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Israel
Index
Housing built in the 1950s and 1960s for immigrants
Courtesy Les Vogel
Geometric designs characterize housing in Ramot Allon,
East Jerusalem
The Ministry of Social Welfare began its work in June 1948,
carrying on the mission of the Social Welfare Department
established in 1931 under the Mandate. The National Insurance Act
of 1953 and the Social Welfare Service Law, passed by the Knesset
in 1958, authorized a broad range of welfare programs, including
old age and survivors' pensions, maternity insurance, workers'
compensation provisions, and special allowances for large families.
Retirement age was seventy for men and sixty-five for women, but
persons were eligible for some benefits five years before
retirement age. The Histadrut was also a principal provider of
pensions and a supplier of insurance. In addition, there were a
number of voluntary agencies, many funded by Diaspora Jewry, that
contributed significantly to the social welfare of Israelis.
Special subventionary programs, including low-interest loans,
subsidized housing, and rent or mortgage relief, were available to
new immigrants after 1967 through the Ministry of Immigrant
Absorption and the World Zionist Organization. At times these
programs have been criticized by native-born Israelis or long-time
settlers in the lower income brackets, especially for benefiting
relatively well-to-do immigrants from the West. Even more
controversial have been benefit programs designed to aid returning
Israeli emigrants readjust to life in Israel.
* * *
Of the numerous books on Israeli society, Michael Wolffsohn's
Israel, Polity, Society and Economy, 1882-1986 is a
veritable compendium of demographic information and social
indicators. Israel: Building a New Society, by Daniel Elazar
is lucidly written and closely argued. Sammy Smooha's Israel:
Pluralism and Conflict explains the major social rifts
discussed in this chapter and contains useful statistical
information in detailed appendices. More concise, and focused upon
the post-Begin era, is Peter Grose's A Changing Israel. For
two views of Israel by Israelis, see Amos Elon's The Israelis:
Founders and Sons and Amos Oz's In the Land of Israel.
Finally, the Political Dictionary of the State of Israel,
edited by Susan Hattis Rolef, contains many valuable entries on
aspects of Israeli society and politics.
On religion in Israel, the most comprehensive treatment remains
S.Z. Abramov's Perpetual Dilemma: Jewish Religion in the Jewish
State. More analytical is Religion and Politics in
Israel by Charles S. Liebman and Eliezer Don-Yehiya. Their
civil religion thesis is developed at greater length in Civil
Religion in Israel. Also recommended is an article by Shlomo
Deshen, "Israeli Judaism: Introduction to the Major Patterns," in
the International Journal of Middle East Studies.
On the waves of Oriental immigration and the settlement of
Oriental Jews, see Nation-Building and Community in Israel
by Dorothy Willner. A series of anthropological studies covers this
period especially well. These include Cave Dwellers and Citrus
Growers, by Harvey Goldberg; Immigrants from India in
Israel, by Gilbert Kushner; and The Dual Heritage:
Immigrants from the Atlas Mountains in an Israeli Village, by
Moshe Shokeid. Myron J. Aronoff's Frontiertown: The Politics of
Community Building in Israel is a study of a development town
in the same period. Also recommended is The Predicament of
Homecoming, by Shlomo Deshen and Moshe Shokeid. The best book
on Oriental ethnicity is the collection edited by Alex Weingrod,
Studies in Israeli Ethnicity: After the Ingathering. On more
recent immigration, see American Immigrants in Israel: Social
Identities and Change, by Kevin Avruch; for a comparison of
American with Soviet immigrants, see Zvi Gitelman's Becoming
Israelis: Political Resocialization of Soviet and American
Immigrants.
A critical study of Israeli education in a development town may
be found in Power, Poverty, and Education by Arnold Lewis.
The classic study of a kibbutz is Melford E. Spiro's Kibbutz:
Venture in Utopia. On Israeli Arabs, the most comprehensive and
balanced study is Ian Lustick's Arabs in the Jewish State,
although events in late 1987 and early 1988 have overtaken its main
theme, the explanation of Israeli Arab political quiescence. On the
Druzes, see Gabriel Ben-Dor's The Druzes in Israel: A Political
Study. On West Bank Arabs, the collection Palestinian
Society and Politics, edited by Joel S. Migdal, is recommended,
as is Meron Benvenisti's continuing West Bank Data Project.
The Journal of Palestine Studies is an important resource as
well, containing useful articles such as that by Elia Zureik.
The Israel Pocket Library, which contains material originally
published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, has several books in
the series that address aspects of Israeli society. These include
Society, Religious Life, Jewish Values, and
Education and Science. The material in these books is now
dated but still valuable for the period before the October 1973
War. (For further information and complete citations, see
Bibiliography.)
Data as of December 1988
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