Vietnamese refugees in Israel are a community of overseas Vietnamese who arrived in Israel from 1977 to 1979. The State of Israel permitted approximately 366 Vietnamese boat people fleeing the 1975 Communist takeover of Vietnam to enter the country during that time period. [1] [2] [3]
The most well-known rescue operation took place on June 10, 1977 in which an Israeli freighter ship called the Yuvali, en route to Taiwan, sighted the passengers. [4] [5] This group of about 66 Vietnamese refugees was the first of three to arrive in Israel between 1977 and 1979. [6] Those who remained in Israel as citizens are now known as Vietnamese-Israelis. [6]
Prime Minister Menachem Begin was quoted as having compared them to Holocaust refugees: [7] [8]
"We never have forgotten the boat with 900 Jews, the St. Louis, having left Germany in the last weeks before the Second World War… traveling from harbor to harbor, from country to country, crying out for refuge. They were refused… Therefore it was natural… to give those people a haven in the Land of Israel." [9]
Begin ordered Israeli diplomats to travel to refugee camps for the Vietnamese and offer them asylum in Israel. [10] An Associated Press broadcast from October 26, 1979 covered one of the arrival flights in which a refugee stated he would like to thank the government of Israel and Prime Minister Menachem Begin "to give us a homeland while the other countries were still reluctant to take us when we left our country to flee from the barbaric regime of communism." [11]
According to a report by JNS, in the refugee camps in the Philippines, Israel offered priority asylum to married couples. Many moved to the United States and France where they had relatives and one individual returned to Vietnam. [12]
Many of the refugees settled around Jaffa and Bat Yam. [8] [13] Most Vietnamese-Israelis are Buddhist, but some are Christian or converts to Judaism. [8] [10] Many also practice syncretic ancestor worship and celebrate Vietnamese new year.
According to a special report on JNS, most immigrants only knew Vietnamese when they arrived and no Hebrew, however one individual, Phong Le Quan who served in the pro-American South Vietnam Army learned English from Americans and was able to assist the community as they struggled to communicate for even simple tasks due to a language barrier. [14]
Some have Chinese ancestry or some Chinese cultural background. [13] That may be attributed to the group of about 100 refugees who arrived in 1978, described as "ethnic Chinese people who have lived in Vietnam for generations". [6] The first group of about 66 arrivals from 1977 were primarily Roman Catholics, and the group of about 192 refugees from 1979 were primarily of Kinh (Vietnamese) ethnic origin. [6]
A 2008 paper estimated that there were about 150 to 170 people in the community, including spouses of non-Vietnamese origin. It also estimated this would make Vietnamese-Israelis one of the smallest minorities in Israel. [6] There are approximately 150 to 200 former Vietnamese refugees and descendants were still in Israel. Meanwhile, about half left Israel, mainly for the USA and France to unite with relatives there. Some have even returned to Vietnam in recent years. [15]
Prominent Vietnamese-Israelis include Vaan Nguyen, a poet and actress and subject of an award-winning documentary The Journey of Vaan Nguyen; [16] [6] Dr. Sabine Huynh, a translator, sociologist and author who fled Vietnam for France in 1976 and has lived in Israel since 2001; [17] and Dao Rochvarger-Wong, who headed Bank Hapoalim in Singapore. [18] [19]
Vietnamese Americans are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They comprise approximately half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group following Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Indian Americans. There are approximately 2.2 million people of Vietnamese descent residing in the U.S.
The Vietnamese Fatherland Front is an umbrella group of mass movements in Vietnam aligned with the Communist Party of Vietnam forming the Vietnamese government. It was founded in February 1977 by the merger of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front of North Vietnam and two Viet Cong groups, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peace Forces. It is an amalgamation of many smaller groups, including the Communist Party itself. Other groups that participated in the establishment of the Front were the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization. It also included the Democratic Party of Vietnam and Socialist Party of Vietnam, until they disbanded in 1988. It also incorporates some officially sanctioned religious groups.
The fall of Saigon, also called the liberation of Saigon or liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese who fled from South Vietnam following reunification, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on 30 April 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the collapse of the non-communist South Vietnamese regime as well as the start of a transition period from the formal reunification of Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under communist rule.
