The rapidly growing Israeli diaspora in the United States—in addition to contributing to many sectors of the American economy and cultural landscape, as well as American Jewish life and culture—has had a disproportionate level of achievement and influence within one American genre of music: jazz. Why are so many Israeli musicians in the United States so successful in this highly competitive and exclusive sector of the American music industry? Looking at Israeli culture, society, institutions, and history provides key answers. Israel’s historic focus on education, the arts and state-funded educational and military institutions dedicated to training musicians has helped shape generations of the world’s most elite musical minds. However, in the past two decades, Israeli musicians (following trends across Israel’s many sectors and industries) are increasingly taking their state-funded training and educations to the United States to try their hands at climbing the ranks of the world’s center of jazz music.
In certain cases, Israel indeed loses great talents to the American music scene. However, Israeli musicians participating in the American jazz scene often help transfer and circulate new musical knowledge, professional and educational networks, new techniques, projects, professional opportunities and even compositions back to Israel, often serving to strengthen and expand Israel’s local musical landscape. This paper explores the context and potential consequences of Israel’s elite musicians often opting to relocate to or spend periods of time in New York, Boston, and other American centers of jazz music.