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Turk, Phyltis Gottesman

BUILDING BRIDGES IN THE NEGEV: TWO ISRAELI DEVELOPMENT TOWNS, DIMONA AND ARAD

The Ohio State University Ph.D. 1986

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University Microfilms International BUILDING BRIDGES IN THE NEGEV: TWO ISRAELI

DEVELOPMENT TOWNS, DIMONA AND ARAD

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of the Ohio State University

By

Phyllis G. Turk, B.A., M.A.

The Ohio State University

1986

Dissertation Committee: Approved by

Dr. Erika Bourguignon

Dr. Chung-Min Chen Adviser Dr. John C. Messenger Department of Anthr Copyright by Phyllis G. Turk 1986 Jerry and Akiva PREFACE

According to Patai (1980:8-9),

The European destruction, the Afro-Asian evacuation and the Israeli ingathering of exiles, have all taken place within an astoundingly short period of time. It all happened in a quarter of a century, from about 1940 to 1965— a mere moment in the his­ tory of Jewry.

The establishment of the development towns of Dimona and Arad

by the Israeli government in the northern Negev (Figure 3) was part

of the continuous historical saga of the immigration of Jews to Israel

from the four corners of the earth. My dissertation is an ethno­

graphic encounter with the diverse populations of Dimona and Arad,

and the comparative study of these two towns: their historical foun­

dations, population diversity, and socio-cultural achievements.

I first visited Dimona in 1956, while I was an exchange stu­

dent in Israel. Our tour guide thought that it was important for us

to visit a new development town in the Negev. Dimona, at the time, was a year old; its population consisted of thirty-two immigrant fami­

lies from North Africa. The residents spoke Arabic with each other;

the women wore long-flowing caftans and the men were dressed in

jalabiyas (long, Arab-style robes). The physical setting of the town

included small asbestos huts, used as temporary housing by the immi­ grants. One woman offered me a glass of tea with nana (fresh mint

leaves) which was delicious and refreshing. I left Dimona with the hope that I would someday return to watch the town's progress. I did return to Dimona twenty years later, in 1976, for a short visit. I found that Dimona had expanded in its physical setting and included

27,000 residents. A commercial center served the local needs of the residents and included a variety of shops, many filled with merchan­ dise imported from Europe and the United States. The shikunim (neigh­ borhoods) had expanded in all directions, and the Matnas (cultural center) offered to the residents varied cultural programs and many educational services. The national bus system, Egged, had built a permanent bus station which served local and regional needs, and also provided service once a day to Jerusalem and to Tel-Aviv.

Socio-cultural changes among the ethnic groups in Dimona were evident. Many young adults, who had migrated with their parents, and the Sabras (native-born) spoke Hebrew with each other. A large popu­ lation of first-generation Indian Jews, in Dimona, spoke Marathi, and many women dressed in saris. The first generation of North African immigrants were still visible in the mercaz (town plaza); their dress was now Western, and while they spoke Arabic with each other, they spoke Hebrew with their grandchildren. I realized that Dimona would be an excellent town in which to do my fieldwork. I returned to

Dimona in 1980 and lived there for eight months.

In 1976 I also visited Arad, which was located fifteen kilo­ meters from Dimona. Arad, at the time, was a bustling town in the process of expansion in every direction. The landscaping was breath­ taking with gardens and flowers planted in every shikun. It was obvious to me that Arad was, to all appearances, a very special

iv place, and seemed to be diametrically opposed to Dimona in its physi­

cal setting and in the visible absence of first-generation Oriental

immigrants, I knew that a comparative study of the two towns would

not only be fascinating, but should be theoretically important to

social science research. I returned to Arad in April 19&1, and lived

there for four months and completed my fieldwork.

Acknowledgments

In Dimona, I was able to observe several Moroccan, Pakistani,

Indian, Yemenite, Russian, and Tunisian families in very close inter­

personal settings. They were as interested in me as I was in them.

Their homes were always opened to me and I was welcome at all times.

It was due to their kindness, patience, and generosity that I owe my

critical insights into the deep complexity of inter-generational ties

and inter-ethnic relations among the various groups in Dimona. I am

also indebted to the residents of Arad, who were equally as interested

in my research; their cooperation, kindness, and friendship made my

tasks considerably easier,

I want to thank Dr. Chaim Adler, Professor of Sociology at

the Hebrew University, who advised me, by letter, to contact Mr. Yossi

Luria, the Assistant Director of Education in Dimona, who then graciously gave me official permission, with introductions, to conduct my research in the town. Mr. Menachem Kaplan, the Director of Educa­ tion in Arad, also graciously extended to me official permission with

introductions so that I was able to continue with my research. I am indebted to Mrs. Rena Chiun, the secretary of the Education office

v in Dimona, who volunteered to type and mimeograph the questionnaires that I used in the course of my research. My deep thanks are to the professionals and the residents of Dimona and Arad whom I interviewed

They willingly gave of their time, and to all those in Dimona and

Arad whom I met, both young and old, I can only say— THANK YOU.

In the Department of Anthropology at the Ohio State Univer­ sity, I would like to acknowledge the help which was given to me by those on my dissertation committee:

I would like to pay tribute to Dr. Daniel T. Hughes, who was my adviser and friend. I owe to him much of the initial planning of this project.

Dr. Erika Bourguignon, my teacher and adviser, to whom I am indebted for her continued support and patience in reading and com­ menting upon earlier dissertation drafts. Her unwavering search for excellence has always been a source of inspiration and challenge for me.

I deeply appreciate the time that Dr. John C. Messenger and

Dr. Chung-Min Chen devoted to reading and commenting upon earlier dis sertation drafts.

I am very grateful to Dr. Ilan Avisar of the Melton Jewish

Studies Center at the Ohio State University for his suggestions.

I wish to note the extensive aid given to me by the social science librarian at Tel-Aviv University in gathering census material of the development towns in Israel. I am indebted to Ms. Susan Mladsi of the Geography Department

of Kent State University for the professional preparation of the maps

used in this dissertation.

Pronunciation

Throughout the body of the dissertation I have included Hebrew

words to highlight certain terms. I have also used my own transliter­

ations for many geographic names and other Hebrew nouns that do not

have a specific English spelling. I shall outline a few short rules

of Hebrew pronunciation that may be helpful to the reader {adapted

from Livny and Kokhba, 1968).

The vowels as rendered here are pronounced as follows:

Hebrew Hebrew As in Vowels Word English Word a Arad f ather e Negev men i Dimona Danny u kibbutz food ai bait sefer (school) bet ah Abba (father) mama o edot (ethnic groups) oh

The Hebrew consonants are pronounced similarly to their

English counterparts. The "chet" and "resh"are gutturals, but there is one consonant not found in English. This is chet, which is here rendered by ch, as in chofshi (free), madri£h (counselor), and tichon (high school). The sound corresponds to ch as in German Bach.

This is sometimes written as an "h" in the English translation, e.g., the development town of Yerucham (Figure 3) can also be spelled in

English as Yeruham (Figure 2).

Hebrew nouns are divided into masculine and feminine gender with different plural endings, e.g., shikun— masculine singular, shikunim— masculine plural, edah— feminine singular, edot— feminine plural.

An important final note concerning the definite article, Ha, which is prefixed to nouns, e.g., "Shikun Haarava" in Dimona

(Figure 4) or "Yom Ha'atzmaut" (Israeli Independence Day). VITA

May 18,1935 ...... Born - Bronx, New York

1956 ...... B.S., Education, City College of New York, New York

1956-1957 ...... Recipient of Study and Travel Fellowship in Jerusalem, Israel, The Yeshiva Univer­ sity, New York, New York

1956-1957 ...... Teacher of Hebrew to North African Jewish Immigrants in a Ma'abara, Jerusalem, Israel

1957 ...... Hebrew Teacher's License, Teacher's Institute, Yeshiva University, New York, New York

1961-1962 ...... Recipient Graduate Study Fel­ lowship, at the Hebrew Uni­ versity, Jerusalem, Israel, the Yeshiva University, New York, New York

1969-1972 ...... Instructor of Modern Elemen­ tary Hebrew, Department of Classical Languages, Washing­ ton University, St. Louis, Missouri

1977 ...... M.A., Social-Cultural Anthro­ pology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

1978-1980 ...... Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

ix 1979 ...... Alternate for a National De­ fense Foreign Language in Arabic, The Ohio State Uni­ versity, Columbus, Ohio

1980-1981 ...... Fieldwork Research in Dimona and Arad, Israel

1 9 8 1 -1 9 8 4 ...... Instructor in Modern Elemen­ tary and Intermediate Hebrew, Department of Classical Studies, Kent State Univer­ sity, Kent, Ohio

1983-1984 ...... Instructor in Cultural Anthropology, Kent State Uni­ versity, Kent, Ohio

1984 -I985 ...... Graduate Teaching Associate, Cultural Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Colum­ bus, Ohio

Present position ...... Adjunct faculty, the College of Jewish Studies, Cleveland, Ohio

1986 ...... Future fieldwork: Oral His­ tories of Oriental Immigrants in the Northern Negev, Israel (to be submitted for publica­ tion in Hebrew and English)

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Cultural Anthropology

Studies in Political Anthropology and Socio-Cultural Change Dr. Daniel T. Hughes (deceased)

Studies in the Middle East Dr. Erika Bourguignon

Studies in Urban Anthropology Dr. Chun-Min Chen

Studies in Field Methodology Dr. John C. Messenger BUILDING BRIDGES IN THE NEGEV: TWO ISRAELI DEVELOPMENT TOWNS, DIMONA AND ARAD

By

Phyllis G. Turk, Ph.D.

The Ohio State University, 1986

Professor Erika Bourguignon, Adviser

The aim of this dissertation is a comparative study of Dimona and Arad, two development towns in the northern Negev (desert) of

Israel; though the two towns differ in their historical foundations and population diversity, they are comparable in many of their socio­ cultural institutions. The majority of the population of Dimona is

Oriental, of Afro-Asian descent; while the majority of the population of Arad is Ashkenazi, of European-American descent. My auxiliary theoretical research, however, is to review the "affective" and

"strategic" levels of ethnic identity in the population compositions of Dimona and Arad. In 1980-1981, the year I spent in the field, I was able to measure ethnic boundary maintenance mechanisms and socio­ cultural changes generated by the process of assimilation, accultura­ tion, and ethnicity as manifested in the public and private sectors by the residents of both towns during the early and later years of settlement.

This research further incorporates the socio-cultural changes that occur in third-generation immigrant families; similarities and contrasts between the first-generation immigrants, their foreign-born children who were raised in Israel (second-generation), and their children, native-born Sabras, are studied in both Dimona and Arad.

Israel's policies of immigration, both pre-State and post-State, are cited in the introduction; also discussed are the historical founda­ tions of Israel's development towns during the years 1950-1965. My fieldwork was spent in Dimona and Arad; eight months and four months respectively. My methods of investigation were those of participant- observation; in-depth interviews; census materials; ethnographic map­ ping; and comparative photography. My data show that Dimona and Arad represent microcosms of Israeli society; the economic, educational, and cultural spheres are comparable; the contrasting variables mani­ fest themselves in their ethnic identities, historical foundations, physical settings, and quality of life. It is suggested that the future economic growth of Dimona and Arad could be enhanced by inter­ action of their populations. Contributions of this dissertation to further research study by social scientists is discussed. TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ...... iii

VITA ...... ix

LIST OF TABLES...... xv

LIST OF FIGURES ...... xvii

CHAPTER PAGE

I- INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Research Objectives ...... 1 Field Methods...... 6 Significance of Research ...... 10 Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental Ethnic Origins ...... 13 Oriental Origins ...... 13 Sephardi Jewish Origins ...... 15 Ashkenazi Jewish Origins ...... 17 Linguistic Variations of Ashkenazi/Shephardi- Oriental Ethnic Groups ...... 17 Immigration to Palestine: Historical Perspective . . 22 Jewish Immigration to Israel 1948-1975 28 Soviet Jewish Immigration to Israel ...... 31 Conclusion...... 34

II. LITERATURE REVIEW: ETHNIC IDENTITY AND ITS THEO­ RETICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR POPULATIONS OF ISRAEL, 1950-1980 ...... 35

Assimilation and Acculturation ...... 37 Israel's Absorption Policies: The 1950s 38 Acculturation Studies: 1960s and 1970s ...... 43 Ethnicity Studies: 1970s ...... 47 Pluralism: 1970s, 1980s 48 Conclusion...... 51

III. THEORETICAL DISCUSSION OF ISRAEL'S DEVELOPMENT TOWNS . . 53

General Background of the National Political Structure...... 62

xi The Structure of the Rabbinate in I s r a e l ...... 64 B a c k g r o u n d...... 64 Rabbinical Courts and the Chief Rabbinate .... 66 Religious Councils ...... 67 National Kupat Cholim Services (Health Services) . . 68 Kupat Cholim of the Histadrut...... 68 Kupat Cholim Maccabee...... 69 The United Kupat Cholim (Meuchedet) ...... 69 Tipat Chalav (Mother and Well-Child Care C l i n i c s ) ...... 70

IV. DIMONA I: BACKGROUND AND ETHNIC GROUPS ...... 71

Introduction to the N e g e v ...... 71 Biblical Dimona ...... 74 Modern Dimona ...... 75 Physical Setting of D i m o n a ...... 79 D e m o g r a p h y ...... 86 Local Religious Council...... 89 Ethnic Boundaries in Dimona ...... 91 Linguistic Acculturation ...... 92 The Ulpan— Absorption Center ...... 95 Moroccan Community in Dimona ...... 96 Indian Community ...... 102 Yemenites, Algerians, and Tunisians ...... 107 Russians ...... 107 The Black Hebrews...... 109 B a c k g r o u n d...... 109 Black Hebrews' Immigration to Israel: 1 9 6 9 - 1 9 7 1...... 110 Religious Duties ...... 114 C o n c l u s i o n ...... 116

V. DIMONA II: ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND INSTITUTIONS ...... 119

Economic Structure of Dimona ...... 119 Heavy Industries of D i m o n a ...... 120 Women in the Work F o r c e ...... 121 Youth in the Work F o r c e ...... 123 The Shukin D i m o n a ...... 124 Shops in the Mercaz ...... 126 Inflation...... 128 Tourism in Dim o n a ...... 129 Educational Systems in Dimona ...... 129 National Israeli School Systems ...... 129 Educational Systems in Dimona ...... 131 Educational Centers ...... 138

xii Social Services in Dimona ...... 142 The M a t n a s ...... 143 B a c k g r o u n d ...... 143 Israeli Philharmonic in Dimona .... 145

VI. A R A D ...... 146

Biblical Arad ...... 146 Modern Arad ...... 147 Physical Setting of A r a d ...... 151 D e m o g r a p h y ...... 154 Ethnic Boundaries in A r a d ...... 160 R u s s i a n s ...... 162 Pensioners ...... 164 Absorption Center in A r a d ...... 164 Economic Structure of Arad ...... 165 Economic and Industrial Center in A r a d ...... 165 Women in the Work F o r c e ...... 167 Youth in the Work Force ...... 167 The S h u k ...... 168 Commercial Shops in A r a d ...... 168 Inflation...... 169 Tourism in A r a d ...... 169 Educational Systems in A r a d ...... 170 Compilation of Excerpts from Indepth Inter­ views of School Principals of A r a d ...... 172 Educational Centers ...... 174 The World Union of Jewish Students ...... 176 Social Services in A r a d ...... 177 Health Care in A r a d ...... 178 M a t n a s ...... 179 The Orthodox Community in A r a d ...... l80 Orthodox Groups in A r a d ...... l80 National Elections, June 1 9 8 1 ...... 1S2

VII. CONCLUSION ...... 185

Dimona and Arad Represent Microcosms of Israel S ociety...... 185 Acculturation in Dimona and Arad— 1970s, 1980s . . . 189 Economic, Education, and Cultural Comparisons .... 192 Economic B a s e ...... 192 Education System ...... 193 Cultural Events ...... 197 Variables that Contrast Dimona and A r a d ...... 197 Historical Foundations ...... 197 Echut Chaim (Quality of Life) and Physical S etting...... 199

xiii Ethnic Identity ...... 203 The Future Development of Dimona and A r a d ...... 204 Principal Contributions of This Dissertation .... 207 Dimona and Arad as Unique Desert T o w n s ...... 207 My Suggestions for Further Research ...... 209

APPENDICES

A. Field Settings and Methodology ...... 211

B. Interviews Conducted in Dimona and A r a d ...... 218

C. Observations in Dimona and A r a d ...... 242

REFERENCES...... 272

xiv LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1. Population in Palestine by Countries of Origin ...... 20

2. Immigration to Israel by Countries of Origin, 1948-1975 ...... 33

3. Israel's Development Towns: New Towns by Year of First Settlement and District...... 56

4 . Local Branches of the National Institutions in Dimona, 1955-1956 ...... 83

5* Local Branches of the National Institutions in Dimona, 1 9 8 0 ...... 84

6. Population Flow in Dimona, 1955-1971 87

7- Population Flow: Increases and Decreases in Dimona, 1972-1979 ...... 88

8. Spoken Languages in Dimona ...... 93

9- Population Diversity in Dimona According to Country of Origin in 1977 ...... 97

10. Jewish Population of Dimona According to Continents of Origin and Periods of Immigration...... 98

11. Educational Statistics for Dimona, 1981 ...... 132

12. Population Flow in Arad, 1962-1975, by Year and P o p u l a t i o n ...... 158

13. Immigrant Settlement in Arad, 1970-1975 ...... 159

14* Light Industrial Center in A r a d ...... 166

15. Educational Statistics in Arad, 1981 171

16. Similarities and Contrasts, Dimona/Arad ...... 186

xv 17- Breakdown of Interviews with Professionals in Dimona According to Profession, Education, Ethnic Group, Age, Gender, and Year of Arrival, 1981 ...... 221

18. Distribution of Interviews with the Residents of Dimona According to Year of Arrival, Ethnic Group, Education, Age, Gender, Occupation, and Generation in Israel, 1981 ...... 223

19- Breakdown of Interviews with Professionals in Arad According to Profession, Education, Ethnic Group, Age, Gender, and Year of Arrival, 1 9 8 l ...... 225

20. Distribution of Interviews with the Residents of Arad According to Year of Arrival, Ethnic Group, Education, Age, Gender, Occupation, and Generation in Israel, 1981 ...... 227

xv i LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

1. Origins of Main Streams of Jewish Immigration to Palestine and Israel 1919-1975 19

2. Development Towns in Israel ...... 55

3* Map of Southern Israel...... 72

4- Map of Di m o n a ...... 80

5. The Organization of Authority in the Black Hebrew Nation ...... 113

6. Map of A r a d ...... 148

xvii CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Research Objectives

Dimona and Arad are two development towns in the northern

Negev desert in Israel; though the two towns differ in their histori­ cal foundations and population diversity, they are comparable in many of their socio-cultural institutions. It was my objective to conduct a comparative study of their historical foundations and their diverse ethnic populations. The majority of the population of Dimona is of

Oriental Afro-Asian descent, while the majority of the population of

Arad is of Ashkenazi European-American descent.

My auxiliary theoretical research, however, was to review the

"affective" and "strategic" levels of ethnic identity in the popula­ tion compositions of Dimona and Arad. Both De Vos (1975) and Royce

(1 9 8 2 ) view ethnic identity as a dynamic process whose human behavior is continuously changing. In 1980-1981, the year I spent in the field, I was able to measure ethnic boundary maintenance mechanisms and socio-cultural changes generated by the processes of acculturation and assimilation of the Oriental immigrants in Dimona.

Frederick Barth (1969;14-15) examines the expansion and con­ traction of boundary maintenance by ethnic groups but only if they persist as significant units and if they imply marked differences in

1 behavior. Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental ethnic groups persisted in

maintaining their religious segregation in their host countries, but

once they emigrated to Israel, a Jewish state, they were no longer marked as Jews, but rather they were marked as to their ethnicity.

Ashkenazi Jews assimilated into the Western-oriented host society with

few problems. Sephardi-Oriental Jews, however, were assigned a lower

social status and thus were identified as "Moroccans," "Egyptians,"

"Tunisians," etc. First-generation Oriental immigrants maintained

their ethnic boundaries through their religious worship services, re­ ligious holiday customs, their foods, music, language, and close-knit extended family structures. How are these diverse populations similar and how do they differ, and how do these similarities and contrasts manifest themselves in the towns' socio-cultural development? In order to understand the complexities of the issues involved, we must first review the historical foundations of Dimona and Arad.

When Israel became an independent Jewish State in 1948, it opened its doors to an ingathering of all Jewish exiles from the four corners of the world. The massive influx of immigrants from the East and from the West, in 1948-1954* burdened the young state, which was already weakened by war and severe economic shortages. The primary concern of the Israeli government at the time was to house and feed over 600,000 new immigrants. The government built ma'abarot (tran­ sient camps), which are described by Shuval (1963:35): "The ma'abarot were rows of tents and tin huts, there was no electricity, no private bathrooms, common outdoor water facilities. The worst problem was

the widespread unemployment. The conditions were bleak."

In 1954 the Israeli government began to build thirty develop­

ment towns in the Galilee (northern Israel) and in the Negev (southern

Israel). The immigrants were brought to these towns straight from

the boats in Haifa harbor. Dimona and Arad were two of the develop­

ment towns that were built in the northern Negev.

Dimona was established in September 1955 with thirty-two North

African families referred by the Jewish Agency. Conditions were very harsh and many immigrants left Dimona in the early years, but a tena­

cious group of Oriental immigrants remained, took root in the town,

and Dimona was literally "planted" around them. During the 1960s,

the majority of inunigrants who were settled in Dimona by the Jewish

Agency (now the absorption agency of the Israeli government) were

from Eastern countries: Morocco (majority), Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt,

India, and Yemen.

In 1980, at the time of this study, the population of Dimona was 30,000; 32 percent were from North Africa, 11 percent were Asian

(Indian-Pakistani), 11 percent were European-American, and 44 percent were Sabras (Israeli-born) (Population Statistics of Dimona, 1 9 8 0 , compiled by J. Amir, Mayor).

In contrast to Dimona, the Israeli government made very elabo­ rate and detailed plans to build the development town of Arad in I960.

A team of planners worked on its physical setting, its economic struc­ ture, and its demographic settlement in 1960-1962. The government was determined to learn from its past mistakes of haphazard settlement patterns of previous development towns. Another major factor was that

in 1962, Israel's economy was stronger than it had been in the 1950s.

Arad is described in the literature by E. Cohen (1970) as a "planned"

town, in opposition to Dimona, which he would consider to be a

"planted" town.

Arad's population was selected from young Israeli families with kibbutz backgrounds, who were employable in the Dead Sea indus­ tries. The first fifty families were chosen with extreme care. It was believed by the government and the local Council of Arad that the planned physical and demographical setting would construct a strong basis for a sound community with the ability to attract new immi­ grants, as well as vatikim(Israeli veterans) (Local Council of Arad,

February 1978^2). In 1981 the population of Arad was approximately

12,500, of whom 3,000 were recent immigrants from Europe and America.

In reality, as will be seen in the data to be presented in this study, the socio-cultural developments of Dimona have proven to be comparable to those of Arad. In the 1960s, the majority of the men of both towns were employed in the Dead Sea industries, which were considered, at the time, the major source of employment for the male workers of Dimona and Arad. The workers from Dimona were young Orien­ tal immigrants, aggressive and eager to work. It was these young

Moroccan immigrants who later formed the political local infrastruc­

ture of Dimona and became the town's leaders. The workers from Arad

rose swiftly to take managerial positions in many of the industries

in the Dead Sea area. 5

In the educational sphere, both Dimona and Arad were forging ahead in the 1970s. Dimona allotted 50 percent of its municipal bud­ get to education; in the early years of settlement, secondary educa­ tion in all development towns was free. Both Dimona and Arad had ex­ cellent educational, political, and religious leadership in 1981 .

The community centers in both development towns brought many varied cultural activities to the towns; in addition, the centers' local activities were excellent. The social services in Dimona and Arad provided quality leadership and care to their recipients. Each town provided psychological services to its schools and residents. The pedagogical centers were well equipped and led by creative directors, and the music conservatories in both towns provided excellent leader­ ship for their students.

As of 1981, no direct public transportation link existed be­ tween the two towns, located 35 kilometers apart. One had to travel first to Beer Sheva, take a second bus, and pay a double fare to get to the other town. An administrator of Arad, in an interview with me, saw no reason for a direct bus line between Dimona and Arad. The strain in their relations was expressed to me by the people of Arad.

To them, Dimona is another world; the residents of Dimona thought that the people of Arad were "snobs." It was evident to me that both impressions were exaggerated, and that the socio-cultural achievements of each town compared positively with those of the other, and could perhaps serve as a bridge between the two towns to enhance better socio-cultural relations. Field Methods

My fieldwork in Dimona and Arad during 1980-1981 incorporated the following methods: participant-obervation, in-depth interviews, census statistics, ethnographic mapping in the two towns, and compara­ tive photography of the physical settings and population of both de­ velopment towns (for details see Appendix A). One of the methods that

I will discuss at this time is the in-depth interviews conducted in

Dimona and Arad.

I preferred administering open-ended questionnaires to the thirty-two professionals and thirty-three residents, a total of sixty-five interviews in Dimona; and thirty-one professionals plus nineteen residents, a total of fifty respondents in Arad. I wanted to determine places of birth, education, occupations in host country, and reasons for migration to Israel and particularly to Dimona/Arad, their occupations and their perceptions of life in Dimona/Arad and

Israel, e.g., What is good in Dimona/Arad? What is not good in

Dimona/Arad? What is good in Israel? What is not good in Israel?

These four questions allowed the respondents a great many choices to speak their minds. According to my experience, the residents and professionals of both towns told me that they did not feel comfortable responding to close-ended questionnaires which were impersonally dis­ tributed. As an example, I chose to distribute early in my fieldwork thirty close-ended interviews to the female students enrolled in the ozeret-gan enrichment program in Dimona (see Chapter VI), and re­ quested that they return the completed questionnaires to me at their 7 next class meeting. Only eight women returned the completed question­ naire to me; but several women, from the class, did express anger and said, "How can you expect us to answer these personal questions when we do not know you? First come to our homes, drink a cup of tea, then we can talk face to face." I realized that face-to-face interaction between the interviewer and the respondent was of prime importance to the success of my in-depth interviews in both Dimona and Arad; I also understood that one's intended methods, no matter how well planned, needed to be amended when the cultural values and behavior of the group took precedence over Western methods that I studied at the university.

My objectives in interviewing the professionals (see Tables 17 and 19) of Dimona and Arad were to obtain information and compare the structures and functions of their socio-cultural institutions. I asked them the same background questions (see questionnaire in Appen­ dix A) and added questions regarding the function of their work, how their work benefited Dimona/Arad, their values and professional goals in relation to Dimona's/Arad's present and future growth. I also in­ cluded the last four open subjective questions in regard to

Dimona/Arad and Israel.

I interviewed thirty-three residents of various ethnic sub­ groups and social classes in Dimona (see Table 18). I was very fortu­ nate to be adopted by several families in all: a Moroccan family, a Pakistani family, a Russian family, a Yemenite family, and a Tuni­ sian family. These families introduced me to their extended kin, their friends, and their associates. I observed the socio-cultural changes among the second generation, that is, those whose parents were first-generation immigrants. They were now young adults, they had graduated from high school, many studied at universities, served in the army, Hebrew was their primary language, they had married, joined the work force, and were at present raising a generation of Sabra

(Israeli-born) children. The second generation of Oriental descent in Dimona have not totally assimilated into Israeli society; they maintain many traits of their ethnicity. The second-generation resi­ dents in Arad, many of whom are Sabras, have assimilated into the

Western-oriented Israeli society.

My time in Arad was limited to four months, so that I was not able to interview as many residents, the majority of whom were sabras, and many were the first settlers in Arad in 1962 (see Table 20). The residents and professionals in Dimona and Arad answered the questions of the interview schedule with ease, especially the subjective open- ended questions at the end of the interview. In Arad, I found the residents to be more private in their social relationships. Most of the women worked outside of the home; many commuted to Beer Sheva and they were tired during the evenings. I always telephoned first before

I interviewed them, I tried to schedule my interviews far enough apart. The residents and the professionals who also lived in Arad were interested in my work. They all cooperated and many asked me over for coffee in the evenings. Arad was a Western-oriented town: women sat alone in cafes and on the plaza; this was accepted be­ havior. When I was not busy interviewing the residents and the pro­ fessionals, 1 would just walk about the town, taking different paths to town and enjoy the gardens, stop to smell the flowers, and take

photographs.

The sample used in conducting the in-depth interviews of both

the residents and professionals of Dimona and Arad is justified by

the thoroughness in which I was able to reach almost all the bureau­

crats of both municipalities (see Chapters V, VI, and VII) and obtain

extensive information about the structure and function of their de­

partments. The population of Dimona was diverse and the sample of

residents who were interviewed were representative of the population.

It was very difficult, however, to reach the lower socio-economic residents as many of whom were on welfare, and many were alcoholics under treatment (see Chapter VI) who were all withdrawn and suspicious of strangers. Any information and data that I observed and collected was checked and double-checked with my families and with those whom

I interviewed. I also used a wider sample of residents of both towns in every contact in the streets, the shuks, during ritual holidays and national celebrations (see "Observations," Appendix C).

I distributed close-ended interviews to 306 senior high school students in Dimona. In order to do this, it was necessary to be accompanied by the teacher in charge who remained with me in the classes with the students the entire time until they completed the questionnaire. Some of the students did not like the form of the questionnaire, but the majority of them were willing to fill them out.

I was unable, however, to distribute the same questionnaires in Arad due to the national teachers' strikes followed by the students' in­ volvement taking the bagrut (the national comprehensive examination). 10

Since I was unable to compare the results, I chose not to include

this study in my dissertation, but to use it in further research.

Significance of Research

Dimona and Arad are microcosms of Israeli society, and as

such, the ethnic attitudes and acculturative aspirations of their populations are at present in transition. My research could contrib­ ute to the anthropological study of Ashkenazi-Oriental ethnic groups and their continuing acculturative process into the dominant Western

society in Israel. Second-generation Oriental immigrants of Dimona have exhibited greater change and discontinuity than have their par­ ents or Sabra children. I had the opportunity during my fieldwork to observe the degrees of socio-cultural change among the Oriental generations in extended families of Dimona.

I have attempted, in my research, to find the answer to a definitive question: How can two towns such as Dimona and Arad, with contrasting historical foundations and variations in their popula­ tions, compare in their socio-cultural institutions? I hope that my descriptive data (in Chapters V, VI, and VII) will give social scien­ tists further impetus to do comparative studies of other development towns in Israel.

The significance of my research is further enhanced by its theoretical implications in regard to the process of immigrant absorp­ tion and acculturation into a dominant host society such as the United

States. The state of Israel represents a pluralistic society in which ethnicity is manifested in all its socio-cultural spheres. This was 11 not always the case; during the 1950s, the Israeli government offi­ cials described the new Oriental immigrants as non-Western and cul­ turally backward (see Chapter II), and, according to Israeli policy, the only solution to the problem of mass influx of Afro-Asian immi­ grants was their absorption into a Western Ashkenazi society.

During the period of the 1970s, the young second-generation

Oriental residents in Dimona proved that it was possible to accultu- rate and achieve vertical mobility into an emerging middle class, while still retaining traits of ethnicity. At present, in the 1980s, the economic and educational gaps between Ashkenazim and Oriental ethnic groups are narrowing, but the social tensions between them remain.

I observed, in the course of my research, that the populations of Dimona and Arad, though 35 kilometers apart in distance, do not interact in socio-cultural spheres. As noted, there was no direct transportation link between them. Is it necessary for the populations of Dimona and Arad to interact? I suggest that my study will support my conclusions, which are: Israelis, in general, support the ideological tenet of "Jewish Unity," and they understand that national and local ethnic divisiveness impedes the internal stability of the country.

Immigration to Israel at the present time is low; therefore, towns such as Dimona and Arad will depend for population growth on internal migration, which can only occur through expanded economic development of the Negev. This could create the need for a joint 12 expansion program involving much of the male working population of both Dimona and Arad.

Dimona maintains many viable educational institutions such as the agricultural center, the shuk, the matnas, and the gan enrich­ ment center, etc. (see Chapters IV and V). Arad has extensive sports facilities, a quality conservatory program, and excels in the art of landscaping (see Chapter VI). I support the thesis that Dimona and

Arad are comparable in the economic and educational spheres, and com­ plementing each other in their respective socio-cultural programs.

The viability of development towns in Israel will depend on future

Israeli generations; will they deem the towns functional for them to live in them?

At the present time the towns offer new settlers favorable conditions such as nominal rents, reduced taxes, and free high school.

With continued inflation, the need for favorable conditions is more crucial to young families who might wish to move to development towns.

Settlement in the towns could further enhance a "pioneering spirit" for a Sabra generation who might want new challenges to help develop these towns economically, educationally, culturally, and socially.

I suggest that a bridge could be built between Dimona and Arad which would help bring an end to the socio-cultural isolation that now exists. I envision this to be a legacy for the younger Sabras in Israel. The bridge between Dimona and Arad need only to be a direct bus line between the two towns, and the rest can be history. 13 Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental Ethnic Origins

Oriental Origins

Oriental Jewish ethnic groups originated in 586 B.C. when

Judea, the southern state of ancient Israel, was captured by the

Babylonians and the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem was destroyed.

The major part of the Judean population was exiled to Babylonia.

According to Patai (1970:11): "The idea that the people of Israel

and the land of Israel belonged together, remained engraved in the

hearts of the Jews wherever they lived and wherever they were able

to keep their tradition alive." Throughout this long exile, only a

small minority of Jews lived in Palestine, while the ever-growing

majority lived in Babylonia and Egypt. In 500 B.C., forty thousand

Jews returned to Palestine to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in

Jerusalem.

Babylonia replaced Palestine as the great center of learning

and of Jewish culture during ancient times. Baghdad became a center

of Jewish scholarship and was the oldest Jewish community outside of

Palestine, The Talmud was compiled in Babylonia in 500 A.D. The

Jewish community during Talmudic times was organized around autonomous

socio-cultural spheres. It was from Babylonia and Egypt that many

Jewish exiles migrated to Syria, Persia, North Africa, Yemen, and

India. S. D. Goitein (1973, 1974) and Briggs and Guede (1964) claim

that these Oriental countries' language, dress, food, and music had

become identical among Jews and Muslims. According to Goitein

1 (1974:10-11): "The early years 500-1300 A.D. were the most important period of creative Jewish-Arab symbiosis lasting about 800 years, 14 . . . [while during the period] 1300 to 1900, Arabs faded out from world history and Oriental Jews from Jewish history." The last stage of Jewish-Arab relations, the twentieth century, is one of a new con­ frontation. The Westernized Jewish people are again connected with the original scene of their history, the Orient, while the Arabs, al­ though revived under Western impact and with Western help, still are inclined to oppose the West and with it Israel as its closest repre­ sentative. The state of Israel itself, however, has become, through the influx of huge masses of immigrants from Muslim countries, far more "Oriental" in its character than the present-day Jewish people at large.

Bernard Lewis (1984:36-39) reports on the degradation and dif­ ferentiation that were stigmas of inferiority that the Oriental Jews and Christians (nonbelievers) suffered in Islamic countries after

1300 A.D. "Jews had to wear headgear of distinctive colors and could only wear slippers or go barefoot outside of the ghetto. In Iran in

1892 , a Jew must never overtake a Muslim on a public street." In the

1900s, Jews in Islamic countries lived segregated and separate social lives from their Muslim neighbors. The Palestine question exacerbated anti-Jewish attacks and increased violence in Iraq, Syria, Egypt,

Southern Arabia, Yemen, and North Africa, in which hundreds of Jews were killed or injured, work places were sacked, and homes destroyed, leaving them homeless and destitute. In the 1940s and early 1950s, a massive emigration of Oriental Jews took place to Israel: 300,000 from Morocco, 135,000 from Algeria, 125,000 from Iraq, 75,000 from

Egypt, and 55,000 from Yemen (Lewis 1984:189-191). 15 Sephardi Jewish Origins

The Hebrew term for Spain is Sepharad and the Jews who lived there are referred to as Sephardi Jews. From the eleventh century onward, the Jewish cultural hegemony passed from the Jews of Babylonia to the Jews of Spain. During the Islamic period in Spain, the Jews under their hegemony were given much flexible intellectual freedom.

Their community was organized around autonomous socio-cultural spheres similar to those of the Jews in Babylonia. The Jewish intellectuals in Spain developed new styles of Hebrew poetry, grammar, philosophy, and literature. This period of time is historically known as the

"Golden Age of Spain" to all students of Jewish history. At this time the Bible was translated into Arabic using Hebrew characters. The

Jews spoke Arabic, and dressed as was the custom of the time. Promi­ nent Jews were advisors to the sultan and during the thirteenth cen­ tury, Maimonedes, a prominent scholar and physician who was born in

Spain but left with his parents to live in Morocco, spent his adult life in Egypt where he served as the physician to the sultan.

In 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Sephardi Jews settled in France, Holland,

England, western Europe, Italy, and the Balkans. They also settled in North Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and eventually in

Mexico, the United States, and South America {Patai 1970:12-14).

Raphael Patai (1970) reports that Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews who lived in Western countries had marginal social and cultural rela­ tions with each other. Sephardi and Oriental Jews, however, in Is­ lamic countries, did mix and they influenced each other in cultural 16 ways. The Sephardim were respected by the Oriental Jews for their superior intellectual knowledge and their leadership qualifications.

They were well received and respected by the older Orientals, but in­ termarriage between them was frowned upon by both communities.

Yoram Bilu (n.d.) claims that the folk veneration of saints played a major role in the lives of many Jews in Morocco, and that this cultural phenomenon was also a significant feature of Moroccan

Islam; at the same time, however, it was also reinforced by the deep- seated conception of the tsaddiq (pious, holy man) in classical Jewish tradition. The saints were charismatic rabbis distinguished by their erudition and piety, who were believed to possess a special spiritual force. Zenner (1965:209-214) claims that both the Oriental and

Sephardic Jews from Jerusalem participated in pilgrimages to the tombs of Rabbi Simon Bar Yohai in Meron (near Safed) and Benjamin the son of Jacob the Righteous. The main event in the veneration of each saint was the collective pilgrimage to his tomb on the anniversary of his death. The shrine of Rabbi Meir Baal Ha’ness the Miracle-

Worker (also a Talmudic sage) in Tiberias is at present very popular with both Sephardim and Ashkenazim; each ethnic group has its individ­ ual shrine. According to Zenner, many ill and crippled devotees came to the shrines lighting candles and reading from the Psalms.

Deshen and Shokeid (1974) report that the pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints constitute cultural patterns which highlight and reinforce Jewish solidarity and fraternity manifested in the spirit of communitas which prevailed in most aspects of the celebration. Ashkenazi Jewish Origins

After the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by

the Romans in 70 A.D., some Jewish refugees moved northward through

Asia Minor to the port cities of the Black Sea and eventually pene­

trated into the interior of Russia. Another Jewish migratory movement

reached central and eastern Europe by way of Rome. In the eleventh

century the Jews of France and Germany were referred to in the Hebrew

literature as "Ashkenazim." In the fourteenth century, Casimir III,

the Great, supported the colonization of Poland through immigration

from Germany in order to develop trade and industry. He could not

do this without the help of Jewish merchants and financiers (Dubnov

1969:375).

Many young Jewish men and women born and raised in eastern

Europe left to settle in Palestine at the end of the nineteenth cen­ tury. Patai (1970:26) reports that political Zionism would not have achieved its aim, when the state of Israel was founded in 1948, if it had not been for the Haskala movement (the intellectual enlighten­ ment which developed in Poland and which supported the re-awakening of the Hebrew language in literature, poetry, and Jewish history).

This movement brought urban Jews of eastern Europe into closer con­ tact with Western secular thought.

Linguistic Variations of Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental Ethnic Groups

The majority of the Jewish populations in Islamic countries adopted Arabic as their primary spoken language as early as 1000 A.D. 18

Judaeo-Arabic was spoken in Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen, but not to

the extent that Yiddish and Ladino were spoken by the Ashkenazi/

Sephardi communities respectively. In Judaeo-Arabic, Hebrew words

and phrases are used with Arabic pronunciation, grammar, and vocabu­

lary. Arabic-speaking Jews introduced far fewer Hebrew elements into

their speech than is common in Yiddish precisely because the Oriental

Jews' knowledge of living Hebrew was far more developed than was the

case among Jews in eastern Europe. Judaeo-Arabic and its literature

constitute a storehouse of Jewish tradition and folklore, and, accord­

ing to Goitein (1974), bear a living testimony to a creative power

of Jewish-Arab symbiosis that existed for Jews and Arabs in Muslim

countries.

The Jews from the Atlas Mountains in southern Morocco pri­ marily spoke Berber, and Judaeo-Persian dialects were spoken by the

Jews in Persia, Afghanistan, Bokhara, and the Caucasus. The Jews of

Kurdistan and Armenia have retained the neo-Aramaic language. Some of the Jews of Libya spoke a remnant of the Aramaic dialect mixed with

Arabic. In India and Pakistan the Jews spoke Marathi (a Sanskrit dia­ lect), Urdu, and English (Goitein 1974:131-140).

Yiddish was the spoken and written language in eastern Europe, while Hebrew was used as a literary language (Patai 1970). During the Haskala in Poland, Hebrew was revived as a spoken language, but only among the intellectuals. In the late nineteenth century, an attempt was made by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, an Ashkenazi Jew who settled in Jerusalem, to revive Hebrew as the spoken language of the Jews of

Palestine. He alone spoke the gutteral Sephardi Hebrew with his IRELAND USSR

NORTH

ATLANTIC UNITED STATES OCEAN

BUL( SLACK SEA

TURKEY > SPAIN

TUNISIA IRAQ : IRAN

MOROCCO/ ISRAEL ALGERIA IDIA

__j LIBYA

SAUDI ARABIA

SUDAN

/ETHIOPIA /

Fig. 1. Origins of main streams of Jewish immigration to Palestine and Israel ldiy-107S.

Adapted from N. Lawrence, Israel: Jewish Population and Immigration, 1Q52:2I. 20

TABLE 1

POPULATION IN PALESTINE BY COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN

Country 1919-23 1924-31 1932-38 1939-45 1946-48 Europe 93-0 84.8 88.6 81.5 95.7 USSR 44.6 18.9 2.8 1.0 0.5 Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania 4.3 5.3 4.9 1.3 1.5 Poland 30.6 49.0 47.1 20.5 33.8 Romania 4-7 5.1 5.5 11.6 31.9 Bulgaria l.l 1.5 0.6 4.2 2.3 Yugoslavia 0.5 0.2 0.4 1.1 0.3 Greece 0.5 1.0 2.9 1.5 1.9 Hungary 1.0 0.4 0.7 4.8 9.4 Czechoslovakia 0.3 0.5 2.0 10.7 8.1 Germany 1.6 1.3 18.0 18.7 2.7 Austria 1.7 0.5 2.2 2.8 0.8 Other countries 2.1 1.1 1.5 3.3 2.5 America, South Africa, and Oceania 2.3 2.9 2.4 0.2 0.3 Asia 3.9 11.6 8.4 17-0 2.3 Turkey 1.6 1.7 1.1 5-4 0.2 Syria and Lebanon 0.2 0.4 0.5 1.2 0. l Iraq 0.6 4-2 1.5 2.0 0.1 Iran 0.7 1-7 0.9 0.5 0.0 Yemen and Aden 0.6 3.2 3.7 7.6 0.4 Other countries 0.2 0.4 0.7 0.3 1.5 Africa 0.8 0.7 0.6 1.3 1.7 Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.2 1.1 Egypt 0.4 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.4 Other countries 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.6 0.2 All Countries Thousands 35.1 81.6 197.2 81.8 56.6 Percent 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

SOURCE: Dov Friedlander and Calvin Goldscheider, The Popula­ tion of Israel {New York: Columbia University Press, 1979TJ 38•

NOTE: We can see statistical evidence in Table 1 of the Jewish population growth in Palestine during the years 1919-1948. There were sizeable differences in Ashkenazi immigration and Sephardi- Oriental immigration at that time. According to Lawrence (1952), the Sephardi-Oriental Jewish population in 1948 (pre-State) totaled 37,000, while the total Jewish population at that time was 650,000. 21

family and friends. The Ashkenazi pioneers who migrated to Palestine in those early years also made an attempt to speak Hebrew with each other. It was not until the 1920s that Hebrew became the official language of the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine). In 1948* after the establishment of the state of Israel, all immigrants were encouraged to learn Hebrew as quickly as possible (Katz 1983). In the early years of settlement in Israel, the Oriental populations re­ tained their diverse cultural traits and spoke to each other in their diverse tongues. In 1981, during my research, I observed Oriental first-generaton immigrant groups communicate with each other in their native languages, but I also noticed that their second-generation children and grandchildren spoke with each other in Hebrew.

Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental ethnic groups share, as Jews, a sense of historical continuity and a common cultural heritage (Firth

1956); they do, however, differ in their ethnic heritage and traits of ethnicity. The Ashkenazi immigration from eastern Europe during the late nineteenth century and the Ashkenazi immigration from central

Europe during the 1930s placed a Western stamp on the Yishuv. The

Sephardi-Oriental community then in existence in Palestine was ignored by the Ashkenazim. Their ethnic heritage and traits of ethnicity were denigrated; thus, in 1948 after the declaration of the state of

Israel, the mass influx of Oriental immigrants were told to assimilate into their Western society as quickly as possible. The seeds of cur­ rent ethnic prejudice were sown in the early historical Ashkenazi immigration waves to Palestine. 22

Immigration to Palestine: Historical Perspective

Throughout history, Palestine's Jewish population growth has always depended upon the influx of immigrants. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Jewish population of Palestine was esti­ mated at six thousand; by the end of the century it had grown to fifty thousand (Sachar 1976). Palestine at this time was part of the Otto­ man Empire.

Steve Zipperstein and Eliezer Jaffe (198la:19-20) claim that the Zionist movement in Europe virtually ignored the Oriental Jews in their host countries. As a result, this neglect by the Zionists of the Oriental religious Zionist aspirations had important implications for current ethnic tensions and for the poor self-image of the Oriental Jews in the State today.

The Orientals were stereotyped in pre-state Palestine by

Western Jewry; and, as such, they were not looked upon as potentially important contributors to the Zionist movement. According to Smooha

(1973:70), "Arab-Oriental culture was considered backward and de­ prived, and along with it so were the Oriental Jews." Zipperstein and Jaffe (1981a:22) claim that at the time of the first Aliya (immi­ gration wave) in 1882, the three-hundred-year-old Sephardi Council of Jerusalem was the sole representative of the Jews in Palestine:

The incoming Zionists, however, saw themselves as the future leaders of the State of Israel. They disliked the Sepharadi Coun­ cil's accommodation to Ottoman rule, so they basically ignored the traditional authority of the Council over the Palestinian Jews. By 1918, with the fall of the Ottoman Qnpire and the in­ creasing influx of Zionists into Palestine, the Sepharadi Council had lost virtually all of its power. The British supported the Zionist program for statehood via the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the non-Zionist Sepharadi Council suddenly seemed an obsolete 23 relic of Ottoman Palestine. Since the Zionists were mainly Ashkenazi and the Sepharadi Council obviously Oriental, ethnic relations in the Yishuv experienced a poor start.

Bernard Lewis (1984) reports that Zionism was prohibited by

many Arab governments but Zipperstein and Jaffe (198la:21) claim that:

. . . this prohibition was not all pervasive [and that] there was indeed a religious tie to Zion among Sephardi-Oriental Jews during the [immigration waves] to Palestine. The Zionists missed an his­ toric opportunity to bring the Orientals and the Ashkenazim to­ gether in pursuit of a presumably common goal.

Jewish immigration to Palestine from eastern Europe during

the years 1882-1939 are historically divided into five major periods

of Aliya (immigration wave). The first and second Aliyot took place

during the years 1882-1915* About forty-five thousand Jews emigrated

from eastern Europe. They migrated because of Zionist ideology, and

many came under the auspices of the Chovevei Zion movement (Lovers

of Zion) and Bilu (a Hebrew acronym, "House of Jacob, Let Us Go Up").

The members of Bilu had as their goal the establishment of communal

farms, but they encountered many physical hardships and had to abandon

their efforts. The second Aliya pioneers, however, being highly moti­

vated by Zionist ideology, strove to find the solution to the main

problems of their existence, namely "the conquest of labor," which

Patai (1970:59) explains as:

. . . kibbush ha'avoda, that is, the replacement of the Arab hired hands by the Jewish agricultural laborers in the older Jewish colonies which had been established toward the end of the nine­ teenth century. They also fought for the "conquest of watching." that is, the employment of Jewish watchmen Shomrim, in place of the Arabs.

Many of these pioneers of the second Aliya founded the first collec­

tive farms as well as the first self-defense organization. Among the 24 famous pioneers who migrated during this Aliya was David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel; Shmuel Dayan, father of General Moshe

Dayan; and Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, second president of Israel. By the year

1914 > the Jewish population of Palestine reached eighty-five thousand.

In July 1922, the League of Nations formally entrusted Britain with a Mandate which incorporated the Balfour Declaration, which rec­ ognized the historical connection between the Jewish people and the land, and called upon Britain to facilitate the establishment of the

National Home in Palestine for the Jews (Sachar 1976). Following

World War I, the British made conflicting promises to the Arabs and the Jews regarding self-determination in Palestine. According to

Tessler (1981:161): MTo the Arabs they promised independence if they helped the British defeat the Turks [and] to the Zionists they gave assurances of support to a Jewish homeland." Ziff (1938) suggests that the British policies in Palestine in the late 1920s were dis­ trusted by Jew and Arab alike. The Arabs distrusted the British be­ cause of the tight reins held over them. They never believed that the British intended to give them political self-determination and a state of their own.

In the late 1920s the Arab population in Palestine was suspi­ cious of the increased Jewish population and the urban and agricul­ tural growth in Jewish land, industry, and political strength.

Although the Jewish agency had legitimately bought the land from the

Arab land owners, the Arab peasants suffered because they were driven out of their traditional lands as a result of the sales made by absen­ tee landlords. The frustrations of the Arab population mounted 25 against the British, the Zionist strength, and their own impotence

in dealing with their problems. They rioted in Hebron in 1929 and

massacred most of the Jewish population in that town. The hostilities

continued throughout the 1930s. Friedlander and Goldscheider

(1979:63) claim that the British policy in Palestine from 1937-1948

was characterized by more restrictive immigration policies for Jews.

The reasons for this policy were threefold: "ambiguous British

political commitments to Jewish and Arab nationalism; the emergence

and strengthening of the Zionist ideological practices with its emphasis on immigration, settlement and development; the growing momentum of Arab nationalism."

The third and fourth Aliyot (1919-1928) were very productive years for the Yishuv. Most of the immigrants during the third Aliya had fled from the Russian revolution, the pogroms in eastern Europe, and the civil wars in Russia. The majority of third Aliya immigrants revived the structure of the kibbutz (collective farm) as the emergent agricultural form in Palestine. The fourth Aliya brought a total of

82,000 middle-class Polish merchants and this raised the Jewish popu­ lation to 154)000 in 1929* These immigrants generally gravitated to the cities and towns, so that the population of Tel-Aviv (founded in

1920) grew to forty-six thousand in 1929 (Sachar 1976).

The Jewish political structure of the Yishuv was formulated during the years 1919-1929. The Jewish Agency was established by the Zionist Organization to advise and cooperate with the British man­ date in matters affecting the establishment of the Jewish homeland, and the needs of the Jewish population in Palestine. During these years over 300,000 acres of land were bought for Jewish settlement.

The Yishuv was recognized by the British as a corporate entity in

1927, and the Jewish Agency Executive, employing funds contributed

from abroad through the Keren Hayesod (the foundation fund), financed

immigration, underwrote the school system, promoted farming, industry,

and commerce. The young people of the Chalutz movement (Pioneer

movement) from Russia and Poland were quick to join hands with the

men of the second Aliya in founding the Histadrut (the General Federa­

tion of Jewish Labor) in December 1920 (Sachar 1976).

With the growth of urban centers, the Hebrew University of

Jerusalem and the Technion in Haifa were created with support of the

Yishuv and donations from abroad.

The fifth Aliya (1932-1939) brought a total of 246,000 immi­

grants to Palestine. The Jewish Yishuv doubled in size during the

years 1932-1935. The majority of the immigrants were from central

Europe (Austria and Germany), and were fugitives of Nazi anti-

Semitism. According to Sachar (1976), the central European immigrant

population, by virtue of its "culture" and skills, set its own unique

imprint on the Yishuv. The Hebrew Philharmonic Symphony was formed,

theatre and the arts were expanded, and enrollment in the universities

increased. In 1939, the Jewish population in Palestine totaled

445,000 and the non-Jewish population totaled 1,056,000, which meant

that the Jewish population was 29 percent of the total. According

to Patai (1970:66), the fifth Aliya, with its high percentage of

Ashkenazi Jews, gave the "final stamp of Western character" to the new Yishuv of Palestine: "No serious consideration was given to the 27 possibility that a Jewish State, if it were ever to be achieved, would be anything but a predominantly Western country with a socio-cultural structure which— apart from a few specifically Hebrew and Jewish cul­ tural elements— would essentially resemble a small West-European State such as Switzerland or Belgium."

On May 17j 1939) shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the British government issued the MacDonald White Paper to appease the fears of the Arabs, which established a quota of ten thousand

Jewish immigrants for each of the next five years, plus another twenty-four thousand refugees. After a period of five years and seventy-five thousand immigrants, no further Jewish Immigration would be permitted without Arab acquiescence, nor would the sale of land to Jews be permitted (Sachar 1976). For more than a year after the issuance of the MacDonald White Paper, a limited clandestine immigra­ tion still flowed from central and eastern Europe under wartime condi­ tions. The Mandate's answer to this Jewish illegal immigration was to prevent, at all costs, the Jewish refugees from landing in Pales­ tine. As the British wartime blockade intensified, Jewish illegal immigration to Palestine by sea came to an end (Avnery 1979).

After World War II, the Yishuv realized that the British would not allow the survivors of Hitler's mass extermination camps in Europe to emigrate to Palestine. The leaders of the Yishuv, led by Ben-

Gurion, were determined to establish a national Jewish state in Pales­ tine. On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United

Nations, by more than the required two-thirds majority, approved the recommendation of a special committee that Palestine be partitioned 28

into independent Jewish and Arab states, in economic union, with an

internationalized Jerusalem. The United States and the Soviet Union

voted for partition; the Arab League Council announced that it would

undo the plan by force. On May 14, 1948, the People's Council repre­

senting all parties and sections of the Yishuv met in the old Tel-Aviv

Museum and declared the establishment of the State of Israel and

approved the formation of a provisional government. The next morning,

on May 15, 1948, Arab armies from seven states invaded Israel, deter­

mined to put an end to the Jewish presence in Palestine. The War of

Independence lasted, with truces declared by the UN, until January

8, 1949. Finally, cease fires were declared between all the armies

and demarcation lines were established between Israel and her Arab

neighbors. Israel had lost access to the Old City of Jerusalem to

the Jordanians, and were not destined to gain access to it again until

June 1967.

As a result of the war, the majority of the Arab population left Israel and became refugees in other Arab lands. The Palestinians were told by the neighboring Arab countries that the Jews would be

driven off in 1948 and they would then return as victors. The Pales­ tinians became refugees instead and destined to remain political thorns in the stormy arena of Middle East politics.

Jewish Immigration to Israel 1948-1975

In the Israeli Declaration of Independence, one clause reads:

"Israel shall be open to Jewish immigration and the ingathering of the exiles." The Law of Return enacted in 1950 grants every Jew the 29 right of Aliya with three exceptions: Jews with criminal pasts, who might endanger the public welfare; Jews so sick as to be a risk to public health; and Jews guilty of crimes against their co­ religionists. The Citizenship Law of 1952 bestows immediate citizen­

ship upon all Jewish immigrants who wish it (Israel Information Centre

1973:6).

Between May 1948 and December 1951, the Israeli government sponsored 684,000 immigrants. Among them were 304,000 European

Jews who were survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, and 280,000 Jews from

Arab lands, including entire Jewish communities fleeing immediate dan­ ger of persecution in Yemen and Iraq. Yemenite Jews had settled in

Palestine long before the nineteenth century and Yemenites brought a very rich culture to Israel. They were skilled and talented arti­ sans and they quickly acquired a reputation in Israel as diligent, successful farmers. Their talents were also in dance, song, and bib­ lical scholarship, while their kinship system also showed strong patriarchal bonds and close family ties. Virtually all of Yemen's

Jewry was airlifted to Israel during operation "magic carpet" in 1949.

According to Goitein (1973:28), Yemenite Jews were unable to sell their property and had to leave their wealth behind. Their personal goods and money were confiscated from them at the border between Yemen and Aden and they arrived in Israel penniless.

Hayyim J. Cohen (1973:32-36) claims that the Iraqi government in 1945 established economic sanctions upon the Jewish community in

Iraq; in March 1950 the Iraqi Jews were prepared to leave Iraq at any price: 30

They were permitted to take with them fifty pounds sterling per adult and twenty pounds per child. Some Jews succeeded in selling their property, but the majority abandoned their possessions in Iraq and emigrated to Israel in 1952. Approximately 124,000 Iraqi Jews left Iraq and 6,000 Jews remained.

This rescue mission of Iraqi Jews by the Israeli government during

1951-1952 was referred to in Israel as "Operation Ezra and Nechemia."

The Jews in the Middle East and India tended to specialize

in particular crafts and forms of trade. They were engaged in

commerce, which often meant itinerate peddlers and small shop­

keepers in the marketplace. In small market towns in the Sahara, and in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, many Jews had their own spe­

cialty shops, such as cloth sellers, tailors, tanners, and kosher butchers (Geertz 1979). Deshen and Zenner (1982:17) report that the economic activities of the Jews in large cities of the Middle East were more diversified. A Moroccan immigrant from Dimona told me that he owned a clothing factory in Casablanca and that he employed many workers, but in Dimona he worked as a tailor in the textile factory in town. He said he was satisfied with his work and happy to be liv­ ing in Israel.

Alex Weingrod (1966) and Leonard Weller (1974) suggest that the Jewish immigrants from Morocco during the years 1948-1956 were among the poorer, less acculturated elements of the Jewish population in Morocco. They were small shopkeepers, peddlers, artisans, and were the Jews of the traditional Millah (ghetto) and of the small villages in the Atlas Mountains. These traditional immigrants had less to lose economically and felt the religious urge for Aliya more strongly.

Bar Yosef (]Q70) claims that Moroccan Jewry lived in a feudal state 31 and that the Jews maintained traditional religions segregation and

ethnic autonomy, and many Jews were counted among the intellectuals

in the general population. Inbar and Adler (1977) report that there

was a strong gap in the fit between the educational and vocational

background of the new immigrants and the labor-market conditions that

they encountered and experienced in Israel. Those immigrants who were

peddlers, artisans, and small shopkeepers in Morocco were put to work

planting trees and building roads, performing manual labor that they

believed gave them lower status and prestige. According to Jones

(I960), immigrants in the United States tend to gravitate to the

lowest rungs of the economic ladder; their coming enables both the

native population and earlier immigrants either to rise to supervisory

or managerial positions, or to take advantage of the increased oppor­

tunities for skilled, professional, and white collar workers, which

economic expansion made possible. Jones (1960:313) claims that "the

usual kind of displacement resulting from immigration has been dis­ placement in an upward direction." In Israel, the older Oriental

immigrants resented working at manual labor, but their teenage chil­ dren accepted any job offered to them. Often they were the main ave­ nues of income for their families. This factor caused serious family breakdowns of authoritative role among Oriental families when the patriarch could not fulfill his role as "breadwinner."

Soviet Jewish Immigration to Israel

For a number of reasons, reportedly attributable to internal and external pressures, the Kremlin allowed a sharp increase in Jewish 32

emigration beginning 1971. According to Zinman (1978), between the years 1971-1973, thirty-five thousand Jews emigrated from Russia to

Israel. In 1974-1975, the number of emigrants declined and dropped

to an annual average of fewer than eight thousand per year. This de­ cline in immigration from the USSR to Israel can be explained, in part, by the sharp increase in "dropouts" among Soviet Jews. This refers to Jews who leave the Soviet Union with visas for Israel but announce on arrival in Vienna that they plan to settle elsewhere.

In 1976-1977, the number of "dropouts" rose to 50 percent, of which twenty thousand Soviet Jews chose not to live in Israel, and to opt for the United States.

According to Friedlander and Goldscheider (1979:40-41), as presented in Table 2, immigration to Israel during the years 1948-1975 totaled 1,569,875* If we break down these statistics into periods, we find that during 1948-1951 immigration from European countries was at its very highest level. These European immigrants to Israel were

Holocaust survivors, and the immigration from Europe during the years of 1958-1960 was a large influx of Romanian immigrants. During the years 1968-1975, immigration from Europe again peaks, with the major­ ity of immigrants being Russian.

If we compare the percentage of immigration from Afro-Asian countries during the years 1948-1975, we discover that in 1949 the largest immigration from Afro-Asian countries was from Yemen, and in

1950-1951 the main immigration was from Iraq. The immigration from

Morocco during the period 1952-1964 remained constantly high. In a breakdown of the population statistics during the years 1952-1957, TABLE 2

IMMIGRATION TO ISRAEL BY COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN, 1948-1975

Country 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952-54 1955-57 1958-60 1961-64 1965-67 1968-73 1974-75 Asia 5.1 30.8 34-4 59.2 25.2 6.1 17.9 8.8 17.6 12.9 4-3 Turkey 4.8 11.3 1.5 0 .8 1.7 2.4 2 .6 2.3 — ----- 0 .6 Iraq 0 .0 0.7 9.3 51.1 3.6 0.3 0.5 0 .2 —— 0.1 ItMA-Idtn 0.3 16.3 5.4 0.5 1.6 0 .0 0 .2 0.3 — ----- 0 .0 Iran 0 .0 0 .8 6.3 5.4 10.8 1.2 10.4 3.8 6.9 3.3 1.1 Other countries 0 .0 1.7 1.9 1.4 7.4 1.8 4.2 2 .2 5.5 4-4 2.5 Africa 9.0 16.7 15-2 11.6 50.6 62.1 18.0 51.8 20.2 13-9 4-9 Morocco) 2 .6 4-4 29*7 42.9 12.6 44-0 ______2.5 —— Algeria) 7.7 7.5 0.3 0 .2 0 .8 1.5 0.7) r O 0.9 Tunisia) 2.9 2 .0 11.3 9.3 3.0) ----- — 1.1 Libya 1.2 6.1 5.3 3.8 3.0 0 .2 0 .2 0 .2 ----- — 0 .0 Egypt-Sudan 0 .0 0 .0 4.0 1.2 5.8 8.0 1-4 0.5 —— 0 .2 Other countries 0.1 3.1 0.1 0 .0 0.1 0 .0 0 .2 0 .2 0.3 0 .2 0 .2 Europe 85.2 52.0 49-8 28.9 20.4 30.0 60.4 34-7 53.4 54-5 71.3 USSR 1-3 1-4 1 .6 0 .6 1.3 3.6 9.3 2 .0 9.0 33-4 49.6 Poland 32.1 20.3 15.8 2.1 3.2 18.2 10.4 2 .0 4.6 4.1 2-4 Romania 19.6 5.8 27*5 23-0 7.2 1,2 35.8 27-9 —— 10.4 Yugoslavia 4.6 1.0 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0 .0 Bulgaria 16.8 8.5 0 .6 0.7 1.8 0 .2 0 .4 0 .2 ----- — 0 .0 Germany-Austria 2 .0 3-0 0 .8 0.4 1.4 0.3 0.7 0.4 1.1 l.s 1.0 Czechoslovakia 2.4 6.7 0.4 0 .2 0.3 0 .2 0.3 0.4 1.2 0.7 0.3 Hungary 3.8 2.9 1.6 0.7 1.0 5.2 0.9 0.4 ----- — 0.4 Other countries 2 .6 2.4 1.2 0 .8 3.9 1.1 2.5 1.5 4.2 7.9 7.2 America, South Africa, and Oceania 0.7 0.5 0 .6 0.3 3.8 1.7 3.5 4.7 8 .8 18.7 19.5 All Countries

Thousands 101,819 239,576 170,215 175,129 54,065 164,936 75,487 228,046 60,793 247,802 52,oo; Percent 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

SOURCE: Dov Friedlander and Calvin Goldscheider, The Population of Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), pp. 40-41- 34 the Moroccan immigrant population to Israel reached 72 percent of the

total immigrant population; while during the period of 1958-1964, they

totaled 56 percent. According to Friedlander and Goldscheider

(1979), the immigration from Morocco was clearly the major ethnic

group from Afro-Asian countries in Israel, and immigration from Russia

totaled 83 percent of the total immigration during the period of

1968-1975.

Conclusion

Immigration was and continues to be a central theme of Zionist

ideology. The growth rate of the population of Israel was largely determined by immigration, and uniquely by mass immigration. Fried­ lander and Goldscheider (1979:228) argue that with the present immi­ gration at an ebb, resources could be diverted to increasing the wel­ fare of previous immigrants which might lead to reduced emigration from Israel. CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW: ETHNIC IDENTITY AND ITS THEORETICAL

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE POPULATION OF ISRAEL, 1950-1980

The aim of this chapter is to trace the phenomenon of ethnic identity as emphasized in the social science literature. I also plan, in this chapter, to consider specific theoretical studies of

Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental ethnic groups in Israel, such as those concerning the Israeli government's absorption policies in the 1950s, acculturation studies, the implication of structural pluralism, and ethnicity studies.

Anya P. Royce (1982:1) describes the "affective" and "strate­ gic" levels of ethnic identity: "Ethnic identity is a powerful phe­ nomenon. It is powerful at the affectual level where it touches us in ways mysterious and frequently unconscious, and at the level of strategy, where we consciously manipulate it."

Royce (1982:24) reports that in 1973> a symposium was held under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council on the theme of ethnic identity. One of the goals of the meeting was to agree on at least a working definition of terms such as "ethnic group" and

"ethnicity." For the scholars in the symposium, ethnicity seemed to involve:

35 36

(1) A past-oriented group identification emphasizing origins

(2) Some conceptions of cultural and social distinctiveness

(3) Relationship of the ethnic groups to a component unit in

a broader system of social relations

(4) The fact that ethnic groups are larger than kin or local­

ity groups and transcend face-to-face interaction

(5) Different meanings for ethnic categories both in different

social settings and for different individuals

(6) The assumption that ethnic categories are emblematic, hav­

ing names with meanings both for members and for analysts

These six criteria of ethnic identity are reviewed in various ethno­ graphic regions, e.g., F. Barth, Sohar; Romanucci-Ross, Italy; A.

Cohen, Africa; L. Depres, Guyana; M. Mead, United States; Glazer and

Moynihan, United States; Marden and Meyer, United States; and by vari­ ous social scientists who have written extensively about ethnic iden­ tity in Israel.

Anya P. Royce (1982:134) is of the opinion that:

A newly arrived immigrant realizes that in order to be ac­ cepted by his adapted homeland, he has to overcome certain disad­ vantages that are more class-related than ethnic-specific. For example, in comparison with the average American, he probably has less education, does not speak English with ease, and as a result of these two factors, holds a poorly paying low prestige job. To change his status, he will learn English and will send his children to school. Other features of American life begin to enter his life— watching television or driving a car— which will make his change of status easier . . . The immigrant can appear to be an American, but unless he identifies himself as an American, the Americanization process is not complete. At this point where assimilation has almost be­ come a fact, the immigrant has a choice of behaviors. He has mas­ tered the behavior appropriate to his adapted home but he can still refer to pre-American values and behavior-diversification of their roles . . . [Thus] they begin to cultivate , . . [their] ethnic self. Royce here has articulated that an important adaptation for immi­

grants in the United States is rapid assimilation into American soci­

ety. This process of Americanization will enable the immigrants also

to express their ethnicity which is manifested in American values and

behaviors that are acceptable in American culture.

Margaret Mead (1975:181) claims that immigrants from Europe

to the United States were subject to extreme racial ethnocentrism

characteristic of the English-speaking settlers who held eastern and

southern European immigrants in low esteem:

Such attitudes were primarily determined by the degree to which the foreigners stuck together, formed communities . . . to enter the mainstream of American culture, it was on the whole necessary to change one's name, move away from the ethnic neighborhood and slowly adopt "protective coloration."

Sachar (1976) also relates that the German Jewish population in the

United States who migrated in the mid-nineteenth century deplored the mass influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century and for many decades refused to interact with them socially.

According to Marden and Meyer (1973), the Italian and Irish ethnic groups were bitter enemies and lived in distinct ethnic neighborhoods.

Assimilation and Acculturation

According to Royce (1982), assimilation, throughout America's history, is seen as the guiding principle of Anglo-conformity; which implies that the immigrants, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, could not harbor competing ideologies and traditions.

Acculturation, however, according to Redfield, Linton, and Herskovits

(1936), results when groups of individuals having different cultures 38

come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in

the original cultural patterns of either or both groups.

The contrast between assimilation and acculturation is best

stated as follows: in the acculturation process, immigrant groups

do have a choice of retaining their cultural values and traditions

as practiced in the private sector, while accepting the language and

social behavior of their dominant host country in the public sector;

assimilation, however, implies little choice on the part of the new

immigrants. The host country exerts pressure for total absorption

on the part of the new immigrants, along with the adoption of its social and cultural values.

Israel's Absorption Policies: The 1950s

According to Lawrence (1952:23-24), Israel admitted nearly

700,000 Jewish immigrants in its first four years of its existence; therefore, its absorption problem was difficult because so many immi­ grants arrived in so short a period. The term absorption was used in 1950 in connection with cultural and social assimilation in the sense of attainment of stable relations between the immigrants and the host populations. Absorption eludes precise definition, but it does label certain kinds of things that are happening to immigrants in the course of which they shed the character of "outsiders" and merge with the host population.

In Israel in 1948, the new Oriental immigrants brought with them their own national aspirations and religious Zionist ideology.

They too believed in Jewish unity and allegiance to the new Jewish 39

state. For them, immigration to Israel was a long-awaited "homecom­

ing": they were Jews returning to their roots from the diaspora.

They expected to receive social and cultural equality in their home­

land; instead, they were treated by the dominant Ashkenazim with

paternalistic, condescending ethnocentrism and blatantly prejudicial

contempt. They were made to feel as second-class citizens in their

own land.

The head of the Jewish Agency's department for Middle Eastern

Jews wrote in September 1951:

There are among us those who protest against the increase of the Sephardim, the Oriental immigrants in the country . . . lest they become too numerous and overwhelm the cultural values and endow us and our children with a Levantine culture. The remedy is of course assimilation. The mass immigration streaming now from the backward and primitive countries to the Land of Israel is apt to inundate us with its flow, and drown our achievements. It is necessary therefore to toil in order to impart to those who now come to us the experience and the will cf the first-comers. (Patai 1970:308-309)

It was taken for granted by the officials of the Israeli government that the goal must be the eventual assimilation of the Oriental ethnic groups to an Ashkenazi cultural prototype (Patai 1970).

The Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion (1 9 51 -5 2:IX), said:

We are not just bringing in droves of creatures whom it is enough to employ, feed and house. These are Jewish men and women, who will not live by bread alone. This is a people unique of its kind, scattered to all ends of the earth, speaking with many tongues, apprenticed to alien cultures, splintered into different communities and tribes within the House of Israel. We must melt down this fantastically diversified community, and cast it afresh in the die of a renewed nationhood. We must break down the bar­ riers of geography and culture, of society and speech which kept the different sections apart, and endow them with a single lan­ guage, a single allegiance, with new legislation and new laws. 40

We must give them a new spirit and art, bring them into new social and political orbits and attach them to our past and to our vision of the future. (Italics mine)

Percy Cohen (1968) reports that the Ashkenazim in the 1950s

feared that Israel would become a "Levantine" state, meaning that the

process of modernization would be obstructed and the democracy of

Western-oriented Israel would be replaced by the future majority of

Sephardi-Oriental populations and by the culture and politics of the

Middle East.

It was very evident in the 1950s that the dominant Ashkenazi

society was frightened of: (1) the multitude of Oriental populations,

and (2) the eventual loss of their power and control to these ethnic

groups. Therefore the avenues of assimilation seemed to them to be

the only alternative at the time. The Israeli authorities' fear of

the Oriental "cultural" influences in Israel was understandable, con­

sidering the ethnocentric historical roots in their settlement pat­

terns in pre-state Palestine. According to Hunt and Walker (1974), we cannot assume that the problem of ethnic group conflict is solved

through the adoption of a common identity and the disappearance of

separate ethnic interest. Novak (1972:47) believes "that the identi­

fication with an ethnic group is a source of historical memory, values, instincts, and perceptions." The pulling up of the Oriental

immigrants' ethnic roots by the Israeli government during the 1950s and 1960 s proved to be a counter-productive strategy.

Eisenstadt's Absorption Modernization Model (1954) is a frame­ work for analyzing relations between Ashkena2i/Sephardi-0riental 41 Israeli Jews. It basically followed the example of a standard func­

tionalist nation-building model* and emphasizes the elements of sta­

bility, gradual change, and Jewish unity. This model also embraced

Western culture as the dominant culture in Israel. Eisenstadt was

aware of the anomie among the Orientals in Israel in the 1950s. He

attributed these conditions to the following factors:

(1) Increase in the birthrate and decreases in the death rate. (2) Changes in the employment patterns forced upon the Ori­ ental Jews by the Israeli economic-structure which was radically different from that which they were accustomed in their host countries. Peddlers, merchants, middlemen were not needed in Israel. (3) New identification, by the Oriental immigrants, with the Western oriented Israeli society; their old cultural values became questionable, and this seriously affected the prestige of the immigrants. (Eisenstadt 1954:599)

Shuval (1957, 19&2, 19&3) suggests that the general problem

of absorption is the roles that are played by the different ethnic groups in the structuring of hostility and prejudice. We find in the

1950s, the Ashkenazim occupied high government positions; they were the employers and managers in the factories, they controlled the pro­

fessions and white collar jobs, and were the bureaucrats with whom the new immigrants came in contact in the course of their attempt to establish households in a new country. In 1956, Shuval interviewed

Ashkenazim in a mixed shikun (public housing). Forty percent listed

Moroccans as the ethnic group most disliked because they were de­ scribed as excitable, dangerous, and devoid of culture. She concluded

(1959) that the North Africans were the major target for ethnic hostility. 42

The main problem with the theoretical concepts of assimilation

and absorption, as practiced by the Israeli government in the 1950s, was the lack of communication of the host populations with the Orien­

tal immigrants. The Israeli government viewed "assimilation as the reduction of cultural distance between specified groups" (Banton

1981:50). According to Zenner (1967), ethnic groups are corporate in nature, and when they cease to be corporate, assimilation can occur. The Oriental immigrants felt that they were being systemati­ cally stripped of their cultural, centuries old traditions. This tearing down of their cultural identities by the Israeli government was repugnant to them, and many Sephardi-Oriental immigrants in Israel held tightly to their ethnicity. As a result, the socio-cultural gaps between the two groups widened. The Israeli government and the

Ashkenazi population did not understand the Oriental immigrants' re­ luctance to espouse Western cultural identity. While the first- generation immigrants maintained their ethnic identity, they desired their children to enter the mainstream of Israeli society and partici­ pate in the integrative process of socio-cultural adaptation. The majority of the children of Oriental immigrants succeeded in accultu- rating into Israeli Western society; yet they did not assimilate completely, but continued to retain their ethnic cultural values, in­ cluding close ties with their parents and extended kin. 43

Acculturation Studies: 1960s and 1970s

Margaret Clark et al. (1976) claim that the concept of accul­ turation, once a staple of anthropological thought, has come to be regarded by many as too simple a construct for fruitful application to contemporary urban studies. The four classic formulations regard­ ing the theoretical concept of acculturation are: Redfield, Linton and Herskovits (1936), Herskovits (1938), Linton (1940), and the

Social Science Research Council Summer Seminar (1954)- Redfield et al. (1936) note that under their definition, "Acculturation is to be distinguished from culture change, of which it is but one aspect, and assimilation, which is at times a phase of acculturation."

Bee (1974:119) is of the opinion that "the acculturation approach remains viable in the study of dynamics of change through culture contact." Clark et al. (1976:233) state:

In our work, we have found that acculturation cannot be omitted from our definition of ethnic identity. It forms a major compon­ ent to create profiles of knowledge, meaning and behavior about the relationship of the traditional culture to the new culture. We must focus on the relationship between acculturation and ethnic identity by studying a combination of the two in the same individual.

Marden and Meyer (1973:5) prefer an operational definition of accul­ turation as being the "process by which individuals whose primary learning has been in one culture take over traits from other cultures in which they have contact." Clark et al. (1976) question if groups of immigrants "acculturate" more in some aspects than in others, e.g., language, technology, occupations, values, and attitudes. Royce

(1 9 8 2 ) terms these aspects (above) as "markers" of different ethnic identities. 44 The Oriental immigrants in Israel in the 1960s in public dis­

played marked aspects of acculturative public behavior: they spoke

Hebrew in Israeli shops, and they spoke Hebrew at work and with their

children's teachers in school. They dressed in Western style and

bought Western appliances for their homes. First-generation Oriental

immigrants' private behavior was still manifested in socializing with­

in their ethnic groups and maintaining traditional cultural values

and attitudes, e.g., language, religious observance, food, and music

(see Chapter V).

According to Patai (1970), Israel in the 1950s was committed

ideologically to absolute and egalitarian integration of all Jewish

subgroups. In 1952 Patai wrote the following: "Should it prove pos­

sible to Westernize the Oriental Jews sufficiently before they become

the majority, the cultural future of Israel will continue to rest on

the Western foundation laid down by the European Jewish pioneers"

(Patai 1970:308 Reprint). It is Patai's opinion that the Oriental

community aspired to full integration into the mainstream of Israeli

life. This would mean a movement away from their Middle Eastern back­

ground and toward the dominant European groups.

Peres (1971) confirms Patai1s thesis when he claims that the

social distance between Ashkenazim and Orientals in Israel is asymmet­

rical, and that the Ashkenazim serve as positive reference groups for

Oriental Jews. Oriental Jews are more favorable toward marriage with

Ashkenazim and living in the same shikunim (housing developments) with

them than the Ashkenazim, who are less favorable toward marriage with

Orientals, and while they agree to shikun integration in theory, they 45 are less in favor of it in reality. The results of Peres' research are that there existed considerable prejudice against Oriental Jews by Ashkenazim, but the attitudes of Orientals toward Ashkenazim re­ mained favorable.

Patai and Peres have shown that when Oriental immigrants tried to acculturate into Israeli society, they were rebuffed socially by the Ashkenazi community. According to Smooha (1978), this social prejudice abated somewhat in the late 1970 s, but still continues among the majority of Ashkenazim to the present.

We may ask, was there ethnic prejudice and ethnic inequality between Ashkenazim and Sephardi-Oriental populations in the political, economic, and social spheres in the 1970 s?

Many Oriental immigrants felt that one of the main incentives for emigration to Israel was the attempt to rid themselves of an in­ ferior status in their host countries and to become a part of a domi­ nant Jewish majority in Israel. Shokeid and Deshen (1974, 1977) and

Peres (1971) claim that Oriental Jews complained to them that in their host countries, they were identified as "Jews" and in Israel they were identified ethnically as "Moroccans," "Tunisians," etc., which implies a lower cultural, economic, and social position vis-a-vis other Jewish ethnic groups. According to Shokeid and Deshen (1974), the major frustrations of the Oriental immigrants to Israel was the continued subordinate-submissive role that was accorded them by the dominant

Ashkenazim.

According to Geertz (1973:154), "the emergence of a nation­ wide system of 'ethnic-blocs' engaged in 'total relations with one 46

another' sets the stage for a direct clash between personal identity

and political integrity." This occurred in 1970 in a large protest

by young Oriental adults in Israel. This group referred to themselves

as "Black Panthers." E. Cohen (1972:103-107) and I. Bnanuel (1971)

report that their demands were for equal pay* equal jobs, equal educa­

tion, and social equality (an equal right to be similar, and an equal

right to be different).

Erik Cohen claims that only a radical change in the power

position of the Orientals can generate a real change in their economic and political position. The "Black Panthers" were not able to live up to the task they had set for themselves. After the initial suc­ cess, the movement gradually lost its impetus and began to decline.

They never succeeded in transforming an intensive emotional protest movement into a well-organized, large-scale movement with clear goals and a cohesive program of action. The Panther Movement did speed up a process of cultural and political pluralism in Israel. It also strengthened the desire of the masses of Oriental immigrants for fuller participation in Israeli society. There was renewed ethnic pride for the majority of Sephardi-Oriental groups. Many liberal

Ashkenazim became aware of the seriousness of the ethnic inequality experienced by Oriental Jews. The most important result of the "Black

Panther" demonstrations was the realization that Oriental immigrants' assimilation into a Western society was not the answer to the prob­ lems of a two-tiered society. Some Israeli politicians also recog­ nized the Orientals as a potential power base in the country. Ethnicity Studies: 1970s

Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan emphasize that the study of ethnic groups, their origins, and causes of ethnic conflicts is increasing in intensity:

. . . There has been a pronounced and sudden increase in tenden­ cies by people in many countries and in many circumstances to in­ sist on the significance of their group distinctiveness and iden­ tity and on new rights that derive from this group character. Each group, of course, arises in a distinctive historical and social setting and must be treated as unique in the sense that everything in human affairs is unique— yet it is also necessary to search for common sectors . . . manifested by certain political and social developments that have given rise to new common social circumstances in many countries in the postwar world. The hope of doing without ethnicity in a society as its sub­ groups assimilate to the majority groups may be as utopian and as questionable an enterprise as the hope of doing without social classes in a society. (Glazer & Moynihan 1975:3-?-)

According to Glazer and Moynihan (1975 = 5), ,'ethnicity,, is a new word with a new usage in the steady expansion of the term "ethnic group"— minority and marginal subgroups at the edges of society, groups which were expected to assimilate and disappear but continue to survive, be they exotic or troublesome, and become major elements of a society.

Abner Cohen (1969:4) suggests that "the term ethnicity refers to strife between such ethnic groups in the course of which people stress their identity and exclusiveness." Cohen's description seems to fit the volatile environment among the Ashkenazim and the Orientals in Israel during the 1970s. However, in 1974, Cohen edited the book

Urban Ethnicity, in which he noted in the introduction that, in

Africa, populations are becoming integral parts of new state struc­ tures and thus are being transformed into ethnic groupings with vary­ ing degrees of cultural distinctiveness, but who interact and operate 48

within common social contexts: "It is obvious that ethnicity is a

complex phenomenon involving psychological, historical, economic and

political factors . . . which can help us clarify the nature of

socio-cultural change" (Cohen 1974:ix-xxiii).

Leo Depres (1975a, 1975b, 1984) claims that ethnic boundaries

express some organization of status identities to which status claims

are attached and ethnicity will persist to the extent that these

status claims confer competitive advantage in respect to particular

resource domains, employment opportunities, political power.

Pluralism: 1970s, 1980s

It is agreed by many scholars (Furnivall, Smith, & Kuper 1969;

Van den Berghe 1969) that the term "pluralism" ideologically espouses the notion that cultural diversity between ethnic groups is desirable and worthy of retention (Zipperstein & Jaffe 198lb:32). A Structural

Pluralist Model, which Smooha (1978) terms "the Dynamic Paternalism-

Cooptation Model," is a viable conceptual model for explaining the current ethnic relationships in Israel. This approach by Smooha assumes that the Oriental-Ashkenazi gap is now an institutionalized feature of Israeli society, and this means that a correlation exists between socio-economic status, political power, and ethnic identity.

Most important, the dynamic paternalism-cooptation approach thus assumes by implication that ethnic groups should not have to conform to a common image and culture. Zipperstein & Jaffe (198lb:34) claim that: 49 . . . the main goal of proponents of the dynamic paternalism- cooptation approach is to spark a radical change in Israeli so­ ciety, a change that would recognize the cultural integrity of the Oriental Jews and accept them as full partners in society, rather than as relatively inferior citizens who must be cared for.

Lissak (1977) also views Israeli society as socially and cul­ turally pluralistic. Its social pluralism is in voluntary associa­ tions, marriages, and membership clubs. Cultural pluralism is seen in value orientations, social patterns, consumption norms, and reli­ gious rituals.

Patai (1970, 1977), Heller (1977), Toledano (1977), Lipset

(1977), Ben David (1970), and Weingrod (1 9 6 5, 1966, 1979) all agree that while Oriental ethnicity will not fade away, large Oriental non­ poor strata will acquire more political prestige and representation in local and national politics. They also agree that the inequality between the Oriental and the Ashkenazi ethnic groups will be class- based and less based on ethnicity. Patai foresees in the year 2000 an Israeli population which will be "genetically" largely Sephardi-

Oriental while culturally largely Western. He claims that in present times, the Oriental Jews in Israel have been so thoroughly Westernized that in many cases its younger Sabra generation knows the traditional

Middle Eastern culture only from hearsay, if at all.

Smooha (1978) reports that acculturation of the Oriental Jews in Israel has increased, though socio-economic gaps are still strong but narrowing. He claims that anti-Oriental feeling by Ashkenazim is subsiding and that Oriental Jews will continue to lose their most distinctive subcultural attributes, such as non-Hebrew mother tongue 50

and their high birthrate, but they will preserve some of their folk

variations, as in food and music.

Alex Weingrod (1979) claims that the ethnic distinctiveness

of Oriental Jews is no longer considered by Ashkenazim to be dangerous

or a threat to social harmony in Israel. The Six-Day War in 1967 marked a turning point in the relationship between the Oriental and

Ashkenazi groups, as members of both ethnic groups fought together

for the first time, shed blood, and the Orientals proved that they were an integral part of Israeli society. "In many important respects the entire Jewish population of Israel is Israeli. Ethnicity is best considered to be a sometime thing, an identity or social category that is pertinent in some but not all social situations" (Weingrod

1979:64).

Percy Cohen (1967) and Harvey Goldberg (1977) report that if

Sephardi-Oriental youth are to enter occupations carrying high pres­ tige and power, they must have equal opportunity to study the academic curricula in the secondary schools. This, in turn, will enable them to compete with Ashkenazi students to qualify for entrance into the universities in Israel. Enanual Marx (1980:2), on the other hand, claims that a national ideological tenet in Israel today is the

"ethnic dichotomy" of Ashkena2i/Sephardi-0 riental ethnic groups which, though considered by Israelis to be controversial, nevertheless is widely accepted. 51 Conclusion

Israel in the 1950s was involved in a nation-building strat­

egy, and sought its solutions to the mass influx of Sephardi-Oriental

immigrants in "assimilative" patterns— of the inferior Oriental into

the dominant host population. According to the literature mentioned

above, the viable strategy of "acculturation" was not completely

accepted by the Oriental population in the 1960s and 1970s, nor were

Ashkenazim prepared to accept Orientals in their social sphere— thus

the socio-cultural gap widened. Geertz (1963) described the term

modern discrimination as "modern ethnocentrism," which could explain

the attitudes of the Ashkenazi populations in Israel today.

Throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century,

immigration to the United States was the goal of over one million

immigrants from Western and Eastern countries. The immigrants all had the same goal: to become American citizens and achieve the golden dream of success. They chose acculturation into American society; they learned English, joined the work force, wore modern Western dress, and to a degree accepted the host country's customs and life styles. The Oriental immigrants from China and Japan at the turn of the century did not acculturate into a Western-oriented society as quickly as the European community. These Oriental immigrants were discriminated against, along with the black community and those ethnic groups that crowded together in their ethnic neighborhoods, by the established white Protestant community along with many old-timers of

European descent. At the present, the United States and Israel possess diverse ethnic groups and there is renewed ethnic pride in their identity.

