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.
Immigration and Entry into the Cultural Mainstream
This research focuses on the absorbing society, and examines a process by which immigrants entered and changed the cultural core of the absorbing society. It analyzes the development of an ethnic holiday, the traditional ethnic Mimouna holiday of North African immigrants in Israel, into a national holiday and into part of the dominant culture. The research concludes that this process evolved mainly as a result of the political activism of immigrants from North Africa and a weakening of the hegemony. It may also illuminate the sometimes crucial role of immigrants in moving the boundaries between the center and the periphery.
Ethnicity and Citizenship in the Ritual of an Israeli Synagogue
Tension between citizenship and ethnicity is expressed in an Israeli ethnic synagogue by changes in ritual and symbolism. The symbolic expression of these changes relates worshippers of the synagogue, who are recent immigrants to Israel, to their new heterogenous environment. Analysis of the changes in symbols demonstrates that the referential aspects have expanded, consistent with alterations in traditional relationships. The reinterpreted symbols may be categorized in terms of a typology of religious change as instances of "innovation," in the sense that the experiential range to which the symbol applies has been changed.