Cultural Ethnicity in Israel: The Case of Middle Eastern Jews' Religiosity
National myths and public policies in Israel long assumed that the country's diverse Jewish immigrant groups would all eventually, and indeed within a short span of time, be absorbed and fused into a unified social, economic, political, and cultural entity, but this expectation is now giving way to widespread doubts as to its feasibility. Some of these doubts were expressed during the 1970s in a series of studies which demonstrated not only that there were still gaps between Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African extraction (often called Sephardim or Oriental Jews) and those of European extraction (Ashkenazim), as regards occupational and residential mobility, income and educational achievements, political representation and social prestige, but that the gaps were widening.1 The growing disillusionment on the part of Middle Eastern Jews (North Africans included) was dramatically revealed in the 1981 general elections by the emergence of a new ethnic party, Tami, which seemed to have better prospects of success and survival than any previous ethnic party. Moreover, the results at the polls obtained by most of the other parties seemed to reflect an intensifying ethnic polarity.
Reciprocal Change: A Case Study of a Moroccan Immigrant Village in Israel
THEORIES of acculturation have long recognized the possibility of the . mutual effects of culture contact. In their pioneering "Memorandum for the Study of Acculturation," Redfield, Linton and Herskovits define acculturation as "changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups" in contact (1936:149, italics mine). Kroeber too imagines that "populations . . . are mutually influenced" as a consequence of contact conditions (1948:428). While this approach seems eminently reasonable, most studies have in fact seen acculturation as a unilateral process rather than as a phenomenon having dual effects. Kroeber's conclusion that students of acculturation tend to view culture contact "almost wholly and one-sidedly from the angle of the impact of the dominant, prestige-laden society and culture upon a backward or dominated minority" is undoubtedly accurate (1948:428). Similar comments have also been made by Beals, who writes that "Beyond an occasional suggestion that the culture of Europeans (mainly missionaries, traders and administrators) undergoes some change as a result of contact or that Spanish culture in the New World was modified by Indian culture, only lip service has been paid to this aspect of acculturation" (1953:628). Beals goes on to cite the case of Malinowski as one who was "enthusiastic" about the possibility of studying the "reciprocal aspects of culture contact" (1953:628), but who never seriously took up the problem. This study describes an instance of reciprocal change. Reciprocal change refers to the varied results which are the consequence of the contact of different cultural groups. In this formulation the type and nature of change may be different: the issue is not one of mutual borrowing, but rather the various changes that arise from culture contact. The thesis of this study is not, for example, that traits are exchanged in contact situations, but rather that each group may influence the other in different ways. One group may adopt the items or techniques of the other; yet this process may have the effect of changing the status system of the "lending group." Social roles within one group may become altered, and the cultural forms of other groups modified, as a consequence of contact. In this way the groups in contact are changed, but in different ways and for different reasons. What have traditionally been referred to as "donors" may consequently be seen to have undergone significant changes as a result of their contact with "receiving groups" (Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits 1936:151).
The German centenary of the First World War
In the run up to the 2014 centenary of the First World War, the German public was gripped by a heated debate on the origins of the war. This article explores the nature of this controversy and its role in shaping national commemoration of the Great War. It also draws parallels between the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the war in 1964 and those of 2014. Through a comparison of Germany’s national memories of the war with those in Britain and France, the article also reveals how different and sometimes conflicting national interpretations of the history of the First World War have affected centenary commemoration. Memories of the First World War are nation-specific, constructed and developed over time to suit a particular view of a country’s past. Moreover, they can be instrumental in influencing that country’s future development and relations with its neighbours.