As Clark et al. (1976) suggest, social scientists must focus on the relationship between acculturation and ethnic identity by accepting a combination of the two in the same individual. CHAPTER III

THEORETICAL DISCUSSION OF ISRAEL'S DEVELOPMENT TOWNS

The history of development towns in Israel has been exten­ sively recorded in the social science literature (Spiegel 1966;

Neufeld 1971; Berler 1970; Cohen 1968, 1970a, 1970b; Soen et al. 1976;

Aronoff 1974, 1977; Lichfield 1971; Weingrod 1981). All studies re­ port that during the years 1948-1952, the first four years of Israel's establishment as a state, the country absorbed more than 6 5 0 ,0 0 0 immi­ grants. It was obvious to the Israeli authorities that the immigrants could not be settled in the major cities. At the time, the new immi­ grants had to be housed temporarily in ma1abarot (transit camps) and existing core cities, such as Beer Sheva and Ashkelon in the south and Safed and Tiberias in the north. Some immigrants were settled in the abandoned houses left by Palestinians who had fled during the

1948 war. The number of immigrants, however, far exceeded settlement possibilities provided by the existing towns and abandoned houses.

As a result, Israel initiated a policy aimed at coping with the mas­ sive influx of immigrants, and with the need for population dispersal throughout the country. This policy led to the creation of Develop­ ment Towns.

The term ’’development town" and the term "new town" are used interchangeably in the literature (Spiegel 1 9 6 6; Aronoff 1974, 1977;

53 Lichfield 1971). The objectives of the government of Israel were

to establish new towns that would absorb hundreds of thousands of new

immigrants providing them with housing and employment. The develop­ ment towns were built in unpopulated areas in order to alleviate popu­

lation congestion in the large cities and also to strengthen the

existing kibbutzim (communal agricultural settlements) and moshavim

(agricultural settlements) in the areas, which were vulnerable to ter­ rorist attack in the south by fedayeen (terrorists) infiltrating into

Israel from Egypt. Moreover, the new towns were to generate interac­ tion between the settlements and with an established regional urban center. Cohen (1970a:47) claims that settlement in the development town truly represented a legitimate pioneering effort on the part of the new immigrants. As of 19^5, thirty development towns exist in

Israel (Figure 2). In 1965, 17 percent of Israel's Jewish population lived in development towns and the number in 1979 was over half a mil­ lion, or some 18 percent of the total population (Meissner 1 9 7 9:2 2 1)

(Table 3).

The development towns were almost exclusively settled by new immigrants who came to Israel after 1948, with the exception of Arad and, partially, Carmiel. Many of the immigrants, when feasible, left these towns to settle with their families in the coastal plain area.

But most of the towns did take root, under very harsh conditions, as for example in Dimona; the major ethnic groups in the towns were Ori­ ental immigrants, the majority from North Africa. Berler (1970) sug­ gests that the social and economic development of the new towns in the 1950s was slowed down because their populations were mainly 55

Afuta ,

Aahdod Kiryat Maiachi

Arad

Dimona

Fig. 2. Development towns i n J srnol.

Adapted from F. Meissner, Development Towns in Israel, 197^:220. 56

TABLE 3

ISRAEL’S DEVELOPMENT TOWNS: NEW TOWNS* BY YEAR OF FIRST SETTLEMENT AND DISTRICT

North Center South Existing Existing Existing Year Core New Town Core New Town Core New Town 1948 Tiberias Beersheva Safed Ashkelon Afula Beth She'an Ac co (Acre) Nahariya 1949 Yavneh 1950 Kiryat Beth Shemonah Shemesh Shlomi 1951 Kiryat Malachi Yeruham Sh1 derot Eilat 1952 Migdal Ha 1emek 1953 Hazor 1954 Mizpeh Ramon Kiryat Gat 1955 Ofakim Dimona 1956 Ashdod 1957 Nazareth Ma'alot Netivot Illit 1962 Arad 1964 Carmiel

SOURCE: Erika Spiegel, New Towns in Israel (New York: Praeger, 1967), p. 23-

Spelling of names matches the spelling used in Figure 2, 57 Oriental new immigrants, who remained at the time isolated from the

mainstream of Israeli society. Many of these immigrants were either

illiterate or poorly educated and unskilled. Few of them spoke

Hebrew, were familiar with the secular laws of Israel, or the Western

customs and cultural model of the dominant society.

The Israeli government built one industry in each town to

serve the economic needs of the immigrants. In Dimona it established

a textile factory, and in later years, many first-generation immi­

grants in the development towns became small entrepreneurs in the com­ mercial centers and shuk (marketplace).

Aronoff claims that there was no single consolidated body of law pertaining to the establishment of new towns in Israel such as the New Towns Act (1946, 1965, 1968) in Britain:

The lack of a centralized planning authority in Israel and the lack of special legislation for new towns, and clean lines of authority for responsibility in developing the new towns, all led to a situation that any one of a number of ministries or agencies could and did take the initiative in the establishment of particu­ lar new towns. (Aronoff 1977:29)

Galantay (1979:200-205) agrees with this analysis and suggests that the location, number, character, and size of the new towns must be examined within the framework of a national policy. He argues that the criteria of the development towns1 performance should be defined so that it is possible to measure their success in terms of their objectives. The impact of the towns should be measured by their con­ tribution to national performance, their impact on the regional level, and their performance as they affect the lives of their own popula­ tions vis-a-vis the activities within the town, and the industries 58

settled within their area (these variables will be discussed in Chap­

ters IV and V). Cohen (1970b) stresses that the development towns and their populations were passive objects of manipulation by the cen­

tral agencies of the government. The local residents had no clearly defined places in the planning and development of the towns. He claims that the planted character of the new towns is an important clue to the understanding of the towns' inner dynamics.

The Ministries of Housing, Labor, Health and Welfare, and Edu­ cation established local branches in the new towns. A local branch of Amidar, the central housing rental office, was set up in the new towns to dispense rental apartments to the new immigrants. The rent was nominal and based on apartment size. There were, however, prob­ lems; many Oriental immigrants had very large families— eight to twelve children— and needed larger apartments, which were not avail­ able, as all shikunim were planned to a standard size, which was de­ termined by the Ministry of Housing in Jerusalem. Therefore families with more than eight children were usually settled in double apart­ ments, and the families with seven children, or six children, were allocated two or three and one-half rooms.

Various branches of public institutions, such as the Jewish

Agency (the absorption department of immigrants) and the Histadrut

(the General Federation of Labor) were, and still are, very powerful agencies in the new towns. The Jewish Agency functions both abroad and in Israel; it is responsible for immigrants who wish to migrate to Israel, it pays for their tickets, and in the early years of mass immigration (1948 -1 9 5 5), it initially settled the new immigrants in 59

ma’abarot, and later (1956-19 6 5) in development towns. During the

early 1970s, the Jewish Agency established absorption centers in many

cities and towns. The immigrant lived at the center, attended the

ulpan (intensive Hebrew classes), was fed and cared for, and then

given employment in any town or city of his or her choice. But in

the 1950s and 1960s, such accommodations did not yet exist for the

new immigrants, both Ashkenazi and Sephardi-Oriental.

The Histadrut, in the development towns, performed many of

the same functions as various national governmental agencies and vol­

untary associations. It provided the immigrants with occupational

training, recreation such as sports clubs and cultural activities,

and it constructed synagogues for the traditional immigrants. In

addition, the Histadrut administered the Kupat Cholim (health service)

which provides for most of the health needs of almost all of the resi­

dents. The Histadrut was the first agency to come to Dimona in 1956.

The immigrants, in the early years, relied on the local officials

of the Histadrut for support, and they usually supported its political

party (Mapai). This was their first exposure to politics in a demo­

cratic society. In later years, as they became politically more

sophisticated, the residents in the new towns began to vote

independently.

Several voluntary associations, such as the Women's Interna­ tional Zionist Organization (WIZO) and the Pioneer Women (Na'amat), provided child-care nurseries for working mothers in most of the new towns. These agencies were introduced into the new towns from outside 60

sources, and were mostly established by Vatikim (long-time settlers),

who were often sent to the development towns for those purposes.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry encouraged industries

to resettle in the towns by giving them tax reductions and low-

interest loans for site acquisitions, site development, and on-the-job

training of workers (Lichfield 1971:1313)- Spiegel (1967) claims

that the various industries that were given preference in the towns

were the ones which exploited the resources of a region, such as min­

ing and chemical manufacturing near the Dead Sea, or labor-intensive

factories that provided many jobs at a low initial capital cost.

’•Textile manufacturing has been the most favored industry: the short

training period for spinning and weaving jobs made them tasks especi­

ally suitable for accommodating low-skill immigrants" (Spiegel

1967:51)- Spilerman and Habib report that individual ethnic groups

tended to be over-represented in certain industries:

Moroccans are in mining (four times their representation); immi­ grants from Algeria and Tunisia are employed disproportionately (by a factor of three) in wood product industries. The over- representation of these immigrant groups can be attributed to the particular development town where they reside. (Spilerman & Habib 1976:795) Berler (1970) emphasizes the need to create modern local lead­ ership in the development towns with strong active cores. The leader­

ship must be built up from those people who are generally identified with the town, and who live in the town. The officials and teachers who work in the town, but who do not live there, should not share in the local leadership. According to Inbar and Adler (1977), the devel­ opment towns in the 1950 s had underdeveloped infrastructures. 61

Spilerman and Habib (1976) agree with Berler and Inbar and Adler that there were many nonresident professional and administrative work forces in the development towns, with the exception of Arad.

Teachers, social workers, and industrial managers chose to commute to work rather than reside in the towns. Berler (1970) claims that the vatikim, who were living in the new towns in the early years, were expected by the Israeli government to play an important role in devel­ oping leadership in the towns. In reality, however, the vatikim usu­ ally were Ashkenazim, who isolated themselves socially and were out of touch with the social needs and problems of the Oriental immigrants.

The main problems of the towns in the 1960s were: (1) cul­ tural gaps between the ethnic groups, (2) socio-economic gaps between ethnic groups, and (3) inadequate development of leadership among ethnic groups. Soen et al. (1976:51) refer to many of the development towns as "distress towns." They claim that the socio-economic gap between Oriental immigrants in development towns and the rest of the country resulted in their becoming dependent populations.

The statistics a decade later in 1974 show an improvement in the socio-economic, educational, and welfare situations from those that were prevalent in the towns in the 1950s and the 1960s. Many towns have succeeded in developing strong local leadership and good municipal infrastructures in their political spheres. It can be con­ cluded that the development towns represent microcosms of a wider

Israeli society. 62

I was often told by Israelis (both nationally and in Dimona

and Arad) that the national political structure, the national health

services, and the national structure of the rabbinate have grown to

monolithic proportions. Many residents in Arad claimed that the national rabbinate was an encroachment on their private lives, but

the residents in Dimona, being more traditional, did not express this view. I shall describe the national political structure, the health

services, and the rabbinate in detail. I shall also discuss the ways that the towns of Dimona and Arad locally relate to these national structures (see Chapters IV, V, and VI).

General Background of the National Political Structure

Aronoff (1974*-19-23) suggests that Israel's political develop­ ment took root in the leadership of the dominant Jewish voluntary associations in the late nineteenth century. These associations be­ came institutionalized after World War I and developed into semi- autonomous governing bodies during the period of the British Mandate.

One of the most important processes which accompanied independence since 194§ was the transition from a pluralistic, decentralized, and voluntaristic system into a unified center of political authority and economic responsibility.

The primary Jewish voluntary associations were in the politi­ cal parties, dominated by those of the labor movement, the agricul­ tural (kibbutz and moshav) movements, the Histadrut, and the Jewish

Agency. With independence, the State began to take over many 63 functions which had been previously under the auspices of these asso­

ciations— for example, defense, foreign relations, education, social

welfare, health care, employment offices, and so forth.

The Labor Party, formed in 1968 by the merger of the former

Mapai, Rafi, and Achdut Ha Avoda, maintained its dominant position

from the 1930s to the elections of 1977, when the Likud Party, under

the leadership of Menachem Begin, won a majority of votes. According

to Aronoff:

Under the Israeli system of proportional representation, which was carried over from the earlier Zionist Congresses, the entire country is a single electoral district. Elections to all major public offices, from the Knesset (national legislature) and the national ruling bodies of the Histadrut to local, municipal, and Histadrut councils are based on competing political party lists of candidates. It is crucially important that these lists of candidates are drawn up by a relatively small group of top party leaders (national leaders for national offices, and local leaders for local offices) who take into consideration the various inter­ est and pressure groups to which they must find representation on the party list. The general voter has no voice in the nomination of the candi­ dates, and can only choose the party list to which he will give his vote. The voter must vote for an entire list as submitted; he cannot change the order in which the candidates appear on the list, nor can he vote for only part of the list. The proportion of votes cast for a list determines how far down the list persons will be elected. (Aronoff 1974*20-23)

The members of the Knesset, most of whom lack local constitu­

encies in the conventional sense, largely owe their offices to the

leaders in the party center. The political party is the major insti­

tution through which political leadership is recruited for almost all major public offices, in the government, in the Histadrut, and so

forth. The parties are highly centralized and disciplined institu­ tions; and the national leaders, through their control of vast eco­ nomic and political resources, have maintained their dominant positions in the parties with few serious challengers. One example

of a consistent coalition partner of Likud is the National Religious

Party (Mafdal), which, in return for its support of Likud's economic,

defense, and foreign policy, has been rewarded with control of the

Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Social Welfare, the

Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Education.

The primary role of the political parties is allocating and

controlling ministries due to their need for coalition governments,

which is a central feature of the Israeli political system. The pro­

cess of political bargaining, which precedes the formation of each

government, has led to the creation of new ministries and other real­

location of functions and authorities among existing ministries.

These shifts result much more from political compromises than from

any attempt to assess the national requirements of administration.

The Structure of the Rabbinate in Israel

Background

At the first elections to the Knesset, the four religious

parties Mizrachi, Ha-Poel ha Mizrachi, Agudat Israel, and Po'alei

Agudat Israel formed the United Religious Front, which joined the

first coalition government only after its demands on religious ques­ tions, such as the deferment of Yeshiva students and the exemption of religious girls from the military service, had been met. Article 2 of the government's Statement of Basic Principles, presented to the

Knesset on March 8, 1949, reads: 65 The state will provide for the public religious needs of its in­ habitants but will prevent coercion in matters of religion. The Sabbath and the Jewish holy days will be fixed days of rest of the State of Israel. The right of non-Jews to their Sabbath and the days of rest will be safeguarded. (Encyclopedia Judaica 9:895)

From 1959, these principles were supplemented by the obligation of

the government to guarantee religious education to all children whose

parents so desire— and to maintain the status quo in the state in

religious matters— thus confirming an unwritten agreement which has been in force since the establishment of independence.

One of the reasons why the Knesset did not immediately proceed to enact a comprehensive written constitution was the opposition of the religious parties. In a debate on the subject in 1950, they objected to a constitution which did not clearly express the religious character of the Jewish people; the Agudat Israel representatives de­ clared that "Israel's Torah is her constitution and no other is needed" (Encyclopedia Judaica 9:895)- The Ministry of Religious

Affairs is responsible for the administrative aspects of the Chief

Rabbinate and the rabbinical courts, the religious councils and the religious committees, and the appointment of local rabbis. The min­ istry also deals with kashrut (dietary laws), Yeshivot (Higher Talmud

Schools of Learning), Mikva1ot (ritual baths), the supervision of burials, the provision of ritual facilities, the care of sacred books, and the institution of religious marriage laws. It is responsible for the prayer arrangements at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The ministry also provides religious services for Muslims, Christians,

Druze, Karaites, and Samaritans. 66

Rabbinical Courts and the Chief Rabbinate

In 1953 the Knesset passed the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction

(Marriage and Divorce) Law, which gave the Chief Rabbinate and the religious courts sanctioned by it exclusive jurisdiction of all matrimonial cases, including alimony and support of children, for all

Jewish residents, including foreign nationals. Jews may marry only by the traditional ceremony (Chupah Ve-Kiddushin) after the marriage has been duly registered with the rabbinate and only rabbis approved by the Chief Rabbinate may conduct marriage ceremonies. Rabbinical courts also have the jurisdiction in matters of trusteeship, confirma­ tion of wills, etc., where parties involved accept their authority.

Attempts have been made to legalize civil marriages by appeals to the

High Court of Justice, and some people circumvent the law by civil marriage abroad (particularly in nearby Cyprus). A certain status has, however, been accorded by law to Mcommon-law wives." Rabbinical judges, who have the same status as judges of district courts, are appointed by the President of the State on the recommendation of a special committee who take the oath in his presence.

There is both a Sephardi and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Israel.

In 1955, Rabbi Yizchak Nissim was elected Sephardi Chief Rabbi for a five-year term. In 1963, Rabbi Nissim was reelected and Rabbi Issar

Yehudah Unterman was elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.

The Chief Rabbinical Council has departments for kashrut, supervision oY scribes (soferim), and committees for marriage licenses; confirmation of rabbinical ordination (semichah); precepts specific to the Holy Land; and responds on matters of halacha (Jewish 67 law). The Chief Rabbi presides over the Bet Din Cadol (Rabbinical

Supreme Court), which hears appeals from decisions of the district

rabbinical courts in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Petach Tikvah,

Rehovot, Tiberias, Safed, Beersheba, and Ashdod-Ashkelon.

Religious Councils

The Religious Services Budget Law (1949), which was given its

final form in 1967, states that every local authority is required to

appoint a religious council for the local population. The composition

of each religious council must be ratified by the Minister of Reli­

gious Affairs. Forty-five percent of the members are nominated by

the minister, 45 percent by the local authority, and 10 percent by

the local rabbinate. In 1970, 1§5 such councils were in existence.

According to Aronoff (1974:36-37), the local religious coun­ cils were particularly important institutions in development towns where there were large concentrations of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East with a significant percentage of traditionally observant Jews. The Religious Council is supervised and also paid from the joint subsidies of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the local council, which also include the salaries of local rabbis, ritual slaugherers, circumcisers, functionaries who supervise the enforcement of dietary laws (kashrut) in butcher shops, restaurants, and hotels.

They also issued marriage licenses, ruled on divorces, and ran burial societies. The control of resources and patronage through these coun­ cils was a major source of local power for the National Religious

Party (Mafdal), which by a "secret" coalition agreement had a majority on every religious council in the country. The control of the Minis­

try of Interior by Mafdal was another channel of influence on local

councils, particularly in those cases where Labour and Mafdal were

in close competition for dominance in a community.

National Kupat Cholim Services (Health Services)

The general Kupat Cholim services consist of: neighborhood

clinics, specialists, a laboratory, and a pharmacy. The Kupat Cholim

covers most hospital expenses.

Kupat Cholim of the Histadrut

This is the largest health insurance plan in Israel, encom­ passing most of the population. A member is permitted to choose his

own general practitioner from the list of doctors available in the clinic nearest his place of residence.

The cost of membership fee is determined by the prospective member's income and is not dependent on the size of his family or on the members' ages. These fees include payment of union dues, which then entitles the worker to membership in all the workers' union in­ stitutions and the possibility of receiving assistance from union funds. Persioners, policemen and policewomen, olim (new immigrants), working mothers, demobilized soldiers, students, army disabled, etc. receive their health care benefits at reduced rates. Mas makbil is a tax that covers hospitalization and is paid by the employers. 69

Kupat Cholim Maccabee

This is another form of health service in Israel. The member

of this plan and his family may choose from a list of doctors that

include general practitioners and specialists. The specialists re­

ceive the patients directly and do not need to be referred to by a

general practitioner. The fully insured member whose mas makbil is

paid is entitled to receive all the medical services provided by the

kupah. Doctors receive patients in their private offices. Membership

fees are determined by the type of insurance desired, and the member's

income, his work situation, and the number of people to be covered

in the family. Workers who pay their d'mai mahala (sick pay insur­

ance) receive 8 0 -9 0 percent of their salaries from the kupah if they are ill.

The United Kupat Cholim (Meuchedet)

This health service was established in June 1974, amalgamating

two veteran Kupat Cholim. The meuchedet provides medical insurance to members in every sector of the community, irrespective of political party affiliation, race, or religion. This kupah combines the free choice method and the clinic method:

(1) Free choice method— whereby the member chooses his general

practitioner and all specialists from a list of kupah doc­

tors, and the doctors receive patients in their private

offices

(2) Clinic method— where federal and specialized medical ser­

vices are centered in a local or regional clinic 70 Tipat Chalav (Mother and Well-Child Care Clinics)

The prenatal and postnatal services given to women are organ­

ized by government and municipal bodies that provide comprehensive

care from the first stages of pregnancy until the child is three years old. These Tipat Chalav stations are situated in every city, town, and settlement throughout the country, including Dimona and Arad.

Women who have unusual complications receive treatment from

Kupat Cholim gynecologists. The pregnant woman chooses the hospital where she prefers to give birth. If she requests a specific doctor for the delivery, she is usually limited to the hospitals with which the doctor is associated. I was told that natural childbirth is the usual method of giving birth in almost every hospital in the country.

The actual birth is assisted by nurses and midwives, with a duty doc­ tor available in case of complications.

The delivery and stay in the hospital are covered by the

National Insurance Institute (Bitauch Leumi). It also provides the mother with a ma’anak leida (birth grant) as well as paying a percent­ age of the salary of a gainfully employed woman who has taken mater­ nity leave from her job. Maternity benefits equal one part of the grant and cover hospital costs, while the second part, for the pur­ chase of a layette, is given in cash. Maternity allowance is up to twelve weeks. CHAPTER IV

DIMONA I: BACKGROUND AND ETHNIC GROUPS

Introduction to the Negev

The Hebrew word Negev is usually translated into English as

South or Southland. Geographically (Figure 3)> the Negev may be de­ fined as the area lying to the south of the Judean Mountains and west of the Dead Sea. It is the Aravah, that part of the Great Rift ex­ tending from the Dead Sea to Eilat on the Red*Sea coast. The western border of the Negev runs along the international boundaries between

Egypt and Israel from the vicinity of Rafiach to Eilat. The Negev thus forms a large triangle, whose area extends over 12,500 sq. km., constituting more than half the total area of Israel, which is 20,700 sq. km. (Marx 1967:7; Bransten 1970:136).

It was Ben Gurion's dream to settle the Negev. Ben-Gurion was a student of the Bible and he believed that the Negev was the his­ torical site where Judaism began. He was also a pragmatic man and envisioned the development of the Negev as an imperative for Israel's economic plight in the 1950s: (l) the population of immigrants had to be dispersed more evenly throughout the country, and (2) Ben-Gurion truly believed that the desert could be made to bloom again, as in

Biblical times (Bransten 1970).

71 Dimona

A\ r * NEGEV

SINAI PENINSULA

O ra

SAUDI ARABIA

Fig. 3* Map of southern Israel.

Adapted from H. Sachar, A History of Israel. 1076:526. 73 Beer Sheva is the capital of the Negev. Historically, the

city of Beer Sheva reaches back to the Chalcolithic Age (4000 B.C.).

The area was then inhabited by a highly gifted agricultural people

with an advanced technology and who first lived in subterranean dwell­

ings (Glueck 1959; Gradus 1977). Above all, Beer Sheva is the town

most closely associated with the Biblical patriarch, Abraham. The

earliest settlement of the present site of modern Beer Sheva took

place during the late Roman and Byzantine periods. This settlement

lies three miles to the northeast of the remains of ancient Beer

Sheva.

Until the beginning of this century, Beer Sheva was just a

collection of wells where the Bedouin watered their flocks. In 1900

the Turkish authorities built a small town to serve as an administra­ tive center for the Bedouin tribes. In World War I, the Germans con­ nected Beer Sheva by rail with the Sinai Peninsula, and in 1917 Beer

Sheva fell to General Allenby, the British commander in Palestine.

Because of its strategic location and sources of water, the city has always been the gateway to the Negev. Almost every power who ruled the Negev region has built administrative centers there. During World

War II, Beer Sheva was an important station for British troop move­ ments between Egypt and Palestine. During the Israeli War of Indepen­ dence in 1948) Beer Sheva was captured by the Egyptians, strongly fortified, and then captured back by Israeli forces on October 21,

1948- At that time the population totaled three thousand (Gradus

1977). 74

Due to the remoteness and isolation of the Israeli development towns in the Negev, a strong interrelationship has developed between

Beer Sheva and its regional settlements. Beer Sheva fulfills many administrative and public functions. Nearly all the government offices are represented, providing service to the entire population of the southern district. These populations are: (1) the populations of the development towns, totaling some sixty thousand people, all situated about forty-five-minutes journey from Beer Sheva (the towns are Dimona, Ofakim, Arad, Yeruham, Netivot, and Mitzpeh Ramon); and

(2) the Bedouins, amounting to some four thousand people, whose habi­ tat is concentrated within the triangle formed by Beer Sheva, Dimona, and Arad. These Bedouins are in the last stages of sedentarization, and their traditional market day in Beer Sheva has always been held on Thursdays. Ben-Gurion University is located in Beer Sheva and so is a large medical complex, as well as the Israel sinfonietta. An airport is to be built in the triangle in the near future. Beer Sheva is a central strategic transit center, as Egged buses travel to all points south and north. In 1980, the population of Beer Sheva was estimated at over 100,000.

Biblical Dimona

Historically, Dimona is mentioned in the Bible (Joshua

15:21- 22):

This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families . . . and the cities of the uttermost part of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the south were Kabzel and Eder and Jaguar and Kinah and Dimonah and Adadah . . . (Italics mine.) Ancient Dimona was located on the commercial highways that led east

to west and> according to Glueck (1954:207-208), during the second century a Nabatean settlement, Kurnov-Mamsheet, was a major caravan stop. The Romans and Byzantines also occupied Kurnov-Mamsheet in ancient times. Although the ruins of Kurnov-Mamsheet are remarkably well-preserved, unfortunately this archaeological site is not a priority in the national tourist guide's manual. It is, however, appreciated by students of archaeology and many residents of Dimona picnic there on Shabbat with their families.

Modern Dimona

The story of modern Dimona began on September 19, 1955* It is located thirty-five kilometers from the Dead Sea and thirty-five kilometers east of Beer Sheva, six hundred meters above sea level.

Its climate is a typical desert climate, hot and dry in the summer with cool evenings; cold and dry in the winter.

Dimona was planned by the Ben-Gurion government as a town for new Oriental immigrants. It would consist of a population of

"workers" who would exploit the natural minerals in the Dead Sea region which were, at the time, under heavy development by the Israeli government {Hoffmitz 1978)*

According to local legend, when the first thirty-two North

African settlers arrived in Dimona, they refused to leave the buses.

After eight hours on the bus, they succumbed to their more immediate biological needs, but they still refused to spend more than one night 76 in this "shimama" (desolation). In the morning, the scene before them was worse than they imagined:

They saw a sea of sand, felt a merciless sun without an inch of shade. During the day, the tin shacks were like furnaces, and at night the cold desert wind did not offer them any consolation. Drinking water had to be brought by truck from Beer Sheva, there was no electricity, no road to Beer Sheva, there was nothing! (Hoffmitz 1978:231)

Many of these early settlers left the town as soon as they could, usually seeking brighter opportunities in coastal towns, but they were always replaced by the new immigrants from North Africa,

India, and Romania. In 1959, a tenacious core group remained in

Dimona and gradually the town took root. The Ben-Gurion government' may have envisioned Dimona*s eventual success, but at the time it did not contribute any substantial town planning. It was as if buildings, shops, and other immediate survival needs of the immigrants just sprung up as the population increased through natural means, immigra­ tion patterns, and the Dead Sea workers* needs for homes.

I taped an interview in Hebrew with the first settler who worked with the early immigrants in Dimona in 1955, and who still lived there in 1980. He was an immigrant from Tunisia, and was em­ ployed as a male nurse, a counselor, and overall caretaker to the immigrants. He described the early years of settlement in Dimona:

Three huts— that was Dimona. New immigrants came, thirty-two families from Tunisia and Morocco. Ashkenazim would not have come or stayed in Dimona. Those early days— no electricity, no water, no toilets, no road from Beer Sheva, we had to come by way of Yeruchum. No homes— it was difficult to keep people here. If I weren't here to help and to work, people would not have stayed. I was the showier [guardian] here day and night. After­ wards we had some technical courses. Some people left and some returned. There was no electricity for four years. I asked the Sochnut [Jewish Agency] to bring a little generator. They would 77

bring milk and supplies in the morning and by the afternoon it was spoiled. They brought us some meat but we never saw vege­ tables and fruit for months. After the shuk [market] was started in Beer Sheva, food began to come to us. In 1959 new immigrants began to arrive. Many of the original thirty-two families left. After three years the Solel Boneh [gov­ ernment construction firm] began to build houses. In 1958 we had 120 huts, but after seven or eight years the shopping center and first shikunim were completed. As the houses were finished, immi­ grants were placed in apartments. Shikun Haaravah was the first to be built and from there they built towards the north. Some of the new immigrants were from rural villages in Morocco, they did not understand the modern Western life style, it was very hard for them. I had all the police work to do, and the municipal work. As hard as we worked, we never received anything from anybody. As women gave birth, I had to stop cars to take them to Beer Sheva to the hospital. There were so many happenings— for example, emergency appendicitis. In 1957-1958 they sent a doctor twice a week, who did not live here, of course. Later they established a dispensary in Dimona. In 1965-1966 Dimona began to develop. The new immigrants came from Persia and some from Romania and many from Egypt. The Ameri­ can community has helped us a lot— they built our schools and the new library. People still come to me for help!

The following interview was with an official of the municipality.

He was a member of the original thirty-two families who came in 1955-

He was eighteen at the time and unmarried. He, too, described the early years in Dimona (1956):

Thirty huts— desolate— a desert. I wanted to return to Haifa, but the man from the Jewish Agency talked me out of it— no elec­ tricity, no water, no toilet— but we were like one family. We worked on a road from Dimona to Yeruham. We earned five lirot a day, it gave us something to do. There wasn't even a tree anywhere. There was no one to talk to, a man from the Sochnut came once or twice a week to see what our needs were— I was eighteen years old. In 1956 the second group came— it was very difficult to ad­ just. One really needed a great deal of patience in those first years. Then Amidar [the government Housing Office] came to Dimona to give out apartments. They asked me to do some clerical work for them. Then a representative of the government was sent to be the Natzig [head of the town], I helped him because I spoke Hebrew. 78

All of our mayors were of Moroccan descent; our first munici­ pality was in a small office in the Arava Shikun. With all the dirt and the huts— I love Dimona.

The following interview was with the chief engineer (an Ashkenazi)

for planning the settlement of the Negev during the years 1950-1965.

He preferred that the interview be in English. He is now retired and

lives in Arad. I asked him about the early government planning of

Dimona.

Dimona developed in stages. Its development started from scratch. The plan included the industrial development in the Dead Sea area along with the development of the towns. I remember the first houses were built with the stones from the arava. The later immigrants were more particular and de­ manded better housing with balconies. As I look back at our successes and failures I realize that we were at fault. We did not realise the differences in the men­ tal process of the different immigrants. Why was it planned this way?— I suppose it must be called the "human factor."

In 1980, many vatikim realized that the government's absorp­

tion policies of the 1950s were unproductive. This government planner

(above), however, was perceptive to the strengths and weaknesses of

Israel's policies in those early, difficult years. He offers the ex­ cuse of "ignorance" on the part of the Ashkenazim in not recognizing at that time the cultural differences of the Oriental immigrants.

These interviews all show that Dimona was a "planted town," built with few prior government plans. The early population of immi­ grants were brought to Dimona and the buildings, shops, and schools were built as needed.

The following interview was with a vatik (old-time settler in Israel) who was a second-generation sabra (Ashkenazi descent): 79

In 1963 there was a desire to bring vatikim to Dimona to change the population which was 80 percent Moroccans and 10 per­ cent Indian. The sabras were perhaps 7 percent at that time. I suggested that all the vatikim that come to Dimona should receive a certificate of Oleh [immigrant] and receive all the benefits that immigrants receive. They must live in Dimona five years or lose their benefits. The government did not agree with me— they felt that vatikim should come voluntarily and not need inducements. I felt that idealism and pioneering spirit would not be the compelling reason for them to come to Dimona. If they did not receive better conditions, they would live in Beer Sheva. I felt that the need to change the composition of population and bring more vatikim and Ashkenazim to Dimona. I think they were afraid of my idea, so most of the vatikim went to live in Beer Sheva. Dimona must also be developed by external means not just natu­ ral means. The workers live in Dimona and the management and engineers live in Beer Sheva. They do not want to live in a place where the majority have a different mentality from them, people do not want to lower their standard of living.

It is obvious from this interview that in 1963 this vatik viewed the settlement of Dimona as a possible pioneering feat. He believed in the need to give vatikim who settle there incentives.

This, in turn, would change the proportion of the existing population from a majority of Moroccans to an influential percentage of

Ashkenazi settlers. Instead, according to this vatik, Dimona in 1980 is viewed by Israelis as an "Oriental workers' town." It is also ob­ vious from his interview that he believed in the need for an equitable middle-class system in Dimona, but he did not seem to recognize the middle-class Oriental population that existed.

Physical Setting of Dimona

The following interview was with an Ashkenazi vatika (female old-timer) who has lived in Dimona since 1963. I asked her to trace the development of Dimona from 1963 to the present (Figure 4): 8o

SHIKUN NEVI DAVID

' SM IKUM I

tnmuN H A N lS T A C H

i MWT VILLOT

£ l STNAOOOUt ^ MI0H BCHQot

■jO M SSV ARIA P ^ j u n io W HKJH SCHOOL I^PO U CI *TATKXjr Fig. 4* Map of Dimona ^ o r r o f F i u O ^ m e k t a a v » c « o o l K fool (^)flavo«*ouwd» Adapted from a Town Map T"!»occc« n tu x * c a k * i isoo 81

In 1963, there were 10,000-13,000 people in Dimona. It both­ ered me greatly that I heard French and Moroccan Arabic spoken in the streets. The lack of trees also bothered me. I could never live in a shikun. Kamag [nuclear installation] bought our villas. Technicians live in Dimona but none of the scientists from Kamag live in Dimona. Geographically, the bakery was the Ma'abara [first huts]— they then built stone houses in 1956. The asbestos huts were taken down, the Arava was built, the swimming pool was not completed yet. The supermarket had just opened in the mercaz (commercial center) but was not completed yet, also the municipality was not completed yet. The borders of Dimona were at Ben-Gurion and Herzel Streets. The main park (Eshkol) was just being planned. There were three or four schools— Yosef Tal, an elementary school, opened. They took a class from each earlier school to complete the enrollment. There was a great deal of crime, my baby carriage was stolen, we couldn't leave anything outside, it was always taken. The fam­ ilies were very large, and in those days there were no children's benefits from the government. People were basically poor and were laborers, in Kitan textile. Those who worked in Yam Hamelech [Dead Sea Works] were always well off. Those who had trades could take courses in the Mifalim [industries]. The big problem was that they took immigrants from Morocco who were perhaps shop­ keepers and taught them to work in the textile factory. In the winter I saw kids without sweaters and socks. We do not see this any more. Many women knit and sew clothes for their families. There is a children's allowance— the welfare service gives out a special allowance to the parents every two months from fourth child on. From the second child on, one also receives a child's allowance. Dimona has grown, doubled its population. Children seem to stay in Dimona. There are some cultural activities— it was nil in 1963* We had a movie club then, more things are brought in but the problem is to get people to come to them, they still do not come to a lecture. The school system is open-minded. There has always been a stress on education in Dimona. The framework is for all types of kids— I always felt that my kids were losing out because it was Dimona. We organized the scouts and pushed for the opening of the con­ servatory, We tried to push for a quality of life in Dimona. Shikun Hanitzachon, we talked with architects and asked them why they build a four-story shikun when the people want to live in two-story houses. Their answer was that because the Negev is so vast, we want people not to be lonely and to have warm, inti­ mate surroundings. So they crowded these immigrants into these shikun and everyone is unhappy. The values of the life style of Dimona changes— this change is the stability of doctors and teachers living in Dimona and 82

not commuting from Beer Sheva. There is still a serious problem in the turnover of teachers today. We now have some emergency equipment, this feature has developed greatly since we came. Culture— before the Matnas [cultural center] there was a man who worked for the municipality. He brought plays five times a year and he once brought the Israeli Philharmonic to play in Dimona— there were more people on the stage than in the audience. But now the cultural programs, brought by the Matnas, are very successful and people do attend. The conservatory is another source of culture and many attend their performances. Teachers— years ago large numbers of teachers were female soldiers, without any form of certification, they taught in the elementary schools. Now they must be certified to teach, those who can't study at the university will learn in the teachers' sem­ inars. My son's first-grade teacher was a ganenent [kindergarten teacher] but she knew how to teach first grade. My daughter's class had more trouble, they say her class "ate" the teacher [Israeli cliche— to destroy]. From the beginning Moroccans ran Dimona— in 1955 there was a vatik from the Jewish Agency but the first mayor was Moroccan.

This early interview was very beneficial to my research for various reasons: I was able to search for many pertinent facts about the physical development of Dimona, e.g., the architectural plans for building the shikunim; I became aware of the Ashkenazi/Oriental social gaps that existed in Dimona during the early years; and I understood the need to gather data of two emerging perceptions— that Oriental immigrants were warm, hospitable, folksy, and kind and/or the Oriental immigrants (children included) were primitive, thieves, of low status, uneducated, and totally incompatible with the Ashkanazim. I shall analyze these perceptions from my data in the Conclusion (below).

The major centers of political power, resources, and interests in most localities in Israel center around the municipality, the local branch of the Histadrut, and the branches of the major political

(Tables 4 and 5) parties. In many of the development towns, the local 83

TABLE 4

LOCAL BRANCHES OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN DIMONA, 1956

Institution Functions

Jewish Agency (Sochnut) Immigration Settlement Housing Employment (of immigrants)

Histadrut (Labor Federation) Trade unions Occupational training Sports clubs Religious facilities Kupat Cholim (health care) 84

TABLE 5

LOCAL BRANCHES OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN DIMONA, 1980

Institution/Association Function/Group Municipality (Iriya) Amidar (Government Housing Office) Office of Labor Office of Education Office of the Interior Religious Council Office of Social Services Office of Engineering Services Office of the Mayor (Knesset Member) Office of the Deputy Mayor

Jewish Agency Immigration Absorption Center (Ulpan) Settlement Employment of immigrants

Major national political parties Alignment (Ma*arach-Labor Party) Likud

Histadrut Trade unions Occupational training Sports and social clubs Kupat Cholim Secretary of Histadrut

Local representatives Director of Education and Culture Director of Sports

Voluntary associations Na1amat (Pioneer Women) Sports clubs Pensioner social club Educational services 85

Religious Council is an additional center of political power and

resources.

The immigrants' first exposure to a national institutionalized

structure was through the functionaries of the Histadrut, which had

a branch office in Dimona in 1956. Its secretary was considered by

the early immigrants to be a powerful man. In 1980 the secretary and

officials of the Histadrut were politically astute leaders; the major­ ity of them were first-generation immigrants from North Africa, their median age was fifty. The mayor of Dimona, a member of the Alignment

Party (Labor Party), who was also a member of the Knesset (Parlia­ ment)— he generally enjoyed the highest status among the local leaders, and represented the community in dealings with higher national authorities; while a member of the Knesset, he had political influence. The secretary of the local workers' council of the

Histadrut was the second important local leader after the mayor, with control of major resources. He was the leader of a powerful trade union, supervised enterprises and industries affiliated with the

Histadrut in his area, and directed the health, social, educational, cultural, sports, and immigrant activities of the Histadrut in town.

According to Berler (1970) it was of prime importance that

Dimona develop a strong political local infrastructure. In reality, several young Moroccan workers who lived in Dimona and worked in the

Dead Sea Works possessed leadership qualities which they had developed in the industries as representatives of the Histadrut. Other future leaders of Dimona came in the early years with their parents and were educated in Dimona. Several received university education after their 86 army service, in Jerusalem and in Beer Sheva. Many early settlers became heads of local departments of the municipality, e.g., social services, interior, education, deputy mayor, mayor of Dimona. This core group of bright, aggressive young immigrants were the local founding leaders in Dimona. Thus, Dimona took root, its young leaders developed viable political, economic, educational, and cultural pro­ grams in the 1970s and the 1980s.

Demography

The population in Dimona in 1981 was thirty thousand of whom

32 percent are Jewish immigrants from North Africa, 11 percent are

Jewish immigrants from India, 11 percent are Jewish immigrants from

Europe and America, 44 percent are sabras (Israeli-born children of first and second generations), and 3 percent are of other origins

(Population Statistics, Office of J. Amir, Mayor 1980:3).

Like all the development towns in Israel, Dimona derived its population from the following sources: (1) immigration referred by settlement authorities, principally the Jewish Agency; (2) natural increases; and (3) internal migration from various sections of the country. Berler (1970:306-311) reports that in the late 1960s, 88 percent of the new settlers in Dimona were referred by the Jewish

Agency. Those residents who moved to Dimona from various sections of the country numbered 31 percent, of which the majority settled in

Dimona because of career prospects.

Tables 6 and 7 represent the population flow in Dimona during the years 1955-1979- In the early years of settlement, 1955-1966, TABLE 6

POPULATION FLOW IN DIMONA, 1955-1971

Referred Increase by Jewish Natural Internal Percent Percent Year Population Immigrants Agency Increase Migration Decrease Increase 1955 3U 1956 1,750 1,439 530 47 462.7 1957 2 ,6 5 0 900 818 136 51-4 1958 3,500 850 446 134 55 0.9 32.1 1959 4 ,0 0 0 500 5 232 370 4.0 14.3 I960 4 ,600 600 413 191 402 3-5 15.0 1961 7,400 2 ,800 2,701 206 664 4,4 60.9 1962 12,700 4,700 3,484 398 1,514 23.5 63.5 1963 15,000 2,900 1,736 455 631 14.1 2 4 .0 1964 16,900 1,900 1,266 562 750 12.6 12.7 1965 18,400 1,500 1,008 592 -287 12.5 5.9 1966 18,900 500 220 642 - 39 5-4 2.7 1967 19,520 628 0.5 1968 20,300 1,300 6-. 8 1969 21,600 1,300 6 .4 1970 22,500 900 4*2 1971 23,200 700 3.1

SOURCE: Office of the Absorption of Immigrants, Part I: Population of Dimona (Tel-Aviv: Government of Israel, 1974), Tables 1-8. TABLE 7

POPULATION FLOW: INCREASES AND DECREASES IN DIMONA, 1972-1979

Popu­ Total Immi­ Internal Total Emi­ Internal Year lation Increases Birth gration Migration Decreases Death gration Emigration

1972 23,748

1973 26,200 10,314 2,967 4,473 2,874 6,654 539 48 6,067

1974 27,100

1975 27,400

1976 27,600 2,018 927 203 888 1,749 145 4 1,600

1977 27,403 1,515 799 44 672 1,712 149 4 1,559

1978 27,300 1,404 692 72 640 1,423 166 2 1,255

1979 27,800 1,645 674 280 691 1,167 144 J 1,015

Totals 16,896 6,059 5,072 5,76 5 12,705 1,143 66 11,486

SOURCE: Population statistics compiled by Jacques Amir, Knesset Member and Mayor of Dimona, 1980:4.

oo 00 the majority of immigrants were referred by the Jewish Agency. The

natural increase among the immigrants was high while, according to

the statistics shown in these two tables, internal migration to Dimona

never reached high numbers. The void in these statistics, recorded

in Table 6 of the population flow during the years 1967-1972, hinders

the compilation of a complete record.

