ISRAEL

y The kingdom of Israel was founded about 3,000 years ago by an ancient tribe called the Hebrews or Israelites. y It later split apart and was conquered. Many other countries ruled this land until 1948. That year, Israel once again became an independent country. y It was reborn as a homeland for the Jewish people.

Culture of Israel
y The culture of Israel developed long before the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 and combines the heritage of secular and religious lives. y Much of the diversity in Israel's culture comes from the diversity of its population. y Originating in the levant and around the world, immigrants arrived with diverse cultural backgrounds and contributed to the development of Israeli culture, which follows cultural trends and changes across the globe.

y Israeli traditions are rooted in a synthesis of ethnic and religious Hebrew Israelite traditions, and Israeli artists continually push the boundaries of their art forms. y Through their work, Israel's artists provoke self-reflective and communal examination and inspire social change, while expressing the beauty of the people and the land of Israel.

Gender Roles and Statuses

Division of Labor by Gender. y Women are well represented in many fields, both traditional (teaching, nursing, child care), and nontraditional (law, politics, the military). Israel even elected a female prime minister, Golda Meir, who served from 1969 to 1974. y Women, like men, are required to serve in the armed forces, and during the war for independence fought in the front lines alongside men. y Today women are not permitted combat. Instead they are mostly confined to adminstration and education, and usually do not achieve high-ranking positions.

The Relative Status of Women and Men

y In the Orthodox tradition, women and men live very separate lives. Women are considered inferior, and are excluded from many traditional activities. y However, most of Israeli society is more progressive, and women are generally accorded equal status to men, both legally and socially. (The main exception to this is the divorce law.)

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage
y Traditionally, in both Arab and Jewish societies, marriages were often arranged, but that is uncommon nowadays. y However, there are powerful social taboos against intermarriage, and it is illegal for a Jew to marry a non-Jew in Israel. Those wishing to do so must go abroad for the ceremony.

y Even within the Jewish community, it is unusual for a very observant Jew to marry someone secular. y Divorce is legal, but Orthodox Jewish law applies. According to this statute, men have the power to prevent their ex-wives from remarrying. If the woman enters into another relationship, the courts refuse to recognize it, and any children from such a union are considered illegitimate and themselves cannot marry in the State of Israel.

Domestic Unit
y The most common family unit consists of a nuclear family. In more traditional families, grandparents are sometimes included in this. y In the original kibbutz system, the living arrangements were different. Husband and wife lived in separate quarters from their children, who were housed with the other young people. Some kibbutzim still operate in this way, but it is now more common for children to live with their parents, although their days are still spent separately.

Socialization
y Infant Care. Babies are generally adored and showered with affection. The extended family plays an important role in helping to raise the baby, but the mother generally takes primary responsibility. Jewish boys are circumcised eight days after birth in a religious ceremony called abris.

y Child Rearing and Education.

In most of Israeli society, children are raised in the setting of a nuclear family.
y However, collective child care is common, especially for mothers

who work outside the home.

y In kibbutzim, they stay separately from their parents, and

usually see them only at night or on weekends.

y Children are generally indulged and are not strictly disciplined.

y In the Arab tradition, boys and girls are raised separately. They have different responsibilities at home, where girls are expected to help much more with domestic chores. The schools are also usually gender-segregated.

y Education is mandatory from the ages five through fifteen. The state

runs both religious and nonreligious schools; 70 percent of children attend the nonreligious ones.

y There is a separate education system for Arab children, where the

language of instruction is Arabic.

y The quality of education in these schools is often lower due to a relative

unavailability of teachers and poor resources, and they have at times been subject to closings due to violence and political instability.

y Arab schools receive some funding from the government, as well as

from religious institutions. There are three types of high schools: academic, vocational, and agricultural.

Cultural Values
y Family is central to Israeli life, with a great deal of attention given to children . y Married children often live near the parents, and expect to care for the elderly parents . y Father is traditionally the head of the family, but women have considerable influence in family affairs and decision making .

Etiquette
y Israelis are very informal in social interactions. Their standards would, in many other countries, be considered rude. For example, store clerks do not act at all solicitous or even acknowledge a customer's presence until the customer approaches. y "Please" and "thank you" are not uttered lightly. Despite this apparent brusqueness, touching and eye contact are common in social interactions.

y Religious etiquette dictates that women dress conservatively when visiting holy sites (shorts are not acceptable for either gender) and that men cover their heads with a yarmulke. y Arabs are physically affectionate people, but in Arab society, men and women are often separated socially and there is less physical contact between men and women in public. It is customary to remove one's shoes before entering an Arab household.

