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Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish Immigration to Israel

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Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish Immigration to Israel Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish Immigration to Israel Corinne Cath Thesis Bachelor Cultural Anthropology 2011 Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish immigration to Israel Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish Immigration to Israel Thesis Bachelor Cultural Anthropology 2011 Corinne Cath 3337316 C,[email protected] Supervisor: F. Jara-Gomez Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish immigration to Israel This thesis is dedicated to my grandfather Kees Cath and my grandmother Corinne De Beaufort, whose resilience and wits are an inspiration always. Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish immigration to Israel Table of Contents Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 4 General Introduction ............................................................................................. 5 1.Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................... 8 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Anthropology and the Nation-State ........................................................................ 10 The Nation ........................................................................................................ 10 States and Nation-States ................................................................................... 11 Nationalism ....................................................................................................... 12 National Identity ............................................................................................... 13 1.2 Diffusing National Identity: rites-de-passages ....................................................... 14 Immigration ...................................................................................................... 15 Language Skills ................................................................................................ 16 Mandatory Military Service .............................................................................. 17 1.3 Zionism and Judaism .............................................................................................. 18 Religion, Nationalism and Immigration ........................................................... 18 Zionism, Judaism and Immigration .................................................................. 19 1.4 Making Aliyah to Israel: the ingathering of Exiles ................................................ 20 Aliyah and the law of return ............................................................................. 20 Olim Gadashim ................................................................................................. 21 2.Context ............................................................................................................. 23 A settler society ............................................................................................................ 23 Israel and the Arab Spring ............................................................................................ 26 Aliyah to Tel Aviv ........................................................................................................ 27 Ulpan Gordon ............................................................................................................... 28 Methods and Population ............................................................................................... 29 1 Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish immigration to Israel 3.Naim me’od: Meeting Olim Gadashim ........................................................... 31 An ethnic Jew? ............................................................................................................. 31 Religion and Zionism: an imagined community .......................................................... 34 Baguettes and Berets .................................................................................................... 35 I was not always a loser like this .................................................................................. 37 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 38 4. Motivations for Aliyah: Good and Bad reasons ............................................. 39 Judaism: you are going to hell if.. ................................................................................ 39 Zionism ......................................................................................................................... 43 Personal motivations .................................................................................................... 44 Making Aliyah: the procedure ...................................................................................... 47 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 49 5. You and You and You and Jew: Conceptualizing Aliyah .............................. 50 Rites-de-Passages ......................................................................................................... 50 Making Aliyah: mating and housing ............................................................................ 51 Ulpan: creating a rite-de-passage ................................................................................. 52 Conversion .................................................................................................................... 54 Army Service ................................................................................................................ 56 Current Situation .......................................................................................................... 58 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 59 6. Giving content to Aliyah: Being There ........................................................... 61 Purim and Pesah: od lo yo'deah .................................................................................... 61 Very profound isn’t it? Using Aliyah ........................................................................... 67 We are just a very select club: community formation .................................................. 68 Integrating or Assimilating? ......................................................................................... 69 Are you on Facebook? Virtual and 'real' space claimed ............................................... 71 7. Conclusions: in the Eye of the Beholder ........................................................ 73 2 Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish immigration to Israel 8. Methodological reflection: ‘You are cheaper than a shrink’ .......................... 78 Analysing data .............................................................................................................. 78 Rites-de-Passage ........................................................................................................... 80 Using Facebook ............................................................................................................ 80 Personal reflections ...................................................................................................... 81 9. Bibliography ................................................................................................... 83 10. Annexes ........................................................................................................ 91 Annex I: Keren Hedeshod Aliyah posters Ben Gurion Airport ................................... 91 Annex II: Annex II: Ministry of Interior Disposition Hebrew/English ........................ 92 Annex III: Compilation of fieldwork photos ................................................................ 94 Annex IV Research Summary in Hebrew .................................................................... 96 3 Aliyah and the Ingathering of Exiles: Jewish immigration to Israel Acknowledgments Many different people have helped bring this thesis into existence and I would like to thank them for their advice, hospitality, feedback, time and genuine friendship. Firstly I would like to thank all the informants in the field who have helped me, without their cooperation and patience this research would have been impossible. I would like to extend a special thanks to Shalom, Levin, Paula and Pezaro for always 'being there' to reveal, rephrase, repeat and recount. The countless cups of coffee, cones of ice cream and conversations were not only essential to the research but also enjoyable on a personal level. Further more I would like to thank my friends Shai Ran and Shay Erov for keeping ‘an eye’ on me throughout my stay in Israel, and organizing the occasional trip or party to take my mind of the research. I would also like to thank my roommates Sara and Adam and my friends Amit, Anat, Fadi and Hela for the occasional silliness as well as for their continuous help with understanding the various aspects of Israeli society and the conflict that makes up its daily reality. Also I want to thank the CDO capoeira group in Tel Aviv, for (once again) taking me up in their middle and making me feel right at home. I would like to thank my brother and sister for their support throughout the research, their visit to Israel
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