Table 7 represents the population flow in Dimona during the

years 1972-1979* Immigration is shown to be low, internal emigration

has been steadily high in numbers, with the total differences in the

population numbering 4,091. In 1980, twenty five years after initial

settlement, the total population of Dimona was approximately thirty

thousand. According to Berler (1970), the ideal population of Dimona

should reach forty thousand, but the statistics in Table 6 show that

present immigration to Dimona is low, and emigration from Dimona is

high. According to my correspondence with residents in Dimona, emi­

gration from Dimona in 1985 continues to be high.

Local Religious Council

The Religious Council also is an administative body, which

cares for the physical upkeep of the synagogues in Dimona. The rabbis also answer halacha questions brought to them by the residents in

Dimona, such as whether foods are kosher according to halacha. They interpret pragmatic question, but do not interpret the theoretical

law; this is done by the National Rabbinical Council in Jerusalem.

The two rabbis also oversee and participate in all the life cycle 90

rituals, which are birth, circumcision, Bar Mitzvah, marriage, and death.

All marriages between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman in

Israel must be performed by an Orthodox rabbi and performed according to Jewish Law. Conversion to Judaism is accepted only if it is con­ ducted by an Orthodox rabbi, and according to prescribed Orthodox Law

(Interview with Head Rabbi in Dimona). The majority of the Jewish population in Israel are non-observant; many consider themselves religious because they believe in God, but they do not think of them­ selves as dati (an observant Orthodox Jew). Most of the early immi­ grants from North Africa were Orthodox Jews. They still are, and feel comfortable with other dati first-generation Moroccan immigrants in

Dimona. The Head Rabbi in Dimona is a first-generation Moroccan immi­ grant. He came to Dimona in 1956 and was an early settler. He has religious authority in Jewish legal matters; he also has jurisdiction and control. There is another official rabbi, who is an Ashkenazi; he has religious authority and control in Dimona, but he is the sec­ ondary rabbi in the town.

There are thirty synagogues in Dimona, the majority of which are Moroccan, one "Russian" synagogue, and two Indian synagogues.

The remainder of the synagogues are small, ethnic prayer services, and meet in classrooms of Appleman High School on Shabbat morning in informal surroundings.

According to my interviews, many of the sabras would like all of the ethnic prayer services to be combined into one "Israeli" prayer service. "We are all Israelis, why not pray together in one synagogue 91 as one voice?" The Head Rabbi did not think this could happen, be­ cause the liturgies of the services are all culturally different for each edah (ethnic group).

Ethnic Boundaries in Dimona

It became clear to me after extended observation and many hours spent interviewing the residents of Dimona that members of the ethnic groups manifested their ethnicity mostly in cultural values, language, family ties, and traditional religious ties. The cultural values that maintain ethnic boundaries are language, ethnic festivals, close-knit families including extended families, and ethnic soli­ darity. The factors that reduce ethnic boundaries and increase accul­ turation in Dimona are speaking Hebrew, formal schooling, participation in the work force, the army, and watching television.

According to Katz (1982), immigrants to modern, complex national states participate in a process by which they transform their ethnic identities. They retain some identity with their former culture and learn to identify with their new host country. The process of ethnic transformation in Israel involves both the educational sphere and the acculturative process. These are some aspects of acculturation strat­ egies that I observed in Dimona:

(1) Second-generation young adults did not observe orthodox

rituals but the majority were respectful and participated

with families in religious holidays 92

(2) Extensive national unity was achieved in Dimona by both

generations among immigrants from highly diverse back­

grounds by ideological belief systems such as Zionism

(3) The sabras’ children of second-generation young adults

were very respectful of their traditional grandparents.

Those sabras whom I interviewed liked close-knit families

and the majority in Dimona respected tradition

Linguistic Acculturation

According to Katz (1982), the most important technical skill to learn for an immigrant to any country is the national language of the host country. Not only does the knowledge of the language facili­ tate problem solving through basic communication skills, but it also permits the immigrants to share common symbols which represent national unity. A new immigrant who learns the national language not only participates in the process of education; he also acquires the potential for acculturation. The new immigrant is able to iden­ tify with the national culture by learning the distinctive set of cul­ tural symbols which constitutes the national language. The immigrants are able to learn the ways of life, the institutions, the ideologies, and the modes of participation in their new society. Immigrants who learn the national language acquire the technical tools to participate and integrate into the national society.

Hebrew was not the first language of the immigrants to Israel

(Table 8). Yet virtually all but the most recent immigrants in Dimona TABLE 8

SPOKEN LANGUAGES IN DIMONA

Secondary Primary Secondary Studied in Ethnic Group Ethnic Descent Host Country in Israel in Israel School First-Generation Immigrants

Moroccan Arabic/French Arabic/French Hebrew Judaeo-Arabic Indian/Pakistani Marathi/Urdu/ Marathi/Urdu/ Hebrew English English Algerian/ Arabic/French French Hebrew Tunisian Judaeo-Arabic Romanian Romanian/Yiddish Romanian/Yiddish Hebrew Hungarian Hungarian/ Hungarian/ Hebrew Yiddish Yiddish Russian Russian/Yiddish Russian/Yiddish Hebrew Yemenite Judaeo-Arabic Hebrew Hebrew Hebrew N. American English English/Hebrew Hebrew S. American Spanish/Yiddish Spanish Hebrew

Second Generation (Foreign-born Children of Immigrants)

Moroccan Arabic/French Hebrew Arabic/French Indian/Pakistani Marathi/Urdu/ Hebrew Marathi/Urdu/ English English Algerian/ Arabic/French Hebrew French Tunisian Romanian Romanian/Yiddish Hebrew Romanian Hungarian Hungarian/ Hebrew Hungarian Yiddish Table 8 (continued)

Secondary Primary Secondary Studied in Ethnic Group Ethnic Descent Host Country in Israel in Israel School Second Generation (Foreign-born Children of Immigrants) (continued)

Russian Russian Hebrew Russian Yemenite Judaeo-Arabic/ Hebrew Hebrew Yemenite Arabic Hebrew N. American English Hebrew English S. American Spanish/Yiddish Hebrew Spanish

Sabras (Native-born)

Moroccan None Hebrew English Indian/ None Hebrew English Pakistani Algerian/ None Hebrew English Tunisian Romanian None Hebrew English Hungarian None Hebrew English Russian None Hebrew English Yemenite None Hebrew English N. American None Hebrew English S. American None Hebrew English speak Hebrew today, and more than 70 percent of Israel's adult popula­

tion speaks Hebrew as their only or principal language (Bachi 1974:9).

The success of the Hebrew language revival can be attributed both to

the ideological significance of Hebrew among Jews in Israel, as well

as the establishment of and widespread participation in Hebrew lan­

guage classes through the country. The use of the Hebrew language

in Israel has been endowed with the highest ideological significance

in the establishment of the state. The Hebrew language has been a

significant symbol for promoting a national identity for a heterogene­

ous immigrant population (Katz 1982:99-117).

The Ulpan— Absorption Center

According to Katz (1982), the institution of the Ulpan is most responsible for the widespread knowledge and spoken use of Hebrew at virtually all levels of Israeli society. For many adult immigrants to Israel, the Ulpan is their only regular, intensive exposure to an Israeli organization, whose explicit goal is to educate and to acculturate immigrants. In contrast, immigrant children are exposed regularly and intensively to a variety of educational acculturating institutions, including schools, youth groups, and eventually, the

Army. The ulpan classes for adults meet from three to twenty-five hours a week and classes are either free or cost a nominal fee. It is a process by which immigrants learn about their new country, and learn to identify with their common national culture, participate in the institutions, and interact with the people of the country. There 96 was an active ulpan in the matnas of Dimona. Several of my female

(first-generation) informants studied there three mornings a week.

The Absorption Center was established in Dimona in the 1970s.

The director of the center did not want to be interviewed unless I had official permission from an official of the Jewish Agency in

Jerusalem. Since this was difficult for me to obtain at the time,

I just walked about the center and observed a while. The immigrants at the center that morning were mostly retired Russians. I was able to obtain more information at the Absorption Center in Arad (see

Chapter VII).

Moroccan Community in Dimona

The Moroccan population in 1980 numbered 26 percent of the

(Tables 9 and 10) population in Dimona. The majority of them emigrated from Morocco during the years 1955-1965 and were settled in Dimona by the Jewish Agency.

According to the statistics of the Religious Council, about

80 percent of first-generation Moroccan immigrants in Dimona in 1980 were traditionally Orthodox; this entails that married women cover their hair with kerchiefs, as prescribed by Orthodox Jewish Law, be­ cause women are expected to practice modesty in dress. The men wear kipot (skullcaps) to cover their heads when they pray or say a bless­ ing over food and drink. Orthodox men usually wear kipot when they are awake. The first-generation Moroccan men wore Jalabiyas in the street during the early years of settlement of Dimona. In 1980 I never saw a first-generation Moroccan man wear a jalabiya in public. 97

TABLE 9

POPULATION DIVERSITY IN DIMONA ACCORDING TO COUNTRY OF ORIGIN IN 1977

Country of Origin Number % Total % Asia 3,050 11.0 Turkey 92 0.5 Syria/Lebanon 9 - Iraq 78 0.5 Yemen/S. Yemen 43 - Iran 224 1.0 India/Pakistan/Ceylon 2,589 9.0 Remainder 15 - Africa 8,824 32.0 Morocco/Tangier 7,070 2 6 .0 Algiers/Tunisia 1,614 6.0 Libya 11 - Egypt/Sudan 115 - Remainder 14 - Europe 2,900 10.0 Soviet Union 118 0.6 Poland 191 1.2 Romania 1,414 5-2 Bulgaria/Greece 21 0.1 Germany/Austria 53 0.5 Czechoslovakia 14 0.1 Hungary 56 0.5 Remainder 333 1.8 Americas 152 1.0 N. America 24 0.1 S. America 128 0.9 Native-born 12,051 44-0 Unknown 458 2.0 Total population 27,435 100.0

SOURCE: Population Statistics of Dimona, June 1977? compiled by J. Amir, Member of Knesset, Mayor of Dimona, 1980:3- 98

TABLE 10

JEWISH POPULATION OF DIMONA ACCORDING TO CONTINENTS OF ORIGIN AND PERIODS OF IMMIGRATION

Period of Immigration Continent of Origin Total I960 1961-64 1965+ % Asian- Born 3,050 572 894 1,584 11.0

African- Born 8 ,8 2 4 2,935 4,925 962 32.0

European American Born 3,052 654 1,085 1,310 11.0

SOURCE: Population Statistics of Dimona, June 1977, compiled by Jacques Amir, Member of Knesset, Mayor of Dimona, 1980:2. 99 The father in my adopted family wore a woolen jalabiya in the house

on very cold evenings. This was a family joke, for when he wore his

jalabiya, it was a sure sign to light the kerosene stoves in the

house, as winter had truly arrived.

The number of children in the family was of prime importance

to first-generation Moroccan women. They repeatedly said to me,

"B'yeladim yesh simcha" ("In children there is joy"). Many first- generation Moroccan immigrant women whom I came to know were very

sympathetic to their children's needs of having smaller families, with the average of two to four children. One women said to me:

That is the way it is in Israel. The children want to buy their own apartments, the rooms are smaller, and they do not want to have large families. The girls want to work and they do not have time for the house; however, they are truly missing the joy of having many children.

One immigrant mother expected her daughter to marry and have children. She hoped that her daughter would not need to work. Her daughter, however, desired to marry but she also hoped to study in the university. She was interested in self-fulfillment and hoped to received higher education; her mother had no formal schooling in

Morocco. I concluded that this woman from a lower socio-economic class could not expect more of her life and thus she could not envi­ sion her daughter's higher expectations because the generation gap was too vast between them. This case was an isolated one, as most

Moroccan mothers in Dimona had high expectations for their daughters as well as their sons. Many felt that a university education would give to their children upward mobility and avenues of access to the

Ashkenazi world. 100

Traditionally, in Morocco, a Jewish father and grandfather was the supreme patriarch in the family. He was able to control and keep a tight rein on his family. The children hardly ever wandered outside the Millah (Jewish section of town). Therefore, the Orthodox tradition passed on from one generation to the next. The fathers' expectations were clearly defined and their roles in the family and in the Jewish community were clearly understood. Consequently, the parents' expectations did not fit into Israel's Western secular mold, while Moroccan immigrants' children felt free to throw off their tra­ ditional Orthodox cloaks. They were exposed early to the secular,

Western influences, for instance in the sports clubs that were spon­ sored by the Histadrut. They were bored in the religious schools, which were disorganized at that period, and since they were free to roam about town and in the desert without harm, they quickly learned to express this freedom by using the term "Ani Chofshi" ("I am free").

This can be translated to mean that they are not bound by Orthodox observance of their parents, nor are they to be constrained by Ortho­ dox Jewish observance. They continued to speak Arabic at home and enjoy Moroccan food and music, but the initial sign of their accultu­ ration was for them to be "free" of traditional religious observance.

Rebellion against religious tradition was not a universal fac­ tor among Moroccan immigrant families. Some fathers managed to hold the Orthodox reins a bit tighter over their children, but the majority could not. The Moroccan youth who settled with their families in

Dimona in the early years 1955-1965 had very difficult adjustments to the Western-oriented religious school in Dimona. The students did 101

not relate to their Ashkenazi teachers. Many whom I interviewed, now

young adults, related tales of nonparticipation in class because they

came from urban areas in Morocco and had accelerated to higher

classes; therefore, they were bored by the slower-paced classes. Sec­

ondly, the teachers at this time did not know how to related to their

Moroccan students, who spoke Arabic and French, had darker skin, and

probably were experts in trying the patience of any teacher.

Most Moroccan traditional first-generation immigrants whom

I met in Dimona may not have agreed with their children's seculariza­

tion and non-Orthodox religious approach, but they wanted to maintain

close family ties with them and with their extended families. Their

children were always welcomed to their homes and they came at all hours in the evening to eat and just to see who was around; with eight

children, someone was always around. They celebrated religious holi­ days with their families and many ate the Shabbat meals with them.

It was all very informal, but it was clear to me that the children really wanted to see their parents and their siblings. The parents, in turn, accepted them, loved them, worried about them, fed them, and were always there for them. I noticed that the sons were openly warmer to their mothers and more formal with their fathers. As one mother said to me, "They are all good children, and I never want to lose them. One must accept the new ways and the freedom in Israel; the important thing is to keep the family close, and for all my chil­ dren to survive the army and the reserves." 102

Indian Community

The Indian population in 1981 numbered six thousand; they rep­

resented 11 percent of the population of Dimona. The majority of them

emigrated from India and Pakistan during the years 1965-1969, and were

settled in Dimona by the Jewish Agency. Palgi (1972) and Kushner

(1973) claim that the modern Jewish Indian communities' distinctive­

ness may be attributed to their long history of settlement and accul­

turation to India.

An elderly Indian informant, a retired nurse who had emigrated

from Bombay to Israel in 1952, related to me that the Indian Jewish

community lived in Bombay, in Puna, and in agricultural villages.

She referred to the Indian Bnai Israel communities as poor, unskilled,

and poorly educated. Most of them lived in rural villages in India.

They emigrated because they expected to be economically better off

in Israel:

The low people that came here are lazy; they don't want to work so they drink. The wife usually cleans houses in order to support the family and her children are neglected. But their life in Bombay was even worse; there they all lived in one room. They did not have it better in India; perhaps the solution will be found in the next generation of Sabras.

The middle-class, educated, urban Indian Jews in Dimona had

professions, spoke English, and were accepted as the professional class in Indian society. I interviewed an Indian physician who

settled in Israel because he knew that Jewish identification and Jew­ ish education were weak in India and he believed that his family would be better off culturally as Israelis; he also felt that his services were needed by the Kupat Cholim and he wanted to serve, specifically. 103

those Indian immigrants with drinking problems (see Appendix A). He

felt that these Indian immigrants were basically uneducated, unskilled

village people who could not adjust to life in Israel and to Dimona:

They cannot acculturate into Israeli society. These immigrants usually work in the textile factory and earn the lowest pay in Dimona and many have not learned to speak Hebrew. I feel that some of them would adjust better if they were in a moshav where they could be farmers, but they do not have a spokesman who can intercede for them in Dimona.

A Pakistani father, a professional of upper-middle-class

origins, claims that "the secret of raising a strong family is educa­

tion; it is a must." His older children were sent to study in 1965

to a boarding school at a moshav. His oldest son, a Ph.D. student,

told me that the education in the school was excellent, but the lone­

liness in those early days was devastating to both his sister and him­

self. From the father:

I find that my relationships with Israelis are on a class level. Are we socially compatible? I ask myself. Different ideologies can't come together; people have different natures, but children in Israel mix together, they are more free. I came to Israel be­ cause Pakistan was a Muslim country and it was uncomfortable for a Jew to live there. There is still the great synagogue in Karachi and the scrolls [Torah] are still there, but very few Jews are left in Karachi. The Jews of Karachi and Bombay were like one kin; we would travel to visit often, so many were related. I am traditional and I enjoy praying in our [Indian] synagogue in Dimona, but my children do not have any interest in traditional observance. This is their choice; in Israel, they feel free.

I interviewed a middle-class Indian family from Bombay. The father said that he was very satisfied with his job, although he would not discuss it with me. His wife wore the traditional sari and so did his older daughter. They left Bombay because he said he needed better educational and cultural conditions. He is not traditional in religious observance, nor were his parents in India. He felt that 104 his children would assimilate and he wanted his family to remain Jews.

That was all he would say about his life in Bombay. His older daughter married an Indian man in Dimona; she lives an Indian-oriented cultural life style. She wears a sari, she obeys her husband, she is passive, she will not work outside of the house. Her sister, how­ ever, describes herself as a feminist who served in the army for two years and became an airplane mechanic. She spent two years writing letters to officials, including the prime minister, to petition for equal pay. She then married an American and hoped to study social work in a university. She does not plan to remain in Dimona, but will move to a development town in the north.

I interviewed David, age twenty-nine, who came to Dimona when he was nine years old. He appeared to be involved in many social issues. His home was filled with books and he told me that he loved to study and was currently involved in the pursuit of a B.A. degree in history. He strongly believed that the best education should be on the elementary level, where the students receive their foundations of learning. He hoped to continue teaching on the elementary level when he receives his degree. I asked him about the Indian immigrants who had drinking problems; he had little patience for the group of

Indian immigrants who are "sick," e.g., alcoholics:

My family did not emigrate because we had bad economic conditions in India; we felt that we were Zionists. The problems with the alcoholics is that there is a void in their home life; there is no learning nor is there any discipline in the homes.

He blamed the Welfare Office for giving them payments. "Why should they work when they can receive welfare payments?" David said that 105 whiskey was easier to obtain in Dimona than in India; he seemed dis­

turbed that these people did not want to work. He claimed that 10

percent of the Indians in Dimona are professionals, 70 percent are

workers, and 5 percent are "loafers."

I also interviewed a forty-two-year-old unmarried Indian immi­ grant woman who arrived in Dimona in 1958. She came from a large vil­

lage in India and studied to the eighth grade. She worked in the tex­ tile factory in Domona, and rose to a position of responsibility.

In 1981, she had not received the promotion that she was entitled to; she was angry at the officials in the factory and had just finished taking them to court. She brought her grievances to the arbitrators, and it took two years to settle the claim. Meanwhile, she went on a nine-month hunger strike, only drinking liquids. She received pub­ licity in the media and the officials of the plant agreed to give her the job back, but she was determined to collect all that was due her.

She asked for vacation pay and to be sent to a Bet Havarah (vacation resort), but she insisted that they send her friend along so she would not be alone. The board finally voted to give her back her old job with a pay increase, but the job promotion went to someone else.

She did not see this act as ethnic prejudice, but rather as a politi­ cal play for power in the textile factory,

I had the opportunity to speak with an Indian music and danc­ ing master who lived in Dimona but who had studied in India. He had all types of guitars, sitars, smaller intermediate instruments that were similar to sitars, harpsichords, accordion boxes, etc. He had composed Hebrew songs from the Siddur (Sabbath prayer book) to Indian 106 music. He hoped to perform these songs for the Kol Yisrael (Israel

Broadcasting Company), In 1981, he taught Indian music in several development towns in the Negev, and gave lessons in the community cen­ ters. Many Indian parents did not want their children to forget In­ dian music and dance. The dance master was both a composer and choreographer for the Indian dance corps which has performed all over

Israel. He was a very energetic man, and had worked in the factories where he lost two fingers in an accident. His family was very sup­ portive of his work. He hopes that he can continue to support his family by teaching music and dance.

Several young Indian women have married Americans in Dimona, and one young American woman has married a Sabra of Indian descent.

Indians consider these types of marriages to be prestigious and are happy that their children have access to upward mobility.

Palgi (1972) has suggested that the Indian community in Dimona has been helped in integrating into Israeli society by the neutral and non-judgmental attitude of the North Africans, the original ethnic group who established Dimona. This is not completely true. The offi­ cials in the municipality have attempted to be neutral, but the closed social and cultural separatism of many first-generation Moroccan and

Indian residents deters integration between them. Many first- generation Moroccan immigrants told me that they were very suspicious of the Indian residents, and the teachers and principals in the school system in Dimona told me that they were frustrated by the passive nature of their Indian students. They did not know how to reach them and help them. The psychologist agreed with the assessment of the 107

school officials; he could not break through the closed walls of their

passivity. According to members of the Indian community whom I inter­

viewed, it was agreed that Indian workers in the textile plant should

receive higher wages than they presently receive in order to improve

their economic chances of mobility. In 1980 the wages in Kitan Tex­

tile were the lowest wages of any industry in Dimona.

Yemenites, Algerians, and Tunisians

The Algerian, Tunisian, and Yemenite residents whom I met in

Dimona were second-generation young adults and their sabra children.

They appeared cosmopolitan, sophisticated, friendly, social, skilled,

and successful in their jobs. Their interviews are included in

Appendix A.

Russians

During 1972-1975 about 4,500 Russian immigrants were referred to Dimona by the Jewish Agency. They studied Hebrew in the Ulpan in the absorption center. The professional Russian immigrants left

Dimona as quickly as they came and emigrated from Israel to the United

States. Many other Russians moved to other parts of the country, and several Russian musicians settled in Beer Sheva and play in the Beer

Sheva Sinfonietta. About 120 Russian immigrants remained in Dimona.

I met a Russian immigrant woman who had leased a kiosk from the city. The kiosk was in a very busy thoroughfare. She spoke a halting Hebrew, but we communicated easily. She asked me to stop by to chat every day as she enjoyed our conversations. She discussed 108

her difficult adjustment period in Dimona:

Life in Israel is very different than in Russia. The cultures are so different. In Russia, I was considered educated. I gradu­ ated from a technical seminar. I was the director of a two-story factory, checking the quality of goods. Here in Dimona I do not have the protectzia^ to obtain a really good job. At first I cleaned at night in the municipality [city hall], and I cried because I felt that I had reached the bottom. An official told me that it was always hard at the beginning, but it will get better. I was able to bring lovely things from Russia. We could not bring out cash so I converted our cash and bought furniture. In a year in Dimona I was able to buy a stove, a refrigerator- freezer, a washing machine, and other small appliances, like a television and a stereo. I like the weather in Dimona and I was given a large apartment. I came to Israel with my family because we thought that we should live like Jews. I will not emigrate from Israel to the United States because if I went to all the trouble to emigrate from Russia, I would only come to Israel. My husband works in a factory, and I work in the kiosk in the morning. My husband works in the kiosk after 4:00 P.M. We are economically well off, we both work hard, we are ambitious and not afraid to work long hours. Our pains are the pains of new settlement in a new land, a new language, and all the other trap­ pings of immigrant adjustment.

In a study reported by The Jerusalem Post (J. Siegel:

1/28/81), it was concluded that after four years in Israel, most Rus­

sian immigrants claim to enjoy a higher per capita standard of living

than they had in Russia. The immigrants complained that their job

status in Israel was lower than in Russia, but that they were very well absorbed into Israeli society. The quality of their food con­ sumption, the amount of durable goods they own, and their housing con­ ditions are better than what they had in Russia. This survey was con­ ducted among four hundred Soviet immigrant families. This finding

^Protectzia: one needs to know someone who has influence to procure a good job for him. Usually in Dimona this protectzia would involve family connections. 109 can partly be explained by the Russians' higher level of education, small families, and high proportion of women in the Israeli work force, as compared to Oriental immigrants.

According to an informant, a few hundred Polish Jewish immi­ grants, expelled from Poland, arrived in Dimona in 1962; about 90 per­ cent left Dimona the same year, but the Romanian immigrants were easily absorbed into Dimona society. They moved to Israel voluntarily and were more energetic and enthusiastic in wanting to participate in building a homeland. They were well-educated and trained in urban occupations. "They could be set down in the middle of a desert and with the right materials, could be trusted to create a new society"

(Ash 1974:392). This is exactly what they did in Dimona; very few

Romanian immigrants left Dimona (Informant 1980).

The Black Hebrews

Background

According to Brotz (1964), the "Black Jews'" origins are to be found in the identity crises of the black population in the United

States in the 1920s, aggravated since the beginning of the century by their economic plight, social and cultural inferiority, and by racial discrimination. "The Black Jews' overall aim was an attempt to purge the Negro of the 'Sambo' in their soul. The Black Jew could only recover his self-respect by himself" (Brotz 1964:98).

There are three distinct ideological groups among Black Jews:

(1) The Black Jews of Harlem who believe in the return to

Israel as an ideal, if remote target (Brotz1964 ) 110

(2) The Black Jews who regard their adherents as the true

Jews, but believe in Jesus as the prophet of God (Fauset

1944:34)

(3) The Black Hebrews who believe in the immediate return

to the land of Israel, since only then can their Messianic

vocation be realized (Glass Committee Report 1980)

The Black Hebrews claim that they are the true Jews, directly

descended from the patriarchs and the ten lost tribes, who for their

sins were condemned to be exiled from the land of Israel to wander

into West Africa, where they were kidnapped and sold on the slave mar­ kets of America.

After expiating their sins in the "New Babel" (United States),

they have been summoned by a prophetic voice to return to their birth­ right, the land of Israel, which they allege was unjustly seized by

the Jews. At best, they regard the Zionists as "trustees" who should now return the "pledge" to its rightful owners. Their goal is to re­ deem all the blacks from their distress and bring them to Israel in order to escape "Judgment Day," when America is due to be destroyed

(Glass Committee Report 1980:3-4)-

Black Hebrews1 Immigration to Israel: 1999-1971

Ben-Ami Carter, then an official of the Black Hebrew Nation, came to Israel from Liberia in 1968, to scout out the possible relo­ cation of the Nation from Liberia to Israel. In 1969, two families of the Black Hebrews (five persons) came to Israel and applied to the Ill

Ministry of Absorption; they were directed to Arad where they received

apartments and job assistance. In December 1969, a group of thirty-

nine Black Hebrews, mainly women and children, wanted to become immi­

grants. Instead, they were granted by the government three-month

tourist visas, work permits, and apartments in Dimona and Arad. In

March 1970, forty-nine, including Ben-Ami Carter, were allowed to

enter Israel as tourists for reunions with their families. This time

they were not given help in absorption such as work permits and apart­

ments. This led to the first signs of tension between the Black

Hebrew Nation and the Israeli government.

When the Israeli authorities decided not to allow entry of

any more Black Hebrews into the country, the cult leaders launched

an anti-Israel campaign designed to bring the government of Israel

to its knees through public opinion pressures in Israel and abroad.

Singer (1979:19) often heard the Black Hebrew belief "that Caucasian

Jews are imposters, conspirators and usurpers who invented the Nasi

holocaust 'myth' in order to gain control of Israel."

In a document submitted to the Organisation of African Unity,

the Black Hebrews asserted: "WE ARE NOT PARTAKERS of the practice

of the RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE OF JUDAISM. Moreover, WE ARE NOT A RELI­

GIOUS SECT; neither have we returned to Jerusalem to cohabitate with

the European-Jewish Community presently occupying our land" (Singer

1979:123).

The Black Hebrews in 1973 intensified their demands for hous­ ing and employment through a series of demonstrations. In early Octo­ ber about ten women of the group entered Dimona's largest grocery 112

store, filled their shopping carts with food, and then refused to pay.

Outside, the men of the group told reporters they had invited to the

scene that their intent was merely to dramatize to the world their

plight in Israel. Israelis reacted angrily to this protest. Public

opinion in Israel turned negative toward the cult and Carter realized

that he would need a rapprochement policy with the Israeli government

and the Israeli press if he was to keep his remaining flock in Israel

and avoid deportation.

Summing up the government's reasons for taking a harsh line

in regard to the Black Hebrews, the Israeli Minister of the Interior

declared (Singer 1979:124): "The issue is not linked to the question

of who is a Jew, but [to] the statements of the Black Israelites that

the citizens of Israel have no rights to the land ..." (statement

issued by the Consulate General of Israel, New York, 1977:3)*

The Israeli government was stimulated to take action toward a solution of the Black Hebrews' problem by the initiative of Jacques

Amir, M.K., mayor of Dimona, who raised the subject for debate in the

Knesset on March 13, 1978. The Knesset plenary referred the subject to the Interior and Environment Committee which, after deliberation, recommended the setting up of a committee to examine the question.

The Glass Committee was appointed in the light of this recommendation by the Minister of the Interior on August 4, 1978 (Glass Committee

Report 1980:27).

In 1980, the undisputed leader of the Black Hebrews was Ben-

Ami Carter. In I960, while a member of the Black Hebrew Israel Cul­ tural Center, operating in Chicago, he claimed to have received a 113 divine revelation that he had been chosen by Almighty God to take his people out of bondage into freedom. He studied the Torah with two black rabbis and was ordained as a rabbi in 1961. Singer (1979:137) reports that to many of the cult's followers Carter began to be viewed as more than a spokesman of God, but God himself. Carter denied this but did declare himself as "God Junior." The Black Hebrews call him

"Father" (Abba in Hebrew).

Carter has three wives and eleven children. The members of his household are referred to as the royal family of the Nation. Car­ ter is treated with the utmost reverence by the group members; his picture adorns at least one wall in every member's apartment. When he enters a room, everyone immediately stands, and when he passes by the men bow and the women curtsy. He has two private homes, one in

Jerusalem and one in Arad, for his private use (Singer 1979:135).

Younger Children ■+ Older Children + Junior

Sisters ■* Senior Sisters Junior Brothers + Senior

Brothers -*■ Sarim (ministers) •* Neshim (princes) -*■ Ben-Ami

Fig. 5- The Organization of Authority in the Black Hebrew Nation

Source: Adapted from Singer 1979:215

As Figure 5 indicates, age, gender, and responsibility were employed to extend defensive structuring through all levels of the community. Each individual in the Nation knows his/her place in this hierarchical scheme, thereby allowing the rapid flow of instructions 114 and increasing the likelihood of compliance* This structure facili­

tates coordinated action in meeting the problems of everyday life as well as any real threats which face the community from without (Singer

1979:215).

There are no exact figures as to how many Black Hebrews cur­ rently live in Israel because their womenfolk give birth at home and the births are not registered. According to the Glass Committee Re­ port (1980:7)) a cautious estimate is that eight hundred live in

Dimona, two hundred in Arad, and 200 in Mitzpeh Ramon. There are also a few families in Beer Sheva, Eilat, Petach Tikvah, and Silwan (East

Jerusalem). Black Hebrews are not included in population statistics of the municipality of Dimona (see Table 7). Singer (1979) reports that Dimona was the "spiritual capital" of the Black Hebrews in Israel as the majority lived there.

Religious Duties

The Black Hebrews believe only in the Bible commandments, but their ritual is influenced by the fundamentalist movements to which most of the Black Hebrews belonged in the United States. They fast from Sabbath eve until the end of the Sabbath. On Sabbath and festi­ vals, they read chapters from the Bible, sing hymns, and listen to sermons given by Carter. They circumcize their sons on the eighth day after birth. Polygamy is permitted after one year of marriage and, according to Carter, a man is allowed by the Torah to have up to seven wives (in reality, they take a maximum of four wives). The status of the women in the cult is inferior to that of men. They are 115 not allowed to sit together with the men or to address them first.

Their main function is to give birth to children and raise them in

the spirit of the cult. Marriages and divorces are carried out on

Carter's instructions (Singer 1979)*

Group members indicate that for polygamous marriage to work, co-wives must act like sisters toward each other. Mutual cooperation, such as sharing jobs or dividing chores in terms of individual abil­ ity, helps to ease the partial adjustment problems. Another factor which probably contributes to the success of polygamous families in the Nation is that currently all men with more than one wife are of high status vis-a-vis their community brothers and, by association, so are their wives. In other words, women are at the present being rewarded for accepting polygamy with an elevation in their personal status (Singer 1979:207).

When I arrived in Dimona in 1980, I noticed that the Black

Hebrews were very visible by their striking costumes which were color­ ful homemade garments. Singer (1979:192) claims that:

Clothing is very important in the "Black Hebrew" community. Many individuals, male and female, design their own clothing, although all designs must be in keeping with the guidelines issued by the cult. A central concern of the "Black Hebrews" with regards to clothing is modesty, and consequently hair is usually covered, as are arms and legs . . . On the bottom of their clothing, they add a row of fringe which, like their clothing patterns, they ex­ plain as part of their culture. In keeping with Biblical stipula­ tion (Numbers 15:38), a blue thread is added to the fringe on the corners.

In 1980, many of the Black Hebrews lived in spacious bungalows that were provided to them by the municipality of Dimona. Some lived in the Shikun Hani2tachon and scattered apartments in town. One 116 afternoon I observed a Black Hebrew woman sitting in the park with

two children. In English, I asked her which city she was from in the

States. At first she denied, in Hebrew, that she was American or that she had lived in the U.S. I told her that I was from Cleveland and

she laughed and told me that her family lived in Cleveland. We spoke about Cleveland, her family, and the ideology of her "Nation" and her husband's two wives. I just listened and then asked her how she felt about sharing her life with her husband's two other wives. She told me that it was wonderful because the wives were considered to be her co-sisters. She liked the food taboos, e.g., meat, fish and various dairy products were prohibited. They do not smoke or take alcohol.

Watching TV and films was regarded as profane and a waste of time.

The children did not attend Israeli schools, as they were educated by the "priests." This Black Hebrew woman told me that her life was pure and disciplined. She stated her belief that her Nation was the chosen people.

According to Singer {1979:191)> three different boundary markers are employed in the Black Hebrew community: distinctive clothing, in-group language (Black English), and a special diet in their boundary maintenance methods.

Conclusion

The Glass Committee (1980:36-42) recommended that the Black

Hebrews be allowed to stay in Israel. They rejected deportation, but recommended that the problems which have arisen with this cult must be alleviated. Granting the Black Hebrews legal status will do away U 7 with the intolerable situation by placing them under the authority of the laws of the state in regard to registration, employment, educa­ tion, and health. It will also express recognition of the fact of their permanent residence and absorption in the country. They are not Jews and do not quality under the Law of Return, and they cannot add any new members to their cult from abroad.

The municipality of Dimona gave the Black Hebrews a large com­ pound of bungalows which originally was designated for young married couples. Young Black Hebrew children learn Hebrew in the streets and

I noticed that they interacted with young Israeli boys their age.

I have also watched many basketball games between the Black Hebrew men and the male residents of Dimona. The better Israeli players en­ joyed playing basketball with them. I never saw their softball games, but I have heard that they were good.

In 1981, the residents of Dimona, especially the neighbors of the Black Hebrews, were still very suspicious of the cult. The

Nation was thought to be, by the town, a closed and strange community.

It is obvious that if the Black Hebrews continue to maintain their social distance, tensions between the two communities will continue.

The Black Hebrews were not very visible during my stay in Arad in 1981. I did not see them in the shops, the plaza, nor anywhere in town. I did, however, see a Black Hebrew woman and two children in a playground one afternoon. I asked many of the residents of Arad for information about the Black Hebrews, but they also did not seem to know anything about them other than the fact that the cult usually 118

lived in Dimona. The Black Hebrews were not included in the official

population statistics (Facts about Arad 1978).

My estimate is that approximately twelve hundred Black Hebrews

lived in Dimona in 1 9 8 1 . It is probable that their population will

increase rapidly due to their practice of polygamy. It is also

obvious that the majority of them reside in Dimona due to the spacious living quarters, which attract many members to Dimona. Another major attraction for the Black Hebrews in Dimona is that it seems to be the

seat of "spiritual power" in which Ben-Ami Carter rules. CHAPTER V

DIMONA II: ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND INSTITUTIONS

Economic Structure of Dimona

In 1955 Israel's economy was strained and stretched. Settle­

ment of over 600,000 new immigrants since 1948 had taken its toll.

Food was scarce both nationally and locally; the government could

scarcely support the new development towns.

Dimona, being close to the most extensive natural resources

that Israel had to offer (salt, phosphates, iron, bitumen, magnesium,

and others), was able to develop its economic structure through the

industries developed in the Dead Sea area by the Israeli government.

Spiegel (1967) claims that Dimona grew in spite of its haphazard plan­ ning into a vigorous and successful town. The director of the Lishkat

Ha Avoda (Office of Labor) in Dimona told me that 80 percent of the work force in 1980 worked in industry, 12 percent worked in services, and over 8 percent worked in industry outside of Dimona in towns such as Yeruchum, Beer Sheva, Sodom, and Arad.

Pinchas Sapir, then Minister of Industry and Commerce (1955), pushed very hard to make Dimona economically viable. He was respon­ sible for bringing to Dimona two textile plants which together em­ ployed about three thousand men and women. The major problem in 1980 was that the workers in the textile plant earned 80 0 -2 ,0 0 0 shekels

119 120

a month gross, which is, by Israeli standards, a low salary; as a re­

sult there has been a large turnover of employees over the years.

Heavy Industries of Dimona

Kamag, the nuclear research center built in 1962, employed

about one thousand workers in 1980, The work is skilled and one must

wait for extensive government clearance before being employed there.

The majority of Kamag scientists reside in Beer Sheva; about 50 per­

cent of the technicians reside in rented patio homes provided by Kamag

in Dimona. Kamag also provides bus service to and from work for all workers in Dimona and Arad, as about 50 percent of the technicians reside in Arad.

Oron Phosphates was established in 1952. It is a mining and processing plant in Oron, located in the northern Negev, In 1977, a second plant was built to mine phosphates in Bikat Tzim, southeast of Oron. A railroad connects the two plants, which are thirty-five kilometers apart. After processing the phosphate with water, the phosphate remains with 32 percent phosphate acid, a basis for making chemical fertilizer which is very low in salt. The two plants produce

900,000 metric tons of phosphates a year, and in 1980 employed about fifteen hundred workers.

The Perriclass plant produces magnesium oxide by a very pure method using a type of salt produced in the Dead Sea. The plant pro­ cesses building bricks, which is the most important use for the mag­ nesium oxide. In addition, the plant produces rubber, ceramics, and medicines. The basic material comes from the salts found in the Dead 121

Sea. This industry is located in Mishor Rotem between Dimona and Arad

on the main roads. In 1980, Perriclass employed 170 workers and began

a training program for the youth of Dimona who dropped out of high

school after the ninth grade, which so far has proven to be very

successful.

The Dead Sea Works, located on the coastline of the Dead Sea

in Sodom, is the most successful and profitable industry in Israel,

according to an official of the Histadrut. Its workers receive the

highest salaries for industries in Israel. They mine the chemical

ashlag (a special salt) and chrome that is found by the shores of the

Dead Sea. This material is processed for export, as fertilizers.

A packaging plant is also located in the industrial sector of Dimona,

which employed a total of 370 workers. Work in the Dead Sea Works is

coveted because of the high wages and is considered prestigious by

the residents of Dimona.

The Transport Industries employ 150 workers; Metal Sodom,

which processes metals used in the surrounding industries, employs

190 workers; and Gedgi, a tile factory, employs 30 workers

(Dimona 1980).

Women in the Work Force

Many Moroccan and Indian women immigrants of those interviewed had negative feelings about women being part of the work force. The first-generation Moroccan and Indian immigrant women who were employed were usually widowed, married to sick husbands who could not work, or others whose economic needs were desperate for a variety of reasons. 122

These women usually worked in unskilled jobs such as cleaning, child care, factory work, or in the shuk.

Many of the unskilled younger, second-generation women of

Dimona worked as cleaning women in the resort hotels in Ein Haboqeq, a resort area near Sodom, or in factory work. Skilled younger women who were second generation and sabras worked in banks, offices, and in shops. Among them were many professional women employed as teachers, principals in elementary schools, social workers, psycholo­ gists, and community center workers. Several women held administra­ tive jobs and one woman, a sabra, was the director of the matnas.

All of the professional women were certified and had studied in semi­ nars (two-year college courses) and some had studied in universities.

The married women said they worked primarily to fulfill themselves professionally and also to earn a second salary. They were an aggres­ sive group of women, highly motivated, interested in social mobility, and appeared to be idealistic in their goals. They all hoped to send their children to study in universities so that they, in turn, would be assured of successful futures in Israel.

A very interesting two-year training program for ozrot (women aides in the gan) was sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The program met in the matnas twice a week and was created to give the ozrot an opportunity to complete their high school education and take the bagrut (final high school examination). The curriculum consisted of Hebrew grammar, Jewish history, Israeli geography, psy­ chology, and pedagogy. The director of this program told me that she hoped these women would be exposed to formal learning and that they 123 would take more responsibility and could relate academically to the children by tutoring them, as many learn to read in the gan. They would not have the official status of a ganenet (kindergarten teacher) but would extend their duties more formally in the classroom as assis­ tants to the teachers.

None of the ozrot in the program had passed the bagrut nor had many of them completed high school. Their ages ranged from twenty-five to fifty, and their jobs as ozrot in the gan were menial and consisted of preparing food, helping the children to dress, and acting as overall helpers. They set up the gan in the morning and cleaned up after the children left.

Most of these women were second generation; all were fluent in Hebrew, the majority were Oriental, while several were Ashkenazim.

They were very enthusiastic students and discipline was difficult to maintain. The instructors were good-natured and very patient with them. The women included me in class discussions and wanted me to do the homework.

Youth in the Work Force

According to the Office of Labor, those young people between the ages of fourteen and seventeen who drop out of school in the ninth grade at end of required schooling need a great deal of counseling:

The biggest problem with the drop-out students is that they do not remain at their work, it is not always interesting nor perma­ nent. These youth do not have good self-images because the tech­ nical school is not looked upon as status, but rather the students who attend these schools have a stigma. One hundred students are 124 being trained in Perriclass. The students work three days in the factory and learn three days. The students who are accepted to this program in Perriclass are chosen by school counselors.

Some of the dropouts do not work, nor do they look for work. The two vocational schools in Dimona admit many of the dropouts, where they are taught a trade. This enables them to receive a technical diploma and will certify them in vocational skills. As a result, they are able to obtain work in the industries of Dimona.

The Shuk in Dimona

The shuk in Dimona fits Geertz's description of the suq in

Sefrou, Morocco (1979). Geertz (1979:214-215) theoretically describes the suq (shuk) in Sefrou, Morocco as a communication system, and de­ lineates the functions of the Jewish merchants:

There is a great multiplicity of small sized enterprises, and there are almost no multifunctional or multitrade enterprises. Most enterprises have very low fixed costs in terms of rent, machinery, housing and inventory. Occupational specialization is extremely intensive. Transactions are mostly inter-personal, and there is an enormous plurality of small transactions, each more or less independent of the rest.

The shuk in Dimona is an outdoor marketplace in the Arava section of town, and consists of several narrow roads of small stalls. The majority of these are produce shops that stock finer produce than those in the supermarkets and small vegetable shops in town. These stalls are exclusively owned by Moroccan Jewish immigrants and many of the shops are run by extended families. There are two spice shops, three houseware shops, a shoe repair shop, a cloth seller, a shoe shop, and a tailor. The Bedouin sold their wares near the main road leading to the shuk. 125 Another lane in the shuk consisted of the live poultry, eggs,

and meat shops. Many first-generation immigrant wives only buy fresh

live poultry for Shabbat. They seemed to be experts in determining

which chicken was the freshest. After they bought the chicken, they

took it to the section of the shuk where the ritual slaughterer killed

the poultry according to Orthodox religious law. The knife he uses must be very sharp and without a nick. He then swiftly cuts the throat of the chicken in one quick movement.