Overseas Vietnamese refers to Vietnamese people who live outside Vietnam. There are approximately 5 million overseas Vietnamese, the largest community of whom live in the United States.
The Hoa people are the citizens and nationals of Vietnam of full or partial Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese migration into Vietnam dates back millennia but allusions to the contemporary Hoa today mostly refers to people of Chinese ancestry who immigrated to Vietnam during the 18th century, who especially trace their ancestry to various southern Chinese provinces. The Hoa are an ethnic minority group in Vietnam as part of the Chinese community there, and can also be found in other regions such as in the Americas. They may also be called "Chinese-Vietnamese" or "Chinese people living in/from Vietnam" by the Vietnamese.
Vietnamese Canadians are Canadian citizens of Vietnamese ancestry. As of 2021, there are 275,530 Vietnamese Canadians, most of whom reside in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec.
Vaan Nguyen is an Israeli poet, actress, journalist and social activist.
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Bank Otsar HaHayal is an Israeli bank.
Many of the Vietnamese people in Hong Kong immigrated as a result of the Vietnam War and persecution since the mid-1970s.
Sa Đéc is a Provincial city in Đồng Tháp Province in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam. It is a river port and agricultural and industrial trading center. The Sa Đéc economic zone consists of Châu Thành, Lai Vung and Lấp Vò districts.
Jews are a minor ethno-religious group in Vietnam, presently consisting of only about 300 people. Although Jews have been present in Vietnam and Judaism has been practiced since the late 19th century, most adherents have been, and remain today, expatriates, with few to no native Vietnamese converts.
Israel–Vietnam relations refers to the bilateral relations between the State of Israel and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Vietnam and Israel established diplomatic relations on July 12, 1993, followed by Israel opening its resident embassy in Hanoi in December 1993. The current Vietnamese Ambassador to Israel is Lý Đức Trung, who has been assigned since April 2022. Ambassador Lý Đức Trung operates out of the Vietnamese embassy in Tel Aviv. The current Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam is Yaron Mayer, who has been assigned since August 2022. Ambassador Mayer operates out of the Israeli embassy in Hanoi.
Malaysia–Vietnam relations date to at least the 15th century. Malaysia forged diplomatic ties with the modern-day Vietnamese state on 30 March 1973; as of 2015, these ties are still in existence. During the late 1970s and 1980s, the countries' relationship became strained as a result of the Cambodian–Vietnamese War and the influx of Vietnamese boat people into Malaysia. The subsequent resolution of these issues saw the cultivation of strong trade and economic ties, and bilateral trade between the countries grew strongly, with an expansion into areas including information technology, education and defence. Both countries are members of APEC and ASEAN.
Vietnamese boat people were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in 1978 and 1979, but continued into the early 1990s. The term is also often used generically to refer to the Vietnamese people who left their country in a mass exodus between 1975 and 1995. This article uses the term "boat people" to apply only to those who fled Vietnam by sea.
The Genesis Prize is a $1 million annual prize awarded to Jewish people who have achieved significant professional success, in recognition of their accomplishments, contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values.
Ru is a novel by Vietnamese-born Canadian novelist Kim Thúy, first published in French in 2009 by Montreal publisher Libre Expression. It was translated into English in 2012 by Sheila Fischman and published by Vintage Canada.
New Zealand–Vietnam relations refers to the relations between New Zealand and Vietnam. New Zealand has an embassy in Hanoi and a consulate-general in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam has an embassy in Wellington.
Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) is an English language newswire service focusing on the Jewish world and Israel launched in September 2011 as Jewish News Service and published by Russel Pergament and Joshua Katzen. Its editor-in-chief is American journalist Jonathan S. Tobin.
Dao Rochvarger-Wong has been appointed head of private banking. WealthBriefing has learnt that Mrs Rochvarger-Wong and her family were amongst the Vietnamese boat people who were rescued by Israel in 1979 when no-one else in the region would help many thousands like her. Brought up in Israel, Mrs Rochvarger-Wong, adopted the Jewish faith and served with distinction in the military. She embarked on a career in private banking with Bank Leumi before joining Hapoalim.