14.6: Middle Eastern Americans
Little Arabia is an ethnic enclave in Orange County, California, the center for Orange County's Arab Americans, who number more than 24,000 (as of 2000). It is sometimes referred to as "Little Gaza" which was a play on the original designation of this area as the "Garza Island." Little Arabia grew significantly in the 1990s with the arrival of immigrants from the Middle East and is the home to thousands of Arab Americans predominantly hailing from Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Yemen.
More than 500,000 Iranian Americans live throughout Southern California, including about 20% of the population of Beverly Hills. Iranian American communities also flourish in the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, San Diego, and the San Joaquin Valley. The majority of Iranian Americans immigrated after the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown in 1979.
California is also home to many Armenian Americans; the highest concentration of Americans of Armenian descent is in the Greater Los Angeles area, where 166,498 people have identified themselves as Armenian to the 2000 Census, comprising over 40% of the 385,488 people who identified Armenian origins in the U.S. at the time. Many of these live in Glendale north of Los Angeles, as well as a large community in Fresno. The size of the Armenian American population is disputed, however. According to a 1988 news article, California had about 500,000 ethnic Armenians with over half of them living in the Greater Los Angeles area.
More than 1,300,000 Jewish Americans live in California, the majority of whom are Ashkenazi Jews. In addition, there are more than 250,000 Israeli Americans live in the Los Angeles area, according to the Israeli American Council. There are also significant Israeli American populations in the Bay Area, San Francisco, and San Jose areas of Northern California. The largest Karaite Jewish population outside of Israel exists in the Bay Area, consisting of several hundred descendants of refugees from the Egyptian Karaite community, as well as some recent converts. Their community is centered around the only Karaite synagogue outside the Middle East, Congregation B'nai Israel, located in Daly City. The Moroccan Jewish community in California is one of the largest in North America, approximately 10,000 Moroccan Jews reside in the Greater Los Angeles area, mostly in Pico-Robertson, North Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. Many are the descendants of community members who first emigrated to the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Many others came later in the 20th century from Israel and beginning in the early 21 st century from France due to increasing antisemitism there. The community has their own synagogues as well as a community center.
Over 50,000 Afghan Americans live in California, with large concentrations in the East Bay (primarily in Alameda County and its communities of Fremont and Hayward), Orange County, and Ventura County.
There is also a large population of Assyrian descent living in the Central Valley, with large communities in Modesto, Ceres, and Turlock. San Diego has one of the largest concentrations of Chaldean immigrants in the United States. There is about an estimated 3,000 Moroccan Americans are living in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Santa Ana. Turkish Americans and Azerbaijani Americans form moderately sized communities in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.