One of my Moroccan informants bought her live Sabbath chicken on Wednesday, had it slaughtered the same day, and would flick and kosher the chicken, which is to salt the meat for one hour and soak it for one hour on Thursday night. She then cooks the chicken on Fri­ day and serves it for the ritual Friday night Shabbat meal.

I noticed that the shuk was a self-contained socio-economic structure. The entrepreneurs, men and women, were very suspicious of me at first. They all questioned me and my reasons for being in

Dimona. One Wednesday, as I shopped in the shuk, a shop owner asked me, "Who are you cooking for? Who is coming to dinner?" I must admit

I was so startled by these personal questions that I answered truth­ fully that my son was coming to visit for Shabbat. They seemed very pleased and the message "Her son is coming for Shabbat" rang through the shuk. Whenever I shopped in the shuk or just visited, they would call out to me, "Enjoy your son; may he have a long life" and "May

God bring your husband to Eretz Yisrael [Israel] soon."

Some produce stalls specialized in season in oranges and other stocked vegetables, such as giant red radishes, tomatoes, green 126 peppers, cucumbers, leeks, green onions, and celery. Other shops specialized in hot peppers, used to prepare Charif (hot spices), which appear at all Oriental dinner tables regularly. Charif is also used to prepare poultry, meat, and fish. One shop sold nana (fresh mint), which was washed and then wrapped carefully in plastic and stored in the refrigerator. In order to prepare mint tea, one took several sprigs of the fresh mint and placed it into the teapot along with fresh tea and sugar. After boiling water was poured in the pot and allowed to steep, it is then drunk in glasses.

The spice shop was an interesting place and smelled wonderful.

The owner was an older Moroccan man, who patiently explained to me many of the spices of the Orient such as coriander and saffron.

I shopped at one houseware stall exclusively. The owner, a first-generation Moroccan woman, volunteered to procure for me every­ thing that I needed. We established a patron-client relationship, but this did not require me to exclusively shop for housewares at her stall.

Shops in the Mercag

In 1 9 8 0 , the shopping plaza in the Mercaz contained three levels. There was a supermarket stocked with many items eaten strictly by Afro-Asian residents. The supermarket in Dimona was not as well-stocked as those in northern cities and did not cater to

Western tastes; for example, bottled soda water was not stocked, and the spices were mainly Oriental spices. Ice cream was only sold in the summer months. It was believed to be unhealthy to eat cold 127

products in the winter. The checkout lines were very slow and people

tended to lose patience and become nervous. The cashiers would stop

to socialize with customers who were their friends. Most younger cus­

tomers in the supermarket waited patiently in line* but occasionally an older Moroccan immigrant would push in line and yell. When this occurred, conflict would break out.

An Iraqi immigrant had the only well-equipped hardware store in Dimona. His prices were competitive with shops in Beer Sheva.

He liked to speak English with me, but he refused to be interviewed.

There were several felafel stands in Dimona. Felafel is fried chickpea balls eaten with salad in a pita bread.

There were several cosmetic shops owned by European immi­ grants, and there were also several expensive clothing shops located in the newly built addition to the shopping center. There were three beauty salons. My beautician was a young sabra of Moroccan descent; his work was excellent, very professional. He was about to be drafted into the Israeli army, where he expected to be a barber. After his time in the army, he wanted to visit France and work in Paris.

The owner of a local cleaning service, which is part of the national chain Keshet, was Hungarian. He also sold cloth and sewing equipment. The shop was always busy and I noticed that many women in Dimona sewed their own clothes at home.

Many residents shopped for clothing and large appliances in

Beer Sheva and traveled to Tel-Aviv twice a year to shop. This was also true of the residents of Arad. The bookstore, the only one in Dimona in 1981, basically

stocked the textbooks required for school.

The kiosks sold cigarettes (Israelis are heavy smokers),

candies, ice cream in season, magazines, newspapers, and soft drinks.

Some kiosks also sold wine. The kiosks were located on most corners in all neighborhoods. Some kiosks were privately owned and others were rented from the municipality.

Inflation

During my year of fieldwork, 1980-1981, the prices of gro­ ceries, commodities, and of all services rose monthly. In early

October the price of bread, which was subsidized by the government, poultry, and cooking oil increased 19 percent. On November 4 , the price of public transportation increased 25 percent. In 1981, infla­ tion had reached 152 percent; in 1 9 8 5 , inflation is over 4 0 0 percent.

The residents of Dimona blamed a great many of their problems on inflation. Since prices changed weekly, it was felt to be better to buy consumer goods when money was available. Thus this economic scenario develops in the country: The rise in prices brought a rise in the cost of living index, which in turn led to wage increases for the residents. This insured increased spending to avoid anticipated inflation and, of course, contributed to the rise of prices and the eventual devaluation of the shekel as more money was printed. How­ ever, the first-generation immigrants did not purchase consumer goods with the same devoted frenzy as their children did. Tourism in Dimona

As of 1981 there was no tourist industry in Dimona and the only hotel in town was functional but limited. Dimona has the poten­ tial to develop tourism; the major archaeological excavation in

Kurnov-Mamsheet, the surrounding desert scenery and its diverse popu­ lation including the neighboring Bedouin camps, could attract tour­ ists to Dimona.

Educational Systems in Dimona

National Israeli School Systems

In 1949j the Knesset passed the Compulsory Education Law, which applied to children from five to thirteen years of age. Respon­ sibility for the provision of free primary education rested with the state and was to be shared with the local authorities. The updated and present Compulsory Education Law applies to students between the ages of five and sixteen. Education is free through high school, al­ though not compulsory for students above the age of sixteen. It is important to note that while there are no tuition payments, parents must pay for textbooks, trips, and other school expenses. The highly centralized and uniform educational system is under control of the

Ministry of Education, which has the second largest budget among the

Ministries -

There are four major school systems in Israel:

{l) Mamlachti (state education), which follows curricula de­

veloped by the Ministry of Education. 130

(2 ) Dati (state-religious education), whose schools are recog­ nized and operated by the state, maintains a religious way of life and follows a special religious curriculum. The schools are staffed by Orthodox teachers and supervisors. The students must conform to a strict dress code. The males wear kipot and the females are forbidden to wear slacks to school.

(3) Chinuch Atzmai represents religious education provided by the ultra-Orthodox Aguda political party. This system of edu­ cation is recognized by the Ministry of Education, and is sup­ ported by the state and local authorities. These schools are autonomous of the state-religious school system. In general,

Chinuch Atzmai schools put greater emphasis and intensity on religious education than their state-religious counterparts. The students must also adhere to the strict dress code; the males usu­ ally wear a black kipah.

(4) Independent recognized educational institutions are not state schools as such, but are recognized by the state. They fol­ low their own particular spirit, goals, and pedagogical methodol­ ogy. These schools are private; therefore, the parents pay tui­ tion. Staff and parents determine the instructional and educa­ tional norms of each school, even though they must follow the basic Ministry of Education curriculum. The Ministry does provide pedagogical supervision and authorizes, but does not initiate, hiring and firing of teachers. The parental influence is signifi­ cant in the overall planning of school policy. (Summarized from the Information Bulletin, Education 1980-1981:1-3). 131

The Israeli educational system was established by Ashkena2i

Jews in pre-state Palestine as an imitation of the central European

school system. At present, the schools continue to use a

Western-oriented curriculum. According to Adler (1968), the Israeli

school is the major channel for social inclusion, both on the local

level and the national level of Israeli society, and it is the Orien­

tal children of new immigrants who have a higher rate of failure in

the Israeli school system (Adler 1968, 1969; Alexenberg 1974)- Halper

(1977) reports that when Oriental children of a "disadvantaged origin"

are introduced to a Western-style framework of formal schooling, they

are thus programmed to failure in intellectual achievement and educa­

tional motivation.

According to Ash (1974). 28 percent of the adult Oriental immigrants to Dimona were illiterate upon arrival. Berler (1970) and

Hoffmitz (1978) claim that in Dimona the high expenditure— 50 percent of the yearly budget— on education has brought fruitful results and benefits for the students. I will examine in detail the educational system in Dimona, which is representative of local-level school sys­ tems in Israel.

Educational Systems in Dimona (Table 11)

The Gan

The Hebrew word gan literally means a "garden." In a garden, one plants the seeds and cares for them, and flowers or vegetables grow. In educational terms, gan refers to a play-school for ages two to four, and the compulsory kindergarten, gan chova, is for children TABLE 11

EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS FOR DIMONA, 1981

Number Schools Age/Crade Number Students Tuitiona Hours*5

12 Ganim 3 mo.-3 yrs. 250 Fee 7:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. 41 Ganim 3-4 yrs. 1,087 Fee 7 :0 0 A.M.-4:00 P.M. 25 Compulsory 5 yrs. 859 Free 8 :0 0 A.M.-12:00 P.M. 11 Elementary gr. 1-6 4,205 Free 8 :0 0 A.M.-12:00 P.M. (7 State; 4 State-Religious) 3 Junior High Schools gr. 7-9 1,591 Free 8 :0 0 A.M.-12:00 P.M. (2 State; 1 State-Religious)

2 High Schools gr. 10-12 1,059 Free 8 :0 0 A.M.-1:00 P.M. (1 State; 1 State-Religious) 2 Special Education (retarded) Gan-9 175 Free Open (1 State; 1 State-Religious)

1 Technical gr. 7 -1 2 70 Free 8 :0 0 A.M.-4:00 P.M. 1 Youth Center (vocational) gr. 7-12 120 Free 7:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M.

1 Independent School gr. 1-12 160 Fee Open Total students 9,566

SOURCE: Education Office, Municipality of Dimona, 1981*

The fees for nursery school care, from the age of three months to four years, vary accord­ ing to the financial ability of the parent to pay. The tuition of the independent schools is arranged by a committee of parents of the students. Scholarships are available to students in need.

^Students attend school six days a week, Sunday through Friday.

to 133 age five. The gan gives the essential preparation for a child's de­ velopment before he or she enters first grade. The gan system is actively a part of a socialization process where Israeli cultural norms, which are eminently Euro-Araerican, are transmitted in a controlled group environment at a very early age. Each child is taught to relate to his or her group.

The Ganenet (teachers) are all certified; their education is very specialized and requires at least three years of post-education, past high school in a teachers' seminar.

The nurseries and ganim were for small children of working mothers. They opened at 7:00 A.M. and closed at 4:00 P.M. These cen­ ters provide the children with breakfast, lunch, a light snack, and facilities for an afternoon nap. I visited two such centers in

Dimona. The first one was located in the matnas. The facilities were cheery, well-kept, with many play centers, and adequate sleeping arrangements (cots), and good food. The children were divided into age groups: eighteen months to four years. The ganenet was experi­ enced and her ozeret was friendly and warm to the children. The play­ ground facilities were sunny and varied, and the older children in this gan went on many walks in Dimona. In 1980, the parents paid 250 shekels a month per child, which represented, on the average, one- fourth of the mothers' salary per month.

The second gan was run by Na'amat (Pioneer Women), an organi­ zation which is politically affiliated with the Labor Party. The mothers pay to the gan as much as they can afford. This gan caters 134 to women who have lower paying jobs, e.g., in the textile plant, or do menial labor in the hotels in Sodom.

Compulsory Gan

This gan is for children age five; it is compulsory and the curriculum is planned and written by the Ministry of Education

Curriculum Planning Centers in Jerusalem. There are a maximum of thirty-five pupils in a class with a certified ganenet and an ozeret.

I was invited by friends to their youngest son's gan for a Chanukah celebration. The Chanukah celebration began when a participating child lit a very beautiful Chanukiya, which was a large, nine-candled candelabra made by the children. A well-planned party followed.

The gan had a library corner, a play corner, and a miniature kitchen. The ganenet told me that she teaches the students to read.

Most of the parents, both mothers and fathers, came to the Chanukah party. We all sat on small chairs in the back of the room. The atmo­ sphere was very festive and both the parents and children were very enthusiastic.

A mother told me at the party that this was the last year of fun and freedom for her child. "Once he enters the first grade, he must leave his toys behind and get on with serious learning."

Beit Sefer Amami (Elementary School)

The formal hours of elementary school are short (8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.), but the nationally sponsored enrichment program for fifth- and sixth-grade students enables them to remain in school until 135

4:00 P.M. Sunday through Wednesday. An afternoon supervised free

playground with varied programs of drama, music, dance, and sports

was also offered to the students of Dimona at the Alfasi school which

was opened every day except Friday and Shabbat. One of the aims of

the long school day was to prevent students from wandering about the

streets idly while their parents were at work.

I observed in the classrooms of several elementary schools,

but the one that seemed interesting to me was a state-religious ele­

mentary school located in the Shikun Haarava. It was established in

1955 and its present building was built in I960. The school was made

up of several detached two-story units. Each building was painted

colorfully and carefully landscaped with flowers and shrubbery that

the students planted and maintained. A single large bungalow was also well-decorated and was both the synagogue and the music and art center

for the school. Collective morning prayers were obligatory for all

students.

The principal of the school whom I interviewed was a young man of Moroccan descent; his parents had emigrated from Morocco to

Israel in 1949.

There are 330 students in the school and twenty-four teachers, all of whom are dati. Each student must learn according to his own ability. I think that manners and morals are the most essen­ tial educating tools, and that students need to establish close relationships with their parents, who in turn must be satisfied with their education. Even though many of our students come from disadvantaged homes, I find that many parents are highly moti­ vated and want their children to learn. In truth, few families are poverty-stricken and the children all come to school dressed in clean clothes and are fed at home. 136

I observed the students of this school and of other schools

in Shikun Haarava as they participated in the long-day program.

They resembled the children who lived in other neighborhoods. They were dressed neatly and responsive to their supervisors. I watched them at play, and they seemed motivated and involved in their work.

I will analyze the enrichment opportunities afforded to the children from Shikun Haarava, by the municipality, in the Conclusion.

Chativat Baynaiyim (Junior High School)

The junior high school was established as an intermediate unit for grades 7-9 , with the intent of integrating the students from dif­ ferent communities (Social Problems in Israel, An Information Briefing

1973:27).

In 1980, there were two state junior high schools in Dimona.

One was located in the north and the second one in the Arava Shikun.

The state-religious junior high grades were incorporated into the com­ prehensive state-religious high school.

The student population of both state junior high schools was heterogeneous and came from all the shikunim in Dimona. The junior high school in the north had an afternoon community center for stu­ dents and adults alike, with a branch of the municipal library, clubs, arts and crafts, organized sports, adult activities in the evenings, and many cultural activities were held there. 137 Beit Sefer Tichon (High School)

There are two high schools in Dimona, the state-comprehensive

and the state-religious comprehensive school, grades 10-12 inclusive;

the religious comprehensive high school's grades are 7-12 inclusive.

Each grade has academic classes whose students studied academic sub­

jects and prepared for the bagrut, which are the comprehensive matric­

ulation exams given at the end of the twelfth grade. The bagrut must be passed before a student is admitted to the universities in Israel.

I observed a tenth-grade academic class in the state high school in

Dimona. There were approximately thirty-five students in the class.

I was told that there was a second academic class on this grade level.

The second curriculum track of study in the high schools is the vocational track, which the students chose in the tenth grade and where they are trained for job skills and trades. I was told that about 75 percent of the student body choose the vocational track.

In theory, girls are able to study any vocational skill that they choose, but in reality, most girls chose home economics. According to one high school principal, the ethnic groups in Dimona are evenly divided among the two curriculum tracks. It is possible to study in the vocational track and also take the bagrut examinations in one's study area.

The students, teachers, and principals admitted to me that they do stress bagrut preparation in the senior year curriculum in the academic track. There seemed to be deep academic and social gaps between the academic students and the vocational students in the same 138 grade level. The major complaint by vocational students was that the academic students were cliquish and felt academically superior to them. One principal suggested that the academic students take some vocational courses; "maybe they would then appreciate the complexity and skill of the vocational training."

Educational Centers

A. The Creative Center for Gan Students. This center is lo­ cated in a small modern house and located in the northern section of

Dimona. Sixteen classes, age five, visited the center every other week along with their ganenet and ozeret. The center had many colorful and very attractive corners, including a music and listening corner, where the children listened to stories on earphones while they followed the story in their books. In this way the children, who do not formally read, were exposed to readiness programs in reading and listening. Two teachers and their assistants taught in the center.

In the art corner, a teacher talked to the children about color, shapes, and free expression. There was also a puppet corner in which the children were urged to dramatize their own stories and fantasies using puppets.

Toward the end of the session (each lasting from one to one and a half hours), the teacher read a familiar story to the entire class. She was very dramatic and the children responded to her enthusiastically by reading along with her or calling out different parts of the story. One of the teachers played the accordion and 139 encouraged sing-alongs with the children; they acted out the songs as they became a train of different animals.

After 4:00 P.M., the children were encouraged to visit the center with their parents. A teacher was always on duty and parents were urged to participate together with their children in all the cre­ ative corners of the room. The center also had an active lending library from which the children could borrow books and records.

B. The Pedagogy Center. This served all the educational faculty in Dimona. The center provided creative curriculum and re­ search facilities for teachers, youth leaders, and club leaders. They provided abundant visual aids, books, and many other pedagogical materials. They conducted workshops for the teachers and helped them plan the curriculum for their classes. The center provided a special exhibit of the history of Dimona that was shown in all the schools.

The staff of the center also planned projects in the geography and history of Israel. The center was open to all faculty and to upper- grade students who needed material. In 1980, the center had created an exhibit about Japan which was to be circulated among the schools.

The center's budget was supplied by the municipality, the education office, the Department of Social Services, and the Histadrut. The directors of the center were a young male immigrant from Hungary and a female immigrant educated at the Sorbonne. It seemed to me that the materials were excellent, the motivation of the staff very profes­ sional and caring, and that this was a very excellent research center for teachers. 140

C. The Agricultural Center. The agricultural center is in

the northern section of town near the soccer field and is a miniature

marvel in the desert. Students (grades 6-8 ), as part of the school

curriculum in Dimona, visited the center for instruction in botany

and practical experience in planting flowers and vegetable gardens.

They also cared for the domestic animals, goats, and a wandering pea­

cock. Clubs also met at the center in the afternoon to learn methods

of agriculture. During the long summer vacation, students volunteered

to work in the center. The flowers grown at the center are indigenous

to the desert. It was a lovely place to visit and just relax, because it is located on the high hills and a breeze blows constantly. On

Tu Bishvat, the birthday of the trees, on the fifteenth day of the

Hebrew month of Shevat, the children marched ceremoniously from the mercaz up to the agricultural center and planted trees. They also had a ceremony at the center to commemorate the ecology of the desert, including the plants and vegetables that were grown in its soil. It is a very effective ecology center for the students of Dimona. There is a director of the center, but I did not meet him. I did meet the volunteers (high school students) who work in the center during the afternoon and who were kind enough to talk with me about the center.

D. The Conservatory. The conservatory is a school of musical instruction and is located in the oldest part of town near the shuk.

The school serves 720 part-time students, ages 8-18; they study the violin, cello, guitar, organ, piano, accordion, chalil (recorder), wind instruments, and rhythms. There is some cost for the lessons. 141

There are fifteen musicians who conduct lessons in theory and musical

instruments, and the students play concerts for many schools and par­

ticipate in the annual regional music festival of the Negev. The

director of the conservatory is a serious older musician. The major­

ity of the teachers live in Beer Sheva.

E. The Municipal Library. The new library is an architec­

turally interesting building. During my stay in Dimona, the library

was almost completed and the move from the old library site was about

to begin. The forty thousand books contained there are in Hebrew,

French, Russian, Arabic, and some in Marathi. Many Indian residents

felt that they needed a separate library because the books in Marathi

or Urdu were not well-represented in the town library. They intended

to include an exclusive Indian library in their new community center

that was still in the planning stage.

F. The Center of Psychological Services. The director of psychological services is American-trained with an M.S. degree. The center provides diagnostic and treatment services for students who are recommended for treatment by their schools. There are fifteen workers on his staff; they are young, some possess B.A.s, some do not.

The director told me in an interview that in Israel, psychology is thought of as a woman's profession. He has only two men on his staff, and a problem with turnover in his staff members. The director does not put any stock in the relevance of IQ tests and he is a proponent of the behavioral social learning theory. The center is supported 142

by the Head Office of Psychological Services in Jerusalem. The par­

ents of the students being treated by the center pay a nominal fee.

The director delineated the following problems of the students:

learning disabilities, poor discipline, delinquency, cultural depriva­

tion in parents, poor self-image, poor motivation, them/us dichotomy,

and parents unable to work through family problems. The teachers do

not have the patience needed in social learning theory; they want the

problems isolated and treated in this way.

Social Services in Dimona

In 1977, a pilot program in the Office of Welfare was created in Dimona. It was to be a multi-dimension program that would serve

the community with various social services. The official title was

Sherutai Revachah Chevruteam (Department of Social Services). Welfare payments would be part of the function of the department, but the function of social services, as administered by social workers and student volunteers from Sharut La 1 am (the voluntary services asso­ ciation), were also involved in the social service programs, according to the department's statistics. Twenty-eight percent of the residents in Dimona received welfare; caseworkers serviced schools and insti­ tuted family therapy in the community. The Rehabilitation Center for Alcoholics had forty-five workers, of whom twenty-seven were graduates of the social work seminar in Beer Sheva. The director of the Social Services Department was a Moroccan vatik in Dimona who graduated from the School for Social Work in Beer Sheva. In an inter­ view, he said that the future of his department would be in the 143 development of social services and that "welfare" will be an auxiliary

service. He believed that the North Africans had acculturated into

Israeli society, but that Dimona would always remain a "workers'

town♦"

Counseling services to the elementary schools was another ser­

vice provided by the Department of Social Services in Dimona. Two

social workers and six aides visited the elementary schools regularly

to counsel problems such as truancy, home problems, and learning diffi­

culties. They also worked with parents and tried to give preventive

care. One social worker, in an interview, told me that:

The Indian students accounted for 60-70 percent of the learning problems, and it was difficult to work with their passivity. Twenty percent of the learning and discipline problems were Moroc­ can and 5-10 percent were Ashkenazim; the estimated success rate was 2 0 -3 0 percent.

Counseling services in the schools were given to students when re­ quested by teachers and principals. Psychological problems were re­ ferred to the psychological center. Counseling was also available to parents of the students in the afternoon.

The Matnas

Background

Matnas is the abbreviation in Hebrew for cultural, youth, and sports center. The idea for such centers was created by the Minister of Education and Culture in 1969; since then, community centers have been expanding throughout the country. In 1981, there were approxi­ mately one hundred centers throughout the country, including a matnas in each development town. 144 The matnas in Dimona is a well-decorated, functional building.

I had visited the day care centers, the afternoon clubs, and the classes in arts and crafts. There were also music, gymnastics, and exercise classes. In the evenings there were classes for police officers, open university classes, adult Hebrew classes, and special instruction such as the enrichment instruction for the aides of the ganim (see above).

In an interview with the director of the matnas, she told me that there were payments for all activities such as: classes in rhythm which meet twice a week; the charge is 25 shekels a month.

I asked her if the children from Shikun Haarava have the opportunity to use the matnas; the following was her response:

We do not reach two-thirds of the shikunim and only reach one- third of the town. We do not have the budget or the money to reach those in the Arava shikun. I would not use the word "enthusiastic" for the parents' attitude toward the matnas; rather, they are interested in the activities here— when they must pay for everything, there is a value on the activities. Again the poorest are neglected or underserved.

The matnas is an important source of cultural activities in

Dimona, scheduling plays, dance groups, music, films, and ethnic eve­ nings. The Ministry of Culture subsidized national tours of plays, dance, and rock stars. The prices of the tickets were reasonable.

It was possible to reserve season tickets to plays or to buy them singly. An example of a season's presentations from October 1980 to

March 1981: "Death of a Salesman," the Bat Sheva Dance Croup, Shlomo

Artzi (Israeli popular singer), and Cameri Theatre. 145 Israeli Philharmonic in Dimona

The director of the matnas arranged this event. The Israeli

Philharmonic came down to Dimona to perform, and Zubin Mehta, the con­ ductor of the National Israeli Philharmonic, was to conduct for the evening. The concert began late because the audience came late; mem­ bers of the orchestra laughed, but Zubin Mehta, being from India, understood cultural differences. Most of the audience was not from

Dimona; they were from kibbutz Sde Boker, an American group came from

Yeruchan, and many came from Beer Sheva. The balcony was filled with invited soldiers from the army base near Yeruchum. They were seated late and in the middle of a movement, which disturbed the orchestra.

The director of the community center made this event possible. Before the performance, each woman was presented with a rose. I understood, by the audience reaction and in speaking with friends, that the eve­ ning was a major success and many kudos were heaped upon the shoulders of the director of the matnas who arranged this event.

The next day, as I made my rounds in the municipality, my friends in the Department of Social Services denied that Zubin Mehta had conducted the symphony. One woman was very sure about this, for she said to me, "I have seen pictures of Zubin Mehta and he is much handsomer." Another woman claimed that Zubin Mehta would never come to a place like Dimona: "It just isn't done." I could not convince them that Mehta did indeed appear and conduct last evening. CHAPTER VI

ARAD

Biblical Arad

The Israeli archaeological excavations (1962-1967 and (1971-

1978) at Tel Arad, ten kilometers from modern Arad, show evidence that

in the years 2900-2700 B.C., Arad was a highly fortified and a large

urban settlement extending over an area of more than twenty acres in

the eastern desert. The city was destroyed in about 2700 B.C. and

rebuilt in the tenth century B.C. during King Solomon's reign.

Ancient Arad was destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout his­ tory: the Judean period, the Persian period, the Roman period, the

Byzantine period, and the beginnings of the Muslim period. King

Herod, the Judean king, reinforced the settlements in the area of Arad and build the fortess of Masada, located on a mountain top forty-eight kilometers from modern Arad. In the seventh century A.D., the area surrounding Arad was abandoned. There has been no settlement in the area until the settlement of the new development town of Arad in 1962

(Facts about Arad 1978).

According to Aharoni (1968:32), Joshua conquered the older sites of Tel el-Milh, which he identified as the Canaanite Arad, men­ tioned in the Book of Joshua:

And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel smote . . . and in the hill-country, and in the

146 147 Low-land, and in the Arabah, and in the slopes, and in the wilder­ ness, and in the South; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaan- ite . . . the king of Jericho, one; . . . the king of Arad, one; All the kings thirty and one. (Joshua 12:7-24) (Italics mine.)

The Soncino commentary (1950) to the Book of Joshua (12:14) claims

Biblical Arad (italics mine) was located sixteen miles southeast of

Hebron (Soncino Books of the Bible 1950).

Modern Arad

On November 15, I960, a team of planners headed by Ariel

Eliav, governmental head of Chevel Arad (Arad Planning Center from the Ministry of Commerce), established the newest development town.

Arad is located on a high plateau, forty-eight kilometers east of Beer

Sheva, fifty kilometers from the nearest major urban coastal center, twenty kilometers from the Dead Sea which is below sea level, and six hundred meters above sea level. Its total population in 1981 was

12,500 (Figure 6).

Ash (1974:394) claims that Arad was planned before any con­ struction started. Hoffmitz (1978:24-25) enumerated the various plan­ ning techniques to create Arad. The planners did exhaustive soil testing and architectural designs were submitted in competition in the main planning center in Jerusalem. There were many reasons for the establishment of Arad. The main ones were to populate this empty region, to create a town to serve as a population center for the de­ velopment of the natural resources, as well as an economic base for developing chemical industries around the Dead Sea. The planners also hoped that Arad's potential as a tourist and health resort would be I I YEHOSHAFAT QUARTER Q CHALAMISH QUARTER A

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(1980) claim that the initial population of Arad was intended to have

high social and cultural standards, with an enthusiastic pioneering

spirit. The planners attempted to establish a nucleus of carefully

selected young Israeli couples who had worked in the area and small

families, mainly from kibbutzim. According to one informant in Arad,

they had to be enthusiastic about their new challenges to settle a

town in the Negev. Spiegel (1967:48) claims that "Arad was 'marked'

from the start as an Israeli town and not as an immigrant settlement

resembling the other towns. The population of Arad at its early

stages thus had a pronounced elitist character resembling a young kib­

butz or moshav." The original settlers were selected for their abil­

ity to be absorbed quickly into the economy of the region and also

to be socially accepted by the rest of the group.

Ash (1974) claims that Arad was carefully chosen to be near

developing centers of industry and tourism. Geographically, Arad is

located near the mineral deposits of the Dead Sea and the chemical

industries in the Negev. It also has natural gas fields nearby. Arad

is also considered to be asthma-free by medical experts, and therefore

an excellent place for asthma sufferers to live.

Arad has a master plan for a future population of seventy

thousand people. It is a detailed plan, specifying all main aspects

of construction, industry, low-density and high-density residential

areas. The general town plan specifies the width of streets, water and sewage installations, landscaping, the maintenance, commerce, and hotel areas. 150

Daniel Gavron (1980:346-347) 374)) an early settler in Arad, recalls the early days:

From Metulla in the north to Elat in the south, there is no town quite like Arad. It is the antithesis of improvised Beer- sheba; it was meticulously planned from the outset. This is not to criticize Beersheba. When Arad was conceived in I960, Israel had the resources to plan and implement projects. I am not objec­ tive about Arad, of course, having lived there for almost a decade, but my walk through the length of the country convinced me that Arad is the cleanest, neatest, best-designed, and best looked-after municipality in the land. In 1962 we moved in with some fifty other families. Some of the families were sabras; others had lived in the country a number of years. We were the only new immigrants [English]. We didn't suffer the normal hardships of early pioneers. True, we had to manage without hot water for two months, and we were compelled to clamber over rocks and ditches to get to the shops; but our asbestos, prefabricated huts were airy and well-designed with brightly painted walls and door, and we weren't short of anything. In the first years of Arad, the town was sometimes cut off by floods on all sides, and food had to be flown in by army heli­ copter. When the first twins were born in the town, this was the situation, and the mother had to be flown to the hospital in Beer Sheva.

Another early settler's memories of her early years in Arad:

Our first homes were prefabricated duplex bungalows in which we paid thirty lirot a month. It resembled a kibbutz. We had water, plumbing, electricity, and our own garden area. There were paved streets that were well-lit. We had playgrounds, nursery schools, shops, postal and health facilities. There were hard­ ships when the road to Beer Sheva was washed out in the winter, then helicopters took the residents to the hospital and women in labor. We did not have bread and milk for days at a time and there were problems with continuous water services. But . . . whatever the hardships, these were the good old days. We were pioneers, we made our own fun, always partying when the elec­ tricity went off. We were very close, like a social whole; we were all good friends. Yes, these were truly good memories now . . . Today we all live in luxury, we are not as close, we are not pioneers anymore.

The settlement of Arad can be compared ideologically to "pre­ state" voluntary pioneerism; as one settler said to me in an inter­ view, "We came to build a town in the Negev." It would seem that 151 modern Arad was built under vastly more favorable conditions than the pre-state pioneers found in Palestine:

Frontiertown" was blessed with something which some of its fellow development towns (although certainly not all) were sorely lacking, political leadership of a high quality and dedication to the general welfare of the community. The combination of good leadership with a general public, which was actively concerned with the welfare of the community, gave a special stamp to the development of Frontiertown1s local political system. (Aronoff 1974:146)

Physical Setting of Arad

In 1981, there were eight main residential quarters in Arad.

Rishonim, meaning "the first," were pink and green long asbestos (pre­ fabricated) duplex bungalows, and they were the first housing for the original two hundred families who settled in Arad in 1962. These bungalows are now occupied by some of the original families; others are art galleries, social service centers, playgrounds, and kinder­ gartens. This quarter was considered to be low density.

The Ye'alim and Levaot quarters consisted of six-story apart­ ment buildings. Many of the apartments in Ye'alim were for rent.

Ye'alim was the first permanent quarter built for the first settlers and included the new Romanian immigrants. It was a very concentrated quarter and included high-density shops, heavy pedestrian traffic, and the commercial center (see Figure 6),

The low-density Neurim quarter consisted of "patio houses," which were individual private duplex buildings. Each house had two

-Frontiertown is sometimes used in this dissertation to mean the town of Arad. 152 to three bedrooms, patio space, and small front and rear garden space. The residents in Neurim were encouraged by the municipality to buy their homes, for which they received easy mortgage terms.

The Chatzavim quarter consisted of individual luxurious villas. The quarter was located on a high plateau surrounded by the mountains of Moav. In 1963, plots were available to the first two hundred settlers to build villas within five years. Chatzavim was a truly beautiful, low-density neighborhood. The villas were all built in highly individual styles, they fit into a desert topography, and their gardens were magnificent and well cared for. The residents took great pride in their homes, gardens, neighborhoods, and in the progress of Arad.

Low-density Avishur and high-density Tlalim were the newest quarters. They consisted of large luxury apartment buildings. The apartments were for sale and were expensive. Many residents of Arad bought apartments for investment purposes, renting the apartments to tourists for the summer. There were beautiful gardens and playgrounds in all the quarters, but the gardens in these quarters were truly out­ standing, such as in Tlalim, where there was a large display of red roses. The children in Arad were encouraged to play in these gardens; the shade sheltered them from the summer heat. As seen on the map of Arad, every quarter had gardens, each landscaped with much care and beauty. During my stay in Arad, there was never an incident of vandalism in any of the gardens. 153 Harduf was the newest low-density quarter that was being de­ veloped. It was a neighborhood of new villas, more uniform, some duplex and some private and for sale to the residents.

The three quarters, Rotem, Chalamish, and Yehoshofat, are part of the master plan for future development. During my stay in Arad, as yet there was no development of any residential housing in these quarters.

The commercial center, with its plaza, was the hub of activi­ ties for all the residents. Shops, cafes, cinema, post office, rab­ binical council, office of labor, etc. are all located in the commer­ cial center. According to Hoffmitz (1978), the neighborhoods in Arad were built with traffic-free zones, where a network of footpaths all lead to the commercial plaza. Each quarter has grocery and vegetable shops, a kindergarten, mini-markets, and parks. The matnas was also located in the center of town.

Three hotels, located at Observation Point Moav, were classi­ fied by the National Tourist Office as "Class A hotels."

Aronoff (1974:40) summed up the development of Arad when he described "the giant construction cranes which can be seen towering on the horizon as one approaches the town. They seem to be constantly busy opening up the next stage of development of the town's master plan."

Landscaping in Arad was a very serious business. The Office of Landscape and Ecology in Arad was part of the municipality. In an interview, the director told me that the budget for landscape and maintenance in kArad was 10 percent of the town's budget. In 1981, 154 each tenant in the cooperative apartments paid 200 shekels a year for

the planting and maintenance of their front gardens. At the time,

this sum was considered by individual tenants that I interviewed, as

reasonable.

Demography

Aronoff (1974=43) claims that:

. . . planners hoped that if the town was started by what they regarded as stable elements with firm roots in the country, they would set the social and cultural tone of the community; and once this tone was firmly established, they could "absorb" the new immigrants into the community in a controlled manner. They hoped in this way to avoid many of the social problems which they felt had plagued many of the other development towns.

Ash (1974:396) reports that the policy of the planners of Arad was to attract the more educated immigrants. The policy of the plan­ ners proved successful when they absorbed the two hundred immigrants from Romania in 1964-1965- According to an informant's view, the

Romanian immigrants were settled in the first shikunim, quickly ab­ sorbed into the work force, but at the time did not really socialize with the first young Israeli settlers. According to Aronoff's account

(1974)) a strong percentage of the Romanian immigrants were Orthodox.

They supported the only synagogue in Arad by their presence at prayer services and also by their support of the newly formed Religious Coun­ cil. The Romanians spoke Yiddish, while the Israelis spoke only

Hebrew.

In 1973> five hundred Russian families came to Arad and were absorbed successfully in the working force. The absorption center in Arad worked closely with the industries, with Amidar, and with 155

the Ulpan. The immigrants were given the opportunity to compete for

higher positions by studying management courses. In 1981, I

observed that many first-generation Russian women worked in the super­ market as cashiers. There is also a Hoadon (social club) in the

Nuerim quarter that caters to the immigrants' needs.

In an interview with a female first-settler in Arad, I asked her to explain the selection process in 1962:

It was a time for challenges, the selection process— more a legend and less a reality . . . We came to build a town in the desert. Young couples with vocations from all over Israel were accepted. The fifty first families with a minimum amount of children, who were Israelis and wanted to live here, and would accept the chal­ lenge— this was the criterion, not that they must be born in Israel . . .

This screening process was a unique social experiment which had a number of significant ramifications. In Arad, it was mandatory that everyone who worked in Arad be required to live in Arad with their families. This was usually the opposite in the other develop­ ment towns, where the vatikim worked in the town and lived elsewhere.

As a result, the planning team and the administration became part of the town— citizens. The establishment of Arad was given high govern­ ment priority and Arad had a positive image with nationwide publicity.

Spiegel (1967i4 8 ) claims that:

In order to facilitate integration between the vatikim and the immigrants in Arad, the latter were also carefully selected in those early years of the town's development; only those immigrants who were considered to be able to be absorbed quickly both econom­ ically and socially were accepted by the local authorities.

According to Shinar and Mar (1980:578) and Aronoff (1974:86), the per­ centage of the senior citizens age sixty-five and over in Arad rose from 1 percent in 1973 to 3 percent in 1980. We can analyze this 156 increase of senior citisens in Arad as internal migration. Many came to Arad to retire; we find that the pensioners in Dimona were indige­ nous to the population.

The reasons for internal migration to Arad (Shinar & Mar 1980:

580) were: new settlers in Arad received special concessions in lower income tax, lower cost for apartments, and industry also received spe­ cial tax breaks. The majority of those interviewed came to live in

Arad because they found work in the area, lower cost for apartments, ability to rent from Amidar, the wages offered by industry in Arad are higher, and they can live near their work. Twenty-five percent of the residents chose to live in Arad for health reasons. The sec­ ondary reasons for living in Arad are: quality of life, good place to raise children, educational standards, climate, neighborhoods, health reasons, and scenery. Among the new arrivals in 1978 in Arad,

92 percent were married, there were 3.2 members in a family, 56 per­ cent had twelve years of schooling, and 50 percent were in the country fifteen years or longer. The Romanian, Hungarian, and Russian immi­ grants were referred to Arad by the Jewish Agency.

Aronoff (1974:86) suggests that the motives for settling in

"Frontiertown" during the years 1962-1967 were not varied. Job or business was the number one motive for settling in Arad. The ideo­ logical motive to help build a new town in the Negev was very strongly felt by the original settlers in 1962, but lessened for those who settled in Arad in 1963. A nice, small place was basically a second­ ary reason for settlement for all. A new start on life was not a major priority or secondary motive by these settlers during these 157

years. Cheaper housing becomes important in 1964-1967 for new

settlers, perhaps because the first shinkunim were built, but this

is not a prime motive. The motive of Jewish Agency referral was only

important to the Romanian immigrants in 1964, but negligible to other

settlers who came to live in Arad. Shinar and Mar's research (1980)

seems to agree with Arnoff’s findings in 1967, that work, higher

wages, good housing, and proximity to work seem to be the primary

motivational factors for settlers to Arad in 1978-

According to the population flow in Arad in Table 12, in­

creased population movements during the years 1962-1975 were slow but

steady. In 1983, the population of Arad had grown to fourteen

thousand. The reason for this increase is that two thousand new

settlers arrived from Yamit, the settlement in the northern Sinai that

was dismantled when the Sinai was returned to Egypt (Jerusalem Post

1983:15).

According to Table 13, during the years 1970-1975, over three

thousand immigrants were absorbed into Arad; the statistics of the

Local Council of Arad (1968) showed that the new immigrants consisted

of three main groups: approximately 500 families from Russia, about

200 families from Anglo-Saxon countries, and about 160 families from

South America. The rest of the immigrants were from all over the

world. My census information is that there were about forty Indian

families, mostly young adults, and two hundred Romanian immigrants.

According to the findings of the Institute of Absorption on Immi­ grants (1974), the immigrants in Arad did not have much difficulty 158

TABLE 12

POPULATION FLOW IN ARAD, 1962-1975, BY YEAR AND POPULATION

Number Year Population

1 1962 200

2 1963 550

3 1964 —

4 1965 1,300

5 1966 1,500

6 1967 2,000

7 1968 2,700

8 1969 3,430

9 1970 4,350

10 1971 5,450

11 1972 6,100

12 1973 7,500

13 1974 —

14 1975 10,000

SOURCE: Shinar and Mar 1980:577- 159

TABLE 13

IMMIGRANT SETTLEMENT IN ARAD, 1970-1975

Number Year of Immigration Immigrant Population

1 1970 239

2 1971 464

3 1972 619

4 1973 1,105

5 1974 450

6 1975 480

SOURCE: Shinar and Mar 1980:577. 160

in adjusting and acclimating themselves to Arad since they received

work and housing.

Ethnic Boundaries in Arad

According to Aronoff (I974i43), there was population diversity

in Arad since its foundation. In 1962, the year of settlement, 28

percent of the population were young adults of Afro-Asian descent,

49 percent were Ashkenazi vatikim, and 60 percent were sabras. In

reality, however, the majority of the first settlers in the first five

years were a homogeneous population, all were young adults who were

raised in Israel.

In 1 9 6 4, two hundred Romanian and Hungarian immigrants were

referred to Arad by the Jewish Agency. In 1971, 56 percent of the

population in Arad were sabras, 17 percent were of Afro-Asian descent, and 27 percent were European-American. In 1981, I observed and inter­ viewed several families who were part of the original settlement group in Arad. I also interviewed two young women of Afro-Asian descent.

They were very empathetic to the plight of Afro-Asian immigrants, but they did not feel any kinship or links with these immigrants. They had come to Israel when they were very young and were totally accul- turated into the Western Israeli society. The forty-nine European settlers in Arad came to Israel as children with their families before the state was declared in 1948* The Israeli population were sabras, many born in kibbutzim.

In 1981, it was very clear to me that the residents and offi­ cials of Arad wanted the population to remain homogeneous. They 161

denied the existence of ethnic groups in Arad and insisted that "in

Arad, everyone is an Israeli." They did, however, admit that cultural

diversity existed in Arad, which implies varying religious

affiliations, ethnic programs in Schools, ethnic social clubs such

as Russian and American clubs; Middle Eastern foods such as falafel,

chumos, and pita are popular foods for all.

The reason that Arad has achieved a homogeneous population

is that the government has been selective in its choice of the popula­

tion and immigrant settlement during the first ten years of Arad's

existence. The major external immigration to Arad was always from

European countries, and now that the national immigration has declined

to a trickle, population increase will be of natural causes and inter­

nal migrations.

In many interviews with first-settlers in Arad, there were rumblings from them about changes in the population of the town. They

thought that a lower socio-economic class was settling in. They appeared frightened of these new changes and that this new lower-class element would pollute the ideal of Arad: "To be a model town and a

'Garden of Eden' in the desert,"

I interviewed the police chief, and he agreed that some of the newer settlers in Arad were from the lower economic strata. He also cautioned me that the disadvantaged children were not necessarily children from lower economic homes; they could be children of upper socio-economic parents with few cultural interests. He thought if

Arad grew to a town of seventy thousand, it would exhibit the 162

socio-economic problems of any large center, such as crime, which

could tarnish "the quality of life" that was special to Arad,

I interviewed a young second-generation couple of Indian de­

scent who live in Arad. The woman's parents emigrated from Bombay

in 1950, and settled in Dimona. The man was born in India, but he

was educated in Israel. They settled in Arad in 1964; the husband

worked in the phosphates works. They had little social relationship

with other Indian families in Arad. They said they liked the quiet,

cleanliness, education, sports facilities, cultural presentations in

the matnas, and the many clubs for pensioners in Arad. I asked them

what was not good in Israel:

In India we did not know Zionist ideology, which we learned in Israel, but in India, people were treated as human beings. One doesn't eat the other like in Israel, so it is difficult for In­ dian Jews to adjust to the aggressiveness of society in Israel. Indians also had more prestige in India; a clerk was a pres­ tigious job, but not so much in Israel.

