The new Mizrahi middle class: Ethnic mobility and class integration in Israel

Abstract

This article argues that in recent decades, following the political “turnaround” (mahapakh) in 1977, a distinct new group has appeared on the Israeli scene: the Mizrahi middle class. This social category no longer fits the traditional dichotomies that have steered academic and popular sociological debate in Israel. On the basis of the geographic-spatial changes and the changes in higher education that have taken place in Israel during the past two decades, the article suggests that the Mizrahi middle class is playing a prominent role in the transformations that Israeli society is undergoing, providing a possible source for renewed social integration on a national scale. Israeli sociology is thus called upon to give due consideration not only to the theoretical significance of this group but also to its empirical significance in shaping the collective identity and the ethno-class arena in Israeli society in the coming decades.

Keywords:

• Mizrahim
• middle class
• ethnic mobility
• higher education
• Israeli sociology

Notes

 1. “Mizrahi/m” refers to Jews of Oriental, North African, or Middle Eastern origin, as opposed to the Ashkenazim, Jews of European origin. Another group, the Sephardim, descendants of the Spanish Jews expelled during the Inquisition, are often associated with the Mizrahim and thus excluded as a unique group from the discussion.

 2. Eisenstadt, Tmurot ba-hevrah ha-yisraelit.

 3. Horowitz and Lissak, Trouble in Utopia.

 4. For an updated example see Mizrachi, “Ha-hinukh ha-akif.”

 5. For the main thesis, see Swirski, Lo nekhshalim.

 6. See Ben-Rafael, The Emergence of Ethnicity; Lissak, Ha-aliyah ha-gedolah.

 7. See Swirski, Hitztamkuto shel ha-ma'amad ha-beinoni.

 8. See Swirski, Lo nekhshalim; Peled and Shafir, Being Israeli.

 9. Horowitz, Tekhelet ve-avak, 51.

10. See http://www.zmora.org.il/yishuvim/ganyavne.htm;http://tourwise.co.il/virtualTours/?tour = 211_en&logOp = plasim

11. This community's attraction is described in an article on the website of the popular daily Yedi'ot Aharanot, which describes its educational facilities, proximity to large urban centers with employment opportunities such as Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Rishon LeZion, and the quality of life it offers, with a “rural atmosphere.” It concludes that a private home there is far “preferable to an apartment in Holon or Rishon LeZion.” Ofer Petersburg, “Migrash beiti: Bayit im ginah be-250 elef dolar” (Home ground: A house and garden for $250,000), Ynet, 6 October 2004, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-2984960,00.html.

12. See, for example, Hever, Shenhav, and Motzafi-Haller, Mizrahim be-Yisrael.

13. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, University of Haifa, Bar-Ilan University, the Technion in Haifa, and the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.

14. Guri-Rosenblit, “Trends in Access”; see also Davidovich and Iram, Al parashat drakhim.

15. Hershkovitz, “Hebetim hevratiim.”

16. Cited in Dalia Shchori, “Hashivuto ha-hevratit shel to'ar rishon ‘meduldal’” (The social importance of a “depleted” BA), Ha'aretz, 8 May 2005.

17. Dahan, Tarbuyot politiyot.

18. Rosen and Razin, Ha-merotz ahar ha-mikhlalah.

19. Cohen and Hirsh, Dmut ha-mizrahim.

20. Peled and Shafir, Being Israeli.

21. See Shenhav, “The Phenomenology of Colonialism”; Khazzoom, “The Great Chain of Orientalism.”

22. Ram, The Globalization of Israel.

23. See, for example, Lissak, Ha-aliyah ha-gedolah; Eisenstadt, The Transformation of Israeli Society.

24. Peled and Shafir, Being Israeli, 74–109.

25. See, for example, Ben-Rafael, The Emergence of Ethnicity; Smooha , Israel.

26. Hever, Shenhav, and Mutzafi-Haler, Mizrahim be-Yisrael, 10.

27. Shapiro, Ilit lelo mamshikhim and The Road to Power.

28. Lissak, Sotziologim bikortiim.