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rfmcdonaldThere are, on Yonge Street between College and Bloor streets, several used book stores. One used bookstore, on the west side of Yonge and north of Wellesley, is dirtier than the rest, with battered books lying on cheap bookshelves and in slightly grimy white plywood-lined bins by the street. I wasn't even going into the store, I was just passing by on the street when I saw, lying in one of those bins, Abraham Shumsky's 1955 The Clash of Cultures in Israel: A Problem for Education (Teachers College, Columbia University: 1955) available for only one dollar.
One of the most notable facts about Israel is the sheer scael of Jewish immigration to Israel (aliya), via the Jewish Agency for Israel and through other ways and for reasons not directly related to Zionism. The scale of the immigration led to very rapid population growth, with an almost tenfold multiplication since the end of the country's population since the 1948 war of independence. Naturally, the scale of this immigration created significant tensions between the different population segments, and in the years immediately following Israeli independence the conflict between Ashkenazim and Oriental Jews--between European and non-European Jews, briefly put--was central. In many ways, it still is central, with the massive growth of a Jewish community originating from the former Soviet Union and the increasing assertiveness of the Israeli Arab community simply overshadowing a cotninued conflict.
Shumsky's text is a fascinating piece of period sociology, dating from a time when everyone agreed that social engineering was a good thing and relating to a country where the conscious construction of nationality is an ongoing goal. Shumsky focuses upon education as the tool for integrating Jews of Oriental background into an Israeli polity and society defined by Ashkenazim-founded structures and norms. He notes the collapse of Oriental Jewish communal institutions and the alienation experienced by children relative to their more conservative parents, and worries about the possibility of the creation of a permanent Oriental underlcass. His final conclusions--that teachers become aware of inter-ethnic issues in schools, and try to sensitize their students to these issues and to the positive benefits of Jewish ethnic diversity--come across as insufficient to the task at hand, at least to an early 21st century reader still aware of continued disparities. He was aware of the intractability of this division, though. Shumsky was simply concerned with creating hope.
The Clash of Cultures in Israel is a fascinating period analysis of a fascinating subject.
One of the most notable facts about Israel is the sheer scael of Jewish immigration to Israel (aliya), via the Jewish Agency for Israel and through other ways and for reasons not directly related to Zionism. The scale of the immigration led to very rapid population growth, with an almost tenfold multiplication since the end of the country's population since the 1948 war of independence. Naturally, the scale of this immigration created significant tensions between the different population segments, and in the years immediately following Israeli independence the conflict between Ashkenazim and Oriental Jews--between European and non-European Jews, briefly put--was central. In many ways, it still is central, with the massive growth of a Jewish community originating from the former Soviet Union and the increasing assertiveness of the Israeli Arab community simply overshadowing a cotninued conflict.
Shumsky's text is a fascinating piece of period sociology, dating from a time when everyone agreed that social engineering was a good thing and relating to a country where the conscious construction of nationality is an ongoing goal. Shumsky focuses upon education as the tool for integrating Jews of Oriental background into an Israeli polity and society defined by Ashkenazim-founded structures and norms. He notes the collapse of Oriental Jewish communal institutions and the alienation experienced by children relative to their more conservative parents, and worries about the possibility of the creation of a permanent Oriental underlcass. His final conclusions--that teachers become aware of inter-ethnic issues in schools, and try to sensitize their students to these issues and to the positive benefits of Jewish ethnic diversity--come across as insufficient to the task at hand, at least to an early 21st century reader still aware of continued disparities. He was aware of the intractability of this division, though. Shumsky was simply concerned with creating hope.
The Clash of Cultures in Israel is a fascinating period analysis of a fascinating subject.