Russians

The Russian immigrants have a moadon (social club) in the

Neurim quarter in Arad. It was well-furnished, with good reading material in Russian and Yiddish. There were newspapers (published

in Israel) in easy Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish. A Russian woman who had migrated to Arad in 1972 was in charge of the club. She was em­ ployed by the Iriya, with an office in the matnas. On the Wednesday morning when I came, by the invitation of the director, a nurse from

Tipot Chalov (visiting health service) came to take the immigrants' blood pressure and discuss their state of health. The Israeli 163

pensioners* who have their moadon in the matnas* do not socialize with

the Russian pensioners, mainly because the Russians do not speak

Hebrew. A social worker from the Social Service Center visited the

Russian pensioners at 5:00 P.M. on Wednesdays to help them with any

problems they might have. The moadon was open every morning and in

the afternoon after 5:00 P.M. The library was open on Sunday, Tues­

day, and Thursday, 4:00-6:00 P.M. There was a sewing and gardening

group and games and activities on Saturday night. This moadon was

also used on Friday night by young people in the neighborhood for

social parties. The retarded residents of Arad (who reside at home)

from age thirty used the moadon three times a week in the evenings, with volunteers to work with them.

I interviewed a female Russian immigrant, age fifty-two. She was born in Romania but lived in Russia. She emigrated from Russia with her husband and son in 1972 and was referred by the Jewish Agency

to Arad.

I finished high school. I spoke Yiddish in our home. I emi­ grated from Russia because I grew up in a Zionist house and I thought my son would intermarry with a gentile. I came to Arad because the Jewish Agency brought us straight here. I adjusted well. I received an apartment. I never was shy about speaking Hebrew or to go to work. I started to work with the absorption center and welcomed new olim (immigrants). We are wanted here in Arad, and this is our country. Some Russian olim do not absorb well. They miss their homes in Russia. The younger olim, however, are absorbed very well. There is a generation gap between the Russian olim and their children. The youth are Israeli and the parents Russian. The youth with higher education do not stay in Arad because they have no work here. Some want to stay but there are no apartments for rent. Many move to the center of the country or they emigrate from Israel to America. It is really hard for the parents when their children move away. The sabras need more restraint and to learn manners. What is good for me in Arad is that I work and I am recognized 164

in town. What is not good in Arad— I never lived anywhere else in Israel. What is good is Israel. This is our country.

Many elderly Russians speak Yiddish to each other. The Rus­ sian men work as engineers in the industries of the Read Sea, and a large group of Russian women work in the main supermarket in Arad.

Pensioners

Many Israeli vatikim move to Arad during their retirement years. They share a good camaraderie with other Israeli senior citi­ zens. They have many activities in the matnas, where they receive discounts to all cultural events; they also like to sit in the plaza and socialise with each other. In 1981, they represented 3 percent of the total population of Arad.

I was invited to a senior citizen dinner honoring many pen­ sioners for their activities of voluntarism. The crowd was age sixty to seventy, and appeared fit and in good health.

Absorption Center in Arad

The following interview was with the director of the absorp­ tion center in Arad. I asked her to describe the functions of the center, its goals and problems:

My main worries are that the immigrants should be absorbed and adjust to Arad. We help them with money matters and we visit them at home. I help those who come to Arad through an emissary outside of Israel. We arrange rental apartments for them. We found three hundred apartments for the Russians in 1970-1972. At the present time, we have no subsidized apartments for immigrants. 165 The Russians have adjusted well in Arad. I am sure that they will remain here. They are of a very high standard. Their chil­ dren are completely integrated into the schools. Many have even bought their own apartments in Arad. At present, we do not have many apartments; therefore, there aren't many new immigrants. When they come to the absorption cen­ ter, it does not matter where they will go after they spend six months to a year in the center. They need to learn Hebrew, then the professionals can transfer anywhere in the country to live and to work.

Economic Structure of Arad

According to Aronoff (1974:41), Frontiertown is located in

the heart of Israel's richest concentration of mineral deposits near

the Dead Sea; the natural gas and oil wells, phosphates, bituminous

shales, and limestone make it a natural base for a chemical industry and a natural base for a town for the workers to live in (Aronoff

1974:41).

Economic and Industrial Center in Arad (Table 14)

There are fourteen hundred workers of Arad (approximately one- third are white collar workers) employed in the following heavy chemi­ cal industries:

(1) Arad Chemical Industry, process Ashlag

(2) Perriclass Dead Sea Works (described in Chapter VI)

(3) The Dead Sea Potash Plant (described in Chapter VI)

(4) The phosphate plants at Oron and Nachal Zin (described

in Chapter VI) 166

TABLE 14

LIGHT INDUSTRIAL CENTER IN ARAD

Industry______Function Present Industries

1. Arad Towels Manufactures terry towels 2. Subtrom Arad Manufactures prefabricated housing 3. Garel Manufactures socks and stockings 4. Pamol Manufactures chemicals 5. Segarim Manufactures bottle tops and print­ ing on bottle tops 6. Shefa Protein Snacks Manufactures breakfast foods and snacks 7. Avidar A plant for woodworking 8. Rosnon Manufactures blouses 9. Lamada Manufactures games 10. Romex Manufactures toys 11. A.S.M. Manufactures precision mechanism 12. Migos A galvanization plant 13. Arad Marble A plant for cutting and working ocal marable 14. Readymix Manufactures concrete 15. Steroplast Manufactures plastics

Under Construction

1. A plant for toys 2. A plant for frozen foods 3. A plant for artistic aluminum work 4* Arad Towels plans a new expan­ sion plant for export trade

Workshops— Exist in a 25,000 Square Meter Area

1* 5 locksmiths 2. 7 carpenters 3. 4 garages 4 ‘ 2 electricians 5. 1 printing press 6. 1 bakery 7- 1 laundry

SOURCE: Local Council of Arad, General Outline: Facts and Details about Arad (Arad, Israel: Local Council of Arad, 197$), p. 24.

NOTE: Total number of workers: 800. (5) The atomic energy plant at Dimona (described in Chapter

VI)

(6) Makteshim

(7) Tirkonot Bean

(8) Orot (described in Chapter VI)

Source: General Outline of Arad 1978:24.

Women in the Work Force

Every woman that I interviewed, except two, was involved in

the work force. The majority of them were skilled and many held pro­

fessional posts in Arad and Beer Sheva. According to the Office of

Labor, very few women in Arad had cleaning positions. The Russian

women worked in the supermarket; otherwise, women held posts in the banks, in the municipality, in offices, and in child care. The pro­

fessional women all had university degrees; many had M.A.s and were

teachers, principals, social workers, musicians, etc. They told me

that they worked because they needed fulfillment and also to earn a

second salary.

Youth in the Work Force

According to the Office of Labor in Arad, only a minority of youth drop out of school after the ninth grade. These youth are placed in Perriclass vocational classes or study in a technical school in Beer Sheva. Several high school youths delivered papers in the mornings and many worked in grocery stores in the afternoons. They worked because they wanted some financial independence and not due 168

to family need. Many high school youth worked during the summer in

their father's plants.

The Shuk

The shuk in Arad was an enclosed structure filled with various

shops, both food and boutiques. During my stay, the shuk had recently

opened, so it was difficult to judge its success. I would describe

it as an indoor farmers' market, though the residents referred to it as a shuk.

Commercial Shops in Arad

There was a variety of shops in the commercial center:

(1) Hardware, houseware, furniture shops, shoe shops, flower

shops, food shops, clothing shops, toy shops, condiment

shops, stationery shops, candy and ice cream shops, super­

market, butcher shops, felafel shops, beauty shops, dis­

count shops, and mini-markets

(2) There was a closed central market, built in 1980 but not

fully developed.

(3) Every neighborhood had mini-food-markets, vegetable and

grocery stores, kiosks, and pharmacies.

(4) The cafes in the commercial center were very attractive,

and the clientele were both male and female.

(5) All national banks were represented in Arad. 169 Inflation

The families that I knew in Arad felt the pangs of inflation.

My landlady told me repeatedly about her large utility bills and no

matter how good her husband's salary was, it never stretched enough

to meet her expenses. When I asked the question, "What is not good

in Arad?" every response was, "We are very far from the center of the

country; therefore, the prices in Arad are more expensive than in

Tel-Aviv." It was obvious to me that the residents of Arad suffered

from inflation as deeply as the residents of Dimona.

Tourism in Arad

I noticed that during the seven-day Passover festival, the

commercial center in Arad was unusually crowded and took on a festive

vacation atmosphere, due to Israelies vacationing in Arad. The sum­ mer was also a period of intensive vacationing in Arad and many

Israelis rent apartments for the summer. There are three "A-class hotels," with daily transportation to the Dea Sea (Ein Haboqeq). The resort area at Ein Haboqeq offered mineral baths and expert therapy for convalescence.

The tourist spots include the archaeological digs of Masada and Tel Arad. Masada is the remains of an ancient Judean fortress built by the Judean King Herod. After the fall of the second Temple in Jerusalem to the Romans, a contingent of Judeans fled to Masada and, led by Eliezar Ben-Yair, held out against Roman siege three years. When all hope was lost, the remaining fighters and their fami­ lies took their own lives rather than be captured. It remained a 170

symbol of the struggle for freedom of the Israeli few against the mighty. Masada was excavated by the Israeli archaeologist Yigael

Yadin.

When recruits finish their basic training, they are officially sworn into the army on Masada. They receive their weapons and each a Bible and swear their allegiance to the defense of Israel.

Once a year in Arad, all males and females age thirteen go up to Masada in the early hours before dawn. Here they participate in a very stirring Bar-Mitzvah and Bat-Mitzvah ceremony. This cere­ mony symbolizes their coming of age, the separation from childhood.

Educational Systems in Arad

Arad's educational system follows the Israeli national educa­ tional curricula. The Director of Education of Arad told me in an interview that the teachers and principals alike strive for excellence in the schools. The educational personnel all live in Arad, so the turnover of teachers is minimal, and they succeed in maintaining con­ tinuity in the schools. The teachers are all licensed and the major­ ity of principals, teachers, and administrative officials studied for their B.A.s and many for M.A.s.

We notice in Table 15 that there are no special technical schools in Arad; the students who wish to attend these schools need to travel to Beer Sheva. Students with learning disabilities or those who are retarded do not attend separate schools; they study in special classes and remain in school. TABLE 15

EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS IN ARAD, 1981

Number Schools Age/Grade Number Students Tuition3 Hours*5 30 Total: 1,010 Nursery 3 mo.-3 Yrs. Fee 7:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. Ganim 3-4 yrs. Fee 7:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. Compulsory Ganim 5 yrs. Free 8:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M. 5 Elementary gr. 1-6 Free 8:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M. 3 State 1,726 1 State-Religious 100 1 Independent 85 Fee 1 Junior High School gr. 7-9 551 Free 8:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M. 1 State High School gr, 9-12 334 Free 8 : 0 0 A.M.-1:00 P.M. (comprehensive) 1 Independent High School gr. 9-12 39 Fee Open (religious)

Total students 3,845

SOURCE: £ The fees for nursery schools care from the age of three months to four years, vary accord­ ing to the financial ability of the parents to pay. The tuition of the independent schools is arranged by a committee of parents of the students. Scholarships are available to students in need.

^Students attend school six days a week, Sunday through Friday. 172

The state high school in Arad is comprehensive which means

that the junior high school, grades 7-9, is located under the same

roof as the high school and is also administered by the principal of

the tichon. The principal told me in an interview that the junior high school (chavita) should be separate from the tichon with its own administration. He thought that the students in the chativa and

tichon needed change in the teaching staff.

According to the principal of the tichon and the Director of

Education, 70 percent of the students in the tichon chose to study in the vocational track, but they still qualify to take their bagrut in their senior year; the other 30 percent of the students study in the academic track.

Compilation of Excerpts from Indepth Interviews of the Principals of Arad

I interviewed all the principals of the elementary schools and the high school. I compiled their responses to my questions con­ cerning their goals and problems in their schools.

A. Goals. Goals are to educate the students to be good stu­ dents and to give them a good foundation for life, educate our stu­ dents with good values and sound educational knowledge, to teach the students to read and write and to understand what it is that they are reading. They must learn the basics in arithmetic, some foreign lan­ guage like English and Arabic; our goal is that the student receives the traditional schooling in religious subjects and that he also loves 173

the country, and that we teach on a high scholastic level and that

the children love to come to school; our education must be better

toward Zionism, the absorption of the Orientals in Israel is not good;

my goal is to have a stable environment for the students to learn by;

we try to educate the girls to be religious girls and believe in Zion­

ism, that they should love the country and that they should raise good

families. We are guarding the leadership of the next generation.

B. Present. There is a complete integration of edot (ethnic

groups) in the school system, we have cooperation between the parents,

children, and the teachers; the children like to come to school; qual­

ity of teachers is high, special. Arad allows the youth to develop

and grow, there is much for them to do and learn; children are moti­

vated to learn in Arad because of the good educational atmosphere

here.

One teacher of Moroccan descent told me that the Moroccans

who live here do not have any problems, because their economic situa­

tion is good and they have a good life here.

C. Problems. Problems include children who come from un­

stable home conditions, be it divorce or just disadvantaged cultur­

ally; our problems are with students that come from homes with low cultural levels and these are not necessarily children from Oriental homes. I would say that 20 percent of the students come from cultur­ ally deprived homes; we have affluent students, and some of them are 174 self-satisfied, their parents are not interested, and some students are gifted, and it it is difficult to know what else we can give them.

D. Future. Future goals are to continue our high scholastic standards and even try harder to maintain these goals; to improve the quality of teaching materials, to have teachers who are not afraid to change things and who are open to change.

Analysis. The six principals interviewed agreed that there was no differentiation of edot in the schools. They also agreed that the most severe problems are due to lack of motivation at home, unstable home conditions, and low cultural levels of parents. I do not know the percentage of "culturally" disadvantaged children in the schools but, according to the educators in Arad, it is high enough to cause their concern.

Educational Centers

A. The Pedagogy Center. The function of the center was to serve all the teachers (gan— high school) with various visual aids and projects. They can borrow many visual aids for use in their classrooms or they can make their own aids with the materials provided by the center. A library provided reference books and teaching aids, games, and pictures, etc. Many supervisors from'Beer Sheva and

Jerusalem came to Arad to demonstrate new curricula to the teachers.

The center was for use to all educational workers, youth leaders, and community center supervisors. There were two head supervisors 175 employed by the center. The Office of Education in Jerusalem and the municipality sponsor this center jointly.

B. The Conservatory. There were 550 children currently

(1 9 8 1 ) studying part-time at the conservatory. The teachers were from

Russia, Romania, Israel, and Anglo-Saxon countries and all lived in

Arad. The director of the conservatory emigrated to Palestine in 1934 from Germany, at the age of four. In an interview with him, he told me:

The conservatory is a vital avenue of culture in the town. We try to develop the talent and the potential of the students. The students study during the hours of 2:00 P.M. through 8:00 P.M. Students can achieve readiness at age five and begin to study at ages nine through ten. We teach theory about two and a half hours a week. We have a dedicated staff, good atmosphere here, and good working relationship. The children want to learn here, no pres­ sure is put on them. We have a youth orchestra— regional con­ certs. Our budget is not high enough. This year we could not take in more students because of budget problems.

C. The Municipal Library. The librarian is a woman age forty-nine who came to Arad in 1 9 6 4. She studied in an agricultural school and had one year in the university and two years in librarian seminar in Beer Sheva. In an interview she told me that the library was opened Sunday to Thursday, 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Her goal was for children to progress in their reading:

The readers need space and should not be disturbed. We have a section for the pensioners. They can take out books and records up to three months. Students in grade 11 on can take out refer­ ence books overnight or for three days. There are clubs in the library for the teachers and their classes. It is important to expose the elementary students to the library and the functions of the library. A new library is to be built near the matnas; the budget allotted— 120,000 shekels for books in the future, of 176

which 60,000 will come from the Office of Education and Culture. There are a total of sixty thousand books in the library.

D. The Center of Psychological Services. All the workers

in the center have M.A. degrees and one has a B.A. degree. They ser­ vice the schools, parents, and children. They give tests to the chil­ dren of kindergarten before they enter first grade.

Our methodology centers around care for the family. Sometimes a couple will come to Arad to save their marriage and it is easier to receive help from the social services. About 30 percent of the population is in need of help at some time or another. Be­ cause Arad is so small, I can't do group therapy, people won't come. We do not have all the means to professionally give treat­ ments to those who require it. It is difficult to go to Beer Sheva and wait so long for treatment. (Director of Psychological Services, Arad, 19 8 1)

The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS)

This educational institution came to Arad thirteen years ago, and was established by Jewish groups in England. The program is an aliya (immigration) program for graduate students from all over the world. They remain a year to study in the intensive program, and then they decide whether they wish to remain in Israel. The program con­ sists of: (1) a Hebrew language ulpan, (2) an Israel study program, and (3) excursions to the Golan, Galilee, and the Negev. They also spend two and a half weeks in a kibbutz or moshav. The fee in 198l was $600 for the first part of the program, which covered room and board and fees, which was subsidized by the Jewish Agency. Thirty to forty percent of their students remain in Israel. There were 175 students in each session and there were four sessions a year. In 1981 177 the student body came from England, the United States, South Africa,

Australia, India, and Sweden. There was an adopted family program for the students by the residents of Arad (interview with the director of WUJS, 1981).

Social Services in Arad

The physical setting of the social service center in Arad had very bright, attractive waiting rooms, good seating, curtains, plants, and spacious quarters in a private bungalow. An appointment with the secretary was needed by all clients. The offices were built for a maximum of privacy and a minimum of discomfort for the applicants, who already found themselves in an uncomfortable situation. The director's office was exactly like her fellow workers' in decor, which was simple and functional. There were eight workers in the office; four of them were graduates of the university and four were graduates of the social work institute in Beer Sheva, according to the direc­ tor's records. In 1980, twenty-two families received welfare and about six hundred families received some kind of help, which was often temporary aid. About 5 percent had drinking problems.

Interview with the director of social services, 1981:

The main social problems that we deal with are the problems affected by divorce, which are universal: breakup of the family and conflicts for the children. The elderly have their own spe­ cial problems: illness, depression, etc. We just began this year [l98l] to service the schools. The population in Arad does not see our work in its proper light. There is not shame to need and ask for help. We are professionals and can lessen their pain. We have about eight hundred to nine hundred pensioners (two hundred are Anglo-Saxon), about two hundred of them receive care from us (ambulatory, finances, relationships between their chil­ dren, and transportation for them throughout the town). The 178

community center [matnas] has a program for the pensioners, the vatikim do not want to be with the new immigrants. They want to speak Hebrew. Pensioners are able to buy tickets to all cultural events cheaper. We have about three hundred to five hundred pen­ sioners that participate in these programs. Most are financially independent.

Health Care in Arad

Arad maintains the same Kupat Cholim system as the country

in general but there is no hospital in Dimona and Arad. They must

use the hospital facilities in Beer Sheva (see Chapter III above).

Special to Arad are the dry climate (maximum humidity 6 5 percent and

minimum 35 percent), mild temperature (average annual range between

45° and 82°F), and the almost total lack of vegetation which makes

the town a haven of relief for those who suffer from asthma and other

allergic diseases. Zvi Kantor et al. (1 9 6 6) claimed that thirty-five

out of fifty asthma patients had excellent responses, and improved

rapidly after their arrival in Arad. Some of the patients required

at least one month to become totally free of asthma attacks. Arad

was also the residential base for those who bathed in the medicinal

sulphur springs at Ein Haboqeq and the Dead Sea.

Bet Mazor is the only boarding school in Israel for children

who suffer from asthma. The institution has existed in Arad for thir­

teen years. The majority of asthmatic children were from the humid

coastal regions. The children from Bet Mazor attend school in Arad and reside in the dormitory. In 1981, there were forty children, who were divided into three levels: the youth (sixteen children up to 179

sixth grade), the intermediate (sixteen children, seventh to ninth

grade), and young adults (eight children, ninth to twelfth grade).

I interviewed the director of Bet Mazor and asked him about

the administration of the school:

Children usually do grow out of asthma by the age of twelve. The most important factor is that the child copes with his ill­ ness. Those who are seriously ill are referred to us. Our clinic doctor pays individual visits and there are three permanent nurses on staff. The children do suffer from separation anxiety; they miss their families, and they feel guilty about being away from their homes. We have a psychologist, three counselors, one social worker, and a housemother. The parents phone a lot and visit every weekend; the kids go home for the Passover holiday and if there are any life cycle celebrations in their families. The tuition in 1981 was 3,000 shekels per child per year. We have no direct tuition. It is funded by the Ministry of Wel­ fare. Some students have a difficult time in school and become discipline problems. They suffer the problems of integration and feel like lower-class orphans. They are like strangers, but this eventually subsides. They still suffer from low esteem, and some are from culturally deprived homes. Our other problems consist of the turnover of qualified help, e.g., counselors, and that is because our salaries are low.

After our interview, the director took me on a tour of the

institute. I spoke with several students at Bet Mazor. They were warm, enthusiastic, and very involved with projects. They behaved as any teenagers would behave in a dormitory situation. Some girls were busy washing their hair, two others were taking their turns serv­ ing meals, helping the cook, and setting the dining tables in the din­ ing room. The housemother was also friendly and had a very nice rap­ port with the girls.

Matnas

The matnas in Arad is referred to as the cultural center.

It services the social and cultural needs of the community. They 180

bring to Arad national theatre and dance companies. They also sponsor

social clubs such as esca (see Appendix A) and activities for the pen­

sioners. Since my time was limited, I did not observe the activities as I did in Dimona. I did, however, interview the director.

The Orthodox Community in Arad

In 1967, Aronoff (1974:151) reported that Arad was by no means a religious, observant, Orthodox community, and that there was a reli­ gious council and one synagogue in the town. In 1981, according to the religious council, there were ten synagogues in Arad: the central

Ashkenazi synagogue, located in the center of town; the central

Sephardi synagogue; four other small Ashkenazi synagogues; one small

Yemenite synagogue; a Cer Chasidim synagogue; and one Conservative synagogue.

I interviewed the Head Rabbi in Arad, who wore the official dress worn by the rabbis in Israel. He wore a beard, a black hat, a black velvet kipah (skullcap), a black suit, tie, and white shirt, and a black coat. According to him there were approximately 150

Orthodox families living in Arad and that the religious attitude of the secular residents was a "live and let live" attitude.

Orthodox Groups in Arad

The Ger Chasidim. The Cer Chasidim are the followers of the rabbinical dynasty founded in the town of Ger in eastern Europe in the seventeenth century. In 1981 the Rebbe, the present head of the dynasty, lived in Jerusalem and visited Arad on vacation. As a 181

result, a group of thirty Ger students who study taljnud in the Yeshiva and twelve married chasidim (pious followers) settled in Arad to be with the Rebbe when he visited. The chasidim dressed in the costumes of the sixteenth-century Polish nobles. They wore black shoes, black stockings, black knee pants, a black silk coat, white shirt, and a round, large, black hat. They all wore long beards. On the Sabbath, they wore a special, large, round fur hat (a straimel). They walked with a spring in their gait and they always seemed happy. Their wives wore head coverings, usually kerchiefs, stockings in all weather, and long-sleeved blouses and dresses. The chasidim told my son that they felt isolated in Arad, but it was worth being in Arad just to be near the Rebbe. Their Yeshiva and synagogue were located in the Rishonim quarter.

The Bnai Akiva Ulpana. The Bnai Akiva Ulpana is a religious boarding high school for girls. The principal, a rabbi whom I inter- viewd, wore modern Western dress. The school practiced the curriculum of the state religious high schools in Israel, including religious thought, ethics, and morals. The girls were forbidden to wear trousers in school. The majority of students dressed modestly at all times. The wives of the teachers in the school covered their heads with kerchiefs. I was invited by the principal to a Shabbat afternoon meal. The students questioned me about my religious affiliation,

Orthodox practices in America, and my research in Arad. 182

National Elections, June 1981

In June 1 9 8 1 , thirty-one political parties ran for election

to the Knesset. The two major antagonists in the elections, held

June 3 0 , 1981, were the Likud Party with Menachem Begin at the helm,

and the Alignment Party headed by Shimon Peres. The representatives

of each party campaigned vigorously throughout the country. They appeared on television for one-half hour each night for two weeks, informing the public citizens why their party deserved support. A

special musical theme was orchestrated by the major parties and played during their time slots.

In Arad, I attended a parlor meeting held in a private home with Knesset member Shulamit Aloni, who headed the Ratz Party— "the party for productive change." She was a very articulate speaker, but only stressed negative rhetoric about Begin. She did not present any productive programs of her party. She controlled the question-and- answer period; those who did not agree with her were ignored. Most of the audience present at the meeting were disappointed. They wanted to discuss the positive aspects of change that her party would bring about. I asked Aloni*s secretary if Mrs. Aloni planned to also speak at a parlor meeting in Dimona. The secretary very diplomatically told me that there were no plans to visit Dimona.

One evening in June, Yitzchak Rabin, former prime minister of Israel and a leader of the Alignment Party, spoke in the matnas to a crowd of approximately 450 people. He spoke very forcefully of the negative aspects of the Likud Party; for example, economic infla­ tion and Begin*s one-man rule in the Likud Party, while the Alignment 183

Party was run by a group of party members, but Rabin did not have any new ideas on how to curb inflation. After Rabin's speech, several hecklers— Likud supporters— prevented him from answering the questions of the audience. Due to the noise, Rabin could not continue and the meeting ended. I was told that these hecklers were not from Arad.

On June 15, 198l, Shimon Peres, leader of the Alignment Party, spoke in the cinema in Arad to eight hundred people. It was filled to capacity. During Peres' speech, hecklers interrupted his talk by chanting, "Begin, King of Israel." The TV cameras taped this scene and Peres showed it on the next night during his TV spot. The police then escorted the hecklers out of the cinema and they were not allowed back in. Peres, in his speech, attacked Begin1s character, the eco­ nomic inflation brought about by the Likud Party. Peres was very vin­ dictive and negative to the point that many of those in the audience walked out. I heard many comments from people in the audience that

Peres was particularly unproductive that evening and they were disap­ pointed in his speech.

Shamir and Arian (1983:91) claim that:

. . . a fascinating result of the 1981 elections in Israel was the acceleration of the process of competitiveness between the two major parties and increased polarisation along ethnic lines within the electorate— and that the uncertainty of the outcome ran into the night of June 30. Israel had never witnessed such a close race and extreme uncertainty as to the winner.

Pre-election polls predicted a tied race. The two major parties dur­ ing the campaign were clearly identified with the two ethnic groups, the Ma'arach with the Ashkenazi, and the Likud with the Orientals who in 1981 still perceived the Ma'arach as the establishment and the 184

Likud as the opposition, despite four years of rule by the Likud.

The Orientals continued to blame the Ma'arach Party for their lower status as a group and the mistakes made in the process of their ab­ sorption into Israeli society during the 1950s.

The election results were: the Likud won with 48 of the 120

Knesset seats and the Labor-Mapam alignment with 47. The close elec­ tion retained for the religious parties the balance of political power; the National Religious Party (NRP) lost half its previous strength by falling from twelve to six seats. Arian1s analysis of the election of 1981 is as follows:

The Likud's most important single weapon was Menachem Begin, and his popularity in the polls was much higher than any other candi­ date. The Alignment Party did not use the power bases in its con­ trol, e.g., the Histadrut, the Kibbutzim, the Kupat Cholim, and the workers' councils, to restore its image as a Workers Party. On the contrary, its elitist Ashkenazi image was augmented over the years and the Likud benefited from the Alignment's stagna­ tion, in part because of its popular policies, and in part because of Begin's appeal. (Arian 1983:11) CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

In ray final chapter, I wish to show evidence, based on data presented in Chapters I-VII of this dissertation, that: (1) Dimona and Arad represent microcosms of Israeli society; (2) the economic, educational, and cultural spheres of Dimona and Arad are comparable;

(3) the contrasting variables in Dimona and Arad manifest themselves in their historical foundations, physical settings, quality of life, and ethnic identities; (4) the socio-cultural gaps between the popula­ tions of Dimona and Arad are narrower than the residents of Arad be­ lieve; and (5) the future economic growth of Dimona and Arad could be enhanced by interaction of their populations, the first step being the establishment of a direct bus line between Dimona and Arad;

(6) contributions of this dissertation to social science research.

Dimona and Arad Represent Microcosms of Israel Society

According to Lewis (1977:11), "The daily lives of the citizens of development towns brought them into contact with many agencies of the National Government. Local politics, economic and social activi­ ties, religious institutions and educational services are all linked to national counterparts" (see Table 5)* As a result, Dimona and

Arad, linked to the Israeli government, developed as microcosms of

185 186

TABLE 16

SIMILARITIES AND CONTRASTS, DIMONA/ARAD

Attributes Dimona Arad Similarities

National structures Political, educational, health care, rabbinate, social services, construction, economic, police, military, Histadrut, absorption center

Regional spheres Ecological— northern Negev, development towns, Beer Sheva— center

Local spheres Municipality— mayor, Magan David Adorn— emergency center, health care, mercaz— commercial center, plaza, the shuk, matnas, playgrounds, swimming pools, sports programs, voluntary associations, synagogues

Socio-cultural School systems— enrichment centers, economic variables niche— Dead Sea industries, cultural events— matnas, cinemas, conservatory

Contrasts

Historical founda­ "Planted" 1955 "Planned" 1962 tions

Physical settings 1950s, 1960s Haphazard construction Well-designed construc­ tion 1970s, 1980s Better designed con­ Continued construction, struction, still evi­ some evidence of over­ dence of weak planning population prediction

Quality of life Evidence of trash, Clean, model town, crime, and lack of little crime, abundance landscaping of landscaping

Ethnic identity Diverse ethnic groups, Homogeneous "Israeli" growing second- population, Western generation middle immigrants absorbed in class Arad's society 187

Israeli society, specifically in the area of ethnic ethnocentrism practiced by the Ashkenazim toward Sephardi-Oriental immigrants in

Israel, during the period of mass immigration in the 1950s and 1960s.

Dimona, its majority of population at the time Oriental, was marked nationally as an "Oriental" town, while Arad, its majority of popula­ tion European-American and sabras, was marked from th-e—t-imo-eS its inception as an "Ashkenazi" town.

Many residents and officials in the municipality of Arad laughed when they discovered that I had just arrived from Dimona, and hoped to do a comparative study in Arad. Several comments were directed to me, such as:

You must realize that we live in two different worlds.

What can you ever compare in Dimona to us? You will only find contrasts between us.

Why in the world should there ever be a busline between Dimona and Arad? What do we have in common with them?

Dimona and Arad are located 35 kilometers apart * as there is no direct bus line connecting them, they have developed as two separate socio-cultural units in Israel.

We first need to review the theoretical implications of the government's policies during the 1950s and 1960s regarding the absorp­ tion of Sephardi-Oriental immigrants into the dominant Ashkenazi

Western-oriented society (see Chapters I and II). Dimona during those early years was isolated, by geographical distance, from the center of the country; therefore, its population, mainly Oriental, was some­ what removed from the severe strains of national absorption policies.

The Oriental immigrants, however, who settled in urban centers such 188

as Jerusalem, in contrast, had constant contact with the dominant

Ashkenazi host populations; therefore, the government's absorption

policies affected them in ways which did not affect the population

of Dimona.

The Oriental immigrants in Dimona were able to maintain their

ethnic identities in their daily life style with greater ease; they

continued to speak in their native languages, they maintained their

Orthodox religious traditions, and they continued to maintain their

style of dress as well as their tastes in food and music. Another

important element in ethnic boundary maintenance for the immigrants

in Dimona at that time was a contingent of young Moroccan first-

generation immigrants who assumed active political leadership in the

local arena and established a solid "Oriental" political infrastruc­

ture in Dimona. The first mayor of Dimona was a Moroccan. According

to Inbar and Adler (1977:129): "It would seem that in some of the more mature development towns, the municipality begins to establish

itself on the national scene and its mayor begins to enjoy a strong enough position with the central institution to influence their deci­

sions and to force them to cooperate with them." According to resi­ dents (in interviews), there has always been a Moroccan mayor in

Dimona; the present mayor, Jacque Amir, is also a member of the

Knesset, a delegate of the Labor Party.

The settlers in Arad in the 1960s and 1970s were mainly

Israelis, many of whom were sabras, including a contingent of second- generation Oriental and Ashkenazi residents who were raised and edu­ cated in Israel. The immigrants settled in Arad by the Jewish Agency 189

were all European-American and, according to Aronoff (1974)* adjusted

well to life in a Western-oriented community. Arad was, at the time,

naturally marked from the time of its inception as a model

"Ashkenazi" development town.

Acculturation in Dimona and Arad— 1970s, 1980s

We see evidence that the first-generation Oriental immigrants

of Dimona acquired a working knowledge of Hebrew. I observed several

Moroccan grandparents speak Hebrew to their sabra grandchildren and

they spoke to me in Hebrew during our daily conversations. One could

also observe sharper socio-cultural changes in the life styles and

education levels of second-generation Oriental residents, such as

smaller-sized families with an average of three children per family,

while their parents averaged seven children per family. Second- generation Oriental men served in the army and fought in the 1967 war, which definitely accelerated their acculturative process into Israeli

society. The second-generation Oriental residents in Dimona accul-

turated in every socio-cultural sphere, their primary language was

Hebrew, many were educated in the school system of Israel, both men and women were integrated in the work force, their dress style, tastes in food, music, and films were Western. The majority of second- generation residents have not maintained strict Orthodox religious affiliation as have their parents. They do, however, pray in the syn­ agogue on the High Holy Days and celebrate religious holidays such as Passover with their families. I observed that many children of first-generation immigrants visit their families on Shabbat. Several 190

first-generation immigrants related to me in interviews that it was

very important for them to keep their families close; therefore,

they accepted the new secular changes in their children's lives in

Israel. In sum: the second-generation Oriental residents in the

1970s showed evidence of actively participating in an emerging middle

class in Dimona, while they retained ethnic affiliations with their

Oriental families.

The majority of the residents and professionals that I inter­

viewed in Arad denied that ethnic differentiation was practiced both

in the school system and by the community as a whole. "We are all

Israelis" seemed to be their motto. In reality, I observed that the

Israeli pensioners in Arad did not socialize with the retired Russian

immigrants due to the disparities in language; the Israeli pen­

sioners spoke Hebrew and the Russians did not. According to Aronoff

(1974), the first settlers in Arad were secular-minded and were not religiously-oriented. In 1 9 6 4, approximately two hundred Orthodox

Romanian immigrants were settled in Arad. They clashed with the first settlers to build a Central Synagogue and to establish a religious council in Arad. During my stay in 19 8 1, I observed several distinc­ tive Orthodox groups (see Chapter VII) totaling fifteen hundred resi­ dents; the religious council was active and there were about ten syna­ gogues in Arad. It is obvious that the secular population of Arad had learned to tolerate the diverse Orthodox communities, though I informally heard concern voiced by several of the residents on this matter. 191

In reality, in 1981 there was no evidence of Oriental ethnic

groups in Arad. Arad's society was Western, its population was homo­

geneously middle- and upper-class Israelis. Residents of Oriental

descent were not marked as "Orientals" because these populations were

absorbed into a Western society. Therefore, a question comes to mind:

If the residents of Arad could meet the second-generation residents

in Dimona, would they accept them as "Israelis"?

During the late 1970s and early 1980s Israel, similar to many multi-ethnic states in the world, accepted the concept of "ethnicity"

as it is manifested in the ethnic difference of its populations, e.g.,

in Israel the Mimouna, a Moroccan celebration (see Appendix B), was

declared by the government to become a national holiday. The Habima

National Theatre presented the drama The Moroccan King in Tel-Aviv; it then toured throughout the country. Oriental food such as felafel, chumos, and cous-cous became fashionable for Westerners to eat in ex­ pensive Oriental restaurants. Why did this turn of events occur in

Israel? (1) The tolerance of ethnic differences in multi-cultural societies was, at the time, a global phenomenon (see Chapter II);

(2) the majority of first-generation Oriental immigrants in Israel were retired from the work force— in 1981 3 percent of the population in Dimona and Arad were pensioners; (3) second-generation (foreign- born children of immigrants) residents were well-integrated in a

Western-oriented, materialistic life style; and (4 ) the second- generation Oriental residents in Israel were married and raising a generation of sabras; therefore, the Ashkenazim no longer feared that

Israel would become a "Levantine State" (see Chapter II). Patai 192

(1970) predicts that in the year 2000, an Israel population will be

"genetically," largely Sephardi-Oriental while culturally, largely

Western (see Chapter II).

Economic, Educational, and Cultural Comparisons

Economic Base

One of the economic goals of the Israeli government in the

1950s was to develop the natural resources of the Dead Sea, procuring workers from the male populations of Dimona and Arad. In 1981, according to my evidence, there was little unemployment in either town and the Dead Sea industries (see Chapter V) were very productive.

The textile factories in Dimona and Arad, though paying lower wages, were also in full production. At the time, many parents that I inter­ viewed in both towns related to me that they feared, because of the lack of jobs, that their children would leave Dimona and Arad after completion of their army service. The director of the Labor Office in Dimona told me that there were jobs available to the returning youth, but that the sabras did not want to begin at the bottom rung of the ladder. The mayor of Dimona, in an interview with me, thought that the youth needed to work their way up slowly to the managerial level as he did when he was a new immigrant in the 1950s. The youth

(see interview, Appendix B) felt that they had risked their lives for three years for their country, and that they were entitled to receive compensation in the form of decent jobs in industry.

According to the mayor of Arad, in an interview with L.

Moriel (1983), a slow-down in the government’s development of the 193

Negev has affected both population growth (little increase and much decrease) and scarcity of new jobs. The administrations of both

Dimona and Arad were optimistic in 1981 that the construction of a new civilian airport in the area would provide new jobs and help to generate increased economic activity for the residents of both towns.

In sum: Dimona and Arad have been affected economically due to the present government slow-down in development in the Negev. This would probably cause population decline in the towns and not provide impetus to the youth of Dimona and Arad to search for equitable work in the industries of their respective towns. In March 1985, I re­ turned to Israel for a brief personal visit, and telephoned a friend in Dimona who told me that the new airport was a disappointment to them as it did not provide many additional jobs. The new apartment houses constructed for the purpose of housing airport personnel lay empty and many workers had left town. I do not at present know the economic situation in Arad, but I plan to visit the town when I return to Israel in January 1 9 8 6 .

Education System

The educational systems in both Dimona and Arad excelled in both teaching and administrative staffs. According to the teachers, principals, and high school students (in interviews), the main problem in the schools in Dimona was the large yearly turnover of teachers, as the majority of teachers commuted from Beer Sheva. These same problems do not exist in Arad because the teaching staff all live 194 in Arad. According to the director of education in Arad, "Living in

Arad is a requirement of all teachers."

Bernstein and Antonovsky (1981:22) suggest that in 1978 the

ethnic gaps were narrowing over time. They claim that the indicators

of integration are the level of education. On the primary school

level, integration of Jewish ethnic groups in Israel is complete; on

the secondary school level, there is a considerable gap in enrollment

between the academic and the vocational curriculum, while the latter does not lead to university enrollment. The gap in university enroll­ ment between Ashkenazim and Orientals is considerable, but narrowing over time.

Rofe and Weller (1981:109), in their research among high school students age fifteen to seventeen in the Tel-Aviv area, con­ cluded that Ashkenazi high school students are not preferred to Ori­ ental Jews when the comparison is made in the same social class, but negative attitudes toward Oriental high school students result from the lower social status and are not based on ethnicity per se.

According to the principals of the high schools in Dimona and

Arad (in interviews), the majority of high school students studied the vocational curriculum (75 percent in Dimona, 70 percent in Arad) and the remainder of the students studied on the academic track (see

Chapters V and VI). While there were social gaps in both towns be­ tween the two curricula tracks of study, most of the residents in both towns, including professionals (in interviews), thought it important that their children receive skills that will enable them to get good jobs in the industries of Dimona and Arad. Several related to me that 195 the academic curriculum in high school would not prepare their chil­

dren for the work force in Israel. I stress here that the parents

in both Dimona and Arad felt this way; one Ashkenazi woman from Dimona

said, "We place too much attention on a university education and not

enough attention on skilled labor. Israel needs 'workers' more than

it needs professionals."

According to the 1982 Israeli census, post-high-school and

university attendance showed evidence that on the national level there

were strong gaps in Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental student attendance.

The Ashkenazi students1 attendance in the first year of post-high-

school matriculation (seminar, university) totaled 20.3 percent of

the total Israeli population, while Sephardi-Oriental students totaled

7*3 percent. The attendance of the sabras whose fathers were born

in European-American countries, in seminars and universities in

Israel, totaled 41*1 percent, while those students whose fathers were born in Afro-Asian countries totaled 13*5 percent; so we see this gap

narrowing among the sabras, but still remaining large. H. Goldberg

(1977) claims that if Sephardi-Oriental youth are to enter occupations

carrying high prestige and power, they must have equal opportunity

to study in the academic curricula in the secondary schools; this,

in turn, will enable them to compete with Ashkena2i for entrance into

the university. It is possible that due to the economic slow-down in the industries of Dimona and Arad, an increased number of secondary

students will want to compete for university placement and study the academic curriculum in their respective schools. 196

The gan enrichment center in Dimona (see Chapter V) did not

include the children from the lower socio-economic area of the

southern part of town due to the lack of transportation for them.

Their shikun was a ten-minute ride from the gan center and a forty- minute walk to reach it. The teachers in the center understood the

urgent need to teach these economically disadvantaged children, as

the enrichment program would benefit them. I spoke with the education administrators in the municipality about the children, from Shikun

Haarava's, need for transportation to the gan enrichment center, but the administrators told me that the transportation to the center was not in their budget. I related to them my idea of refurbishing an old bus from the Egged bus terminal to use as general transportation for children from all sections of town to many of the enrichment cen­ ters in Dimona (see Chapter V). They agreed that this was a good idea and that they would look for additional money in their budget.

I left Dimona shortly afterwards, so I am not sure if this plan reached fruition. I hope to follow it up on my next visit in January

1986.

In sum: The educational systems in both Dimona and Arad are similar in their basic structures, which is their teaching and admin­ istrative staff and the excellence of their curriculum development.

The students of Dimona who studied in both the academic track and the vocational track were well-motivated and proud of their skills. The high school students whom I met in Arad (not as many as in Dimona) were also well-motivated and well-mannered. The students in both towns were encouraged to succeed in both the academic and vocational 197

tracks. The enrichment programs offered by both towns to their resi­

dents were excellent. The conservatories, library services, pedagogy

centers, psychological testing centers, sports programs, swimming cen­

ters, extended afternoon centers, and the agricultural center (in

Dimona) all showed evidence of creative, skillful management.

Cultural Events

The main avenue of cultural activities in both Dimona and

Arad was the matnas. In 19&1 it sponsored, in both towns, national

theatre, dance groups, social clubs for pensioners, and various social

services (see Chapters V and VI). The matnas in Arad was referred

to as the Cultural Center; it was a larger building than the one in

Dimona with modern auditorium facilities than the one in Dimona, but

both directors excelled in their programming skills.

In 1981 the cinema in Arad was a large, modern building and

superior in comfort to the one in Dimona. While I was living in

Dimona, administrators and residents alike grumbled about the sad

state of their movie house. According to an engineer with whom I

spoke informally, the plan for a new cinema in Dimona was a town

priority.

Variables that Contrast Dimona and Arad

Historical Foundations

Dimona was a "planted" town, established in 1955 during

Israel's period of harsh economic conditions and military instability.

