Mizrachim and Their Socio-Cultural Status in Israel

Abstract

The Jewish community in Israel has become a heterogeneous and even forked structure composed of Middle Eastern and European Jews as a result of immigration from several countries, especially after the 1950s. Today, we hear of existence of different Jewish groups like Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrachim, Falashim, Samirim, and Karaim in Israel. But, it is generally divided binary as West and East under the influence of orientalist perspective. The first of them is Ashkenazim and it is thought that they represent Western culture; the second one is Mizrachim and it is thought that they represent Eastern culture. There have been the social, political, economic and sometimes religious conflict between these two groups since they immigrated to Israel. In this essay, we will first inform about these two groups and then focus on their main matter of conflict and its reason with examples in daily life.