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ABSTRACT
This paper examines H-300 or Kiryat Eilon: a neighborhood in the city of Holon that exemplifies Mizrahi mobility into the new middle class. Following Cohen and Leon’s seminal insights on the Mizrahi middle class, the paper analyses life stories and other daily practices of H-300 residents in order to assess their (ethno-)class identities. The picture seems to be far more complex than the one described by Leon and Cohen. Mobile Mizrahi personal experience and collective memory are indeed dominant but what they construct is not a “Mizrahi” ethno-class space but a more open and integrated “popular middle class” community. Mizrahi collective and individual experience serve as a “quarry” from which cultural building blocks are produced. The findings suggest the emergence of an all-Israeli “popular middle class” subject, distinct from the upper-middle-class layers, leading the popular classes echelons.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Cohen and Leon, “The New Mizrahi Middle Class,” 59–61.
2. H-300 is the neighborhood’s popular name; officially it is called Kiryat Pinhas Eilon after the mayor of Holon (1953–1987).
3. Hall, “Reworking Class Analysis,” 1–3.
4. Urri and Abercrombie, Middle Classes, 1.
5. Wacquant, “Making Class,” 1–2.
6. Wright, Classes, 1–18.
7. Szelenyi and Martin, “New Class,” 662–664.
8. Weber, Economy and Society, 19,632.
9. Wright, Approaches to Class Analysis, 4–30; Thrift and Williams, “Class Geography,” 2–4; Olin-Wright, “Neo-Marxist Class Analysis,” 28–30.
10. Goldthorpe, “The Service Class,” 316–318.
11. Hugrée et al, Social Class in Europe, 76–78.
12. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, 8–14.
13. Giddens, “Class Structuration and Class Consciousness,” 162.
14. Green, “Labor History.”
15. Berlanstein, Rethinking Labor History, 2–6.
16. Sewell, “Post-Materialist Rhetoric,” 18.
17. Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice, 80–83.
18. Bourdieu, The logic of Practice, 53.
19. Lamont, The Dignity of Working Men, 93–96.
20. Vallejo, Barrios to Burbs, 2012. Lacy, Blue-Chip Black, 2007; Pattillo, Black picket fences, 2013.
21. Lamont and Molnár, “The Study of Boundaries,” 168–9.
22. Savage, “Bourdieu’s Lost Urban Sociology,” 512. Also see a discussion of Bourdieu’s relevance for the class study of neighborhoods in: Shani, “Place Shapes Taste,” 3–6.
23. Massey, “New Directions”, 217.
24. Swyngedouw, “The Marxian Alternative,” 42–3.
25. Massey, “Directions in Space,” 214.
26. Peck, “Economic Sociologies,” 141–142.
27. Sadler, “Concepts of Class,” 329.
28. Sadler, “Concepts of Class,” 337–8.
29. Peck, “Economic Sociologies,” 137.
30. See note above 25. 287.
31. Vallejo, Barrios to Burbs, 2012; Lacy, Blue-Chip Black, 2007; Pattillo, Black picket fences, 2013.
32. Yiftachel, Ethnocracy, 211–237.
33. Tzfadia and Ya’acobi, “Rav tarbutiut,” 141–144.
34. Ciavollella, “The Changing Meanings of People’s Politics,” 267–27; Freeland, “Subalternity and the National-Popular,” 196–200; Galastri, “Social Classes and Subaltern Groups,” 44–47; Liguori, “Conceptions of Subalternity in Gramsci,” 121–124; Thomas, “Gramsci’s Marxism,” 110.
35. Schwartz, “Peut-on Parler des Classes Populaires?” 24–25.
36. Schwartz, “Peut-on Parler des Classes Populaires?” 23; Ammose, Thomas, Bernard, Cartier, Lechien, Masclet, Schwartz, and Siblot, “Comment etudier les classes populaires contemporaines?” 123; Beroud, Bouffartigue, Eckert, and Merklen, En Quete des Classes Populaires, 32.
37. Beroud, Bouffartigue, Eckert, and Merklen, En Quete des Classes Populaires, 40.
38. Monterescu, “Thum eruv,” 112–113.
39. Aharoni, Rehovot mesaprim; Krishek, Nikhtav ba-hol.
40. Our observation of Kiryat Sharet is based on the second focus of the original research of which KE is the first.
41. Pinhas Eilon, “A Letter to the Minister of Education – 15-9-1974.” File box 36–10, Beit Herzfeld, Municipal Archive of Holon.
42. Shachar, Hershkovits and Stier, ““Ezorim hevratiym,” 7.
43. Shachar, Hershkovits and Stier, ““Ezorim hevratiym,” 13, 18, 24.
44. Hasson and Hoshen, “Ha-mivne ha-hevrati-merhavi,” 22.
45. Ibid., 33, 36.
46. Cohen, “Territorial Stigma Formation,” 120–121.
47. CBS, “2008 Census – Generators for Profiles and Tables.” profile of Holon.
48. For further elaboration and critic of this policy, see: Nagar-Ron, “ Statistika Leumit.”
49. Holon, “Shnaton Statisti 2014–2016,” 16.
50. Razin and Rozen, “Mitham ha-megurim ha-megudar,” 107–108; Tzfadia, “Be-masve hafrata ve-kehilatiut,” 143–144; Lehavi, “ Kehilot megurin hadashot,” 78–82.
51. All the prices were checked at the Madlan website, an online firm which offers real buying, selling, and renting prices and other estimates of real estate assets. https://www.madlan.co.il/feed.
52. In principle, this group could intersect with second-generation Mizrahim or Ashkenazim if one parent was born and Israel and the other abroad. We do not have the proper means to differentiate these cases.