The immigrants, all from North Africa, were brought to Dimona straight 198

from the boat in Haifa by the Jewish Agency. The immigrants were

placed in the midst of a desolate desert and told to survive until

the government could return and begin to build a town, which it did

a year later. There was no government plan for Dimona other than Ben-

Gurion's dream to develop the Negev economically and to populate it.

Arad, however, was planned during a time of economic growth

and military stability in Israel. Its select population of Israelis

were brought to Arad in 1962, after all its plans were drawn by the

town's planners. The population of Arad during those early days pos­

sessed a "pioneering spirit" and the first settlers claimed that they

"came to build a town in the Negev" (see Chapter VI). The settlers, to be accepted to live in Arad, had to prove their economic viability by obtaining work in the area, and most of them worked in the Dead

Sea industries.

In sum: the harsh environment of the desert was not a part of the Oriental immigrant’s Zionist dream of Israel. The immigrants that did remain in the town realized that they too were "pioneers" during those difficult early years of settlement. Many first- generation immigrants in Dimona said to me, "Look around you; see what we built." The early settlers of Arad in 1962 still suffered the pangs of isolation, primitive living conditions, and the harsh envi­ ronment, but they too said to me with pride, "We came to build a town in the Negev." According to Aronoff (1977:45): "Given all the many problems and restrictions, it is particularly remarkable to note that the development towns in Israel have made a major contribution toward the integration of new immigrants into Israeli society." 199 Echut Chaim (Quality of Life) and Physical Settings

In my interviews with the residents and professionals in Arad,

I asked them, "What is good in Arad?" Their answers were unanimous:

"Echut Chaim"— the quality of life." The term echut chaim was inter­

preted as the physical setting and cultural environment found in Arad,

such as cleanliness of the streets, attractively designed buildings,

wide boulevards, public and private gardens, abundance of flowers,

grass, and greenery throughout the town (see Chapter VI). According

to the police chief, in an interview, there was very little evidence

of theft, vandalism, and delinquency in Arad. The only evidence of

vandalism that I witnessed during my stay in Arad was done to my land­

lord's son’s motor bike; someone at high school had put sand in his

gas tank and he had every intention of finding the culprit. I also

saw evidence of baby carriages and bicycles left outside of the apart­

ments unchained. The residents in Arad took pride in their high cul­

tural interests; they supported all cultural events by purchasing

season tickets to the plays sponsored by the cultural center. The

residents, at a great deal of expense, contributed to the landscaping

program for the upkeep of their gardens (see Chapter VII). An admin­

istrator in the engineering department of Arad, in an interview,

showed me the future construction plans of Arad's master plan which was to reach a population goal of seventy thousand. She thought that

Arad was built as a model development town, for its beauty and

function. 200

Dimona, in contrast to Arad, lacks the physical setting and

quality of life so apparent in Arad. At first glance Dimona appears

to be as Singer (1979:9) describes: "an ever enlargening cluster of

monotonous, dreary apartment buildings incongruously planted in the

rocky soil of the northern Desert." As Dimona continued to develop

in the 1970s, some attention was given by architects to build more

attractive buildings with well-lit plazas and patio homes (single and

semi-detached) to be sold to young families in Dimona. The area was

referred to as Shikun LaDugma (a model neighborhood). During my stay

in Dimona, I saw evidence of continued construction of tall apartment

buildings in the northern part of town. I was told by administrators

of the municipality that the new houses were to be reserved for the

personnel expected when the airport was built.

The largest grassy area in town was a park in the center of

Dimona, beautifully landscaped with a well-equipped playground and

a lovely sculpture in the center of the park. The gardener of the

park, with whom I spoke informally, described the flowers, their

names, and the reasons that they grow well in a desert soil. I asked

him why the tenants in the apartment buildings did not plant any grass

in their front yards. He responded that it could be too expensive

for the tenants, but this project should be part of municipality plan­

ning. I did see some evidence of grassy areas and lovely gardens sur­

rounding the patio houses and several villas, designed to fit into

the topography of the desert, but the majority of apartment houses

in Dimona were bare of any type of landscaping, including the front yards of the apartments of Shikun LaDugma. 201

I asked many residents and professionals, in interviews, why

there was so little landscaping surrounding the houses. Many resi­

dents replied that it was the decor in the interior of the apartments

that was most important. "Why should we care about the outside of

our buildings?— we do not live there." I asked the deputy mayor and

the mayor, in interviews, what their attitudes were about the lack

of landscaping in Dimona. The mayor thought that landscaping was the

private decision of each tenant and not the responsibility of the

municipality. The mayor did stress that his priority at the moment

was a clean-up campaign of the streets of Dimona; even though there

was an abundance of trash containers throughout the town, the resi­

dents did not seem to use them. The high school seniors,as part of

a social action program, canvased all the neighborhoods in Dimona and

talked to the residents of the necessity of cleaning up their town.

The residents and professionals in Dimona, in interviews, con­

sidered crime in Dimona a major problem. The crimes consisted of

theft, delinquency, and extortion of shopkeepers. Several residents

complained that they could not keep baby carriages and bicycles out­

side of their apartments chained, for within an hour they would be

stolen. A kiosk owner told me that she was robbed four times in a

month; when she finally bought a safe-proof lock in Beer Sheva, she was robbed again six months later. I tried continually during the eight months that I lived in Dimona to obtain an appointment with the

police chief or any of his officials for an interview with them. I even prevailed upon the office of the mayor to try to arrange an 202

interview for me, but the police department's response was always the

same: "We are too busy."

If we are to translate the term "quality of life" as physical

settings in both towns, then it is obvious from the evidence presented

that Dimona and Arad contrast greatly in their physical settings.

But if the concept of echut chaim would be expanded to include the

"cultural personality" of the people living in both towns, we might

see various similarities among them. The diverse cultures in Dimona manifest themselves in interesting, if not exotic, life styles (see

Chapter IV). The populations of Arad, according to Moriel (1983 ), want to maintain their "quality of life" at all costs. All evidence implies that the people of Arad will indeed retain their quality of life, and the younger families and the sabras in Dimona, by all evi­ dence, understand very well that they need to improve their physical and social environment if they too are to achieve a quality of life.

I questioned several Oriental first-generation immigrants in

Dimona as to the lack of interest in their exterior surroundings of their homes. Was there a correlation between their living habits in

Dimona and in their host countries? Their response was varied. Some lived in ghettos, others in enclosed houses. One woman told me that in her home in Casablanca she grew flowers, but in Dimona it would be difficult due to the desert. I realised that many of the immi­ grants and younger families may lack the technique to grow and main­ tain gardens in the desert soil. In sum: the residents in Dimona need the type of landscaping program that exists in Arad. Perhaps 203

in time* with socio-cultural interaction* the younger residents of

Dimona will be influenced to improve their physical environment.

Ethnic Identity

In 1981* during my stay in Dimona* 80 percent of the popula­

tion were olive-skinned* 10 percent were darker-skinned Indians* and

10 percent were Caucasians. The Black Hebrews, residents in Dimona* were approximately 3 percent of the population* but were not included in the town's census. Many first-generation Indian women wore saris, and many Moroccan Orthodox women covered their heads with kerchiefs

(see Chapter IV). Eighty percent of the first-generation Moroccans and 60 percent of the Indian population were Orthodox.

During the hours between 5:00 and 7:00 P.M., the plaza in the mercaz was filled with shoppers and those residents who just came to socialize. Arabic and Marathi were prominent languages heard* and

Hebrew was spoken by the younger residents. Singer (1979:9) describes

Dimona's population in 1977 as a "crazy-quilt"; his research was the study of the Black Hebrew nation (see Chapter IV). If Singer were to return to Dimona in 1981, he could not help but observe the continuous socio-cultural changes in the second-generation residents and their sabra children, who have genetically inherited their parents' dark complexions, but have acculturated into Israeli society and wore jeans* slacks, and shorts and carried tape decks while listening to loud rock music.

In Arad the majority of the population was Caucasian, while

17 percent were of Oriental descent. The population in 19§1 was 204

homogeneously identified as "Israeli.” Ethnic identities were not

recognized within populations, but rather in customs, food, music,

and dance. The residents in Arad were not interested in any ethnic

cultural values other than Israeli values such as ideology, love of

country, and national Israeli unity.

The first settlers of Arad told me, by interviews, that they

were troubled by a lower socio-economic "element" moving into Arad.

The residents did not think that these new residents fit into their

socio-cultural life style. The mayor of Arad, in an interview,

admitted to me that a lower class of people were moving into Arad,

but that he was certain that they would be influenced by the high

quality of life and become absorbed into the community. In sum:

(1) the first-generation Oriental immigrants in Dimona retain their ethnic identities; (2) the first settlers in Arad retain their

Ashkenazi identities; (3) the second-generation Oriental residents in Dimona maintain ethnic affiliations; (4) the second-generation residents of Oriental descent in Arad are absorbed into a Western- oriented society and show little evidence of ethnic affiliation; and

(5) the sabras in Dimona and Arad are "free" (see interviews, Appen­ dix A) and define their identities as "Israeli."

The Future Development of Dimona and Arad

The master plan for both towns predicts populations in the range of seventy thousand people. The population, as we see at pres­ ent, has not reached the proportions that were predicted; in 1987, in Arad, thirty-two thousand, and in 1974 sixty thousand people were 205

predicted in Dimona (Statistics 1974; Dimona 198l). These "ideal"

population predictions were based on (1) expanded industrial develop­

ment in the Negev, (2) increased internal migration due to increased

job capacity, and (3) continued immigration flows to Israel. Berler

(1970) claims that forty thousand population would be an ideal size

for Dimona, and many residents do not want Arad to grow past twenty-

five thousand.

Will Dimona continue to be marked as an "Oriental" town in

the future? Evidence reveals that the leadership of Dimona consists

of second-generation acculturated Israelis, raised and educated in

Israel. They are upwardly mobile and represent a Western-oriented

middle and upper class. In 1981, 75 percent of the second-generation

population of Dimona were working class, blue- and white-collar

workers. Weingrod (1979) terms the "Israeli working-class culture,"

to include both blue- and white-collar occupations, and composed pri­

marily of Orientals. This group is not disadvantaged— they hold

steady jobs and have steady incomes— but are persons at the bottom

third on the salary scale. It is possible that the lower economic

element that, according to many residents in Arad, is moving in, may

fit into Weingrod's definition of "working-class culture." In Diir.ona, which is a heterogeneous class system, the "working-class culture,"

exists but not all of the 75 percent of workers belong to this group.

Many qualify as middle class due to their positions in the Dead Sea

industries, their education, and the levels of their incomes.

According to the Local Council of Arad 1978: 206

Arad is a modern, young city with a short and dynamic past and a promising future. Correct planning, the economic basis and the good human potential, all promise that the goal of construct­ ing a city of 70,000 people has a healthy basis. In order to reach this aim we have to achieve a stronger eco­ nomic development and simultaneously have additional services for new inhabitants who will settle here. There is a good and strong foundation on which we have to con­ tinue to build.

Would not a direct bus line between Dimona and Arad begin the

process of interaction among the populations of both towns?

A direct bus line between Dimona and Arad could bring economic

cooperation between the two towns in the continued development of the

Negev. It would appear that a combined effort and a united front

could alleviate the present slow-down. Jacques Amir of Dimona and

Abraham Shochat of Arad are both delegates of the Labor Party to the

Knesset; with their combined energies they could probably exert pres­

sure on the national agencies in Jerusalem to review their development

policies of the Negev and find more favorable solutions for Dimona and Arad.

According to the sociologists and anthropologists cited in

this dissertation, it is time for the Ashkenazi/Sephardi-Oriental ethnocentrism to be put to rest in Israel.

I do not argue for the interaction of two populations only for its moral, ethical, and ideological implications, but for its practical purposes as well. It is time to build bridges between

Dimona and Arad because the two towns are there; located in the north­ ern Negev, far from the center of the country; and sharing the same economic and ecological niches; thus they need to share a bus line between them, and we will leave the rest to history. 207

Principal Contributions of This Dissertation

It is ray hope that this dissertation and future publications

will enhance social science research both in Israel and around the

globe. My research focuses on the comparative study of two develop­

ment towns in Israel which are structurally unique. The thirty devel­

opment towns in Israel were built to house the masses of new Oriental

immigrants who were pouring into Israel from the four corners of the

globe. In a period of fifteen years, after the establishment of the

State, the struggling nation settled over one million Jewish immi­

grants and the absorption of these immigrants into the existent West­

ern dominant host society caused much strain in the inter-ethnic rela­

tions between the Askenaaim and the Sephardi-Oriental first-generation

immigrants. Despite the social gaps between both ethnic groups, there

always existed a national consensus in Israel— an allegiance to the

State of Israel; the support for a nation-building ideology; the need

of "Jewish Unity" incorporated by Zionist ideals; participation in

the military and celebration of national holidays, e.g., Memorial Day

and Israeli Independence Day (Antonovsky & Arian 1972).

Dimona and Arad as Unique Desert Towns

Both desertification and reclaiming desert regions are matters of worldwide importance. A unique experiement that the Israel govern­ ment embarked upon was to build towns such as Dimona and Arad in the desert and settle populations there. According to Weingrod (1981 ),

Abdel-Latif and Roeseler (1985 ), and Newton (1985), there were no full-scale social scientific or historical studies of the formation, 208

growth, and development of urban centers in the desert. The formation

and subsequent urban growth is dependent upon providing continuous

water supplies adequate for human and industrial needs at a price that

is economically feasible. If settlement in the desert initiates such

complex problems, why, then do desert environments become so attrac­

tive, as evidenced by the settlement of Arad in 1962? The answer,

according to Weingrod (1 9 8 1 ), is that the desert's appeal may attract

younger persons in search of clean new environments and who are simply

fascinated by the desert's beauty. Abdel-Latif and Roeseler (1 9 8 5 )

claim the desert in Saudi Arabia is the major adverse environment and

must be settled and industrialised if the country is to expand techno­

logically within the next decade.

The settlement of Dimona in 1955 was crucial, at the time,

to Ben-Gurion's policy to settle the Negev. The settlement of Arad

in 1962 was planned and executed with more care, also due to the gov­

ernment's economic policies of industrialization of the Negev, at the

time. To what extent have the desert towns in Israel become attrac­

tive magnet centers? Weingrod (1981) claims that the population of

Beer Sheva and Dimona has stabilized in part as the result of internal migration. Some families have been attracted by employment possibili­

ties or comparatively inexpensive housing, while others in Arad have come for health reasons or in search of a better urban environment.

"The Negev is no longer so forbidding to many Israelis, and although this migration has been small, it may signal the larger waves of the future" (Weingrod 1981:199). My Suggestions for Further Research

1. We need further comparative research of the development

towns in Israel. For example, I would be interested in comparing the

population settlement of the town of Carmiel (1964) to that of Arad

( 1962). According to Hoffmitz (1978), Ash ( 1974)j and Polin (1984),

Carmiel was carefully planned and executed as was Arad, but they dif­ fered in their initial selection of populations. While Arad's first

settlers were Israelis, the first settlers in Carmiel included

Israelis and new Oriental/Ashkenazi immigrants, who, according to

Polin { 1984), were integrated in the same shikunim; the sabras, the new immigrants from Russia, Morocco, and Romania. "Carmiel is not a new immigrant town, it is a specific new development town which has wonderful integration" (Mayor of Carmiel in an interview with A. Polin

1984 ).

2. We need comparative research of the desert towns in the

Negev with desert towns being built in Austrialia, e.g., Shay Gap min­ ing town (Newton 1985 ) and in Saudi Arabia— Jubail on the Persian

Gulf, and Yanbu on the Red Sea. How do the town planners cope with the complex problems of water deployment, population settlement, rec­ reation facilities, educational facilities, and climate control?

3- Further research needs to be done in the development towns on the patterns of stratification that may differ between communities who have a single resource industry and those that have a wider eco­ nomic base; comparisons of the population selections that draw differ­ ent ages, sexes, occupational and ethnic groups. 210

4* The interactions between the indigenous desert people, e.g., the Bedouin, and the residents of the desert town. What ecolog­

ical and agricultural methods can we learn from their life styles?

5. Last, when I return to Dimona and Arad in ten years, who will be its population? What socio-cultural changes will I find?

These are, among others, some of the issues that await further study. APPENDIX A

FIELD SETTINGS AND METHODS

211 My fieldwork in Dimona and Arad as presented here during

1980-I981 incorporated the following methods: participant-observa­ tion, in-depth interviews, census statistics, ethnographic mapping in the two towns, and comparative photography of the physical settings and populations of both development towns (for detailed data of in- depth interviews, see Chapter I).

Participant-Observation

My first activity was to encircle Dimona on foot, which took me about an hour. As I walked around the town, I noticed that after twenty-five years of settlement, the box-like apartment houses still appeared monotonous and sterile. There was very little grass in the front yards of the houses and a great deal of trash was thrown in the front and backyards in some of the shikunim. Later I sat down to rest in Eshkol Park, a very pleasant, grassy park in the center of town, which was well stocked with playground equipment. As I rested and watched a lively soccer game played by sixth grade boys, an older gentleman motioned to me to leave the park. I did not understand why, since it was only 5:00 in the afternoon, so I did not pay attention to him. He left the park and returned with a stick and yelled again at me, in Hebrew, MEsha, tzae11 (Woman, leave!); he then took my arm and escorted me from the park before I could talk to him. After much observation in the Eshkol Park, throughout my fieldwork in Dimona,

212 213

I never saw a woman sitting alone in the park. She was either with

her children, family, or other female friends. I also observed that

the male workers usually gathered in the cafe after 4 1OO in the after­

noon. They seemed to enjoy socializing with each other, and sometimes

I did observe several young women ages eighteen to twenty drinking

coffee with male friends. I concluded that it would be unacceptable

behavior in Dimona for me, a married woman, to sit alone in the cafe

and drink coffee. I asked many of my female informants about this

behavior; the women simply answered, "As a rule we women never sit

in the cafe." So I concluded that many first-generation Oriental

immigrant males felt uncomfortable if women sat alone in a public

place.

During the course of my walk around Dimona, I stopped at

several kiosks (small refreshment stands) to buy cold drinks. It is

important to drink often in the desert in order to sustain a great deal of liquid. I noticed that the male owners of the kiosks were

reticent to speak with me when I tried to engage them in conversation.

The female owners, however, were usually interested in new faces in

the town and questioned me about myself, my family, my reason for being in Dimona, and the nature of my research. Two female kiosk

owners were very friendly and invited me to their homes to meet their

families. One was a first-generation Pakistani immigrant, and the other was a first-generation Russian immigrant, and they both appeared to be middle-aged, serious, assertive businesswomen. I usually was able to meet male residents of Dimona through acquaintance with their wives. 214

I was able to interview and observe in schools; I was profes­

sionally accepted by administrators, principals, and teachers because

I had official permission from the Office of Education to conduct my research. Therefore, I did not encounter any problems speaking with the professionals in Dimona. I had to schedule appointments in ad­ vance. The only officials in Dimona who would not agree to an inter­ view during my stay were those of the police department and the absorption center.

I realized at the start of my research in Dimona that I would need to meet first-generation immigrant women. Through their acquain­ tance, I could meet their husbands, their children, and their grand­ children, but I was not sure just how to accomplish this feat. On the first Shabbat (Saturday, day of rest) that I was in Dimona I awoke early and began to walk about Dimona. As I approached Herzel Boule­ vard, I saw many men carrying prayer books and prayer shawls. I real­ ized immediately that they were attending Shabbat morning prayer ser­ vices in a synagogue. I followed the group down the road; some turned left and the other group turned right. I heard chanting of prayers coining from the first floor of an apartment building on Herzel Boule­ vard. The large rooms inside were a Moroccan synagogue. The women

(mostly older first-generation) sat in a separate room, but were able to see into the men's section through a large opening (see description in Appendix B). I left after an hour and went to another Moroccan synagogue located down the street. This synagogue had a small dome; it was built by the Iriya (municipality). There were about fifteen women in the women's section between the ages of sixty and eighty. They all nodded to me and found a chair for me. After the prayer ser­ vice, the women all gathered around me. They were first-generation

Moroccan immigrants. They asked me about myself, of course, and my personal life. They seemed upset that I had only one child and thought this to be selfish. They, on the average, had eight children.

They did not understand why I was alone in Dimona, without my husband and child. They were so genuinely concerned, I had the suspicious feeling that this spirited group of women were going to adopt me on the spot. After a short discussion, Mimi,* the youngest {age sixty), took my hand and said to me, "You need protection in Dimona; it is not good for a woman to be alone. They all want you but I insisted; be­ sides, I am the most modern." She took me home with her to eat the

Sabbath meal with her family. She had eight children living in Is­ rael, and during my stay in Dimona I met them all. Those who lived in

Dimona came to visit often. They were a wonderful source of informa­ tion for me. They were very warm and hospitable and so was Mimi's husband. I was able to observe the continuities and discontinuities in first-generation/second-generation relationships in religious obser- 2 vances, cultural orientations, economic and educational achievements.

I have used pseudonyms for personal names throughout this dissertation. 2 My definitions of the following terms: first-generation adult immigrants— foreign-born immigrants in Israel; second- generation— foreign-born children of the first-generation immigrants to Israel; sabras— native-born Israelis. Census Material

The census reports utilized were the latest published by the

Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel, Society in Israel 1980 and

Statistical Abstract of Israel 1982. As a result, I was able to com­

pare the statistics concerning various socio-cultural variables of

the development towns, including immigration, to the national census

of Israel.

I was also able to obtain detailed census statistics for the

thirty development towns of Israel, published by the Israel Office

of Labor, Commerce and Industry. These statistics are vital in meas­

uring such variables as population, immigration, housing, education,

and welfare, and enabled me to compare these variables with those of

Dimona and Arad.

The Mayor of Dimona, Jacques Amir, published a census survey

of population flow during the years 1972-1979* which proved very

helpful.

Ethnographic Mapping

The Engineering Departments of Dimona and Arad furnished me with maps of the two towns. These were, however, difficult to read because they represented the construction plans of the towns. The municipality of Arad also furnished me with a pictorial tourist map.

Using the scales of both maps, I constructed two ethnographic maps of Dimona and Arad (Figures 4 and 5); these were used by Susan Mlasdi, a student cartographer at Kent State University to map out the towns.

She also drew three other maps (Figures 1, 2, and 3). 217

Photography

I photographed Dimona and Arad as thoroughly as possible, in­ cluding both their physical settings and the populations. I also took photographs during national holidays, weddings, and pre-nuptial cele­ brations, such as a Henna ceremony among Indian residents of Dimona.

During my photographic activities, two local residents in

Dimona stopped me to ask for my credentials and inquired about the reasons for taking photographs. After I showed them my permission from the municipality they apologized, but as one resident said, "One cannot be too careful these days. We are always aware of security."

The residents, young and old, in Dimona and Arad, were always alert to security against bombs. In both towns I left my purse on benches as I was occupied taking photographs. Suddenly, some students began to shout, "Don't touch the purse; there could be a bomb in it. Go quickly and get the police." I retrieved the purse both times and apologized to the students for my carelessness in leaving the purse and my notebook on the bench. They appeared to be very relieved and told me that they must be very careful because there have been several incidents of bombs set by terrorists. APPENDIX B

INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED IN DIMONA AND ARAD

218 219

Interview Questionnaire of Residents and Professionals in Dimona and Arad

(Translated from Hebrew)

1. Name______

2. Date______

3- Sex______

4 • Age ______

5. Marital Status______

6. Ethnic Group (edah)______

7. Education ______

8. Occupation______

9. Length of Time______

10. What year did you come to Israel?______

11. Why did you come to Israel?______

12. When did you come to live in Dimona/Arad?______

13. Why did you come to live in Dimona/Arad?______

14- How long have you lived in Dimona/Arad?______

15* Describe Dimona/Arad in those days______

1 6. Describe your work ______

17- How does your work contribute to the present and future growth

in Dimona/Arad?______

1 8 . What would you consider your successes and difficulties in your

work? Do you think that Dimona/Arad is a "Workers' Town?"______220

19- What is good in Dimona/Arad?___

20. What is not good in Dimona/Arad?

21. What is good in Israel?______

22. What is not good in Israel? TABLE 17

BREAKDOWN OF INTERVIEWS WITH PROFESSIONALS IN DIMONA ACCORDING TO PROFESSION, EDUCATION, ETHNIC GROUP, AGE, GENDER, AND YEAR OF ARRIVAL, 1981

Ethnic Profession Education Group Age Gender Year of Arrival 1 Mayor University Moroccan 48 M 1958 2 Deputy Mayor B.A. Tunisian 33 M 1956 3 Head Rabbi Ordination Moroccan 56 M 1956 4 Head of Interior H.S. Moroccan 43 M 1956 5 Head of labor Office H.S. Moroccan 42 M 1957 6 Head of Education (temporary) H.S.+ Romanian 47 F 1967 7 Assistant, Education B.A. Egyptian 33 M 1957 8 Head, Youth Labor Seminar Sephardi 35 F 1965 9 Head, Psychologist M.S. American 40s M Lives in BeerSheva 10 Head, Social Services Seminar+ Moroccan 45 M 1955 11 Social Worker B.A.+ Romanian 34 F 1971 12 Social Worker Seminar+ Moroccan 43 F 1963 13 Social Worker Seminar Moroccan 35 F 1970 14 Social Worker B.A. American 24 M 1977 15 Social Worker M.A. student American 23 F 1977 16 Physician Medical School Indian 52 M 1970 17 Administrator University Sabra 56 M 1962 18 High School Principal B.A. Tunisian 37 M 1967 19 Assistant High School Principal M.A. Moroccan 45 M 1963 20 Junior High School Principal M.A. Tunisian 35 M 1959 21 Junior High School Principal B.A. Ashkenazi 31 M 1974 22 Elementary School Principal Seminar Yemenite 32 F 1968 23 Elementary School Principal Seminar Moroccan 46 M 1955 24 Elementary School Principal Seminar Sabra 40 F 1964 25 Elementary School Principal Seminar+ Moroccan 32 M 1977

26 Youth Center Principal Seminar Moroccan 33 M 1976 221 Pedagogy Teacher, Technical Seminar+ Sabra 49 F Lives in BeerSheva School TABLE 17 (continued)

Ethnic Number Profession Education Croup Age Gender Year of Arrival 28 Teacher B.A. Sabra 24 F Lives in BeerSheva 29 High School Teacher B.A. American 29 F Lives in BeerSheva 30 Elementary School Teacher Seminar+ Indian 29 M 1962 31 Head, Pedagogy Center B.A. Hungarian 30s M 1977 32 Architect M.A. American 38 M 1972 TABLE 18

DISTRIBUTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE RESIDENTS OF DIMONA ACCORDING TO TEAR OF ARRIVAL, ETHNIC GROUP, EDUCATION, AGE, GENDER, OCCUPATION, AND GENERATION IN ISRAEL, 1981

Year of Ethnic Generation Number Arrival Group Educationa Age Gender Occupation in Israel 1 1967 Moroccan None , 47 F Cleaning First 2 1965 Moroccan H.S.+ 20 F Student Second 3 1965 Moroccan 6th 60 F Housewife First 4 1965 Moroccan H.S. 27 M Worker Second 5 1962 Moroccan H.S. 24 M Bank teller Second 6 1965 Moroccan 10+ 25 M Worker Second 7 1965 Moroccan — 65 M Retired First 8 1955 Tunisian H.S. 57 M Shopkeeper First 9 1965 Indian H.S. 19 F Soldier Second 10 1965 Indian H.S.+ 21 M Soldier Second 11 1965 Indian H.S. 60 M Industry First 12 1968 Pakistani Draftsman 59 M Engineer First 13 1968 Pakistani M.A.+ 27 M Ph.D. student Second 14 1968 Pakistani H.S. 18 M Student Second 15 1968 Pakistani H.S. 16 M Student Second 16 1958 Indian 8th 42 F Worker First 17 I960 Indian 10th 47 F Housewife First 18 1980 Indian Nursing 68 F Retired First

19 — Indian Conservatory — M Dance master First 20 I960 Yemenite H.S. 42 M Taxi driver Second 21 1964 Yemenite 8th 43 F Housewife Second 22 1978 Russian H.S.+ 41 F Kiosk owner First 23 1962 Canadian H.S.+ 51 F Housewife First 24 1977 American B.A. 27 M Dispatcher First 25 Native Sabra H.S.+ 23 F Housewife Second

26 I960 Sabra H.S. 25 M Dispatcher Second 223 27 1955 Sabra H.S. 26 M Shopkeeper Second TABLE l8 (continued

Year of Ethnic ‘Generation Number Arrival Croup Education4 Age Gender Occupation in Israel 28 Native Sabra H.S. 16 F Student Third 29 Native Sabra H.S. 15 F Student Third 30 1963 Sabra H.S. + 24 M University Second 31 Native Sabra H.S. 16 F Student Second 32 Native Sabra H.S. 25 M Worker Second 33 — Tunisian 10th 35 F Secretary Second

Education = schooling.

H.S.+ = high school graduate + post-high-school courses.

Sabras who are second generation in Israel are born in Israel to first-generation immi­ grants. Sabras who are listed as third generation in Israel are born in Israel to foreign-born children of first-generation immigrants. TABLE 19

BREAKDOWN OF INTERVIEWS WITH PROFESSIONALS IN ARAD ACCORDING TO PROFESSION, EDUCATION, ETHNIC GROUP, AGE, CENDER, AND YEAR OF ARRIVAL, 1981

Ethnic Profession Education Group Age Gender Year of At

1 Mayor M.A. Sabra 45 M 1962 2 Head Rabbi Ordination Moroccan 38 M 1965 3 Police Chief H.S.+ Algerian 39 M 1975 4 Rabbi Ordination Russian 33 M 1964 5 High School Teacher B.A. Moroccan 40 F 1962 6 Head of Conservatory Seminar Ashkenazi 51 M 1974 7 Head of WUJS M.A. American 41 M 1980 B Head of Absorption H.S.+ Moroccan 37 F 1969 9 Head of Beit Mazor B.A.+ Canadian --- M — 10 Head of Na'amot B.S.+ Ashkenazi 51 F 1963 11 Social Worker Seminar Egyptian 35 F — 12 Head of Matnas M.A. English 33 M 1979 13 Head of Education M.A. Sabra 42 M 1970 14 Social Worker Seminar Ashkenazi 37 F — 15 Pedagogy Center H.S. Ashkenazi 40 F 1965 16 Head of Psychology Center M.A.+ Sabra 41 M — 17 Head of Social Services Seminar Sabra 40 F 1962 18 Educator M.A. Sabra 44 F 1962 19 Russian Immigrant H.S. Russian 57 F 1972 20 High School Principal Yeshiva Ashkenazi 27 M 1978 21 Elementary School Principal Seminar+ Ashkenazi 36 F 1972 22 High School Principal B.A. Sephardi 33 M 1978 23 High School Teacher B.A. Moroccan 33 F 1976 24 Elementary School Principal B. A • + Sabra --- M 1979 25 Elementary School Principal Seminar+ Sabra 38 F 1969 26 Elementary School Principal Seminary+ Sabra 45 F 1970 27 Teacher M.A. Sabra 38 F 1970 Szz Table 19 (continued)

Ethnic Number Profession Education Group Age Gender Year of Arrival

28 Librarian H.S.+ Library Sabra 49 F 1964 Course 29 Head of Labor Office H.S. Sabra 27 F 1975 30 Administrator H.S.+ Romanian 34 F 1965 31 Director of Landscaping — —— — — TABLE 20

DISTRIBUTION OF INTERVIEWS WITH THE RESIDENTS OF ARAD ACCORDING TO YEAR OF ARRIVAL , ETHNIC GROUP, EDUCATION, AGE, GENDER, OCCUPATION, AND GENERATION IN ISRAEL, 1981

Year of Ethnic Generation Number Arrival Group Education Age Gender Occupation in Israel

1 1963 Sabra B.A. 45 M Realtor Second 2 1971 Sabra M.A. 41 F Lecturer Second 3 1964 Indian 8th 41 M Worker Second 4 1974 Sabra M.A. 38 F Supervisor Second 5 1970 Sabra M.A. 43 F Director Second 6 1962 Sabra M.A. 45 F Social work Second 7 1963 Tunisian H.S. 35 F Real estate Second 8 1975 Egyptian Seminar 40 F Accountant Second 9 1962 Sabra H.S.+ 41 F Clerk Second 10 1974 Indian 10th 65 F Retired First 11 1977 Indian 10th 37 F Clerk Second 12 1964 Ashkenazi H.S.+ 40 M Supervisor Second 13 1970 American B.A. 49 F — First 14 1979 English H.S.+ 26 F English First teacher 15 1976 American B.A. 46 F Widow First 16 1962 Sabra M.A. 44 F Social work Second 17 1964 Sabra H.S. student 18 M Newspaper Third delivery 18 1964 Sabra H.S. 30s F Housewife Second 19 1964 Indian 8th 36 F Housewife Second

£ Seminar - 2 or 3 years post-high-school specialty course.

H.S.+ = high school graduate and post-high-school courses. LZZ The following report was written by the director of the rehab­ ilitation program for alcoholics in Dimona, one of several services provided by the Department of Social Services:

The center is open every morning 9:30 A.M.— 12:00 M. (except Shabbat) and every afternoon 3:30-7:00 P.M. (except Mondays and Fridays). It services 125 alcoholics who do not work and are on welfare. Most of the alcoholics treated at the center are Indians. Alcoholism seems to be a solution for them in lieu of their poor adjustment to a new country and to a new community. The center cares for all those who have daily drinking prob­ lems. The care in the hospital for them does not seem to be lasting. To stop drinking the person must want to do it and use his inner strength to accomplish this deed. They need their fam­ ily and community support. It is not a problem of ethnic heritage but an individual problem. Most alcoholics are family people. They need to strengthen their self-image, and sometimes the hus­ band and wife both drink. We have fifteen patients in intensive care, twenty-five patients in continued care, and twenty to fifty receive some care. Those who come to us for care must stop drinking alcohol twenty- four hours before they can get care from us. Stage I: the alocholic must have a medical, stop drinking, examination in Kupat Cholim. The social worker helps and gives constant encouragement and many times will go to the Kupat Cholim with the patients. The doctor at the Kupat Cholim will give the alcoholics medication to alleviate their pain. The patients need help to manage and cope with their families. After three weeks to one and a half months, they try to prepare the person for a position of work. It is important they they get proper social care in the center in order to return and adjust to their lives. After intensive care, they do stop drinking. The future plans for the center are to educate the public and the students about this problem and to prevent the problem before it erupts. We have a success ratio of 30 percent and work with other edot— some Moroccans and Russians.

Analysis

I observed the interaction, in the center, between the social workers, the alcoholics, and their families. They gave individual

228 229 structured counsel which was firm but caring. They also gave prag­ matic advice to the patients and to their families. At this time, however, the patients— all Indian males ages twenty-five to fifty—

seemed to like the social workers and many looked to them for advice as they needed intensive counsel and care because many of them were very sick. The patients who were at a higher level of rehabilitation helped those who had just begun their cure or who were repeaters.

The therapy given to these alcoholics at the center appeared to be a productive, realistic approach to their problems. There seemed to be hope and optimism and good preventive care.

Observations

The center had play corners for the children of the out­ patients and included Indian magazines, chess, and checkers. The children were very quiet, as if resigned to their parents' illness.

Some acted protective to them and became their translators. The chil­ dren were all dressed nicely and excited about the Purim celebration to be held at the center the following week. They planned to come to the party in costume.

1 returned the following week to the center to participate in the Purim Misiba. Two of the children came dressed as bees. The social workers really wanted the patients to have a good party, and they asked several of their friends, teachers, to come. One of the teachers played her accordion and everyone sang Hebrew songs. Popcorn and candy were served, and many wives of the patients brought Indian food. Many patients danced and sang together and seemed happy. 230

Excerpts of Interviews

I interviewed a female first-generation Moroccan immigrant to Dimona, age thirty-five:

I an from Rabat, Morocco, and was educated in a French high school. Rabat was a very large, sophisticated city with much cul­ ture and a university. I belonged to a Zionist Youth Groups and I met my husband there. We were married and I came to Israel to settle in a kibbutz. My husband graduated from high schoolin Rabat and studied in the university. When we came to the kibbutz, the members of the kibbutz stared at us in the dining hall to see if we would use a knife and fork. I did not want to remain in the kibbutz because I had better ambi­ tions and wanted to study social work in a seminar. We left the kibbutz and came to Dimona where the government was giving good housing conditions to new immigrants. I studied at the Institute for Social Work for three years, while I had three children. My husband has a good job in Beer Sheva. My children are ex­ celling in school; they are in the academic classes. I have a good job which I enjoy; it is very responsible and fulfilling. Today we own our own apartment in Shikun La'Dugma (model neighborhood). I now want to own my own home with a large garden. I think we can do better in Beer Sheva. It is possible that we will move from Dimona.

Analysis

Dina and her husband were clearly from a French-oriented middle-class family. They came to Israel from Morocco for ideological reasons, as a young couple. Dina prided herself that she was a good mother. She arose early to prepare hot soup and meat for the chil­ dren's noon meal. She also purchased a Cuisinart to prepare wholesome salads for dinner. She worked hard at her job, but she also took pleasure in home and children.

"Zionist Youth Group: after 194§» Israel sent emissaries to Morocco to establish Zionist Youth Groups. 231

In the next interview, a young, single Moroccan resident of

Dimona, age twenty-five, relates his hopes and ambitions to achieve

middle-class economic security:

We came to Israel from Morocco in I960 and moved to Dimona in 1962. We came to Dimona because our family was in the Negev. We emigrated from Casablanca; my father is from Marakech. Some of my family are from the Atlas Mountains; they live on a moshav near Jerusalem. When the French left Morocco and King Hassan II took the throne, we did not know how bad the situation would be for Jews, so we left for Israel. I do not differentiate between edot. I feel myself an Israeli. I am a traditional Jew and practice Judaism in Orthodox observance. I am the head teller at my bank. I began to work in the bank because my two brothers worked there. The salary in the bank is better than for most workers in Israel. I am satisfied with my life in Dimona. My family is here and my chevra [friends]. I want to marry an Israeli girl. I do not want to marry a Moroccan girl. It would also be good if she could work. I think that Orientals are more religious than Ashkenazim. The others became chofshi [free] after serving in the army, but I became more religious. I was seriously ill in the army and by a miracle I survived. I became religious and a practicing Ortho­ dox Jew. I love this country and will never leave, but I notice that people are more nervous, maybe because of the wars. I realize that there are many thieves in Dimona and that much education from the home is missing. Dimona will always be a "workers' town." I really don't know if there are enough people with cultural interests. I own a very nice apartment, all furnished with a stove, refrigerator-freezer, television, stereo, washing machine; all I need is a woman who I can talk with and who has the same philos­ ophy as me. Of course she must be dati.

Analysis

I find it interesting that our interviewee differentiates be­ tween an Israeli girl and a Moroccan girl. I asked him to explain this; he claimed that an Israeli would be a sabra and a Moroccan girl is one who is unacculturated in Israeli society. 232

The following interview was with a second-generation resident of Dimona who was of Indian descent, a male age nineteen. He was at present serving in the army. I asked him what was good and bad in

Dimona and in Israel, his perception of the sabra character, and his future in Dimona and in Israel:

I was very happy with the electronics course that I received in the army. I feel that the army is a good experience as a tran­ sition from high school to the university and to one's work. The discipline in the army is an experience for the rest of my life. I enjoyed my education in high school, but disliked the con­ stant turnover of teachers. I hope that this situation will im­ prove in Dimona. I want to return to Dimona after the army and I am sure that I will find a good job. In ten years the Negev will greatly develop and so will Dimona. People are from different edot; they are not integrated so they do not adjust socially well to each other. But things will get better. Right now there is no Israeli Character but one day there will be. The sabra is a chutzban [without manners], because the education does not teach manners; perhaps when we have peace the chinuch [education] will be better. Israel has done well for itself in thirty years and I will find my place in Dimona— I will stay.

Analysis

The second-generation Indian immigrants in Dimona are mostly under thirty-five years of age. They have served in the army, they have acculturated into Israeli society, their primary language is

Hebrew, and they have national aspirations for their country.

It is clear that this particular young man's perception to the sabras' "lack of manners" stems from his native Indian values, which are: respect for authority, an emphasis on social amenities, and a quiet nature. 233

Yemenite

The following informant was a second-generation Israeli of

Yemenite descent. She emigrated with her family from Yemen during

the great migration from Yemen in 1949:

We thought that the Messiah had come. I was born in Yemen; it was not as bad as they portrayed it to be. We lived in a city and lived an urban life style. My family was brought to Beer Sheva. We came to Israel because every Jew wants his own country. I came to Dimona because I married a Yemenite man and he lived here. We have about twenty Yemenite families living in Dimona. I do not work. I feelthat a woman must be home to care for her children. I have five children. Little by little, we settled in Dimona; we built our lives and progressed, and the children have also progressed. I like the different ethnic groups; after all, we are all Jews. People do help each other in this country. I live in the Shikun LaDugma, which is very nice, but it is far from the mercaz [center of town]. The buses run every hour but it is difficult to carry my packages on the bus. We do not have decent films and there aren't enough decent cafes. It is difficult to go out in the evening and enjoy oneself in Dimona. My children are busy studying music at the conservatory. They study music in the afternoon and don't have time to go to the matnas. The conservatory is far from us; it is near the shuk. My family lives in Beer Sheva. My parents and older brother are traditionally observant; we are just misorati [traditional]. Our children in Israel are smart and free" Sabras must think of themselves as Jewish Israelis; the problem is that they think of themselves only as "free Israelis." Without religion we are not Israelis. We try to bring chinuch into our home in the form of books and music and we teach our children Yemenite culture. We are a close family and the children visit my parents regularly. We celebrate holidays together. My parents accept all of their chil­ dren even though we are not dati.

Analysis

This woman loved Yemenite culture. She demonstrated Yemenite culture in song and dance to many ethnic groups in Dimona. She was well-integrated into a Western-oriented middle class, and believed that education was the foundation of economic achievement. Her 234 ideological leanings were toward the teachings of Zionism; as far as she was concerned, Israel was the best country for the Jew to live in.

American

I interviewed an American-trained architect, an immigrant from the eastern part of the United States, who worked and lived in Dimona:

I went to a shaliach [emissary] in New York. He signed me up as an oleh. I never had any Jewish affiliation. I knew that I wanted to live in a development town in the Negev. I lived in Tunisia in the Peace Corps, so I wanted to live with North Africans. In Tunisia, I was in contact with the Jewish community. In 1967, they were all leaving for Israel. I was in­ trigued, and in 1969 I visited Israel to see it for myself. I spoke Arabic, but not a word of Hebrew. I returned to the United States, but I dreaded returning to the American regimented society that I left behind. Two years later I returned to Israel as a licensed architect. The mayor in Dimona uses his own architects; they are all Ashkenazi architects, I contacted the Project Renewal group, but the building was given to a Tel-Aviv architect who designed Dizengoff Circle. Because living expenses in Dimona are cheap, I can exist here on half a job. The Jewish Agency at first did not want to give me an apartment in Dimona; I had to fight with them. They told me that Americans usually do not stay in Dimona. I have done work in Dimona, and my work is accepted, but I feel that I am not accepted politically because I do not belong to the "proper" political party [Labor].

Analysis

This American immigrant, it seems, could not break into the professional establishment of Israeli architects in Israel. His architectural plans were unique: to build adobe homes in the desert.

He felt that he was an innovator in his field; thus, it will be a mat­ ter of time before his work will be appreciated. The Sabra

The sabra does not need to integrate into a dominant Ashkenazi society as his grandparents and parents needed to. The sabra*s ascribed birthright enables him to participate freely in Israeli society. He feels free to accept the ethnic values of his family, with its religious traditions, but at the same time retain his

'’Israeli" identity. The sabras that I met in Dimona and Arad accept

"Israeli Unity" as separate from the concept of "Jewish Unity."

Israeli society, for the sabra, is not made up of Ashkenazi/Sephardi-

Oriental ethnic groups, but it is a mixed Israeli population, free to express its ethnicity in a pluralistic society.

