Israel is
an amazingly diverse place. Jews from
over a hundred countries have come there, bringing
their own cultures and traditions. Also,
of course, there is a large Arab population as well, and
other, smaller ethnic groups. This makes
for a culture that is very complex, but infinitely
rich and interesting. It is one of the
things I truly love about the country.
As the head of the YMCA
pre-school said, “Americans think of
themselves as a ‘melting pot,’ but we’re more like a
salad. The cucumber still knows it’s a
cucumber, and a tomato knows it’s a tomato. But add a
little lemon juice and olive oil, and we can make something wonderful and
delicious.” What a
delightful summary of the wonderful diversity that is Israel!
The Jewish
Population. Jews
comprise 76% of Israel’s population
(excluding the occupied territories).
While many
are immigrants (especially from the former Soviet Union in the past few years),
an increasing portion of the population was born there. The native-born are called
“sabras,” after a native, prickly pear cactus that is “tough and prickly on the
outside, but soft and sweet on the inside” – a pretty good description of most native-born
Israelis. Ethnically,
Israeli Jews are broadly grouped in two major categories – the Ashkenazim and
the Sephardim. Ashkenazim, from the old Hebrew word for
Germany (Ashkenaz), are Jews from western,
central, and eastern European origin, including most North American Jews. Most of the
original
Zionist settlers and founders of the State of Israel came from this group, and
they formed the
cultural and political elite for most of the State’s early history. The Sephardim take their name from
the Hebrew word for Spain (Sephard).
This term originally referred to Jews of Spanish
origin, including the dispersion that followed the expulsion of Jews from
Christian Spain in
1492. Later, the term was applied to all
Jews of North African and Middle Eastern origin as well,
including many Jews in Italy and the Balkans.
Following the founding of the state, huge numbers of
Sephardim entered Israel after Arab countries expelled their large, long-time
Jewish populations,
nearly tripling Israel’s population in just three years. The Ashkenazim saw them as more
culturally backward, and the Sephardim often resented what they saw as
condescending,
disrespectful,
and discriminatory treatment by the Ashkenazi elite. The Sephardim first gained significant
political power with the rise of the right-wing Likud party under Menachem
Begin, and still
are largely aligned with the Likud and Sephardi religious parties, most notably
Shas. This is
still a major fault line in Israeli cultural and political life. Many Sephardim from Middle Eastern
countries now prefer the term Mizrachim, meaning “eastern” Jews. As an aside, I love Mizrachi
food, music, and traditions. Two other
groups are noteworthy. With the era of
perestroika and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union, the
gates of emigration were finally thrown open to the huge community of Soviet
Jews. Since 1989,
over a million Jews from the former Soviet Union have made aliyah (immigrated
in Israel). They
now make up roughly 20% of the Jewish population of Israel. While they are overwhelmingly Ashkenazi, integration has been rough. Many were educated professionals arriving in
a country already overly saturated with such talent and have been unable to
find work in their
fields (I’ve seen teachers working as hotel maids, as an example). Others are not Jewish according
to halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) and are thus unable to
marry Jews in religious
ceremonies
(the only way to get married in Israel, which has no civil marriage
option). One sees Russian
signs everywhere, and you will also hear the language spoken on the street. Another
fascinating group is the Ethiopian Jews.
This ancient community of black Jews traces
its origin by tradition to the union of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and
did not even know that other Jews existed until the late 1800s. In the 1980s and
1990s, virtually the entire community was brought to Israel in two huge airlifts,
Operation Solomon and Operation Moses.
In a matter of days, over 30 El Al and air force cargo flights airlifted the population to make a
new life in the Jewish
State. Planes even had seats taken out
to bring as many as out as possible, and several babies were born in flight. As recounted in Donna Rosenthal’s The Israelis,
Solomon
Ezra, the Ethiopian-born Israeli coordinating the evacuation, asked the last
pilot out how many
were on his plane, and he replied, “Over a thousand.” Ezra warned him that this was impossible,
that the plane could not take off with
more than five hundred. The pilot calmly replied,
“It’s okay. I don’t want to leave any of
my people behind.” Ezra said, “I never
felt more proud to be
an Israeli,” and that flight set the Guinness record for the number of
passengers on one
flight. Again, the reality of integration has proved tougher. The cultural, social, and educational
gaps were at least as great as with the Sephardim, and add to that the issue of
skin color and
the resulting racism. Still, one sees
evidence of Ethiopian Jews making their way in everyday
Israeli life, including as soldiers. The
Army is the great integrator of Israeli life.
