Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left of the man with the microphone) and his wife, Sara, attend a ban-
quet to celebrate the traditional Moroccan holiday Mimouna with leading members of the Moroccan-origin
community. Mimouna has become a national holiday in Israel. (Getty Images / Image Bank.)
“ethnic” consciousness or adherence to ethnic subcultures has been very limited. Perhaps the
single most signifi cant ethnic subculture among Israeli Jews is that of those originally from
Morocco; members of that group came relatively late, they were usually impoverished upon
arrival, and some, in response, reacted to the mainstream society with resentment. The Shas
political party is to some extent a product of that subcultural consciousness. The most visible
“ethnic” holiday in Israel is the Moroccan Jewish holiday of Mimouna, celebrating the end of
Passover.
Starting in the 1970s and accelerating in the 1990s, Israel faced mass immigration again,
especially from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, but managed it more easily. The coun-
try was wealthier, more secure, and more established than when it was trying to deal with the
post-independence wave of immigrants, and the size of the wave, though large, was propor-
tionately smaller than the previous one. Israeli society had also grown more individualistic,
less ideological, and more diverse.
There was no offi cial pressure on the immigrants from the former Soviet Union to be a
certain type of Israeli. In addition, these immigrants were generally more educated than the
earlier ones and used to a modern technological society. Indeed, some thought Israel was not
suffi ciently sophisticated and developed important supplemental educational programs for
their children. Assimilation became a natural process, with the next, native-born generation
having a primarily Israeli identity.