According to Spiro (1965:3^4-394), the sabras accept one cru­ cial plank in the Zionist platform: the Jewish State. Other planks, however, such as the unity of the Jewish people, do not evoke unani­ mous agreement. The sabras feel no tie to Jewish tradition and they want little to do with the last two thousand years of the Jewish past, which represent an unheroic Jewish history of persecutions and expul­ sions, the diaspora's values of Judaism, such as loyalty to theologi­ cal beliefs and ritual practices. Sabras believe that these past per­ secutions are Jewish traits rather than their historical fact; to them, Zionism means Israeli patriotism. Thus the term chofshi to the sabra means that he is free from his Jewish past and has no ties to the Jewish religious beliefs and rituals. At this time, we need to differentiate between the observant and nonobservant sabra. The ob­ servant sabra, educated in the state-religious school system, does 236 identify with his Jewish past; therefore, the term chofshi is not rel­ evant to him.

I interviewed six young sabras from Dimona, ages fifteen through twenty-six. They were of various ethnic backgrounds: Moroc­ can, Yemenite, Ashkenazi, and Tunisian. They varied in their percep­ tions relating to life, the characteristics of their sabra generation, their educational goals, their attitudes toward their country, school, and students, and to life in Dimona.

Eli, age twenty-four, of Moroccan descent, was a student of architecture in the Technion in Haifa. He had served in the army.

His family was socially prominent in Dimona and they were part of the

10 percent upper middle class. He was aware of his parents' success and status and of his material surroundings and comforts; he felt that these things were earned by hard work, but he as a sabra had other aims in life to fulfill:

I have been away from Dimona so long that I do not recognize my high school teachers any more. I want to live in a moshav after graduation and work outside the moshav. I will be an archi­ tect, but I would also like to work at some agriculture. I like Dimona; I think it is a good place for the integration of immigrants. It is difficult to learn in the university in continuity be­ cause one must leave temporarily to serve in the reserves. So either you are in the army reserves or your professor is in the reserves or half your class is in the reserves. I know that I can live in another country and adapt, but I don't want to. The student must have a good relationship with his family; if not, it is difficult. You need their support, their help, and their care. The ideal relationship between students is to behave as human beings to each other. Because we are students together does not mean that we necessarily relate to each other. 237

Another sabra, of Ashkenazi descent, said that it is very im­ portant to feel good in class, and that there should be very little tension for the student:

One should never be passive in front of the teacher nor be afraid of him or her. I find that in my university, some students are really afraid of the professors. I wonder if Indian Jews will ever become Israelis because their family life is so closed and they are so passive. The family life is of great influence and gives us our educa­ tional values. My parents totally support me. I could not work and learn at the same time. They give it to me with joy and I know that I can take from them, while my friends cannot take help from their parents. The school should be a kesher [connection] between the student and his country.

Jamey is a sabra of Ashkenazi descent, female, age twenty- three. She is married to a second-generation Moroccan immigrant.

She did view her "inter-marriage" as rare, nor as common. She felt that men and women married for deeper emotional needs, and that her inter-ethnic marriage was not a sociological statistic. She is from the northern coastal plain of Israel:

I love the quiet and traditional values of Dimona and of my husband's family. I love the intimacy where everyone knows each other. I always wanted to live in a development town; one re­ ceives special conditions from the government. I do not think that there is good without the bad. The sabra is egotistical; they like themselves. They love to relax and just go out to have a good time. They will help others and love to do so. They talk a lot; it's the tension and the inflation. They are all chutzbanim. There is much for the youth who settle in a development town, but we are still waiting to get an apartment from Amidar.

Two sabras of Yemenite descent, females, ages fifteen and eighteen, have very positive feelings toward the different edot in

Dimona, but have reservations about living in Dimona after they attend 238 the university. They were presently a freshman and a senior in high school, studying in the academic track:

We like to learn from the other edot, but we think that Dimona has a bad reputation in Israel. Maybe because it is a small, ugly town and one is easily bored here. The characteristics of the sabra in Israel is that they speak in slang, they love to hike and get to know the country. A sabra loves his country and wants to build it and work for it. We love to have a good time and we can trust each other. Whenever there are times of crises, Israelis support each other. I hate those that leave the country only for materialistic gain. The goal of the high school in Israel is to prepare for the bagrut. I hope to study for an M.A. in psychology and maybe even for a Ph.D. I really want to live on a kibbutz and be a psycholo­ gist there. I want to teach, attend the university, and teach history. I think that my topic will be the Middle East.

My next interview was with a sabra of Tunisian descent, a male, age twenty-four, who planned to leave Israel:

I am going to leave and emigrate to France [Paris] to find work there. All I really want is tzedek [justice]. I left the army at the end of my enlistment [three years] with a very good profile; I received good commendations. When I returned to Dimona, I found that there was no decent job for me. Most of the good construction jobs were filled by the new Russian immigrants. After all, I served in the army, and I feel that we who have risked our lives, we should be given priorities for better jobs. I finished high school but did not take the bagrut. I really do not see any future for myself in Dimona, both socially and eco­ nomically. I do not see better opportunities in Tel-Aviv so per­ haps I should try my luck in another country. I am not afraid of the anti-Semitism in the Diaspora; I can handle that.

Another sabra, also of Tunisian descent, age twenty-six, grad­ uated high school but did not complete his bagrut; he '.anted to emi­ grate for various reasons:

I stay in Dimona because of my family, but I do not want to stay in Dimona nor do I want to stay in Israel. 239 First of all, I do not have a chevra, and my upbringing was Western in life style. I have been to France and feel very com­ fortable there. The Jews in France are even more religious than the Israelis. I am generally dissatisfied in Dimona, but I work in my fam­ ily's business. As soon as I get a visa, I hope to leave.

Analysis

Sabras in general all want to travel abroad and see other countries and even work abroad temporarily, but in times of military crises will return immediately to Israel and to their units in the army. It is possible the two sabras (above) need some time and space away from Israel to sort things out for themselves.

Sabras— Young, Young Adults, Middle Age, in Arad

1. The sabras who lived in the Chatzavim quarter were the first settlers in Arad in 1962. Their homes were all unique and in good taste. The villas were a part of the topography that surrounded

Arad. They were also furnished in good taste, using stones and foli­ age of the desert. They worked hard at their jobs. Most of the women also worked, so they had two excellent incomes. The women were highly educated and most held supervisory jobs in Arad and in Beer Sheva.

The men held managerial positions and earned very high salaries. I was told that one salary was not enough for them to get by on. Most of these residents had color TVs and many of their children rode ten- speed bikes and some had motorcycles for which many earned the money working in the summers or having paper routes. 240

2. As mentioned above, these residents were worried about

changes in the town, of lower-class elements moving in. One high

school student, a son of first families, had water put in the gas tank

of his motorcycle. As he was cleaning out the gas tank, I talked with

him about this incident. He looked at me and said very quietly,

"Phyllis, my friends and I have a plan; we will wait for the culprit

around the clock if necessary, and when we catch him, he will be sorry

that he ever moved to Arad."

3- The sabra youth in Arad socialize together in school,

sports clubs, the swimming pool, and in the youth centers. I noticed

that their behavior was very mannerly in the streets. I saw several

sabras help a man move a cabinet from his truck to an apartment, with­

out his asking them for help. Whenever I asked directions, they

accompanied me to the cioss street to show me the quickest way.

4* I lived in a studio apartment in the back of one of the

villas. The children of the villa were always pleasant, friendly, and came to talk with me. I interviewed several sabras in Arad; they were thoughtful, very idealistic about their place in Israeli society.

5. I interviewed eleven sabras ages thirty-six to forty-five.

Eight came to Arad during the years 1962-1965, and four were among the first fifty families that settled in Arad in 1 9 6 2. Five sabras had M.A, degrees, four had B.A. degrees, and the others had seminar work and high school degrees. The consensus of these sabras about life in Arad is that Arad is a small town, a quiet town, one knows everyone and is known by everyone. They like the climate, that it 241 is asthma-free, a wonderful place to raise children. Most important

is the quality of life found in Arad.

6. There was also a consensus among the adult sabra that Arad

is far from the center of Israel. Food is more expensive, the ser­

vices in Beer Sheva were better, e.g., psychological services and music lessons. Some felt that the religious groups were multiplying

in Arad, and many felt that a lower element of people who were moving

to Arad did not "fit" into the town.

Second Generation

1. Their ages were twenty-six to fifty-one. Their ethnic groups by descent were: Egyptian, English, Russian,Ashkenazi, Ameri­

can, Canadian, Algerian, and German. They settled in Arad during the years of 1963-1979- They migrated to Israel during the years 1934-

1971. Their education was one B.A., one M.A., and the rest were high

school graduates.

2. One resident worked in Dimona (teaching), but she pre­ ferred to live in Arad. Another resident was leaving Arad, but she was dati and wanted to live in a town with an intensive religious atmosphere. Many felt that there was too much emphasis on secular studies in school; the love of Israel and the suffering of Israelis in the early years of statehood were not stressed enough in the educa­ tion of young sabras. APPENDIX C

OBSERVATIONS IN DIMONA AND ARAD

242 Specific Observations that I Recorded during My Year in Dimona and Arad

My First Shabbat in Dimona

The Jewish Sabbath began at sundown on Friday eve. The

Israeli radio and television all greeted the listening audience with

the words, "Shabbat Shalom,11 which meant "Happy Sabbath." A quiet

fell on Dimona, as the buses did not run on the Sabbath. The buses

do not run anywhere in Israel on Shabbat, except in the city of Haifa

(there, the municipality is independent of the State). On Friday

night (Erev Shabbat) the streets of Dimona were empty. It seemed to

be a family night, when the family ate and visited together. The dati

men attended prayer services in the synagogues, while the women stayed

at home, usually busy getting the Shabbat meal together. The women

began to shop for the Shabbat on Wednesday— the shuk was particularly

busy on Wednesday and Thursday— and they cooked and baked all day Fri­

day. It was a hectic day for them, as they were never sure they would

finish in time for Shabbat. The datiim do not cook on Shabbat and

they keep their food warm all night on an electric hot plate (plata

chashmal). The less religious families also relax on Shabbat; they

are not as strict in their religious observance, but Shabbat is a time

for family, relaxation, visitation, and a quiet day of enjoyment.

In Dimona, very few residents drove their cars on Shabbat. The young who possessed cars left Dimona in the morning for visiting relatives or just enjoyment in the mercaz, the coastal cities, e.g., Tel-Aviv.

243 244 On Shabbat morning, the streets were empty at 8:00 in the

morning. Many men and boys could be seen walking to their synagogues,

each carrying his prayer shawl (talit) and his prayer book (siddur).

I followed them to a synagogue and discovered afterward that there

were thirty synagogues in Dimona.

This particular synagogue was of Moroccan affiliation. It

was an apartment house on the first floor. The women were segregated

from the men during the entire prayer service, which lasted three hours. There was a large, open frame in the wall of the women's sec­

tion. I was able to see with ease the service, which was led by the male members. The women, all Moroccan first-generation immigrants, aged fifty-five to eighty, did not have prayer books. They seemed to know the prayer service from memory. The women all resembled clas­ sical portraits: their faces were deeply lined and they wore loose- fitting printed dresses and kerchiefs on their heads. They were mostly women with large bone structures and if I asked them, probably would tell me that they had given birth to an average of ten children each.

The men's section of the synagogue was filled with males of all ages: young boys, small children, and older boys who had already celebrated their Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, young married men, middle- aged men, and the elders. The men's section was nicely decorated.

There were electrically lit candelabras, memorials, tablets commemo­ rating the names of the members of the synagogue who had died. There were also copies of prayers hanging on the walls, for example the

Yigdal Prayer, which praised the existence of God. 245 When I arrived at the synagogue, the men were participating in the reading of the Torah (scroll of five books of Moses). It was encased in a beautifully painted ivory case. The Torah was read by a male age fifty-five. He wore a European-style black hat and a suit.

He read the special portion designated to be read that week. The

Torah was in a vertical position on the table. The Torah reading was chanted in a monotone sing-song chant. The men who were called to recite the blessings over the Torah usually bought the honor for a nominal fee. They chanted the first designated blessing, then listened as that particular portion was read, then they chanted the final blessings. One of the men called up to the Torah was a seventy- year-old man who wore a long, pointed beard; he was very tall and stood very erect. He wore a beret, a turtleneck shirt and a jacket.

His face was very interesting looking and his eyes sparkled and were clear. The Reader used a long silver pointer. He made a mistake once and the congregation corrected him, so he had to repeat the sentence again. The men listened to the reading and followed the reading in their Bibles. The men who had received the honor of reciting the blessing over the Torah afterwards went to some of the other men to receive congratulations from them. These did not shake hands; they kissed in the French fashion on both cheeks. Then they kissed the

Reader, they kissed several men in the congregation, they kissed their talit, and touched the men on their foreheads.

When the Torah was brought out from the holy ark, the women kissed their fingers and pointed their arms and hands toward the Torah and then kissed their fingers again. They did this many times: 246

(1) when the Torah was brought out of the Ark, (2) when it was lifted

to the congregation to announce that this was the Torah of Moses and

of Israel. They repeated these same symbolic gestures when the Torah was returned to the Ark after the Torah reading session. These sym­ bolic gestures represented the women's prayers to God. As they ex­ plained it to me later, the men know how to pray to God, so they do not kiss their fingers for good luck and to receive God's shichinah

(light). The men do not participate in these gestures; it is only the women's synagogue ritual activity and only done at Moroccan prayer

services.

I left after the official Torah reading was completed and went to another synagogue about two blocks away. This was a more formal building, built by the Iriya, and was built with a rounded dome. The women's section was in the rear of the synagogue. It was a small room used as a storage place. The women in this synagogue were between the ages of sixty and eighty, dressed in the same manner as the women in the first synagogue. Each woman was involved in her own prayer to God and in communicating with God. They also did not have prayer books, but also seemed to know the prayer service from memory. Women in this synagogue seemed to be very interested in me and welcomed me warmly. The women spent a great deal of time closing and opening the shutters that separated the men's section from theirs. For example, during the Prayer of Silent Devotion, the shutters remained closed.

It was impossible to see into the men's section at all.

At this particular prayer service, a groom was called up to the Torah as it was the Shabbat after the wedding. His wife and 247 mother were there, but according to one of the women who whispered to me, "They are not dati'm, and they know nothing." Some of the younger members of the wedding party wore pants. This did not seem to disturb the more observant women, as the premise that they were chilonim (non-observers) was already established. The men wore what­ ever clothes they had, as long as they were neac and clean. Many boys wore Levis and faded jeans. Some older men wore suits, but most young married men wore shirts and slacks.

The young mothers remained home with their young children.

I did not see many children under the age of five. The synagogue service lasted until 10:00 A.M. As I left the synagogue with my new­ found friend, I saw that the streets were filled with people leaving synagogues* services.

I did not know my new friend's name and she did not know mine.

In her home, she introduced me as a friend from "America." I intro­ duced myself, but they still did not tell me their names. I had a delightful afternoon eating the Shabbat meal with them and visiting their families: aunts, cousins, and ninety-year-old grandmother.

They were all very friendly and made me comfortable. I drank a great deal of mint tea and ate delicious cakes. The sisters-in-law spoke

Arabic with each other. The teenage children spoke Hebrew with their parents, but occasionally spoke Arabic. They all spoke Arabic to their grandmother. Some of the boys asked me where I lived in

America. They had never heard of Cleveland, but understood after I explained its geographical location. 248

Mimi (my friend and adopted mother) still hadn't told me the names of her family, and I had spent an entire Shabbat with them.

But she told me a great deal about her family. She showed me photo­ graphs of her life in Casablanca. She was quiet, and I realized at once that she was a bright, perceptive person with a dry, sophisti­ cated sense of humor. She told me that she worried about me being alone in Dimona and that I should become one of her family. She did not understand how I could be alone without my husband. Her face then lit up as she said to me, "You will have plenty to write about. You will come to us on all the holidays, and it will be very interesting for you, you will see!"

I finally learned their names. All I had to do was ask them.

The family thought this to be hilarious. They thought I was too polite.

Observations of a Yemenite Chanuka Mi 1siba in Beer Sheva

This particular m i 1siba (party) was celebrated by Aviva's ex­ tended family, who lived in Beer Sheva. The family consisted of

Aviva's parents, who were first-generation Yemenite immigrants who migrated to Israel in 1940. Her parents dressed in traditional

Yemenite dress; her mother wore an embroidered caftan. Her father wore a long jalibiya over pants. Their children and grandchildren revered the grandparents and they in turn were warm and caring toward the family. The grandfather was ill that night and could not attend the Chanukah mi'siba, but the grandmother did attend. 249

The mi'siba ws held in a moadon (clubhouse), which was used as an air raid shelter. The hall was decorated and Yemenite music was being played on tapes. Everyone in the family greeted each other warmly. They also greeted me warmly and made me feel very welcomed.

The appetizers served were chumos, techina paste, and pita (Arabic bread); the entrees served were rice, meat, and vegetables; Fruit and jelly doughnuts (Suf Ganiot), the national food of Chanukah that is eaten in Israel, sunflower seeds, and various nuts were served for dessert. It was a sumptuous feast. I was told each holiday a differ­ ent family prepares the mi*siba. The other families all contribute money. They would not accept payment from me because I was a guest, but I found later than Aviva had paid my share.

After the meal, dancing and singing began. At first they sang

Israeli Chanukah songs, then one of the elder sons began to sing

Yemenite songs in both Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. The men danced the traditional Yemenite dance. Two men face each other, dance the spe­ cial Yemenite step; they hold hands and twist and turn while continu­ ing to do the step. The young men began to also dance, and then the young children. They all seemed to know how to dance this special dance. They all laughed and seemed to get along well with each other.

Women did not dance, as this couple dance was only danced by men.

I have seen Aviva and her daughters dance this step at home. I have also seen Aviva demonstrating the Yemenite step and couple dance at cultural arts festivals in Dimona, but at this Chanukah mi'siba, only the men did the traditional Yemenite dance as it was danced in Yemen. 250

The Seder and the First Day of Passover in Dimona

I returned to Dimona from Arad to spend the first two days of the holiday of Pessach (Passover) with my Indian family and

the Seder with my Moroccan family. The town appeared, after the cleanliness of Arad, to be shabby. I noticed the lack of landscaping and the lack of flowers that are in so much evidence in Arad. There

just was no physical comparison between the two towns.

I had an enjoyable time with my Indian family. The family was all home for the holiday. The youngest son built a balloon to send a message of peace. It did not succeed in flying and burned up before it left the ground.

At the Seder of my Moroccan family were all the children, their spouses, and grandchildren. The table was set very nicely, with charoses (symbolic of the bricks used by the slaves in Egypt), made of mashed dates, and crushed nuts. There was much cooking to do and the women all helped in the kitchen; the men did not come near the kitchen, and they also did not take care of the children. After the food had been cooked, the father began the Seder. All the sons, on this one night, sat with their father and chanted all the prayers from the Hagaddah (Book of Passover) in unison. At the beginning of the

Seder, they took a brass tray that had the Seder symbols on it and sang a prayer about being free men. They put the tray on everyone's head, beginning from the eldest to the youngest. The family appeared close on this night and the father was very happy with all his chil­ dren sitting around him. Mimi whispered to me that this is what is meant by "children bring joy." The meal consisted of fish soup, salads, vegetables, chicken, and fruit. Everyone drank more than their share of vine. At the end of the Seder, the father chanted a prayer in Arabic. After the children sang many songs from the

Hagaddah, they then sang Israeli songs till the early hours of the morning. While this family never really discussed many abstract thoughts, on this night they related to each other because of the ritual of the Seder, the night, the songs, and the solidarity of just being together for this Passover ritual. There was no need for verbal communication. They showed a warmth toward their parents that I had not seen all year. At the end of the Seder, while everyone was sing­ ing except the father, Mimi, the mother, was in the kitchen preparing the vegetables for the next day's meal. She never participated in the formal Seder other than cooking and serving the meal, yet she was very much the center of the family and the younger children acknowl­ edged this by hugging and kissing her, to which she did not physically respond, but one saw enjoyment on her face. I was made to feel at home and was not treated as an outsider by the family. It was obvious that they wanted me to celebrate this night with them.

Observation at an Indian Eliyahu HaNavi Festival in Honor of a House Warming

The Indian Jewish community considered Elijah the Prophet as their personal emissary to God to bring the good luck, good health, and success in life. They celebrated an Eliyahu HaNavi at all 252 occasions when they have been lucky and want to thank the prophet by making a special feast in his honor. This particular occasion was a house warming (Chanukat Habait). The woman was alone in Timona and her friends and neighbors got together to celebrate her moving to

Dimona six months ago. There were special symbolic significances to all the food and all the prayers. One young man led the prayers be­ ginning with the prayers to Eliyahu HaNavi, which are usually read on Saturday night after the Shabbat. On a plate was fruit: a banana representing a blessing from the earth, a tangerine and an orange rep­ resenting the fruit of life, dates, and a new fruit in Israel; the rice mixed with coconut represented fertility. All these foods were passed around, and no one ate until the Reader recited the proper blessing. Wine was also drunk as representing the fruit of life.

A feast was then served— chicken, rice with special curry sauce, rice cakes, cold curried potatoes— and water was also served to drink.

After the meal, a Sabbath day hymn was sung in the Indian chant. The

Reader then read the blessings after the meal. When they reached the blessings to God, everyone kissed both hands and offered their hands to God. I assume this is a special revered blessing to God and their lifting of their hands brings them closer to God and to receive his blessing. Wine was drunk again and passed around. Salt was also passed around to taste. When I asked why this was done, the young leader just told me that it was a custom. When I mentioned that salt symbolizes the staff of life, another person agreed. 253

The Indian Jewish Community's Legend of Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the Prophet)

The Indian Jews revere Elijah the Prophet as their own per­ sonal prophet. According to legend, which is believed by the Indian

Jewish community, Elijah the Prophet came to visit the Indian Jews in the 1800s. There is evidence of his arrival to India by the marks of a horse and carriage, which were left on a rock, and it is presumed that he was seen by some. One Pakistani immigrant told me that he will show me the pictures of this rock with the prints of the horse and carriage.

Ashkenazai Jews believe that Elijah the Prophet visits them at the Seder of Passover and drinks from the cup that is prepared for him. The Indian Jews have never heard of this custom and do not have this custom in their Passover Seder.

Observations of Two Moroccan Cultural Events in Dimona

I will briefly describe two Moroccan cultural events which

I observed in Dimona. The first Moroccan celebration took place in the matnas. This misiba (party) was to celebrate the performance in

Dimona of the Habima1s (national theatre of Israel) production of The

Moroccan King, a musical about the world of urban Moroccan Jewry in

Morocco. The play was very well received in Dimona and it played to a full house.

The Moroccan women of Dimona had prepared Moroccan food for the occasion. The band consisted of Moroccan musicians, who played instruments indigenous to the Middle East. The women wore highly decorative caftans and danced provocatively to the music. The audi­ ence, mostly Moroccan, loved the dances and seemed delighted by the entire evening.

The Mimouna Celebration in Dimona

The Mimouna celebration takes place the day after Passover.

This holiday is in honor of the philosopher Maimonides, who lived for a time in Morocco. The Mimouna is a very ritualistic holiday; only dairy and sweet foods can be eaten on the eve of the Mimouna, the houses remain open to all and visiting takes place all through the night. On the next day, there was a picnic in the Ben-Gurion For­ est. The weather was fine and there was entertainment. Families and friends put up tents, barbecued, and picnicked together.

The Mimouna was covered extensively on national TV, describing its rituals, symbolism, and social implications. The Mimouna celebra­ tion represents a major ritual of cohesiveness and solidarity among the Moroccan community in Israel (Goldberg 1978). The national recog­ nition of this holiday represents a major manifestation of Moroccan cultural ethnicity into Israeli society.

Observations of the Physical Setting of Arad

The town is beautifully landscaped. This week roses are in bloom in all parts of the town. The roses are large and all colors.

They are planted in many areas of the town. I stopped many times to admire the flowers and to smell the roses along the way. 255 I walked about the villot in the Chatzavim quarter. Host of the villas were quite large, and each villa was surrounded by beauti­ ful gardens, some larger than others, but all planted with ecological knowledge and awareness. Most of the flowers and shrubbery were desert flowers, and of course there were roses all about.

Arad is a very clean town with wide boulevards, beautiful landscaped green tree lawns. There are black irrigation hoses all over the gardens and tree lawns of Arad. The municipality (Office of Ginun, landscaping, care, and maintenance) is responsible for the tree lawns, the upkeep, and planting and watering.

I walked to the observation Moav in the direction of the hotel area. The walks were landscaped, very clean and wide. The promenade was built of desert stone, and there was modern lighting, stone benches, and several overlooks. One walks in the desert with the mountains of Moav surrounding on both sides. Moav was a Canaanite nation during the time of the conquest of Joshua. I passed three luxury hotels and one rest home and walked out to the observation point. From this point I saw the Dead Sea, as it was a clear day.

My son wanted to hike in the surrounding hills of Arad. He met with a woman from the nature club, and she gave him several hiking trails to use. He hiked for four hours, and saw many desert flowers, beautiful hills, and a gully. He passed several Bedouin camps and they gave him water and asked him to rest. He met a Bedouin, fifteen years old, a shepherd. He told my son that he owned a flock of sheep, that each sheep was worth 2,000 shekels. He is raising some of these sheep for his own capital and will be rich when he is an adult. The

Bedouin took him to the road and he was able to hitch a ride home.

Conservative Synagogue in Arad (1981)

All the synagogues in Arad are Orthodox in belief and prac­ tice. There is a separation of men and women; men are counted in the prayer service, women are not. Men actively participate in the service, women are passive.

The Conservative movement is an American phenomenon. In the early twentieth century, the Conservative congregants, though orthodox in their practices and prayer worship, translated many of their prayers into English. The rabbis read them in English and the congre­ gation answered them in English. Men and women and families sat to­ gether in the synagogue and prayed together. In the last decade, many synagogues began to give women more participation in the service, e.g., calling them up to the Torah for Aliyot, the blessing said when the Torah is read, but the Rabbinical Council has yet to appoint women as rabbis of Conservative synagogues.

I went to their service in Arad on the Shavuot festival. This festival celebrated the giving of the Torah by God on Mount Sinai and was also the festival of the first harvested fruits. The synagogue was housed in one of the bungalows in Rishonim. It was simple in furnishings: a Torah Ark, a red eternal light, chairs, bookshelves for prayer books, a table to pray on. The congregation consisted of many retired Anglo-Saxons, ten young Israeli couples, and small chil­ dren. An Israeli read aloud the service in Hebrew, and the pages were 257 announced both in Hebrew and English. There was an order to the ser­ vice; Shachrit (morning service) was special for the Sabbath and the holiday service. Shavuot was one of the three holidays when the bib­ lical pilgrims of Israel went up to sacrifice their first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem.

The next part of the service was the Torah reading. At this particular service, women did not receive Aliyot to the Torah, but they did open the Torah Ark. A man read the Torah. Afterward the additional service was read. The men wore prayer shawls and skull caps, and the men and women sat together, very informally. The syna­ gogue was decorated by custom with green leaves and foliage in honor of the Shavuot holiday.

After the service, which ended at 11:00 A.M., there was a lavish brunch prepared by the women of the congregation. The foods prepared were dairy foods, as it was the custom of Shavuot to eat mainly dairy food. I don't think that there were more than fifty people in the room, yet no one greeted me. Everyone seemed to know each other. I recognized an Israeli family. They agreed that the service here was not Orthodox, but also not completely Conservative.

I tried to talk to several people, both in Hebrew and English, but they were very non-communicative. The Americans were all retirees and accustomed to Conservative services from the States. One elderly

American woman told me that though she is Conservative in ideology, she does not agree to aliyot for women. "I am not that much of a goy

(gentile)." So my conclusion is that the synagogue is not an "Israeli" religious institution nor an "American Conservative" religious synagogue.

Observations— Preparation for Passover in Arad

It was a busy time in Arad and in Israel. First there was much preparation for the holiday; the women cleaned their houses and painted many parts of the houses and vestibules. There was much shop­ ping to be done— fruits and vegetables and the Matzot (unleavened bread) and eggs. Because only unleavened bread and food special for

Passover is eaten in Israel, the foods were marked as designated espe­ cially for Passover. This included dairy products, coffee, sugar, salt, etc. The leavened bread was sold by the Chief Rabbi to an Arab emissary for money returned after the holiday. Passover lasts seven days in Israel and eight days in the diaspora.

Spring cleaning becomes a national pastime, and food prices were higher.

All grocery stores covered the leaven food (Chomet2 ) and sold only what is permissible to be eaten on Passover. The cafes, however, sell beer and ice cream cones, which is leaven food and therefore not permissible on Passover. There were many tourists in Arad that week.

At night the plaza was filled with people, first because it was cool, and then it was a good place for the tourists to meet and have coffee in the cafes. The two felafel stores were closed during Passover.

When Passover was over, all the children ran to the candy stores and the falafel stores to eat leaven food, which was not sold for seven days of Passover. Observations of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah)

On the eve of Yom Hashoah day for the six million Jews killed

by the Nazis in World War II, I attended a very moving ceremony in the matnas. There were programs on TV and radio remembering the

Holocaust. The radio played very sedate Israeli music all day, while on TV there were readings and dramatic presentations. On Thursday morning at 8:00 A.M., a siren rang for two minutes of silence. All

traffic in Arad and in Israel stopped, and people stood in the streets

in silence.

I was told that Israelis are determined that their younger generation will learn about the Holocaust and not forget it. There was a large attendance at the memorial ceremony at the matnas of young children (eight and above).

Observations in Arad: Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day

The population began to prepare for Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israeli

Independence Day) a week before. On Monday, May 4, there was a cere­ mony of eleven nursery schools in celebration in the football stadium.

Thirty-three Israeli flags were raised to commemorate the thirty-three years of Israel's existence as a state. Then hundreds of balloons were released in the air; the residents hoped that they would find their way to Jordan, which is just over the mountains. The ceremony seemed to be very effective while the children and audience sang

Israeli songs together. 260

Yom HaZichoron is the Memorial Day for the soldiers who lost

their lives in all five Israeli-Arab wars. On Tuesday night at the

Gan Hachamisha, the garden of memory, that honors Arad's war dead,

there was a ceremony to honor Arad's war dead. A torch was lit and

taps were blown, while an Israeli flag was lowered to half-mast. The

Kaddish (memorial prayer) was recited by the rabbi of Arad and the

El Maleh Rachamin (memorial prayer for the dead) was recited by the

second rabbi. Various people spoke of the heroes, and the names of

Arad's war dead were read aloud. The Hatikva (national anthem) was

sung and a dance was performed by different clubs of Arad. Candles

were lit with the entertainment; it was very serene and quiet. On

Wednesday, subdued Israeli music was played on the radio and programs

were stories of the war dead and the honors given to them.

Yom Ha'atzmaut was officially declared at 6:00 P.M. on Wednes­ day, May 6 , on Mt. Herzel. It was very difficult for people to cele­ brate after the sad day of mourning. The population has complained about this but the government felt that independence was the act of re-creation and must follow Memorial Day. In Arad, at 8:00 P.M. there was a Yom Ha'atzmaut ceremony at the football field, with all types of contests, bike decorating, and house decorating. My landlord put up lights and flags in front of his house. There was a poor turnout

for the town picnic because many residents stayed at home, had their own barbecues, and watched the TV presentations, which were of excel­

lent quality. Conclusion

The residents of Arad felt the sadness and the joy of the two days. When the siren rang at 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday in memory, the entire town came to a standstill. The children in Arad felt the the sadness and were very respectful of the day. The next day, the missile crisis with Syria began. The residents did not discuss it with each other, but they only discussed Yom Ha'atzmaut and what they did that day.

Observations in Arad— Lag Ba’Omer (1 9 8 1 )

Lag Ba'Omer is the thirty-third of the Omer, which is the counting of the days between Passover and Shavuot. During the Roman conquest of Israel in 200 A.D., the Romans banned the learning of the

Torah; therefore, Rabbi Akiva took his students on pretended picnics and then taught them the Torah. A legend states that there was also a plague among Rabbi Akiva1s students that stopped on the thirty-third day of the Omer.

In Arad, the school children built barn fires and roasted potatoes and marshmallows. I saw one boy gathering old wooden win­ dows and was joined by other boys. They all seemed very excited.

Many parents accompanied their children to the fires to supervise them. There was much excitement, and one of the few times that the students have their own activity. This holiday, setting a fire was a very cathartic act for them. There was one central fire near the matnas. It was sponsored by the Rabbinate of Arad and by the

Histadrut. The youth danced and sang throughout the night. 262

Observations of Supermarket Behavior in Arad

One morning, in the supermarket, while waiting on line to check out, a Russian checkout clerk stopped to speak to a customer whom she knew and this held the line up. The girl in front of me was annoyed, but did not say anything to the clerk; she just waited patiently. The conversation between the clerk and the customer lasted about seven minutes. No one on the line said anything, though they were very aware of this behavior. I was surprised at the patience and quiet manner of the residents of Arad, who were waiting for the clerk to finish her conversation with a customer (evidently a friend).

I have never witnessed such calm, quiet behavior in an Israeli super­ market anywhere in Israel, especially as provoked as the customers on line were.

In the supermarket of Arad, there is an express line for four items or less. In front of me was a large, blonde woman with a bas­ ketful of groceries. It was pointed out to her by the customers that that was an express line and one man pointed to the sign. She paid no attention, and one of the customers pointed out the sign to the

Russian checkout clerk. She also paid no attention and said nothing.

The customer with the filled wagon was Russian, and she spoke Russian to the clerk who was obviously her friend. The customer's bill was

173 shekels worth of groceries. While the rest of the customers on line fumed, these two were chatting away, oblivious to the fact that this behavior was insulting and aggravating to the rest of us who were in the express line with four items. No one said anything. It was 263 all polite, but I had the feeling that they were very angry but did not want to make a fuss.

I realized that this behavior that I witnessed in the super­ market (above) is an example of "protection" practiced in Russia by

Russians as a survival mechanism. The only way to elude the system was through "silent rebellion" and if one could put a clog in the sys­ tem every now and then, so be it. I did not think this was the case in Arad. Russian olim were happy and well-adjusted, they achieved economically, and their children were successful. I think that this is an old habit and will probably die out with the second-generation

Russian immigrants and definitely with the sabra generation.

Supermarket behavior as described above, if practiced in the rest of the country, would not be tolerated for long. I have seen clerks in the supermarket in Dimona socialize with their friends, but never were they oblivious to the other customers. They continued to check out the customers as they chatted away.

Patience, good manners on the part of the residents of Arad, including the sabra youth, is a virtue and practiced by all residents.

Standing on lines in the bank, the post office, and all public utili­ ties is orderly, quiet, and without any pressure at all.

The Bombing of the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor

When the first news was reported by radio that Israel had bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor, I was visiting friends' home who were very ardent Labor Party members. They began to yell and curse

Begin and were very angry. I asked why, and they answered that 264

Begin needs to bomb everything, and that he is a terrorist. A few days later, I saw these same friends again, and this time they told me that though the timing was wrong, the reactor had to be bombed be­ cause of the lethal bombs that would be produced. This seemed to be the consensus of all Israelis in Arad: the reactor had to be bombed because of the danger, since Iraq was the severe enemy of Israel.

In Arad, I did not hear anyone speak about the UN condemna­ tions of the Israel raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor. They all ex­ pected it and it is of no interest to them.

The residents of Arad have faith in the Israel Defense Force

(IDF).

Observations in Arad— Missile Crisis with Syria (5/81)

While the atmosphere in Arad among the residents is tense, life continues as usual. Nobody spoke about the crisis except to say that this is the way it was before the Six-Day War. Everyone realized that the casualty list will be high, but that there is no other choice if all negotiations fail. There is much criticism about Prime Minis­ ter Begin, because he cannot keep his mouth shut, but they realize that he is also politicking for himself. The Air Force was very active and seemed to practice on its targets not far from Arad. The other day they practiced over two hours, and no one in the square said a word, though they noticed. There is much criticism in the press by military leaders (Israelis), saying that the crisis could have been avoided if the Syrian helicopters had not been shot down. This is 265 the first time that a difference in military action was being voiced by the military establishment.

Conclusion

Israelis constantly live with military crises and remain calm. They save their emotions for the actual war that they know will come sooner or later.

Voluntary Associations in Dimona

1. Histadrut

Social and cultural services provided:

(a) For returning soldiers— to get them work and help them to remain in Dimona

(b) For youth— these are cultural activities and tutoring for underachievers

(c) Moadon Yigol Allon (social club)

(d) For pensioners— excursions and films

(e) Sports— handball, team soccer, judo, and swimming in the summer

2. Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO)

Two hundred fifty members, ages thirty to fifty, fifty active members. They have many activities; one is the Bazaar, where they sell clothes that came from Tel-Aviv at low cost. There is also a moadon (club) for pensioners, and a leader for this club. Many of the women (members) volunteer their services to WIZO. There are afternoon classes in sewing, cooking, and ceramics. The participants pay a nominal fee and WIZO pays the teachers. According to the secretary there are four hundred paying members. The members meet once a week at 6:00 P.M. The branch office pays the electricity and telephone for their budget. WIZO is a nonpolitical organization and also helps widows and children. WIZO will also help new olim and their families. Most of the members in WIZO are women between the ages of thirty and fifty. On Tuesday from 4:00 to 6:00 P.M., there is family counseling led by a woman who has had much experience in family counseling but not the academic credentials. The volunteer group met with a social worker to improve their methods of volunteer behavior. They help in immigrant absorption and use the added facili­ ties of the community center. They also arranged the Bar Mitzvah ceremonies for eight Russian immigrants. They are situated in two villas in the center of town. The national WIZO organization paid for these quarters which are furnished with lovely bamboo furniture.

The WIZO rents out the hall for weddings and other gala events.

Their budget is 22,000 shekels a year. WIZO will volunteer their ser­ vices to any hardship case in the town. Any women who have grown children will find this is an ideal place to spend time.

3. Pioneer Women— Na’amat

They sell clothes in a Bazaar, and the customers pay what they can afford. They run a gan for children two to six years of age from the hours of 7:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. These services are used by working mothers who pay according to their ability. Pioneer Women is a polit­

ical organization and part of the Histadrut. The philosophy of the

Pioneer Women is the development of a woman and her family. They run

a community center after 4:00 P.M., with courses from 5:00-8:00 P.M.

There are about one hundred volunteers. The group has existed in

Dimona for twenty-five years.

4. Federation of Sephardim

Money is channeled in this organization from the worldwide

Sephardi community. Its aim is to give money to needy Sephardi fami­

lies and to sponsor worthy Sephardi students to attend the university.

The student must maintain good academic marks, and he or she is also

given pocket money every month. After graduation, the students are

expected to work in a development town three years. There are several

representatives in large cities to tend to the distribution of money, as this job is voluntary.

5. Tsatva

Tsavta is part of the labor (Mapam) movement. The members pay dues and also pay for any presentations. In Dimona, they meet

on Friday night in their building. Each neighborhood in turn sponsors the evening by providing the refreshments. There were many profes­

sionals at the club— teachers, municipality officials, etc. It is mainly a social club that provides entertainment. Tsavta exists in all cities and towns in Israel. Voluntary Associations in Arad

1. Esca (English-speaking Club of Arad)

Esca has been in existence for two years, with a membership

in 1981 of 150. Every week an English (translated from Hebrew)

schedule of matnas activities, cultural and social, is printed.

2. My Brother's Keeper

This club was started by the Jewish Agency. It was a welcome wagon; volunteers from various ethnic groups visited the homes of new immigrants.

3. Moadonim (Social Clubs)

(a) Romanians

(b) Russians

(c) Argentinians

(d) Hungarians

(e) Pensioners

(f) Singles in Arad

4 . Echut Chaim (The Quality of Life)

Echut Chaim is a national organization based on volunteerism to improve the quality of life in all areas, e.g., care for the next person, beautification, no littering or smoking. 269

5. La-maan Ha'Chayal (for the Soldier)

Groups meet to raise money to buy recreational equipment for soldiers stationed in the Negev. Soldiers are adopted by families in Arad and come to swim and relax with the families.

6. WIZO

There was no formal organization in Arad (see Dimona). There was, however, a day care center that cared for twenty-one babies, twenty-nine toddlers, and thirty-six older children.

7. Na'amat (Pioneer Women)

Na'amat had two day care centers in Arad. One was located in the Tlalim quarter and the other one was in the center of town, the Ye'alim quarter. The enrollment was for thirty-seven babies ages six months to eighteen months, forty-two toddlers ages eighteen months to two years of age, and fifty-four older children ages two to three.

This day care center was to serve women who work. Some mothers were on welfare and some worked in industry or in the hotels.

Women paid a maximum of 113 shekels a month. The priorities of this center were given to women who worked in factories. They paid 83 shekels a month maximum, and the cost per child for two children was cheaper.

Na'amat also had a thrift shop which has a shop in the shuk.

They were involved with the absorption of immigrants and worked with the Russians, Romanians, and those from Iran in the ulpan, and gener­ ally helped both in the absorption center. 270

Fifty permanent and many temporary women volunteers worked in the Bazaar and the thrift shop. They also worked with the pen­ sioners and sponsored social clubs.

During the summer they sponsored many activities for the chil­ dren of working mothers and those on welfare, e.g., swimming, picnics, and summer camp.

Amos Oz (1983:27-48) spoke with a group of Oriental immigrants living in Beit Shemesh, a suburb of Jerusalem. I have chosen several excerpts from the chapter entitled "The Insult and the Fury." These immigrants talk about their humiliations and self-perceptions during the early years of settlement in Israel. I feel that these testi­ monies aptly portray the substance and the flavor of this dissertation:

Really, think about this. When I was a little kid my kinder­ garten teacher was white and her assistant was black. In train­ ing, in school, my teacher was Iraqi and the principal was Pol:.sh. On the construction site where I worked, my supervisor was some redhead from Solel Boneh. At the clinic the nurse is Egyptian and the doctor Ashkenazi. In the army, we Moroccans are the cor­ porals and the officers are from the kibbutz. All my life I've been on the bottom and you've been on the top. I'll tell you what shame is: they gave us houses, they gave us the dirty work; they gave us education, and they took away our self-respect. What did they bring my parents to Israel for? I'll tell you what for, but you won't write this. You'll think that it's just provocation. But wasn't it to do your dirty work? You didn't have Arabs then, so you needed our parents to do your cleaning and be your servants and your laborers. And policemen too. You brought our parents to be your Arabs. But now I'm a supervisor. And he's a contractor, self- employed. And that guy over there has a transport business. Also self-employed. Small-scale— lives off the crumbs Solel Boneh leaves— but so what . . . look at my daughter: she works in a bank now, all you want is to dump her back into some textile factory, or have her wash floors, the way my mother used to clean for you. That's why we hate you here. As long as Begin's in power, my daughter's secure at the bank. If you guys come back [Labor], you'll pull her down first thing. 271

Say you're sorry for the thirty years when you were in power, and say you're sorry for the five years you've been slinging mud at the opposition [Begin]. After that, welcome. Please come into the government and we'11 work together. We1 re not out for re­ venge. You are Jews too, but one thing: Come without that arro­ gance of yours— if you leave that behind you, then we'll talk.

Amos Oz comments (1983:36):

He who was once a laborer is now a superintendent or a supervisor. He who was once on salary is now self-employed. His son is a stu­ dent and his daughter works in a bank; his brother is on vacation abroad— there is nothing to complain about— but nevertheless, the fury flows and bursts out and hearts are embittered.

Antonovsky and Arian (1972:149) suggest that there is one issue in Israel which generates almost complete consensus: survival of Israel as a Jewish State, and identification with Zionist ideology.

"There is a higher degree of consensus of national issues rather than personal issues."

When I asked the question, "What is good in Israel?" The unanimous response in both Dimona and Arad was, Zeh Haaretz Sheli

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