Cultural tips

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.