Yarmulke

Religion
Religious Beliefs y Judaism is the official religion. y Eighty percent of the population are Jewish, 15 percent are Muslim, and 4 percent are Christian or Druze. y Jews believe in the Hebrew Bible, or Tenakh, which corresponds to the Christian Old Testament. y The most sacred text is the Torah, or the five books of Moses. y The Bible is seen as both historical record and religious law.

There are five pillars of faith that Muslims follow. They are: a declaration of faith in Allah; praying five times a day; giving alms to the poor; fasting from sunrise to sundown during the holy month of Ramadan; and making a pilgrimage at some point in one's life to the holy city of Mecca.

y Rituals and Holy Places. y Jews worship in synagogues. In the most traditional, men sit in the front and women in the back, separated by a partition, or in a balcony. y There are a number of places in Israel, in Jerusalem in particular, that have religious significance to Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

Muslim men pray beneath the massive stone enshrined at the Dome of the Rock .

Christians often make pilgrimages to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, also in Jerusalem.

People often write their prayers on pieces of paper and slip them in cracks between the stones.

The Wailing Wall, the remains of the Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. , is a sacred spot for Jews.

y Death and the Afterlife y Judaism focuses more on the here and now, rather than the

concept of an afterlife.

y A death is followed by a mourning period of seven days, a

process called sitting shiva , during which friends and relatives pay visits to the family of the deceased and bring food.

y From the time of death until the burial, the deceased is never left

alone, in keeping with the principle of k'vod ha-met. A guardian (shomer) stays with the deceased, reciting words from the Book of Psalms. Each psalm is a way of giving thanks to God for the gift of life.

y Jewish funerals are generally held in a funeral home, although

sometimes they are held in a cemetery chapel or in the synagogue of the deceased.

y The body is dressed in plain white shrouds. y All Jews are buried in the same type of garment, regardless of

wealth, profession, or position in society, as all are equal before God. y The casket must be made completely of wood so that the body should not decompose sooner than the coffin. y Mourners dress in black, sit on low stools, and recite prayers. Another traditional practice is for mourners to tear their clothes; today they generally rip only the lapel of their shirts.
y When visiting a Jewish cemetery, it is customary to place a stone

on the gravestone in memory of the deceased.

The Arts and Humanities

Literature y Israel has a varied literary scene.
y Many of its writers have come to the country from abroad,

including Zbigniew Herbert from Poland, Vasko Popa from Yugoslavia, and Robert Friend from the United States.
y The Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon, a German who

immigrated to Israel in 1913, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1966.

y The poet Arnon Levy, who was born in Jerusalem, has also gained international recognition, as has Yehuda Amichai, whose verses have been translated into a variety of languages. Amos Oz is perhaps the best-known Israeli writer internationally. Both his novels and his nonfiction have been translated into a number of languages

y Graphic Arts. y Contemporary painting and sculpture are alive and well in Israel. y The Israeli style is highly influenced by European art, but much of it

deals explicitly with Jewish themes and issues.

y menorahs (candelabra), wine cups, candlesticks, tallilot (prayer

shawls), and other ceremonial objects.

y

Performance Arts
y Israel has a well-known philharmonic orchestra. y The country has produced such classical music stars as violinist Yitzhak Perlman and pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. y The Leonard Bernstein International Music Competition in Jerusalem gives annual awards in classical music

y Pop music and rock and roll also have a large following, particularly in Tel Aviv, where local stars such as Ofra Haza, Ilanit, and Shalom Hanoch perform to enthusiastic audiences.
y Klezmer , a form of Jewish music that originated in Eastern Europe during the seventeenth century, is a raucous blend of drums, violins, clarinets, keyboards, and tambourines that is common at wedding celebrations.

y The Israel Ballet Company is world-famous. y There are several modern dance troupes as well, most notably Inbal,

Batsheeva, and Bat Dor.

y Israeli choreographer Ohad Nahrin is well known in the dance world. y Israel also has a lively tradition of folk dances, which are performed by

professional troupes and at occasions such as weddings. The hora , a circle dance, is one of the most commonly performed.