53. CBS, “Hitpalgut schirim ve-atzmatim lefi dagrot hakhnasa.”
54. For similar and even higher figures, see Cohen and Leon, “The New Mizrahi Middle Class,” 54–57; Adut, “Ve-hakol be-atzmi,” 26–27.
55. CBS, “Hakhnasa hodshit bruto le-meshek bait.”
56. Rosenfeld, “The Class Situation of the Arabs,” 386–389; Carmi and Rosenfeld, “The Origins of the Process of Proletarianization.”
57. Carmi and Rosenfeld, “Nikhus emtza’im tziburiym.”
58. Swirsky and Katzir, “Ashkenazim ve-mizrahim.”“; Swirsky, Hinukh be-Yisrael, 47–50; Nahon, Dfusei hitrahavut ha-haskala; Nahon, Megamot ba-ta’asuka.
59. See research on widening educational gaps: e.g., Cohen, Haberfeld, and Kristal, “Ethnicity and Mixed Ethnicity,” 904–906; Dahan, Mironichev, Dvir and Shmuel, “Haim hitztamtzemu ha-pe’arim,” 15–18.
60. Cohen and Leon, “The New Mizrahi Middle Class,” 58–60.
61. Levin-Epstein and Semyonov, “Ethnic Group Mobility,” 344.
62. Nahon, Megamot ba-ta’asuka; Ya’ar-Yuchtman, “Yazamut pratit ke-maslul”; Adut, “Ve-hakol be-atzmi,” 26–27.
63. Shalev, Inequality and the State of Israel, 3–4; Nahon, Dfusei hitrahavut ha-haskala, plate no. 7.
64. Cohen and Leon, “The New Mizrahi Middle Class,” 51, 61–62;Ha-Yisraeli, “Mishpaha ve-haskala,” 75–80.
65. Birenboim-Carmeli, Tzfonim. Abutbul-Selinger, “Invisible Boundaries,” 10.
66. Abutbul-Selinger, “Invisible Boundaries,” 2–3.
67. Shoshana and Sasson-Levi, “Hishtaknezut – al performance ethni,” 72–73.
68. Schwartz, “Iraqim Ashkenazim meod,” 104.
69. Vallejo, Barrios to Burbs.
70. Abutbul-Selinger, “Invisible Boundaries.”; Ha-Yisraeli, “Mishpaha ve-haskala.” Mizrahi, Paths to Middle-Class Mobility; Shani, “Place Shapes Tastes.”
71. Ten more interviews were conducted later, after this paper was completed. These mainly strengthened the claims.
72. Bertaux and Thompson, “Introduction,” 17.
73. Bruner, “Life as Narrative,” 692.
74. Bruner, “Life as Narrative,” 694–696; Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality,” 18; Spector-Mersel, “Ha-mehkar ha-narativi,” 68–69.
75. Portelli, “The Time of My Life,” 163.
76. This name, like the names of all the informants (besides one), is a pseudonym. The informants’ quotes were originally in Hebrew and have been translated by the authors.
77. Figures from Madlan website: https://www.madlan.co.il.
78. Cohen and Leon, Merkaz tnu’at Herut, 146–171; Filc, Populism ve-hegemonia, 87–126.
79. On the importance of a father figure in this context of mobile Mizrahim, see: Adut, “Aba oved, ima mefarneset,” 134–139.
80. See note above 47.
81. Sharon, “The Dialectic Between Modernization and Orientalization,” 738–739.
82. Beck and Beck, Individualization, 22–24.
83. Dahan, Zedek hinukhi, 75–82.
84. Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 14.
85. Ibid., 568.
86. Laclau, “Why Empty Signifiers Matter in Politics.”
87. Lacy, Blue-Chip Black, 225.
88. Vallejo, Barrios to Burbs, 176.
89. See note above 78.
90. Halutzi, Yitzhak. Shoveret kir [Breaking a Wall]. A Documentary movie on Vickie Shiran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJcnfap8C6I.
91. Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 2–23, 37–40.
92. Levin-Epstein and Cohen, “Ethnic Origin and Identity,” 10. See also, Ha-Yisraeli, “Me-siah etni le-siah ma’amadi,” 80.
93. Guetzkow, “Israel,” 204.
94. Ciavollella, “Changing Meanings of People’s Politics,” 268; Freeland, “Subalternity and the National-Popular,” 195–202; Galastri, “Social Classes and Subaltern Groups,” 46; Liguori, “Conceptions of Subalternity in Gramsci,” 120–124; Thomas, “Gramsci’s Marxism,” 112.
95. Schwartz, “Peut-On Parler des Classes Populaires?,” 23.
96. Laurison and Friedman, “The Class Pay Gap,” 690.
97. CBS, “Derug ha-rashuyot ha-mekomiot”; Hasson and Choshen, Ha-mivne ha-hevrati-merhavi, 30.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rami Adut
Rami Adut teaches sociology at Netanya Academic College. His research interests include class theory and cultural-class research; class-ethnic inequality; equality and equity in health policy; and sociology of food in prisons. He recently published “Aba oved, ima mefarneset: dmuyot ha-horim u-dmuyot ha-atzmi be-sipurei haim shel mizrahim ve-Aravim bnei dor ha-mobiliut ha-rishon” in Iyunim.
Dani Filc
Dani Filc, is a Professor at the Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University. His research interests include health policy; the right to health; health inequalities; Israeli politics and society; Marxism and post-Marxism; and populism. He recently published “Military Conflict and Neo-Liberalization in Israel (2001–2006): A Neo-Gramscian Approach.” In Political Studies.