 8, polls say.
It would bar the children of aliens without proper documents from California schools, and cut off some state services to illegal immigrants. Teachers and doctors would be required to demand documents from people they suspect of being illegal immigrants, and report them to the authorities.
Oren told The Jerusalem Report that perhaps a quarter of the 80,000-100,000 Israelis he estimates live in L.A. may find it difficult to stay, and that L.A.'s attraction for future yordim ("emigrants") would decrease.
So far, there are no signs of panic among L.A.'s Israelis. Heather Rothman, of the Jewish Federation's Community Relations Committee, told The Report that most immigrants - like most Californians - don't know much about the proposal. Still, Jewish organizations have united to oppose it because of its undemocratic character.
If they are discovered, Israelis without papers may not be able to turn for help to the Jewish community, which cut back services in the wake of the last recession. "Those Israelis requiring assistance," says one Jewish Federation official who asked not to be named, "may have nowhere to seek it except in another state or back in Israel."
Sheli Teitelbaum