| Publication |
2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article considers, in the context of Israel's dominant culture, the divergences and convergences of collective-identity formulations among veteran Mizrahi communities and Russian-speaking Jews (RSJs) of recent arrival. This work draws from empirical evidence collected recently and asks about the kind of multicultural reality that those populations contribute to Israeli society. These populations arrived during different periods and found very different settings; their motivations were different as were the human capital resources that they carried with them. Above all, their cultural orientations were poles apart. We found among them collective identities which differ drastically from each other and are in opposition with dominant culture. There are common identity elements. By retaining aspects of their singularity, they "join forces" with other sociocultural constituencies to imprint new dynamics on Israeli society which has entered an era where multiculturalism has become a major aspect of the social order. The sharp divergences between the forces at work also reveal the conflictual character of Israel's version of multiculturalism which are making Israeli society more multicultural through a multiplication of divergences. They use the political sphere to pursue their own interests while at the same time prompting new societal challenges. Together they have made "conflict" a major pattern of insertion in Israeli society.
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